Game-streaming on cable TV: The biggest threat to games consoles?

"It’s been clear for a good couple of years now that gaming – and computing as a whole – is moving towards the realm of clouds, digital downloads and online streaming. To an extent, these breakthroughs have been considered as something that could coexist peacefully with games consoles. Sony, for instance, recently purchased the game-streaming service Gaikai, in what seems like an attempt to extend the Playstation 3′s longevity by giving it access to the cloud gaming realm. Microsoft, meanwhile, have long been linked with an acquisition of troubled cloud-gaming platform, Onlive."

[WiiUalpha]

I don't know if Sony,MS or Nintendo have anything to worry about just yet. Most cable companies want to put bandwidth limits on consumers and streaming games would have them going over that limit time and time again.

Also there are no exclusives made by the cable company so everything would be 3rd party. Of course that is kinda easy to fix but it will take time.

[darthv72]

or more importantly...timing. Some ideas have been ahead of the curve but failed due to lack of interest or the fear that it would change things to radically. We know people can be frightened of change but if these ideas come back around when the time is right then people are more receptive.

That is generally speaking.

Gaming will eventually evolve (or devolve whichever you look at it) to a point where the physical consoles and the games would be similar to record players and records. Meaning that they had their purpose and served it well but technology moved on to trying to be more convenient to the consumer.

More and more music and (to a lesser extent) movies are sold through digital download than actually going to a store to get them. That kind of convenience has been a long time coming but its here and will continue to grow.

We are a lazy society in the fact that once you get hooked on something brought to you (or downloaded) becomes all to familiar. Will this sort of change happen overnight? No but it has been changing little by little.

All it takes is the right company and the right content and we can have a full on swing shift from one way of doing something to another. What is more convenient than your cable provider also providing games? They may be crap games but then again they wont be the same crap forever.

Just look at how gaming evolved from Pong to today. And that is roughly 30+ years. The time frame of change has been getting shorter and shorter so who knows.

[Merrill]

Hahaha, no. Simple as that.

[turgore]

Think what you will, but with Google Fibe reaching 1gb/second transfer speed I see it as a possibility in the future.

[Merrill]

Consumers will never ditch owning hardware, whether it be a computer or console/consoles for games exclusively through their over price cable provider, will not happen.

[CommonSenseGamer]

@merril

Your comment echos of "people will never buy on line in favor of going to the store" or "people will always prefer to own the physical CD".

By the time the PS4 or Xbox 720 reach its 10 year anniversary cloud gaming will already be a mature marketplace.

[Merrill]

@ turgore

I have no problem with Cloud gaming, and I love buying my games on PSN, but there is NO WAY cable providers are the future of gaming or in anyway going to sway people to exclusively buy games from them.

Cloud gaming may be part of or the future, but it won't have a place from Cable providers. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will never provide them with any of the big exclusive titles that make money.

Cable providers already charge WAAAAY too much for Tv and other servies, can you imagine what that would charge for this service?

[Getowned]

Unless nintendo,MS, and Sony go multiplat exclusives are still a big thing to a lot of people theres only one console you can get uncharted and GT5, only one console you can get Halo and Gears, and only one console you can get mario and zelda. These are games that I know are why I pick my console of choice and really are one of the big deciding factors. Thats why I don't really see this catching on as fast. I don't think the tech is ready and I would much rather have a console system, I don't vary much like the Idea of my cable company over charging me for games just like they do for me to watch TV. This is just a repeat of OnLive really, no one wants it right now.

[Saturne3]

Cloud gaming is and always be an option for many years to come it wont replace anything.

No sense of ownership then whats the point having it new? it almost feels like piracy.

There must be incentives if they wanna pull this through like all-free DLC if you get it day 1 or something.

[KMCROC]

Unless the cable company infrastructure is fixed across all states & an abroad this is a dead issue. Ex. bandwidth, speeds, service to all areas , Ala cart pricing . till then i will continue on my consoles .

[RivetCityGhoul]

i don't understand neither motion not mobile gaming has took over traditional gaming. now the media is moving to the trend "oh free to play & cloud gaming is the future, consoles are obsolete now" if anything console gaming will prosper and cloud gaming will be integrated as a feature option but it'll never replace consoles.

[TheKayle]

ah yeah so now cloud gaming is an FUTURE option ....

i would read this when sony aquired gaikai istead to spent that money in a good ads campaign for them hardwares

[StrawHatPatriot]

Let me just copy this from the other thread. Why cloud gaming isn't as convenient or good as it seems.

"Cloud gaming has some good things (you don't need the most powerful hardware or need much annoying downloads or patches), but the negatives outweigh the positives IMO.

You're paying full price for game that you don't own the physical copy of or at least have saves on your console/PC.

Some could gaming services require a monthly fee. So, just to play a game, I need a monthly fee. No, I don't mean XBL or PSN Plus, I'm talking about just to play the damn game, there's a chance we could have to pay a monthly fee.

There are chances they can stop servers for a game that's more than 4-5 years old, and that stinks since they are many underrated games that you may like playing but might not be able to if Cloud gaming takes them of. (I like to play my old DBZ games from 2003 every once in a while, for example, but with cloud gaming, there are chances that in the future I can't stream a 5 year old game that I may consider to be my favorite games ever.)

Using credit cards instead of straight cash can be a hassle and more riskier and annoying for some people.

You NEED the internet to play. If your internet is working for a couple hours, you can't play your games.

If your internet is slow, than you can't afford to play any game that requires fast movement (which pretty much every game on home consoles/pc's do.

What if the company shuts down, or gets hacked for a month (like PSN), what we can't play our games?"

[rainslacker]

Those are all very valid points, and ones I'm sure will be addressed if these services become available. The only way I could see cloud gaming replacing consoles is if it was a subscription service similar to PS+, but you got access to all the games it had to offer without having to buy each one. If that were the case then it would be a viable option, however it's hard to imagine you'll see big AAA games coming from major publishers if there is no incentive to sell them.

However if you have to buy the games individually, then what happens if you discontinue your subscription, or you move onto another service...like switch providers. Would you still get access to the games you brought?

I think also the only way this will work if it's through a 3rd party provider which offers the service to these companies to use; like Steam, Gakai, OnLive, etc. That way it wouldn't matter which company you decide to give your business to, you can still play your games.

However, knowing how these companies operate, they would only use gaming as a way to try to keep you hostage in your current service. Knowing that you can lose a lot of your games makes it hard to leave. These companies love making people sign contracts, and I have no doubt they would use gaming as a way to increase their profits without giving anything back to gaming as a whole.

As it stands, cloud gaming will not replace consoles anytime in the near future. It will just be another option. Someone up above said in 30 years it can go this way as the technology evolves to make it viable as a whole, but even then I think consoles will still have their place...for instance Sony, MS, or Nintendo could release a cloud console so the user wouldn't have to go through a service provider to get their games. As it stands I doubt the Big 3 are going to just sit back and let someone else take over.

[kingPoS]

I wouldn't bother with cable.(never had it) After all who needs it when you have an open wealth internet based services.

[mrbojingles]

Man, was the SEGA Channel ahead of it's time or what? I loved that thing!

I don't think Cable will be a threat to gaming anytime soon because of the huge fight companies like Time Warner, AT&T are having with customers over internet caps, speeds, etc.

In 20 years? Maybe but I'd think Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo would find a way to capitalize on it by making Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Channels anyway

[RFornillos4]

aha, good thing there's Nintendo TVii!

[ZeekQuattro]

Anyone remember the Sega Channel. Its been a while but Sega Channel still left a bad taste in my mouth. It was great in the beginning but the wheels soon came off and support was dropped. The infrastructure is just not there. My cable bill is high enough anyway. No more bundles please. lol