440°

Google leads gaming down a perilous path

From BBC News: "If Google is successful in its "Netflix for games", it could have a huge impact on the industry. And your wallet."

Nyxus2541d ago

"The ad-laden, endorphin-pumping, lootbox-peddling mobile gaming industry might be considered the canary in a very miserable coal-mine, here. Paying for a games console, and its games, may not be such a bad thing after all."

Amen.

fiveby92540d ago

Well said. I have no interest in giving Google more power and control over my online activities. This is shaping up to be a battle in the industry where traditional gamers are marginalized as companies like Google seek to expand gaming to casuals who don't care for the long term health of the industry. Sure it's important to change with the times, but it's also important to recognize the warning signs. If people blindly follow google they'll ask themselves someday "How did we get here"? Sorry Google. Just not interested in what you are peddling.

IMissJimRyan2540d ago

The point is that in the capitalist system of production constant growth is a sine qua non condition. If traditional game companies that are too large today can not keep pace with the growth of the other model, they will migrate or die. There is no room for stability in this system.
Do not see this as an attack on one's faith or religiosity in capitalism, but an analysis of how it works. Companies will normalize the new model in the same way they have normalized online payment, for example. And when our social memory gets lost, we will accept not to have control over hardware or software as normal and good. And at some point we will even imagine that there was another way to get games.

darthv722540d ago

Gaming is meant to be inclusive, not exclusive. All companies, great and small have the opportunity to be something in this industry. There is plenty of room so I say welcome to the party.

RCslayer2540d ago

Dude you have given me hope that there are still some people with common sense.
You couldn't be more right and the sad thing is people will fall right for this. They will end up sending the gaming industry as we know it down the crapper.

rainslacker2540d ago (Edited 2540d ago )

And sadly, the gaming press will happily ride the wave to try and increase their hits, without any real concern for how it will affect the gamers. I'm often astonished at how the gaming press often seems on board with almost every stupid thing the industry does. Last gen, they were all for shaming the gamer for being so cheap, all because EA said they couldn't afford to make games without MT.

@Loco

Your statement assumes that there can only be one market for gaming. But, likely, multiple markets can, will, and currently do coexist just fine without it being the death of another.

That is yet another great thing about the capitalistic system. It's possible for more than one thing to be successful in the same market.

UltraNova2539d ago

Rain,

Loco, I assume, referred to the notion that Google and MS are pushing that streaming(+ GaaS to an extent when it comes to offline/SP) is here to totally replace traditional local hardware gaming to the benefit of the casuals who dont give a crap about this industry and to the detriment of core gamers.

I dont think he is too far off from the truth if I'm being honest.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 2539d ago
IMissJimRyan2540d ago (Edited 2540d ago )

But we will no longer have the option when all the companies have gone down the road of low investment and high return games.

It is not a question of quality is a matter of profit. And the tacit cartel that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will form will normalize these games and "accept" as good and cool.

This is how huge companies do business.

Our vote for the wallet will be in which system full of ill-finished games we prefer.

opc2540d ago

Personally I can't wait. I want to spend my money on games, not on hardware.

Nyxus2540d ago

As do I, after a one-time investment in hardware per generation, and then I spend it on games I actually own and can still play 10 - 20 years from now.

opc2540d ago

I don't play games from 10-20 years ago.

rainslacker2540d ago

When I spend my money on games, hardware or otherwise, I like having value in that purchase. Every game I own on physical, can actually give me money back. That can more than make up for the cost of hardware.

Paying for just the software means you give your money to them for the ability to use the game, but after you're done using it, you have nothing left except a bunch of 1's and 0's on a hard drive, or a license attached to an account, on a database on some remote server, which may or may not be there in the future.

opc2539d ago

I used to buy physical games and resell them online, in the end I was paying 5-20 per game. Depending on how much they cost and how much they sold for.

Now I pay $5-20 per game on steam without having to sell them, but I still don't play games I played 5 years ago. Who has the time?

If this service can offer similar prices and remove the cost of hardware... that's even better.

I have no interest in collecting games.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 2539d ago
2540d ago
rainslacker2540d ago

Sometimes people don't realize what they have until its gone.

Timesplitter142539d ago (Edited 2539d ago )

I think there is a place for it, but certainly not replacement for PC/consoles

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 2539d ago
kalkano2541d ago

The "impact on my wallet" will be that there's more money in it, since I won't be playing any new games. If the future they want is the future for all of gaming, then retro gaming, it is.

Cobra9512540d ago

Same here; but I don't think we have anything to worry about. There will always be a market for real gaming, and someone will always choose to make money servicing it.

demonicale2540d ago

You people need to get into 2019! .. you sound like old people.

Larrysweet2540d ago

Nope full on stream in next 5 years trad gaming is dying and fast

Tross2540d ago

Sony and Nintendo are the future of game consoles if I have any say about it. I just need tens of millions of other people to agree with me.

FinalFantasyFanatic2540d ago

Streaming games? Lol, nope, most countries don't have the infrastructure for this, my country certainly doesn't.

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I_am_Batman2540d ago

As time goes on I find myself drawn towards my retro consoles more frequently. This console generation as a whole has been kind of a mixed bag for me. The AAA titles have been getting bigger and the wait for the next installment in a beloved franchise takes longer. The risk of a flop is also increasing as the cost of game development has reached an all time high. This has lead to many publishers playing it save, prioritising established franchises over new IPs. To mitigate some of the development cost and appease the investors some publishers have resorted to shady microtransactions and season passes that directly impact the balance of their game. Gaming feels more like a profit focused industry these days.

Don't get me wrong great stuff is still happening (Sekiro comes out tomorrow for example) but it seems to me like gaming at large is moving away from the game based on the creator's vision, to a community focused game as an evolving service.

Google's (and to some extent Microsoft's) vision of a platform agnostic, streaming based utopia just doesn't sound all that compelling to me.

IMissJimRyan2540d ago

Maybe playing old games is the escape for some, but that's all there is: an escape. It is hard to face the problem head on and discuss the real causes.

Looking at the positive side, perhaps this change, which is not beneficial to gamers, open the eyes of a generation that believes that companies do what is best for customers.

Maybe it helps to show a lot of people that companies do what's good for them. And when they are big enough, they impose what they want and we have absolutely no power in the process. Only the power to opt for which system of streaming of poorly finished games we prefer.

kalkano2540d ago

You could just...not play them...

THC CELL2540d ago

This is going no where yet don't worry

Harrison is also the a arse licker bet his time at Google is a buzz to him right now.

Godmars2902540d ago

The worrying thing is, the thing that needs to be worried about, is that this doesn't need to go anywhere. They just need current iOS titles, PC and console ports, while promising the rest "down the line" to the general market and the streaming community whose going to be their main focus.

stupidusername2539d ago

Google got the power and money to make both the car and the highway. It will be hard but they can more or less will whatever they want into existence.

lellkay2540d ago

Interesting take on Stadia. Makes some good points.

SuperSonic912540d ago (Edited 2540d ago )

These stuff also applies to MS Project XCloud and SIE PS Now.
And we all know how it turned out for PS4's ecosystem.
Owning the game is still the most popular option. Its like buying stuff on Amazon digitally but you get physical products owned by you.

GtPawnSacrifices2540d ago

I agree with that & actually so does Xbox. They said that streaming could never beat an installed game. (Which is why their creating new consoles)
Plus, what about ping and lag?
Maybe it can work fine for a single player game, but what about a fast passed MP game?

stupidusername2539d ago

PS Now just rolled into Europe this month. So numbers are only representative of the USA as far as I know. Though I doubt it’ll be more popular as they don’t really have any new games there.

CDbiggen2540d ago

They don't want you to actually own anything. They want your eventual complete dependance on their "Service".

Cobra9512540d ago

Yes. In that sense, it is just like Netflix. You don't own or even have any of those movies or TV shows. They have them, and you only have access to them as long as they choose to let you have it. So keep paying every month like a good little dependent.

mixelon2540d ago

Which is fine for tv and for Spotify.

Remains to be see if that can be a huge success for games though.

(Tbh you don’t own the stuff you have on discs either if you read the small print, and with post release updates the version on the disk is like a placeholder anyway... weird times.)

ShadowWolf7122540d ago

@mixelon
You do own the stuff you have on discs. The disclaimers you speak of refer to whether you have the right to rip and redistribute the movie, hold public showings which you charge money for, etc.

It's basically saying you have the right to that copy but not to the movie/game/songs themselves.

kalkano2540d ago

But Netflix is an option, while you still have the option to buy physical copies. That's fine, as long as the option exists.

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So big dumb orange man and his total disregard for the constitution has a say on this? Man just GTFO.

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