Consoles Like PS4 Will Die Out Sooner or Later, Reckons EA's Peter Moore

So we can buy the games and not own them. I think he would love that I just don't like streaming. The same goes for Steam they are cheap because you don't own anything.

yeah well the way EA operates, this guy knows EFF all about the gaming market so why the hell should we listen to what he has to say

Either PC will overtake consoles as costs fall, or Microsoft will move to it exclusively leaving Sony as the sole console producer.

I'm not willing to bet but I see with TV and stuff that streaming without a dedicated box is the hot and cheaper thing. Games would have to get cheaper but it might happen.

@kyleforrester87 Exactly. Time brings change. How profound.

@ekreig They are. I'm sure he spends most of his time sitting in his office stroking his beard while practicing his evil laugh.

OR, maybe one day we will all access everything via chips implanted in our heads, like Ghost in the Shell type stuff... OR, we won't...

PC's are already dying out in favour of tablets, so I really don't think it will be PCs that kill consoles. Also PCs are frought with too many headaches and maintenance BS. Consoles are more consumer friendly in that you just need to worry about playing with them.

Tablets are a more real threat to consoles as they are similarly easy to use and maintain. They also have a huge install base and a thriving gaming market... the only issue is that right now those people are playing pac-man and pong equivelent games and not willing to pay upfront costs for them. Also the interface is very limiting for game design.

But in these sorts of situations (it is admittedly hard to draw parallels) I believe the market will catch up fast to present day... faster than ~40 years it took us to get from pac-man to present day.

So if anything has the chance of dethroning consoles, I would place my bet in something that evolves from tablets.

Console as a service.
Standard server in your gaff.
Download and run the PlayStation service.
Play PS8 games.
Or download the Xbox service and play Xbone 3 games.
Ultimately everything is shifting to a service model

I think portable VR headsets that need very little power and/or project images into our brains allowing me to fulfil every sordid whim.

Not that I have thought about it much...

I agree with him. In part because companies like EA will force this to happen.

@get2sammyb
There's really no secret to EA's success. It has a successful football franchise in Fifa and a successful American football franchise in Madden. Sh*t out roster updates each year and watch the millions of sheeple run out and pay $60 of their hard-earned cash for the newest entry despite how poor quality that year's game may be.

I think 20 years from now playstation/nintendo/xbox will live as a service that can be accessed everywhere, just like youtube or netflix.

Well sure consoles as we now know them will change, but I don't believe streaming will eventually take over if only for one major reason. Bandwidth caps. I am fortunate not to have one, but so many are not. Until those are significantly raised (my provider does monitor bandwidth, on a normal month I'm around 1.2 tb of data with no cable, using Netflix, hulu, hbo) I just don't see how regardless of speeds streaming can take over. Smartphones and tablets at this point have power issues, not to mention screen size, and interface.

I can definitely see ms bringing the Xbox one ui to pc as an overlay, for those who want to put an htpc in the living room but don't want to deal with the current os layout like myself. This, if done properly would be huge, and I would very likely be back to pc primary gaming. That to go along with Ms eventually moving all exclusives to pc and x1 would really leave my ps4 by itself and quite possibly seldom used. Sure though, eventually things will change. I mean I'm writing on a phone that has more power than the pc I built to max doom 3 10 years ago. At that time we thought the future of cell phones was smaller, not larger, and being portable meant lugging a laptop around. Now 99% of what I need to do I can do on my phone, my laptop has become a 3rd or 4th tier electronic in my house.

@Flaming_Kaiser i always have this argument with myself over the benefits of buying on console vs steam and owning games or not.
Once our TVs are broken and TVs move to higher resolutions with different input cables our consoles become obsolete or if our Playstations break then it is relying on hardware, also once psn shuts down we lose access to game patches meaning games in the future could run like crap.
But with steam they could go out of business and we lose access to our games or steam could start charging monthly access to our account which means pay or lose access to games yet the benefit is being free from relying upon hardware and tvs or monitors working correctly.
I've been tempted to sell my console games apart from exclusives but the other half of me is not sure.
To be honest there's no better or worse platform when it comes to 'owning' our games, i just cant make up my mind.

@Gamer83 Those 2 poor games are always the main 2 I say Ntinedo consoles need. COD, Destiny, Titanfall, MGS, GTA etc may be nice, but they are certainly more adult, football and football can be family games and I think Wii U suffered for not having Madden and FIFA, and NX will do the same.

I think PS5 will be the last big box. There will still be dedicated gaming platforms, every TV will be "smart" by then so we won't need Roku, but in another 7 or 8 years the mobile tech should be good enough for home gaming that PS6 looks more like a Vita w/ a PS TV slipped in the back. And drives will go away, which take up a big chunk of space. NX may not even have one. And if VR takes off, who needs a TV?

I won't think past 10 years out b/c the thought of my kids getting implants or jacking in like the Matrix scares me.

@rjejr
Obviously important games. Quality aside, you can't put a console on the market and be taken seriously without having Fifa, Madden and, also, NBA 2K.

I agree with what he says but think its a while off yet. Internet needs to get a lot better before anything like that can happen.

Steam works great and they have so many sales you can always pick up bargains for yourself or to gift people. I do not have an issue with not being able to sell the games as they provide good value and I know the company who makes the game is getting money from it unlike 2nd hand games sales on consoles.

When it happens, I'll be out...no offense, but the games that are offered on TV's, tablets, phones and some of the others, are pretty junkish. I'd rather own the game and have it sitting on my shelf to play whenever I want, rather than having to worry about having an internet connection or waiting for downloads (I already dislike having to wait for constant updates on some of the games on the PS4). I'm old school, so I'd rather have a console with games available at retail...although I own quite a bit on the download side, but they're indie ones, not the ones that are also available at retail. I guess when Sony and Nintendo quit making consoles, is the day that I end it as a gamer (although I'll still play the old consoles)...there's still love for when I break out my old Atari 2600 and my large TV to play...ahh, the memories of those cartridges in the cardboard boxes and the plastic boxes on the Genesis titles.

PS, this guy must not have much common sense...everything will end eventually...Computers will be replaced, the internet will change, games will change...movies, music...the list goes on. Look at movies...VHS, DVD now BluRay and Streaming...pretty soon that will change again. It's an ongoing battle. I hated switching all of my films from VHS to DVD, now doing it with BluRay...most of the VHS movies never even made it to DVD or BluRay! Music was just as bad...8Track, Vinyl, Cassette, CD and now...download! And it could be same with all electronics, but for this guy to think that what he says was smart wording...sorry...anyone could have said that!

@Farpun You have a strong point there, but as long as you have everything downloaded that you want on the consoles (games and local play add ons) you should still be able to play them. But, this statement is why I don't pay for any add on additions for online-only games...only because when the servers are shut down, you can't play it. If the games have local play, you should be fine. I can still play the Wii download games and all of the PS3 games still work...but time will tell on which ones will work in 20 years plus. Other than that, that's the only reason why the older consoles and buying retail is better in the long haul. I felt this way into why I never purchased Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare...once the servers go down (and with the fact that part 2 is out, it'll probably happen) what are you left with then...Warhawk is just collecting dust on my shelf right now.

I agree more and more were going digital . start with casette tapes, vhs moved CDs ,cd-rom blue ray. Microsoft were gonna bring in digital only policy and get rid of disks but there was an uproar. For truely digital yo happen the ps4 will have to be fully upgradable and sony is going that way with the neo. I don't mind steam as I already have PC plus will probably invest in PlayStation now. I predict in another ten years things will change but to deal with that change we need to develop new ways to power things. With cloud computing its shown that it uses a hell of a lot of power . so need some kind of new technology to deal with the power usage

I still get the chills whenever I see that guy. He looks like the personification of evil.

Yes they will, when streaming games because a lot cheaper than buying retail physical copies of games, how soon is that going to be? At this rate, never. Steam puts PSN and such to shame.

Battlefield 12 confirmed... probably for 2020, and yes EA will pump out 5-11 over the next 3 years, knowing plenty of gamers will buy it and its season pass without blinking, like cattle.

But on a serious note, why hasn't Peter Moore played the devil in a movie yet? He is exactly what you expect Lucifer to look like in human form.

As for the no more console thing... he's probably right. Eventually the government will be putting chips in us at birth and you'll be streaming from your eye balls.

@Octane
Maybe it's just because I have a heart of stone and devoid of any and all feeling other than rage, but whenever I've heard this guy talk in interviews, I actually think he seems pretty cool. Obviously as a businessman he's all about the $$$ but he seems like somebody who would be cool to chat with.

Clearly PC and Origin™ are the future.

@get2sammyb that's because they do make/publish good games, i'm not disputing that fact

but come on this is the guy who thinks Mobile is the future of ALL gaming, how can we take him seriously

BLPs
Pc will neva take ova consoles. The reason I love consoles is the simplicity, I hate pc's! If anything we will say good bye to the pc and another thing, Microsoft will move ova. Not cos they want to, but because it will make most business sence. Microsoft have lost the console war in my eyes. Now the point. I will always prefer a console to streaming!!!!!

@Savino Nintendo and Sony are hardware manufacturers so of course they don't want it. MS can't wait for this transition, they are well aware that a big black box under your TV isn't the future.

Nintendo are 'fine' as they will continue with a variety of entertainment devices. May or may not ever be as big as they were but at least their strategy isn't staring at a brick wall.

Sony are the ones in big trouble despite what a lot of people on this site would like to believe. They are by far weaker than MS in services and this is clearly where the gaming industry is moving (/moved). They are a replicable middleman that won't be needed in the near future. Putting money into VR now is a very smart decision by them.

@Gamer83 "you can't have a console and be taken seriously"

About 2 years ago I started a forum on NL comparing Wii U to Fire TV and Ouya. It was partly a joke, b/c I'm a jerk like that, but partly about other "causal" consoles taking Wii owners away from the Wii U. 2 years later and Wii U is a flop, but not due to Fire TV or Ouya, but by not having games like FIFA and Madden Nintendo consoles almost do take on a genre of their own. I think the genre is - "overpriced casual consoles that don't have any games gamers expect". Nintendo can have all the great exclusives they want, but to be considered a "home videogame console" they really do need certain multiplat games. Without them, what are they?

I hope they get NX right. If it isn't going to have those games it better be cheap, and have a lot of other games people want. Which is possible. If Wii U played all 3DS games via a Wii U Player or cable or streaming, whatever, I think Wii U sells better, lots of people would surely want Monster Hunter or Pokemon or Kid Icarus on their tv. So it can be done, but will it? 3DS and Wii U library combined both at home and on the go, and cheap enough, and they can make a go of it w/o EA. Squenix, Capcom, Level 5, maybe a little more help from Ubi and Activision, they could make it work. But even if it's a PS4/X1 hardware clone, still doesn't feel like a "home console" w/o COD or EA, does it?

In the end, i just hate to concept of ''streaming a game''. Even beside the fact that it takes bandwidth and you need a stable internet connection, i hate to pay again and again to play the game i liked years ago. I just like to buy them and play them whenever i want !

Publishers Like EA Will Die Out Sooner or Later, Reckons General Spiller

On a more serious note, I think it is great that consoles are continually adapting and selling well each generation. As long as the innovations are meaningful and relevant to the consumer base, there will always be enough people willing to drop 3/4/5 hundred quid for the hardware. And as long as there's enough people asking for them, the manufacturers will keep providing them.
As for people knocking annual updates, consider the fact that for some people, these are the games they spend most of their time on. If i spend 40 quid on a Fifa or a Madden game and get 400+ hours play over a year, surely that is value for money, regardless of whether you think the game is parp or not! It's just people enjoying the games they like.
Sociology 101 - don't judge the world by your own criteria!

@rjejr
CoD and strong EA support are musts. I also still think it would not be stupid for Nintendo to try get GTA on the NX. Though you're right in your initial post that's probably of lesser importance. Still, GTA V did move over 30 million units, it's not a bad thing for any company to have that series on its platform.

@GraveLordXD I have a lot of games and and most of them if not all work without patches. Online shooters and the always online games that is where I draw the line. Battleborn really made me mad with the always online move even with the singleplayer......

But I have to be honest everything EA owns or buys dies I just hate the EA.

@Flaming_Kaiser
Yes, Steam only gives you a licences to play the game on your account. You can download and uninstall the game at will and then re-download it, but you only have a licences to play the game. But this really goes for any software you download on the internet, and even the digital games you buy on consoles. Physical copies of games are the same way, but you can sell them. If you read the EULA for any game you will be surprised that you actually don't own most of the games you have bought, you just have the rights to play them/ and for physical media, to sell them.

No this story is rubbish.

I will always have a console and pad. Its like saying a car wont have seats or an engine. Get a grip ea.

@get2sammyb Exactly, I remember what playing games was like 21 years ago in 1995. We were on Super Nintendo, 21 years is a lifetime in gaming years.

horror and pain the streaming prediction holds.

The thing about the free market is, competition will always ensure the consumer's voice is heard.

Look at what happened this generation with the old school MS execs trying to force mandatory online. You KNOW this was EA's doing, you know it was. They're as cozy as ever with MS, and they probably hashed out some back room deal to see it implemented.

Problem was... PLAYSTATION. Of course PS jumped at the opportunity to use this against them, and they will again in the future. Likewise, I'm sure MS would do the same if Sony ever tried it. They see an opportunity to exploit weakness and they pounce.

This will be our saving grace. Competition. Unless of course EA and Activision and all other publishers just start enforcing online in all their games (which seems to be happening already) then we're screwed anyways. And if it ever gets to the point Sony and MS jump in the ship too with mandatory online or a streaming console, I'll just go back to Nintendo only if that day ever comes. Unless they decide to bone us too of course.

I think it is likely at some point that boxes will die off, yes. It will not be for quite a while yet. But I think there will be a time when everything will go to your phone. Everything else does already, so I foresee a day when true video game experiences do too. I'm not talking mobile crap. I'm talking, you buy a full retail game on your phone. Maybe it has a case that you can snap it into for buttons for handheld titles. And for retail titles it streams directly to your TV, and you have controllers for that. The game companies will be selling you the phone cases and controllers and will be running, for lack of a better term, the app stores. Phones will hold terabytes of data at that point so it's not hard to imagine and it creates an instant handheld and TV device, like the NX is supposedly doing, but with a device nearly 100% of people already own.

@JaxonH "mandatory online"

I won't go as far as "mandatory", but how about essential? You would be hard pressed to get all of a game these days without online. Even Nintendo has jumped in w/ MK8, Pikmin 3 and SSB DLC. And Splatoon and SMM were basically released half finished. Splatoon may have only had 25% at launch.

Sure, Wii U had offline games - W101, Nintendo Land - but I think most of the rest either had online competent or DLC or season pass. OK some of the 2D platformers like Kirby, Captain Toad and Yoshi didn't, but I think the days of entirely offline gaming are gone. There's just too much money to be had w/ DLC and season passes.

Is SFZ all on disc? Did people complain about the lack of online multiplayer? If Zelda U has no online or DLC people will complain. XCX may have been fine w/o online, but the online certainly added something positive.

I'm still not a fan of 30GB downloads, and I want the disc, but I feel like every game ev plans on making money after release, or staying relevant w/ an online component.

@Gamer83 "GTA V"

I actually feel like Nintendo has inteernal discussions about games they want and don't want, and they don't want GTA b/c it could harm their "family friendly" image. I think it's why Nintendo will never get HBO Go or Showtime Anytime, too risque. Yes, I know they had Bayonetta, Fatal Frame and Devil's Third, but how much did they promote them? How many "Save our children" groups are protesting FF and DT as the end of civilization?

What do you think @damo, would Nintneod put GTA6 on NX if they had the chance? I know you aren't the biggest fan. I still haven't played it myself, my wife isn't the biggest fan, and I choose not to fight that battle. Shes a big Baynoetta fan, but fantasy trumps realism for her.

@rjejr
Optional online is fine. Love it, all for it.

Mandatory online, so that I can't play my game 10 years from now when the servers are shut down, or the network goes down, or my internet goes out... No.

Mario Kart 8 I can play every single cup offline. Pikmin 3 has a robust campaign, offline, and in fact had no online component. Wish it did, I walkways wanted to play Bingo Battle. Super Smash Bros can still be played offline. And that makes all the difference.

I love online, WHEN and IF it's not holding the rest of the game hostage. I rarely, rarely play online, in any game. For me, the online component for virtually every game I own may as well not even exist. DLC is fine, because after I download it, I don't need to be online to play it.

@JaxonH ah, that kind of mandatory online. I don't think I play enough games where that has ever come into my life. I thought you were talking about mandatory online to download things in a digital world w/o game discs, b/c it seems like every game nowadays requires a 2GB day 1 patch. Would be hard to do that without online. Nintneod did bundle the MK8 levels w/ the Wii U, and Luigi levels released on disc, so that was nice of them. Not sure they ever put those Pikmin 3 DLC challenges on disc, so for anybody who wants to play them, online is mandatory. That's the kind of "mandatory" I was talking about, if you want the entire game, you have to download part of it. For Splatoon it doen'st matter, it's an online shooter.

Do you think anybody bought SMM for offline play? Seems like that would be very limited w/o sharing and downloading other peoples levels.

I'll be pushing back against streaming games being the only option as hard as I possibly can.

@rjejr Well, they did allow GTA: Chinatown Wars on the original DS. And their family-friendly image didn't stop them from funding stuff like Bayonetta and Devil's Third, or from heavily featuring ZombiU as a launch title. Bottom line, I think Nintendo would jump at the chance to have GTA on their console; it's just too big a name in gaming these days.

As for the article... well, the internet has a LONG way to go before streaming games is the norm, let me leave it at that.

The Device will change over time but you will always need a device of some type. There will never be a fully upgradeable device. All devices reach a point that every part must be replaced. Even PC's are limited by time to upgrade.

@rjejr
It doesn't matter. The fact you can create levels to your heart's content, from now until the apocalypse, without needing online to do it, is quite enough. And that's what I care about. A game may not be "complete" without its online portion, but at least there's still game left to play without it.

When everything is just pure streaming and I have to pay subscription to play, I am out. This is what I think the article is indirectly saying.

You can call me old fashion but I'm one of those that rather have a real, physical book vs a tablet.

Whenever a new technology come out, it's always said so.
However, newspapers are still exist. Books are still exist. Even CDs are still exist.

I enjoy owning the product, this is just like netflixing games.

@rjejr
They'd probably give it a 5 or lower at Nintendo Life but that doesn't change that it's a huge franchise that millions upon millions like. Definitely wouldn't want to fight a battle with the lady over purchasing a game or not but I'd say the thing with GTA is it's a satire. People shouldn't get as bent out of shape about it as they do.

Yez, eventually what he is describing WILL happen. Thing is, it is alot farther off than what most folks realize. The majority of console owners do not have high speed internet and it won't be available where the live for a long while. The box makes it usable to anyone with a TV, and there are ALOT of people that have a capable TV but don't have capable Internet to stream large AAA games at a high quality.

But PCs will never take over.

@Gamer83 "People shouldn't get as bent out of shape about it as they do."

My wife isn't bent out of shape about me playing GTAV, but once, a long time ago on PS2, we played GTA2, or maybe 3, whatever the big 1 was that looked "modern". She was bored to tears watching me play. Most of my playing time is with her watching, and she prefers fantasy settings, which is why I play a lot of JRPG and the like. Uncharted and inFamous as well, voice acting and stories. I think she'd be ok w/ GTAV, but there's other stuff she'd rather watch. And I'm ok w/ that, my backlog will never end. She is looking forward to Bayonetta 2, and I'd rather play that anyway. Witcher 3 should be right up her alley, probably after FFXV. She's a huge FF fan, but 13 sucked. Not sure why, but it did. 8, 7, 10, 12 and 9. I think that's her preferred order. 15 needs to come through.

@ricklongo I guess I just feel like GTA is a lightning rod maybe they wouldn't want to to touch. I didn't know about Chinatown Wars on DS though, so I guess I'm wrong. Does that mean Wii U can get HBO Go/Now now?