'The Solution Is to Get Rid of Consoles': Analyst Predicts $1,000 PS6 and a Transition to Game Streaming

Second option is clearly the only correct answer here.

“ I've been predicting the end of the console life cycle for more than 10 years.”

And may they survive for many more! Another quote from the imbecile Pachter. At this rate, he should be yelling consoles will survive forever so it can have a quick death because his predictions are clearly always wrong.

Hm, can’t tell if Michael Pachter really is this stupid or if it’s an April Fool’s joke 🤔

Patcher should wear a clown make up while spewing his ***** next time

I’m sure streaming will eventually replace hardware, but its not happening next gen. Perhaps the one after that streaming could start to become the more common way to play games, who knows

Literally Microsoft Sony Valve and Nintendo are building console-handhelds they will use for 2026-2031 and his take is consoles are going away. Oof.

Streaming will never replace hardware. End of

PushSquare staff, please, don't give new spotlight for a wet fart like Patcher. He already irrelevant for years and we should keep it that way.

Also no, stream will not replace traditional console. Go check what happened to Stadia, Ouya, Onlive, and G-cloud and tell me they successfully replaced Playstation, Nintendo, or even Xbox. SMH. Why on earth people still listen to Patcher wet dream? 🤦‍♂️

There's absolutely no question that in enough time streaming will absolutely replace hardware. Our whole world and how we consume is changing all the time - and far more rapidly than previous generations.
For the younger generation and beyond streaming their entertainment will be as normal to them as putting a disc in a machine was as normal to their parents and their parents before that.

Just as those who were adamant that digital media will never surplant physical (and were wrong) the eventual switch to streaming is as inevitable as it is unavoidable. To deny this absolute future is as naive as it is shortsighted.

Somewhat laughably, however, (given the medium and the technological advances it's seen), gamers - as the comments here prove - are incapable of looking beyond what's right in front of them. They just see what they want and so believe that's how it will always be - contrary to the huge changes this industry has bore witness too over the last two decades.

"B...b...but the infrastructure isn't there!"

Two decades ago we were all on dial up and yet look where we are now...

For the minority, streaming could be a great solution, but for Sony to maintain that infrastructure would be more expensive than to offload energy and upkeep costs of the hardware to people's homes and keep selling consoles. Just doesn't make sense

It'll never happen cause internet in a lot of areas just isn't fast or stable enough to be able to stream a game without quality or latency issues.

@Deadlyblack i can definitely tell you that this is the case here in Brazil. Internet isn't as fast as some other countries and the connection itself isn't stable and this is a big country where A LOT of people buy games. I can definitely say that if in the future any of these console manufacturers go 100% streaming, they'll lose a lot of people, including me

Such total rubbish, the infrastructure investment would be astronomical considering how few countries are yet to introduce the PlayStation streaming service, for example just Australia and the square area needed to cover - server space & energy - and replace the ease of actual hardware. The $$$ outlay is unfeasible, Sony would have to surrender market share in many continents. Hardware is still the most economical & profitable, it keeps you locked into the ecosystem.

Do companies really want to be running massive server farms, using their own electricity, to beam you your games?

• The real question is would governments allow it. Various European countries are already imposing restrictions on new data center developments. Parts of Asia are talking about the same thing, grid strain is something taken very seriously. On-site renewable energy just isn't there yet. Water is another factor, it's needed for cooling, that's restricted too. There's a global water crisis related to those date centers and so few are even aware of it yet. Trillions of gallons of water, most infrastructures aren't built to handle the supply or consumption that requires. They can cut back on that consumption by finding the right climate but even then most countries don't want a data-center gobbling up half a million gallons of their water a day.

Yeah if thats the case I'm out. I own more games now than I could reasonably complete in the remainder of my life anyway.

This just means gamers have no say when it comes to console generations or hardware upgrades. Those things were one part the manufacturers decision and one part ours when sales slowed or growed. With streaming it's entirely their decision.

If consoles end, the solution is PCs. Streaming has always and will forever suck, and devices like PS Portal and services like GeForce NOW are all garbage. I do not even use streaming services like Netflix because the quality is terrible and the prices are unreasonable. I proudly sail the seven seas if you get what I mean to have my content downloaded and offline, so there is no way I am settling down for gaming to be Netflixied.

Pachter? Then the opposite will happen.

🤡

Pachter is just rage baiting at this point. He’s been wrong about every video game take he’s ever had.

Streaming will grow as the technology gets better for sure but we’re not even close to a world where it goes away entirely. Latency has gotten better but that alone makes streaming far from perfect.

If it consoles go over 700 at launch I’m out. Ps5pro launch price was already a miserable sell.

"This is an Xbox" has already failed... there's no way Playstation will do the same thing. The ram crisis will blow over and consoles will live on 🫡

Michael Pachter predicting the death of consoles AGAIN? He's been doing this for decades.

I guess whenever it does finally happen, he can say he was right the whole time 😄. Actually quite clever. I see you, Michael.

@GeminiX53

As far as last I checked, I've got a wall of physical, complete on disc physical PS5 games. They still got a disc drive. Physical isn't dead. Dying, maybe.

But like records and CDs, there will always be a decent subset of the market who want the real deal in their hands and will pay a premium for it.

I'm a better analyst than Pachter (almost everyone here is). And I'm predicting physical market holds steady at 20-25% into the PS6 generation. Which while much reduced gives publishers a financial incentive to cater to it. Hence the rumored optional disc drive attachment for PS6.

If he is saying physical will be a product of the past at some distant, undisclosed point in the future I couldn't argue with that, as it's really not much of a prediction at all. I predict the eventual heat death of the universe.

Move over Pachter! Where's my analyst paycheck? 🙂

The fact he boasts he's been predicting this for 10 years and its still yet to happen tells you everything. The guy is a complete joke.

I’m on vacation at Disney World right now. I brought my Portal with me and I am able to play Crimson Desert with no issues streaming from the cloud. If the portal can play PS6 games from the cloud I don’t see a reason to buy a PS6

I've been predicting the end of the console life cycle for more than 10 years.

Another way of saying "I'm clueless" then 😄

@UnlimitedSevens

I've got a wall of physical

So have I, including a commendable vinyl collection, but you are missing the point while simultaneously proving my point above about the shortsightedness of gamers.

Contrary to those who smirked at the idea of digital video game dominance just 15-20 years ago it has now supplanted physical in terms of overall consumption - that's a fact

Once again you're all only looking at what you can see directly in front of you now, not what lies ahead in the future.

Copy and paste all these comments dismissing an all digital, streaming future and put them somewhere safe, print them off if you have to, then look back over it ten to twenty years from now. You're going to get a reality check.

I'll be well into my retirement by then so won't care, but a fully fiedged digital streaming future is what the younger generation will be engaging with. It's as obvious as it is inevitable.

If the industry starts listening to Michael Hackter than I'll just quit gaming

@DennisReynolds
You are misunderstanding him. It is about the implication that he will get it right someday.

@GeminiX53

Yes please, let's both revisit this in 10 years. Because I've been hearing this non-stop from "analysts" for the last 15. I'll be retired as well and we can re-connect and share a cup of tea over it.

And you are so right, vinyl just does sound better doesn't it? No digital file could ever replicate it. Or the tactile experience of just having it in your hands. It's a beautiful thing. It was worth the extra cost to you for the vinyl at the end of the day, you coulda got the music off iTunes cheaper. Why didn't you?

There's your answer.

@UnlimitedSevens

Seriously, just look over the last 20 years of gaming and the amount of times gamers have dismissed out of hand all the things that are now an accepted norm.

Digital as a dominant force, subscription models, mandatory online, micro-transactions, consoles without disc drives and so on. All were dismissed by gamers as a nonsense that would never come to fruition and yet here we are - and you're all onboard. Christ, some even now aggressively defend digital media and online subscriptions!

Patchter may have missed the mark on more than one occasion, but then so have gamers - perhaps even more so.

We may love vinyl, but the brunt of future generations simply won't care. The vast majority don't even care now. Their children will see physical media as a novelty thing that grandad used to collect.

Times change, it's unavoidable, and, somewhat amusingly, we're now starting to sound like our parents harping on about the "good ol' days".

@GeminiX53 bro, Netflix can't even handle too many people watching a Jake Paul fight, and that's basic streaming video. Your jock riding on this topic is weird, and makes me think you were an Ouya backer who still thinks people want to pay premium prices for laggy games.

Tl;dr Drooling idiot tries to make us not play games locally.

@PercyChuggs

And yet as I said above, it wasn't that long ago we were all on dial up. Technology continues to improve. Compared to 20 years ago home connectivity has vastly improved the world over. Some countries are lagging behind, but even they still have better internet than they did 10-20 years ago.

Thanks for proving my above point, though, of being stuck in the moment and not seeing what lies ahead.
The shortsightedness is real as is the inability to recognise change.