EA Exec: Consoles Will Be Inside Smart TVs in 10 Years;Frostbite Will Support User Generated Content

EA executive Matt Bilbey predicts that consoles will be inside smart TVs in ten years. He also said Frostbite is being upgraded to support user-generated content in the future.

[ccgr]

Those TVs will be quite expensive....

[Imp0ssibl3]

I think he just means applications to log into the cloud

[IMissJimRyan]

Yeah, mostly.

[kevnb]

I cant see gaming going to the cloud, this is really just no reason for it. I can see them going 100% digital though.

[TheCommentator]

People who don't believe that cloud compute is the future are going to be in for a big surprise!

Now we have both Ubi and EA, along with MS, who know how important the cloud is.

[StormSnooper]

Yeah cloud is where we are heading unfortunately for gamers.

[Baza]

Cloud computing huh... oh like Crackdown 3? Yup that’s the future

[drpepperdude]

I would rather not have a TV with any smart features.

[The_Sage]

Me too. I don't want to pay for that crap when I don't need it.

[chiefJohn117]

Smart TV's don't force you to pay for them. They're there as a shortcut so you don't have to buy/use a 3rd party hook up. Use YT, Netflix, ps vue, etc, straight from the TV rather than a game console or USB device.

[Muzikguy]

Same. I still don’t own a smart tv. I’ve got no problem hooking something into it like a Blu-ray player or AppleTV.

[RememberThe357]

I have a smart Sharp TV and the apps are just annoying. Everything is slow and when you accidentally touch one of the app buttons on the remote it can take minutes to get back to what you're doing. I exclusively use my PS4 and Fire Stick for TV so having these extra apps that aren't regularly updated, if at all, is pointless.

[gamerz]

Just never connect it to your network. I bought a TCL tv for an amazing price but read it actually spies on everything you do including sending screenshots back to home for marketing. It even says so in the terms-of-service.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I like having say the youtube and netflix aps or miracast, but I don't use much else, it depends on the services said apps can offer.

[Timesplitter14]

"Smart TVs" seem like a bit of an outdated concept to me already. Integrated hardware stuff isn't really cool anymore. The real future is having your phone be able to do everything (connect to TV wirelessly and stream games)

[chiefJohn117]

....😑 Then you won't be able to you your phone for other things. That's just stupid. Htf is giving easier access and less hardware need outdated? That like saying car GPS is outdated cause I can just use my phone's gps 😌

[agent4532]

Yes the first or 6 months, afterwards it will drop in price.

[rainslacker]

They should do it something like the LaserActive from back in the day. Just an expansion port that can accept modules to play a particular system. The LaserActive could support the Genesis or Turbo-Grafx/TurboCD.

That way every TV is compatible, and people can move at their own pace, and the console part of the hardware wouldn't become obsolete before the TV does.

[BioNeo]

Not really mobile GPU s are basically an Xbox 360 now. In 10years they could be PS4 pros or close to it.

[gamerz]

Knowing EA it will stop your movie 10 minutes before it ends and ask for a micro-transaction payment to see the ending.

[ravinash]

So when the next generation of Playstations or Xbox comes out, I have to replace the whole 4K HDR TV.... no, I think I'm with how things are.

Don't they already have access to things like Sony's Playstation Live?
Then you have to deal with which TV company has which licenses to have the app on your TV.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Hell no EA, When EA talks it's bad

[Baza]

This “EA Exec” doesn’t know anything about gaming. All he cares about is profit. These are the same guys that force micro transactions and loot boxes into games.

[Sirk7x]

Isn't it scary though? These execs are some of the people with the most control over the entire industry. When you have companies like EA, Ubi, Microsoft all talk about the future of gaming business, it's because many of these companies have decided already that's there they want it to go.

[annoyedgamer]

Back to PC gaming we go then.

[IMissJimRyan]

What EA is saying is that games won't be loaded localy, but in the clouds, very similar with Microsoft is saying.

Those games will be built to run on Azzure, for instance, and your TV is just the application laucher, like Netflix.

This approach solve a lot of problems for publishers, like piracy, used market and emulation once final user doesn't have access to the game code.

[annoyedgamer]

That still means we, the consumers, lose our right to own the product.

[Rude-ro]

Not happening in ten years.
The tech will not be commercial vs the internet providers and their war on charging for data.
Sure, someone will try it... but the games will be laughed at once real world consumers start playing and dealing with all the latency and image crawling.
When 4k movies actually start streaming in 4k up to 60fps.. then I’ll believe it’s on its way.. until then, nope. And the fact that you have to pay the premium price to experience 4k television/streaming... no way.

[kevnb]

EA is probably saying it because Microsoft paid them too, this is the kind of tactic Microsoft uses.

[IMissJimRyan]

@kevnb I don't think so... Seems more like they share the same business model. Both companies are north american, open capital, profit before quality, etc.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

If I own something I made why do I have to give it to you so you can own it.

[RememberThe357]

@343 So we can play it when we want. Buying games isn't the same as going to the theater to watch a movie. We want to own the product the way we own the paintings on our walls or the furniture in our homes. If I want to own the game I'm willing to pay for it. If I want to rent im willing to pay far less. If publishers don't want customers owning their games, customers will go to other publishers. MS learned this lesson, or should have, when they announced the original Xbox One and watched they're gleeming utopian future burn to ashes.

[rainslacker]

Doesn't solve the problem that last time a company tried to force that, the gaming community pushed back.

To date, the console makers, and publishers seem to have a different idea on how to deliver their content, versus how consumers at large wish to consume it.

@kevnb

No, EA has been promoting this idea since last gen. In fact, I bet if we look back 8-10 years, we'll see them making a similar claim about digital being the main way consumers buy games on consoles.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

We don't even have the internet infrastructure for this, it's even worse depending on the country you live in. We're going to need at least a decade for someone to build the telecom infrastructure as well as someone willing to front the money (I think it should be tax funded and government owned).

[IMissJimRyan]

"That still means we, the consumers, lose our right to own the product."

Yes. Technically we don't 'own' the games already, because they sell us the licence rights to use. But, in pratice, at least in phisycal copies, we own the game. But some companies are already trying to change this, with Activision demanding download two of three games in Spyro Trilogy.

This is the way Publishers want, not it's the best for consumers.

[hikikomori-yume]

@Rude-ro it's called 5G.
Now you can receive severe brain cancer while streaming the latest E.A. games!

[DonkeyWalrus]

What if the games were somehow a part of some sort of blockchain ledger? That would allow you to actually own your digital products.

[Dizzy11523]

I own my games. I trade and sell them too.

[Chris_Wray]

It's an idea, but I'm not sure how close he is to the truth. I think the console is here to stay, at least for another 20 or so years, if only as a result of the net infrastructure around the world. Once that has developed to a great point and everybody has easy, superfast connections, maybe everything will be streamed and digital.

[agent4532]

After this generation its clear that console manufacturers were too greedy and sold gamers a souped up tablet in the form of a console. That was as powerful as a 2010-2012 High end PC. To the point that console manufacturers were forced to re-release their consoles at launch prices due to its outdated technology. Its clear that the current console business model doesn't work. Besides both PSN and Xbox live are ready to turn into tv apps. It doesn't have to be cloud based but able to download say games and stored them onto external hard drives or usb flash drives. Both of those devices can already be hooked up to smart tvs. So, five years from now or 10 no more than that we will see PSN/Xbox live tv apps 😎. The end of console hardware is near.

[ubers]

"It's clear that the current console business model doesn't work."
Uttered on the same day Sony announced its 500mil ps4 special edition console. When will you learn.

[Gardenia]

Then in 10 years the technology has to change because (input) lag is still a major problem in online gaming and TV/monitors. And there is also the problem of only digital which means no more selling games, and I don't think gamers are going to be happy about that

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

Smart tvs are a horrid invention.

[drpepperdude]

I want to get a 4KTV but the various smart features are a turn off.

[ziggurcat]

virtually all TVs now are smart TVs, especially the 4K ones, so there's no real way around that. plus, you're not forced to use any of those features if you aren't interested....

[drpepperdude]

@ziggurcat

I know they all have them and it's a wasted expensive being forced on customers. Laggy interfaces and built in advertisements are trash, nothing but bad experiences on my end.

[NotoriousWhiz]

The "expense" of the smart features on a TV are about as expensive as installing Linux on a computer.

[ziggurcat]

At this point, I don't think it does anything to add to the expense of the TV.

I agree that the OS is slow, clunky, etc... but that's mainly because it's Android, usually, and Android is kind of garbage.

[rainslacker]

They all use pretty much the same software within a single manufacturers line, many based off GoogleTV's OS so all the hardware makers really have to do is make their front end for the consumer. Since its developed for their smart TV's, and their non-smart TV's require pretty much the same hardware, there is no reason to not include them since even on a cheap TV, its a more desirable feature than not.

You are not paying anything more to have it. You'd just be paying the same to get less if you brought one without the smart features.

As far as the advertising, I suppose you are talking about the content purchasing option from Fandango or whatever service one TV uses. If you don't connect it to the internet, which you wouldn't have to if you don't use the smart features, then you'll never see them. On the LG, its an icon that doesn't take up any space unless you have the home menu open. Samsung is much the same, but with a cleaner interface.

[agent4532]

Why, because it makes consoles irrelevant. Smart Tvs are the best invention for all your favorite multimedia apps are on there, plus they come with a built-in CPU, plus you can view your homemade multimedia via external hard drives or usb flash drives. Some of these tvs have voice command or able to surf the web. It sure makes consoles irrelevant except for those that play games but 5-10 years no more than that gamers will be able to play from PSN/Xbox Live and Nintendo tv apps 😀

[thexmanone]

You may not want it, but the young ones will.

[Cybermario]

well, technically we can play games on sony tv's now isnt?

[Alexious]

Even my LG TV has streaming game apps like GameFly https://www.gamefly.com/str...

[ILostMyMind]

As an app, I don't think so. But it would be great if TVs had a card slot like PCs have. Then the console would just be a graphics card.

[agent4532]

What do you mean?

[Sgt_Slaughter]

EA sounds hellbent on convincing as many people as they can to get rid of hardware.

That will possibly happen as an option later down the road say 20-30-40 years from now, but how in the world will that work within 10 years to where lag is nonexistent and stream quality wouldn't tank to 480p constantly?

People with gigabit internet still have issues with Netflix of all things, game streaming will never be a main option with the way internet works around the world.

[drpepperdude]

Unless people stop caring about improved graphics I don't see hardware ever going away.

[rainslacker]

EA says a lot of things are the future, despite people telling them they don't want that kind of future. Despite EA's past insistence of things that will come to pass, we're still not really consuming or purchasing content any different nowadays.

[bluefox755]

If they are, I won't be buying them any longer. At least I'll always have PC gaming to fall back on.

[thatguyhayat]

If consoles cease to exist then my gaming life will come to a close. I'd rather play on consoles than tv. I dont have the budget to build a pc so a console always comes in handy

[ziggurcat]

with how thin TVs are getting, I don't think that that is even physically possible.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

True, they don't really have the space for this, sometimes they put I/O ports in horrible places, if you plan to wall mount a tv it makes you reconsider attempting it. TV speakers are a really good example, they're normally at the back or bottom of modem tvs because of how thin they are and the fact that thin bezels is the dominant trend (so there's no space on the front for them).

[Cobra951]

No, game-streaming boxes possibly will. Not consoles, or any serious gaming platform.

[agent4532]

I have been saying this for a long time, that is where consoles are heading. After all smart tvs already have built-in CPU and all the inputs/outputs of consoles.....

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

You'd have to fit a decent GPU in there as well though, unless you wait for APU technology to catch up.

[agent4532]

Not really, all the tv needs is the thunderbolt port. The thunderbolt port allows any GPU to be connected to any wimpy ass laptop. Now imagine a smart tv with an 8 core processor plus thunderbolt port. Man, bye bye consoles.

[m2stech]

Dear EA please die

[Shikoku]

Nope

[MrSec84]

Given the power requirements of something like Nintendo Switch it would be easy to put something like that in very thin Smart TVs now, even running all Switch games at 4K native resolutions.

PS5 and next XBox will probably be able to run current gen games that run at 1080p 30FPS on PS4, at 4K 60fps with Ryzen CPUs and Navi GPUs.
That tech will probably not need more than 250 watts under maximum load, by the end of 2019, at $399.

No reason why that level of performance couldn't be built into Smart TV processing units in the next few years.
5 years from now that level of tech won't seem ridiculous at all.

A quad core Ryzen CPU, with 4Threads, clocked at 2GHz could easily meet the CPU Requirements and a 10-12TFlop Navi GPU would run that quite easily.

A $400-$500 mainstream branded 4K HDR 50inch TV could easily come with that level of hardware, perhaps a few Terabytes of internal storage and equivalent RAM to next gen consoles in 5 years time.

[Vizigoth04]

And it one less HDMI cable you have to deal with. And power cable.

[Mr Lahey]

No doubt. I already have a SNES and NES in my Sony Android TV. :)

[Vizigoth04]

My wife and I just bought a 75" Samsung 4K HDR. Had to skimp away from the 82/85 inchers until later down the road. But we also cut cable for almost a year now and haveing a smart TV is beneficial if you subscribe to Netflix and Pandora or other applications. Your TV these days are like one giant Smart Phone. The only thing that doesn't seem to be integrated is VoIP. If this is the future then I'd have to say it Sony already has an advantage in this. They could immediately rejuvenate their TV department by integrating PlayStation into it in some way. They've already tried. With PS now in select Sony and Samsung Blu-ray players. But I think it was ahead of it's time for streaming. But however the format is if they can take a PS4/PS5 and integrate it into Sony UHD TV's all at the same time still supporting their 1st party studios, now longer will there be a console war. Might be a TV war. Sony can keep the concept to Sony TVs only, if you want a PlayStation, gotta buy a Sony PlayStation TV. Again this is just a stretch. And it may take more than 10 years or it may not happen at all. But, I definitely believe that the technology is here now. Sony PlayStation TV. 2TB. Various sizes for a range of prices. I don't think it streaming only option is the way just try. Download the game into the device itself from the PS Store. Will a physical medium still be a thing then? Who knows.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I want to get rid of Foxtel, I don't use it because of Netflix, we don't have the infrastructure for streaming games yet, so I think it'll be like Steam where you download the game to play, or at least in the beginning. You'd probably need to attach an external hard drive as well unless SSDs drop in price quickly enough to get a reasonable size.

[agent4532]

That sounds awesome, can't wait for the thunderbolt port integration into tv sets

[chiefJohn117]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't psnow have a TV app where you could stream directly to the TV?

[Vizigoth04]

Not sure about TVs but definitely Sony and Samsung Blu-ray players. But they nixed those and stuck to PS3/PS4/PS5. I think the cost to support something that was low on demand was too much and soon to be cut from PS3. I've utilized it most on PS4 and PC and it works pretty dang well.

[rainslacker]

Yes. They had it in most of their smart TV's, and they had a partnership with Samsung to have it in some of their models.

Last year, they removed the ability to run PSNow on said TV's, even for TV's that had the software installed.

[Muzikguy]

EA talking crazy again. These companies are trying so hard to make everything into a recurring monthly bill. I hope people stand against that. Although with this whole thing having a single console made for gaming will still be better in the long run. I wouldn’t pay EA for anything and haven’t for years now. Funny they mention user generated content. They couldn’t even keep servers running on the PS4 because people don’t want to pay their prices. Good luck trying to monetize user generated content.

[NickAwesome]

Shut up Ea! maybe it will be an alternative to traditional gaming but it will never become the standard, gamers love to own stuff, subscriptions are stupid

[hikikomori-yume]

People complain about their phones recording everything they say.
Do you really want a spy-microphone having a permanent spot in your living room?
Also fuck streaming games, communist bullshit, I would rather actually own the games physically.

[ocelot07]

In 10 years time? Sony did it back in 2010 with the Bravia KDL-22PX300.

[StormSnooper]

Isn’t EA just the worst?

[nibblo]

People are acting like it will be one or the other where I would expect that there will, for the foreseeable future anyways, always be consoles but only the more hard core gamers will buy them, probably the same people who buy them now. The streaming service which will be inside smart TV's will be for more casual people who don't want to fork out the cash for a full system. Also physical consoles will still be needed for countries who don't have a broadband infrastructure or a very good one at least.

[DVAcme]

EA are absolutely retarded.

Seriously, think about it. If you integrate consoles into TV's, you are limiting their upgradeability, their portability and their ease of repair. Not to mention that an integrated console into the TV means the console controls the TV. If the console is busted, congratulations, your TV is fucked too.

And the ALMIGHTY CLOUD is an ALMIGHTY BULLET POINT with no actual factual proof of concept. Simply put, not enough people have stable and fast enough internet service for gaming to be 100% cloud-based. If EA really did think cloud gaming was the future, they should put their miney where their mouth is and become the first all-cloud software developer. Then they'll become the first BANKRUPT all-cloud software developer within a year.

[AK91]

Good lord I hope not

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I'd rather keep them separate, don't want my TV becoming useless once the console's lifespan is up, plus I don't buy new tvs very often.