Source: MDG Advertising
Before diving into this question, I think it is important to qualify my gaming credentials. As a very young kid, I remember playing with my cousin’s Atari and being amazed at what it could do. From there, I got my first gaming system which was an NES. I loved that system and put in many hours of gameplay on some really good games. A few years later, the greatest thing every happened, I got a Super Nintendo (SNES) as a Christmas gift and my cousin got a Sega Genesis. In my opinion, that was like the golden age of gaming because some of the best games of all time appear on those two systems. After the 16-bit era was done, everyone that I knew bought a PlayStation when first released. Also all throughout this time I was a handheld gamer, so I purchased all the Gameboys up until the first DS. I played console gaming until the Gamecube era. Then I hit a snag, everything beyond the PS2 I did not buy or have time for anymore. I ultimately gave away all of my console and handheld games to my younger family who would appreciate them. Even though I still played NBA 2k and Madden I didn’t actually buy anymore games for like a decade. I had a lot of other things to do, so I stopped being a gamer for awhile in order to have more time for school, work and a bunch of other things.
I used to be a hardcore gamer, but now I am more of a casual one. I still like to play the classic games instead of the new ones which is the reason why I have a Nintendo Switch. I can relive the classic NES and SNES content any time I want, either as a handheld or TV, which makes the console versatile and fun.
However, there are many game writers and analyst who believe that the days of the console are over, and consumers will play games more on their IOT devices. Ubisoft’s President has predicted that there will be one final console generation before all gaming becomes streamed through the internet. This idea seems irrational, particularly when you look at the sales data for the PS4, but with Google’s release of Stadia maybe the President is on to something? Stadia is a cloud-based system where players pay a subscription to gain access to a large library of games. The concept of Stadia is definitely something that Ubisoft’s President had in mind, but he thinks that all gaming companies will follow suit. He is right that there will be another console generation as Sony and Microsoft have already unveiled details about their new innovations, and Nintendo will probably never stop making some type of unique hardware.
So is streaming the future? Maybe, depending on how available ISPs can make their internet connections. Having all content in the cloud will not be helpful with a slow internet connection. However, with the right processing speed and bandwidth the cloud-based model could be the preferred method after the upcoming console generation.