Do You Think Steaming Games Is The Future of Playing Games?

[Captain Karnage]

So I've been listening to reviewtechusa, for at least the past 8 years or so, and while I generally agree with him, for the past few months this is the one thing I really don't ever see being that big a thing.

I've heard his argument with that's what happened with movies, and music, though I really can't see games going down just streaming strait to your system, as games require interaction unlike movies and music. I can't really articulate my argument much further than that, I just don't see people putting up with a lower quality experience with possible lag.

so what do you all think

[kingddd]

The term for this is cloud gaming.  And it has been around for quite a long time since near the beginning of the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 era but they were never successfully in implementing it well enough.

Until they solve the Internet latency issue no I don't see it becoming mainstream anytime soon not to mention the amount of hardware and services required to run these especially if they have online gaming inside those games that adds an additional layer of problems.

The most famous one was onLive which has already been abandoned.  http://onlive.com/

[Glennstavos]

Yeah, I think it's always been pretty reasonable to expect Sony or Microsoft to abandon physical media in favor of putting out a streaming box. From a ~2010 perspective, it cuts out consumer confusion regarding DLC (since now all of your game is technically DLC), it cuts out the retail market, and probably fixes the issue with piracy that kept most publishers from making PC ports and adapting the new, weird Steam format. Nowadays, I can't see Sony doing that since they're very focused on their home Japanese market, and most gaming that happens in that country is outside the home and portable-focused. Microsoft is still a maybe, but they could more easily drop the Xbox brand and just be another digital steam competitor. Steam put out its own streaming box so you could run games in another room and I think their own gaming PC as well. Those are probably good products but I haven't heard of them firing up the casual gaming market. 

[Ronnie]

Father Nintendo will never stop physical media. Bless you, dad.

I hope not. I like selling games I don't play anymore to get other games.

[LucarioGamer812]

In my personal preference, I like having the physical game and system with no reliance on the internet (unless multi-player) and being able to play how I want. From a business standpoint it makes some sense, but games are meant to be interactive and engaging. One thing I want to reference is the satellaview, which limited times games (and specific games at that) could be played. Honestly I feel restricting the player in that regard or forcing them to game with internet is not going to turn out well. I have a friend IRL who would love to get dlc for his games but can't to internet issues (by that I mean a lack of for over a year now) and for those in those scenarios or those who play on the go it would be terrible for them.

[indigoasis]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Father Nintendo will never stop physical media. Bless you, dad.

I hope not. I like selling games I don't play anymore to get other games.

That's what I like about physical copies. Not only can you trade them in for other games, but they're tangible. They're real.

A long time ago I had The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition on my 3DS (it was distributed digitally for free), but I had deleted it alongside my old Nintendo Account so I could link my Wii U account to my 3DS. Biggest mistake I've ever made. If it had been a physical copy, I could have kept the game and my save data. Oh well.

[Zera]

Title: Do You Think Steaming Games Is The Future of Playing Games?
lol, I thought you were referring to Steam, the game distribution service.

 

[Captain Karnage]

I still doubt streaming games will be a thing

I think people still want some kind of ownership as replaying a game is more likely than watching a movie, and I think most people are willing to give up hard drive space to play games at a higher fidelity. 

[ThatOneWeakArcher]

On 2/1/2018 at 8:16 PM, kingddd said:

The most famous one was onLive which has already been abandoned.  http://onlive.com/

What about PS now, the service that streams a bunch of PS3 games?

 

[kingddd]

10 hours ago, ThatOneWeakArcher said:

What about PS now, the service that streams a bunch of PS3 games?

 

PS now was originally onLive before they got bought by Sony.  It works just like onLive did, but it still suffers from issues with latency, video artifacts and of course once you have an unstable connection, you're gonna get dropped immediately.  Still not the best option if you have a really bad internet connection and not everyone will have a consistent one.  You're better off buying/owning the actual games than relying on a service where you can't play because your router short circuited or they outright removed it from the server for you to access like Netflix.

What if you're playing a game and you get 30 hours in and finally about to battle the final boss and all of a sudden they pull the game off the service?  You can no longer access or play that game anymore.  Game licenses can be finnicky in these services.  So you're gonna be dealing with random pulls and have to suffer from it.

[Florete]

Pretty sure steaming games will never be a thing. Who would do that? The moisture would just damage the material.