Could the Future of Gaming Involve Streaming?
Bethesda executive Pete Hines recently speculated that the future of gaming could involve streaming games on any platform of your choosing. He also predicted that future gaming platforms will “get more homogenized” as time goes on.
“I think you’re going to see platforms get more homogenized,” Hines reportedly said during a PAX Australia panel last week. “Because truthfully, there’s really not a reason for [competing consoles] to be different. You don’t buy a DVD and then worry about which DVD player you have. You just buy a DVD and anything that plays DVDs works. And I think games are going to start to move closer and closer to that.”
“We as an industry need to start to move to not be so beholden to, ‘I only make a thing for that machine and not this one,'” Hines also said. “The faster we get to that the better it’ll be for developers, the better it’ll be for games. I think we as an industry–because we need to–are going to move less toward differentiation–‘Why is a thing better on one platform than another’–and more toward I just want to make a thing that everybody can play. Because that’s ultimately what’s going to get you the most players; that’s what’s going to get devs the most money and reach the most fans.”
Hines’ views on game streaming seem to align with those of Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot. Even the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, which owns multiple flagship franchises such as NBA 2K, GTA, and Red Dead, thinks that streaming is where the future of gaming will be heading.
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