Final Fantasy 16 Developer Dreams Of A Console-Free Future Within 10 Years

Naoki Yoshida predicts one more generation of console wars before the ultimate dominance of cloud gaming.

[banger88]

F*** cloud gaming and f*** streaming! If that's the future of gaming, I'll play nothing but retro games in the future.

[Barlos]

My sentiments exactly 👍

[Zenzuu]

I like the way this man thinks.

[Profchaos]

Couldn't reply to you below however out of all the extensive games list you've listed there I probably only enjoyed 5 of them at most the rest were not my thing 5 games in 3 years is a low number if you ask me. Also there's a difference between hate and disappointment I do t hate the games or this gen I'm disappointed by it I'm not picking up new games every 3 mo Tha like previous generations everything is always delayed broken or just trend chasing or I get the feeling I've played this before so I'm not shelling out 125 aud dollars for a sequel that doesn't add all that much to the table

Also upcoming games that list I'll pass I enjoyed sm1/2 but I don't want a 3 or wolverine which seems to have the same gameplay attached. All those blade games are not my thing no the only upcoming games I'm excited for us GTA vi but not the online the actual game

[Zeref]

Okay

[--Onilink--]

Its really more of a when rather than and if to be honest.

It happened to every single other kind of entertainment medium, it will happen to gaming eventually too (that said, its not like there aren’t physical or digital purchases for music and video, they just arent as prevalent)

Also, he is saying 1 more generation.. thats still easily 10-12 more years… we cant even properly predict what will happen 1-2 years in advance, much less 10+ years ahead, it doesnt really make sense to judge based on what cloud gaming currently is

[shinoff2183]

Idk about that. When companies see millions just aren't with all that , they may change their tune. Most of us don't want the cloud, don't want anything to do with streaming.

[jukins]

It mat uave happened but ppl are slowly realizing that maybe all digital isnt as good as it seems. Needing to sub to a bunch of different services, most which are losing 100s of millions if not billions. And especially foe cloud gaming i cant see the infrastructure getting good enough and widespread enough to cover the same amount of gamers. But at the same time companies wont need as many customers if they sonr have to spend billions every so odten developinf and manufacturing hardware

[Yui_Suzumiya]

True that

[TheEroica]

Good... More for me!

[Profchaos]

Completely agree I've still got my PS1, n64 with ever drive, PS2, PS3, 360 oh and GB GBC, GBA, PSP and Vita and I've recently purchased a nes and a line doubler retrotink 2x the only console I'm missing is the mega drive that I have nostalgia for.

Using flash carts I can pretty much get decades of gaming conveniently on the original hardware nothing beats that in my view emulation is fine just doesn't feel right in many cases for me.

This ps5 gen has been a huge bust for me my most wanted games are years away and so many have been just disappointing or broken so I'm feeling a little burnt by the ps5 generation

[Zenzuu]

You didn't enjoy Demon Souls, Returnal, Astro's Playroom, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider Man, Ratchet & Clank, Gran Turismo 7, God of War Ragnarok or the likes of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Resident Evil Village, Tetris Effect, Persona 5 Royal, Dead Space?!!

You're not looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Silent Hill 2, Persona 3, Death Stranding 2, Marvel's Wolverine, Stellar Blade, Phantom Blade 0, Rise of the Ronin at all?!!

[AngainorG7X]

Yes

[-Foxtrot]

He dreams of a consoleless future and wants everything to be cloud gaming?

Ew...no...just no

[blackblades]

Yeah that's a no but sadly it might happen but it'll be after we dead and gone when that happens.

[Zeref]

I see yall play consoles more than games lol

[RedDevils]

Say someone who on here 24/7, why are you not playing the xcloud?

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Nii San you're embarrassing yourself for real because we are gamers not cheerleaders.

[Zeref]

@XiNatsuDragneel

Doesnt seem like it when you got people saying they'll quit gaming when there's eventually gonna be a new way to play games lol.

Seems like yall are more fans of the consoles than the actual games. Which explains a lot.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

@Zeref

Sigh Nii San when digital only happens I'm getting a new hobby and go on new quests, So nii San you'll stick around the cloud console Era?

[Zeref]

@XiNatsuDragneel

Why would I quit? Even in the unlikely s scenario that the industry goes cloud only. By that time most people will likely have decent internet. If the experience is indistinguishable from traditional gaming. (I hear NVIDIA is extremely close already)
I don't see any valid reason to not play games anymore. They're still videogames.

It doesn't matter how I access them. Obviously I prefer consoles. But if that goes away, which I think they will eventually. I'll just adapt.
The only thing that will make me quit gaming is if all videogames suddenly suck. Which is impossible lol

[gold_drake]

yea.
no.

[M3talDiamond]

Hell NO! Gamers dont be brainwashed by this never give up your game ownership thats what the industry wants and some people dont see the dangers of this. Don Mattrick spearheaded this shit and Phil is doing this slowly without anyone noticing

[Zeref]

Where does Sony fall into this conspiracy? They're going the exact same way as Xbox last time I checked. Xbox is just ahead of them.

[shinoff2183]

The issue at hand is ms brought this bs over to consoles. Ms has been the one to push this yearafter year , sonys tagging along as not to be left behind. Look how many more physical games come out to ps and Nintendo owners as proof. Ms doesn't want to do physical games. Sony probably has double the physical games out compared to what's available on xbox. Whether small publishers or big publishers physical still hitting on ps. Don't give me that bs , o digital is 80 percent of game sales bs either. Subtract mobile gaming and come back with real numbers that apply to console games

[Zeref]

@shinoff2183

No they weren't the first. Sony was first with the whole cloud streaming idea. They just sucked at it.

So how is it Microsoft's fault that they built a better system? 😂

[Zeref]

@shinoff2183

"Zeref even if Sony was first Sony still stays pretty true to physical. Again unlike ms who has went all in on digital and hard-core on the streaming."

Oww Microsoft is pushing digital?
Didn't Sony also release their own all digital console? If they were so into physical why release a digital console at all?
And Isn't it Sony that doesn't even allow you to buy digital Playstation games from 3rd party stores?

Lol you're reaching my guy. Trying to put this all on Microsoft for whatever reason. They are both going digital and multiplatform. Xbox is just doing it better and more consumer friendly right now.

[TheEroica]

Sony fans are completely delusional 😂but it's fun to watch.

[TheEroica]

I'm guessing you've never had a steam account?

[M3talDiamond]

The problem isnt digital only future its a streaming (rental only future)

[shinoff2183]

Naw I have a steam account. I use the same name for everything. No need to hide behind different names like some users here.

Thing is pc and console , completly different. I also only play on pc what can't be played on console. Last time I used my steam account I play atom rpg(dope ass game by the way) then seen a few months later it released on console. I did play encased but I was waiting for better controller support cause I hate keyboard and mouse setup. Anyway yea pc and console are two different landscapes.

There's room for digital and physical but ms wants physical gone you can tell by their actions and their large minimum print runs.

Zeref even if Sony was first Sony still stays pretty true to physical. Again unlike ms who has went all in on digital and hard-core on the streaming. As I stated evidenced by the fact that there's probably double the amount of physical games available on ps compared to xbox.

[Terry_B]

Don't support this guy. Didnt buy FF16..never will.

[M3talDiamond]

I bought FF16 and I loved it but I dont feel the same now it feels bitter sweet after seeing what Naoki Yoshida wants for the future of gaming

[NotoriousWhiz]

It's okay to buy stuff from people you don't share an opinion with.

[Terry_B]

Normally I agree to that. But in this case, ..nope since the guy might have some influence.

[Lennoxb63]

In 10 years there will definitely be more cloud gamers. But consoles aren't going anywhere.

[anast]

Companies and developers are not big enough kids to handle this kind of responsibility.

[aarallen1]

You will still have to choose your cloud gaming service if that happened. It would be exactly like the streaming wars between Netflix, Hulu Paramount etc. This is a cope. He’s thinking about how exclusivity led to his latest game not selling as well as he would have liked.

[shinoff2183]

Wasn't my top game this year or even my top 5 ff game but it sold well. Especially considering there was what 40 to 45 million ps5 sold at the time, it was a drastic departure from ff games and just didn't resemble a ff game to some of us especially the older square fans.

Pc would've helped but it wouldn't of even hit 750k on xbox

[aarallen1]

It was a decent game. I’m not saying that. Deep down, you know he wanted it to sell more. Other games have sold more on PS5.

[WhiteHawk]

Give me more of a reason to not buy your game, ok.

[thecodingart]

F* that

[Barlos]

No.

[Good-Smurf]

I would only play retro stuff and emulators when this happened.
I don't care who pushed cloud and digital only gaming fuck'em all.

[Eidolon]

It's business, I don't think a real gamer wants cloud only, this guy probably plays mobile games.

[Chocoburger]

He doesn't care about preservation of his own work. Just wants more crack of the whip on his back from his corporate overlords. Yikes.

[S2Killinit]

No thank you

[Agent75]

Love consoles launches, but sick of having X amount of consoles, including the PC. The cost of gaming these days, it's not ideal. But can never see one format, more so when you look at Nintendo's history with licencing.

[M3talDiamond]

So paying endless amounts of subscription fees that inevitably increase every year is cheaper than buying something once and owning it for the rest of your life?

[Rocketisleague]

So...you are buying dvds? Blu ray disks? For movies?

[Miraak82]

The headlines bait , he said nothing of the sort.

He's talking to someone who wants to create games w/o it being platform locked to be able to get games to has much people as possible . Also describing how net speeds won't ever really allow for cloud based gaming for the fore seeable future unless everyone is running on G5. He also said he doesn't see consoles going away anytime soon

lol every comment above riled up

[Shane Kim]

He allready is.

[DivineHand125]

From a business standpoint, I can understand why some developers want a console-free future. In the console ecosystem, you cannot sell more copies than the current install base while in the cloud ecosystem, the limit is set significantly higher.

As a consumer, the only change I would encourage is less exclusive games and content from second and third-party developers. There has been significant improvement in this in recent years however work needs to be done to push the needle in this direction.

[Hofstaderman]

Yoshi P is smoking some good stuff.

[EvertonFC]

Not saying I support this, but sorry to tell you we won't be the companies target audience it'll be the 8-25 year olds f2p, all digital, early access, GaaS casual crowd.
Sony, MS and Nintendo won't give 2 fucks about us 50s, 40s, 30s year olds in 10 years cause that'll leave just the MT heavy, f2p, GaaS generation left teaching there kids about all digital.
When we old fu*kers are dead in 20 years they'll be know single player gamers left, I bet Sony and MS can't wait for us 300m a game gamers die off so they can make cheap GaaS games.

[Azurite]

When we get latency 0-1ms streaming them(probably not in our lifetimes).

[Extermin8or3_]

Literally impossible. The limit is the speed of light in a fibre and that has a finite limit.

[staticall]

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. The more choices you have, the better. Limiting it will only lead to more problems.

"Cloud" future means that:
1) You don't own anything, companies can block your account for any reason and bye-bye all your purchases. Or delete games that you boug-- i meant to say "rented", games that you rented, from your gaming library;
2) Less popular or failed games might just vanish one day, completely. And that's it, you'll never be able to play those games, because they're tied to the service (BattleForge says hi, for instance);
3) Do you leave in any remote area with bad internet? Guess you aren't playing anytime soon. Sounds great, right?
4) Companies can more freely spy on you, your habbits. And sell it to their "partners". Or someone might "steal" it. You might think it's not that big of a deal, but advertisers will try to squeeze every byte of information about people to sell you stuff later;
5) Exclusive content will mean you'll have to buy multiple subscriptions, which might get overwhelming if you aren't careful. It's a "you" problem, i know. But it's still a problem;
6) Content providers control the price. They want to increase the price? Eat it up. No one cares that you can't afford it. Again, a "you" problem, but cloud-only doesn't give you any additional choice (please, don't start about sharing accounts, i can assure you they'll ban that rather quickly);
7) (if companies will push subscriptions on top of the cloud) Say bye-bye to high budget games, because why spend $300+ million dollars on one game, when you can pay for 10 cheaper games?
8) If anything happens at content provider side (power outage, internet problems, system maintenance), you aren't playing that day.

And there are more sticky things like that. If you think this is the future, well... Good luck. I don't want this future. Companies what that so they can the control over you, so they can squeeze even more money from you, make you depend on them. But why anyone else wants that, i have no idea.

I mean, cloud games exists now and guess what - they aren't doing anything special. It's just a regular games that tied to a service. Nothing groundbreaking here. And don't get me started on the "Power of the Cloud" BS.

[Chocoburger]

Excellent post. F*** the "all cloud future".

I recently purchased a PC-ENGINE Core Grafx, and Turbo Everdrive Pro to play its entire library. Give me that over modern cloud trash any day.

[raWfodog]

*Sigh* it sucks but unfortunately I do see this eventually becoming a reality. I will always champion console gaming as I believe exclusivity fosters innovation. If developers are making the same game for everyone, there’s no incentive to go above and beyond and deliver high quality games. Especially if these games will be driven by corporate publishers who are only interested in delivering the bare minimum for maximum profit.

[LotusViridis]

I think games absolutely have reason to innovate, because they all still compete with each other.

What doesn't have to compete is the platform itself. There would theoretically be no need for the platform to ever upgrade because there's no "better ship" to jump to.

[Shane Kim]

The day that happens I'll gladly hang my controllers on the wall and throw in the towel.

[EvertonFC]

I'll be entering my 60s by then hopefully, selfish yes but my aging hands will probably be asking me to retire from gaming 🤣😂

[Demetrius]

Well he better make his up his own mf game console that's cloud based only, I don't wana be forced to.play singleplayers with a internet connection that shhi lame

[DaniMacYo]

F no.

[Auron]

You will own nothing.

[LotusViridis]

I think some of these comments are aimed at the headline and not Naoki Yoshida's actual thoughts on the matter.

He doesn't seem satisfied with the current state of cloud gaming/streaming, only that if we can eliminate lag and stuff, that it can lead to a type of gaming industry where a developer can reach 100% of their fanbase due to no console exclusivity.

Ultimately it just seems like his "dream" is to not have division in the gaming community, and is simply postulating that cloud gaming seems like the most natural way to achieve that, but that there are problems to overcome there as well.

All in all, I think his dream is wholesome, inclusive, and thoughtful and not some kind of brainy, arrogant and foolhardy stance that some of ya'll are making it out to be.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

But it isn't good for gaming either

[LotusViridis]

I think in some ways it is, and other ways it isn't. Yoshi-p is mainly wanting to get rid of instances where a gamer wants to play a new game, but can't because they need a whole new system. He also says that porting and optimizing games for different platforms drains time that could definitely be used for better things.

Objectively, these things would be improved.

Obviously, there are downsides. I'd rather have physical games still, and realistically a single platform would be tough to pull off due to lack of competition, but I don't think most of the points Yoshida is focusing on would be "bad for gaming."

[__y2jb]

Yeah because all those cloud based movie/tv streaming services never rely on exclusive content, they just all play nicely under a single banner…right?

What an idiotic argument.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

If that happens hey man I can get a new hobby but cloud gaming will be inferior to physical gaming imo.

[Elda]

Nope.

[shinoff2183]

Console gamers don't want the cloud. Well those of us that weren't force fed the cloud for 15 years.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Just nope.. I'm more warmed up to the idea of digital gaming (Steam) but hell no for cloud gaming.

[AmkOwns]

i’ve got a shit load of unfinished games that’s in my back log, that will last till the day i die, no thanks to cloud/streaming.

[Binarycode]

I dream of never seeing another Final fantasy game ever again. tbh.

Never understood the appeal from seeing it many many years ago.

As for cloud gaming. Just leave the business now and stfu.

[LostPotato]

Yeah and then games become just like Netflix. MS is years ahead and saw the future with Game-pass

Anyway meh as a PC Gamer it's been that way already for a decade.

[AngainorG7X]

Bruh

[Rainbowcookie]

Just a way so that you have ownership of nothing and to stop the second hand market will equal more sales....not something we want. Physical Collectors editions will go the way of the dodo

[fsfsxii]

He should dream of making a better game lmao
Ff16 was trash tier