EA: Console evolution after Xbox One, PS4 won't be hardware based

With the release of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this year we will begin to see a change in philosophy around the development of both hardware and software — one that will affect how Gen 5 platforms will form in the years to come, EA's chief creative director Rich Hilleman said during today's DICE Europe conference.

[SuperWeeb]

Woah there missy. This ain't Gen 5, this is Gen 8. Gen 5 was ages ago...

Polygon: We know nothing about games.

[MethCupcakes]

LmfAO!

[UltimateMaster]

Yeah, sure, because the evolution of gaming is TV.
*Rolls Eyes*
Oh, and pretty Clouds in the shape of a Sheep.

[UltimateMaster]

GEN 5.
Supposed to go talk about the PS5.
Because we all know PS is the revolution of gaming and Nintendo is irrelevant, right?
Stupid polygon, get your gen right.
This gen "PS4/X1/WiiU" is gen 8 and next gen is 9.

[KonsoruMasuta]

Wait, you mean to tell me the Playstation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 aren't coming out this year?!

[yellowgerbil]

yeah terribly worded, but by gen 5 I think he means 5th iteration of the playstation brand as that is the only company that will still be around :) just kidding :)

[Godmars290]

They're likely only counting the number of console MS have made.

In which case they're still wrong...

[ajax17]

He's talking about the 5th gen of consoles having 3D graphics...

[Ohlmay]

Eventually everything will be Cloud Streamed, welcome to the future folks, hold your consoles tightly :(

[MethCupcakes]

Stop that! Everything can't go software based/cloud. Because of limitations. In the better part of the world no one really has over an 8 Mbps connections and some countries the internet isn't really as big. So going entirely cloud based would be a really stupid Idea.

[Ohlmay]

Well that's the future we're heading into, I'm not supporting the idea, I myself only have a 8mb download speed, but it's undenialable that this will happen. Hell, even Sony came out a few days ago saying the Playstation brand will be positioning itself as a Software brand in the future, not hardware and using Cloud services like Gaikai to stream Playstation content to all devices. Cloud Streaming is the future whether you like it or not.

We're talking 10 -15 years from now though, I'm not saying next week. But in 10 -15 years, you can expect Internet speeds to be much faster and reach far more households.

[Gamingcapacity]

I played a game on Gaikai (before Sony bought them) on a 3/4Mbps internet with sharp graphics and very very litlle lag. It's not the speed we should worry about but the stability. Streaming movies is different because it has a buffer. Games will need a constant stable stream.

[Gamer666]

In 1990 the largest hard drives were 1 GB, CPUs were about 33 MHz, had a MB of RAM, and everyone accessed the internet via 1,200 baud modems. Now my smart phone has 32 GB of storage, a 1.6 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and LTE runs circles around many wired networks.

Limitations in technology are removed all the time. To discount technology ideas because of limitations is naïve, uninformed, and just plain dumb... There are a lot of companies looking at alternate ways to deliver networks to the most remote places. In 5 years, the internet could be very high speed and pervasive on every corner of the planet.

[Gamingcapacity]

You could be right. Why? Because it's the cheapest way for people to play and the cheapest (probably) way to get the games out there.

Might not mean the end of consoles though. MS, Nintendo and Sony will be able to make sub $50 consoles that only needs to be able to stream games (no high tech innards) that can hook up to your controller and tv. You can play high end PC quality games.

All we need now it better internet infrastructure because the lines will melt with everybody trying to stream games. Especially with other streaming services getting popular all the time e.g. Netflix.

We might see this within 10 years.

[MethCupcakes]

I feel you.

[KonsoruMasuta]

No, we won't be heading in that direction. And if we do, it won't happen for a couple of years.

The newest norm, that won't come until a couple of generations after next, will become downloading games. As much as I hate it, it is bound to come. Consoles will soon no longer have a need for disc trays and we will have to download the latest games.

But cloud streaming? Not going to work. Not everyone has the Internet connection for it. It looks nice when your connection is fast enough, doesn't work or is pixelated to hell if your connection isn't. We will see the cloud more integrated with games we play but as far as every game coming straight from the cloud, nope.

[rainslacker]

A lot can change in a console generation. Sure the big thing now is always being connected, but it doesn't take much for a new trend to come around. Just remember, at the start of this gen, smartphones were a rare breed for the super business user, and they were nothing really like what we have now.

Who's to say that in another 7-8 years time, everyone decides to become all retro, and seeing the value in owning the things they buy. One major misstep by Apple or Google, or any of these services that provide digital content, can open up the public's eyes big time.

MS almost did just that with the X1, but I believe they stopped short of it moving wide spread outside of the gaming community. Imagine if Apple went bankrupt in 5 years because their popularity plummeted due to a bad hardware decision. Think what kind of upset that would be to the DD model, when people realize they own nothing, and have no way to get their purchased content.

Nothing is unstoppable. Consumers have more power than they know.

On the down side, people are generally lazy and prefer convenience over value. A man can dream can't he that people will actually think about what they spend their money on.

It's also worth pointing out that if only one company decides to keep physical around, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they become the biggest player of the generation. Competition more than anything would keep physical around, and at least one of the big 3 will want that market segment. They all know, despite what they may want, that the physical buyers money is still worth getting, and it'll be a very long time before a lot of people will just give it up just to play a game.

[5h4h4b]

:(

[Kayant]

:( Sad future it is because we would in time lose all rights to purchasing and will merely be renting them monthly with a netflix like sub hopefully it will be cheap though if not the future for gaming is not so awesome.

[Retroman]

look very blight to me :( "BACK TO THE PASS" for me

hold onto your ps3 Marty--------------> thats heavy doc.

[Hufandpuf]

Interesting...

[jay2]

Yes it will be hardware based, the internets no where near ready for all this digital stuff everyone wants. it's not viable, and you're looking at AT LEAST 5 years after the new console cycle for the net to be ready.