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End of Gaming Console Era: Alex St. John
Techtree News Staff, Aug 20, 2008 1130 hrs ISTSt. John believes the future of gaming lies in going digital.
Alex St. John has predicted that what we see today is the demise of gaming console era. "I think we're looking at the last generation of consoles. There's not going to be an Xbox 720 or a PS4, I'll make that bet. It's not going to happen," predicts St. John. However, St. John is highly smitten by the 'phenomenal' success of Nintendo Wii.
WildTangent CEO and ex-Microsoft XBOX man, St. John points that the future of gaming will be ad-driven games. Current the WildTangent portal features casual games. Announced in February, and expected to launch later this year, WildTangent's virtual gaming console Orb is claimed to offer free "enthusiast"-level games based on an advertising model that works on a session-by-session strategy. As with music, the future of gaming lies in going digital - that seems to be is St. John's whole point.
St. John has nothing to offer when quizzed on problems of bandwidth and system hardware upgrade costs. St. John speculated on the possibility of games like BioShock and Assassin's Creed being available online.
First, when games of this are available online, users will need fatter pipes to download these games, going into a few GBs.
Secondly, for playing such games system also need to be upgraded to support the gaming requirements. He countered this with the fact that consoles need an upgrade after a couple of years anyway. He added that console makers have been losing money on every console sold since they've already invested billions on their development. Whatever, St. John may think, Sony hasn't exactly dumped its PlayStation2 yet, has it?
St John seems convinced that the gaming scenario in 2020 would be entirely community-based online games in the digital format. It's an interesting theory, but a theory nonetheless. Based on these ifs and buts, St. John's assertion that the gaming content market is going the same way as the music industry seems speculative, at best.
When asked whether his theory would turn out right or wrong, St. John comments, "I'll take the heat if I'm wrong and don't mind being mocked in the future with people going 'Wow, was he wrong'. But it doesn't happen to me very often." Well, we'll see soon enough how this one turns out.
Source: Telegraph
WildTangent CEO and ex-Microsoft XBOX man, St. John points that the future of gaming will be ad-driven games. Current the WildTangent portal features casual games. Announced in February, and expected to launch later this year, WildTangent's virtual gaming console Orb is claimed to offer free "enthusiast"-level games based on an advertising model that works on a session-by-session strategy. As with music, the future of gaming lies in going digital - that seems to be is St. John's whole point.
St. John has nothing to offer when quizzed on problems of bandwidth and system hardware upgrade costs. St. John speculated on the possibility of games like BioShock and Assassin's Creed being available online.
First, when games of this are available online, users will need fatter pipes to download these games, going into a few GBs.
Secondly, for playing such games system also need to be upgraded to support the gaming requirements. He countered this with the fact that consoles need an upgrade after a couple of years anyway. He added that console makers have been losing money on every console sold since they've already invested billions on their development. Whatever, St. John may think, Sony hasn't exactly dumped its PlayStation2 yet, has it?
St John seems convinced that the gaming scenario in 2020 would be entirely community-based online games in the digital format. It's an interesting theory, but a theory nonetheless. Based on these ifs and buts, St. John's assertion that the gaming content market is going the same way as the music industry seems speculative, at best.
When asked whether his theory would turn out right or wrong, St. John comments, "I'll take the heat if I'm wrong and don't mind being mocked in the future with people going 'Wow, was he wrong'. But it doesn't happen to me very often." Well, we'll see soon enough how this one turns out.
Source: Telegraph
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