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When could we see one of the big 3 Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft go cloud only?

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
With chip shortages increasingly becoming a global problem not only due to the pandemic but also due to just higher demand for more electronics, I could see this becoming a reality sooner than later. I have played bad cloud gaming and I have played good cloud gaming. It can be done and may have to be done to satisfy consumer demand. A few points I just want to bring up:

The market of not only videogames but all media have shifted towards digital. I am an older relic who likes the option of physical media. I like to play my games then sell them or trade them. Gamers growing up today have no attachment because they have always known digital software. I am willing to bet that Digital says account for the major majority of software sales today.

Good broadband is almost everywhere: I live in a smaller town and getting 300mpbs up. From my experience most people only need a 50mbps stable connection to run cloud gaming at an optimal experience. Sure rural areas are going to suffer but it's like that now with online gaming

Chip shortages are here to stay: Despite the great launches of the Series X and PS5, there is a ton of money sitting on the table due to the fact they simply cannot make enough of these devices to satisfy consumer need. Factor in the scummy scalpers and inflated prices have put them out of reach for most consumers. With the increased demand for more electronics globablly, chip shortages are here for the foreseeable future. Lets also face the fact the Series X and PS5 are very complicated machines with many chip needs. If they can make a simple streaming box they can mass produce these enough to sell them cheap and meet consumer demand. The real money is in the software and with ps5/series X not able to keep up with demand their software sales are also struggling. I can't see this getting any better by the time a ps6/Xbox Series Z comes out.

Cloud gaming Does work if done properly: Stadia is ok for slower paced games. Geforce Now works on everything. Geforce now works so well I often times forget I'm even playing on a cloud based system. High fidelity and high stable framerates. If Nvidia can build a stable cloud based network like this, surely Sony and Microsoft could.

Much cheaper intitial cost: Your looking at a ps6 at $599 or so in theory to $99 to set top steaming box that has a ethernet jack/wifi/hdmi port plus a controller for example. Sony and Microsoft make their real money on software/subscription services vs making expensive hardware.
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
Next Xbox and PS will likely be digital only. Only issue is backwards compatibility and people with a physical collection.

Nintendo will take the longest.
 

The_hunter

Member
The latency is the biggest issue, nobody wants to play games with huge input lag, or the game freezing as the internet is pretty volatile and the packets can get lost in transit.

I don't see it happening until internet speeds get to insane amounts.

If google failed at it, it's probably a ways away.
 
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Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
I'm playing DMC V and Blasphemous on Amazon Luna (beta testing) and it's been solid 90 plus% of the time. The lag not ever present but in fairness, I have never played these games natively. I did play Contra 3 and that was a only fair, the lag was not very good.

Nintendo would be first but even that is no time soon.
 

kingfey

Banned
nintnedo: Fix the goddamn online function 1st.

Playstaton: Ps4 success is holding them down. Until that stigma dies, they wont rush out on the cloud fast.

Xbox: Just goes yolo, and doesnt care about anything. They already started the cloud with xcloud day1, on xbox one. Next gen, cloud could play huge part in their service.
 
Xbox is probably the closest, but we're decades away from "streaming only" being viable for the console gaming market. I could see physical media completely going away or having the same fate as it did in music/movies where it's 99% digital and only collector's buy them regularly, and it basically being digital only, but cloud only seems very unlikely any time in the next 10+ years
 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
The latency is the biggest issue, nobody wants to play games with huge input lag, or the game freezing as the internet is pretty volatile and the packets can get lost in transit.

I don't see it happening until internet speeds get to insane amounts.

If google failed at it, it's probably a ways away.
Geforce now is a much better experience than stadia. As I stated, it feels so smooth I often times forget it's a cloud based system. Of course, you also have to give the device streaming a good connection as well.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
When everyone has latency of <=4ms and it's available to most of the market.

I had Gb speed with cable internet and too much lag. Switched to fiber and only ordered half the speed and PSNOW is a much better experience.
 

SeraphJan

Member
If everything goes cloud, player in some country could never experience a game they like if it was censored there. They simply cannot ship the game from foreign country
 
Jesus Christ, don’t jinx us.

You guys in the US may have good broadband, but us in many parts of the rest of the world still have slow-ass internet speeds.

I do see the convenience of digital, I recently bought a couple games on the Nintendo eShop because it would suck to wait for physical copies to ship and I certainly don’t want to have a gigantic collection. It’s instant gratification. I don’t want a digital-only future though.

The best option is to have both options like now. Everyone is free to choose which games to get a physical copy of and which games to download.
 
You forgot one: Data Cap limits. And unfortunately a lot of ISPs still impose them even with offering massive bandwidth.

Since with cloud gaming you're now streaming video data downstream from the cloud to the device, that eats up way more bandwidth than just playing a game online (IIRC games like Fortnite only use about 70 MB of data per hour), especially with resolutions of 720p and higher and framerates higher than 30.

And that complicates things even more if you're living with other people also sharing that data plan, and you happen to game a lot during a month. But I might be exaggerating this because realistically most people probably spend like a couple hours or so and save most of their gaming time for weekends or days off.

That said, cloud gaming still won't be possible for competitive gaming, due to latency issues, so any platform holder going cloud-only will be forfeiting that slice of the market. It might be a niche one, but it's still a slice and one that likes to spend a LOT of money on top of that.

Nintendo: Never

Microsoft in 10 years

Sony will follow MS soon after that

Nah, maybe more like 15 years. But I definitely think Microsoft would be the first. Sony would probably follow 3-5 years after that.

Nintendo gonna Nintendo and maybe release something Xbox Series S-level by 2035, hopefully.
 
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yurinka

Member
Not in less than in a decade or two. A huge portion of the world doesn't have internet coverage, has a shitty internet connection and or has data caps. Or these players are too far from the servers, which causes an input latency that would be too much for certain genres or players.

As of now not only 5G, 4G has a poor worldwide coverage and satellite based internet isn't mainstream and to have too much satellites to cover the whole world could be problematic. In addition to this, wifi 6 or wifi 7 should become mainstream in devices and routers and the streaming techniques and related codecs should continue improving and evolving to optimize data transfer and improve input lag while also improving image quality and resolution.

In the following years streaming will improve and grow, but will continue being a tiny part of the gaming business during more than a decade. In several decades from now it may be an important part of the gaming market but won't replace the traditional local play.

We also have to remember that most players play for free: if they don't pay to own a game they won't pay a subscription to rent them. If that majority of players evolve from F2P to another business model won't be to a subscripition: it will be to P2E (play to earn: earn money by playing instead of paying to play or playing for free).
 
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Sega Orphan

Banned
At the current quality of internet speeds here in Australia, it will be around the same time zone that Starfield is set in.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Nintendo: Never

Microsoft in 10 years

Sony will follow MS soon after that
I imagine the same. I like the idea of Microsoft going that route as there are numerous older titles for P.C. and the original XBOX that I'd rather have digital.

Sony it seems they've started in that direction but they'll keep the door open longer as physical merchandising is preferred depending on which country you're in.

Nintendo kinda prides on having a popular physical market and tend to play by their own rule in terms of marketing software. I could see it becoming a secondary option at some point but never a default.
 

Knightime_X

Member
No.
Fuck no.
Hell no to the fuck no.

Cloud is the end of gaming in many ways.

Just no.

Not until MAJOR changes are made for everyone.

1. No data caps or extra costs to remove caps.

2. 50mbps speed is free to all.
Any connection higher is significantly cheaper for everyone. Not just a handful of people.

3. Cloud games purchased can be accessed for at least 50 years.

4. For every cloud game, a digital downloadable version also exists.

5. No pay wall to play purchased cloud games.

Do this and i MIGHT consider it an option if there are no other options left.
 
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OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Literally never. It'll be an option but never the sole focus for any of them. It's shit and will never have real utility.
 
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