Video game consoles may become a niche device available to far fewer players than they currently are. A very interesting report produced by Bloomberg Intelligence, Bloomberg’s financial research and analysis division, to say the least. A prediction like this would have been very difficult to defend in the past decade, but given the state of the current generation, this future is not at all far-fetched. How the latter begins to materialize.
In this generation, users have had to experience console price increases instead of the usual discounts that usually come with time. If we want to buy a PlayStation 5, an Xbox Series X or S, or a Switch 2 today, we’ll have to pay more for it when these machines hit stores. The material crunch caused by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers is having a direct impact on video game console prices, and the next machines from Sony and Microsoft are definitely going to be more expensive than their predecessors.
Additionally, unfortunately for many players, the physical format is doomed to extinction. For the moment, Sony has firmly maintained its decision to stop making physical games for the PlayStation console until January 2028, essentially leaving the future of physical games in the hands of Nintendo that Microsoft is also clearly committed to distributing over the Internet. However, Bloomberg maintains that the ultimate potential downfall of consoles will come from data centers and AI.
AI can make cloud gaming cheaper
This estimate from Bloomberg Intelligence is staggering: the market for video games streamed over the Internet will reach $38 billion by 2035. This growth will be possible because the huge investments that many companies are currently making in data centers will create greater availability of GPUs. Thus, competition among providers of computing resources will intensify and the cost of these services will decrease.
Cloud computing resources are growing, and it’s plausible that AI will make room in the data center for other services.
This scenario presents us with a paradox. AI is increasing the demand and price of computing resources, but its expansion can make it easier. Access to video games in the cloud. Also, AAA titles are becoming more sophisticated and require more capable hardware, which will likely compromise the performance of consoles, shorten their commercial life, and make cloud gaming an attractive option for more users.
The failure of Google Stadia may invite us to conclude that cloud gaming will fail to convince players in the medium term, but it is important that we do not ignore that the current situation is very different from the reason for the closure of this service in January 2023. As we have seen, cloud computing resources are increasing, and cloud computing resources will be increasing, and it will shift to the center, putting other services in the center. Cloud gaming
If we also consider that video game consoles are increasingly expensive, that physical gaming is disappearing, and that many users have very fast fiber optic connections, Culture broth is prepared. In the medium term, video game consoles are unlikely to disappear, but, as we’ve just seen, it’s no longer alarming to think about the reasonable possibility that cloud gaming will consolidate itself as a huge alternative.
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