The familiar desktop video game consoles like PlayStation and Xbox could completely disappear from the mass market within the next decade. According to the latest forecasts from Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, buying specialized hardware just for fun will gradually become obsolete, and consoles will remain a privilege only for die-hard enthusiasts and collectors.
The main driver of this radical change will be the dizzying growth of cloud gaming, the global volume of which is expected to reach an impressive $38 billion by 2035. The improvement of artificial intelligence and the expansion of the network of specialized data centers will play a leading role in this process. Experts estimate that streaming heavy and graphically intensive titles directly from remote servers will prove to be much more profitable for industry giants than the constant development and production of expensive new-generation hardware, accompanied by subscription models with advertising content.
However, the realization of this large-scale scenario requires a significant drop in the price of computing power. At the moment, the huge demand for specialized video cards and servers for the needs of artificial intelligence keeps prices high, but market observers expect an inevitable hardware surplus before the end of this decade. In the best position to master the new ecosystem are technology giants such as Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tencent, which have already poured huge funds into cloud infrastructure. The Xbox Cloud Gaming platform alone holds about 40 percent of the market, while gamers spent over 220 million hours in cloud sessions in the third quarter.
Traditional manufacturers are also adapting their strategies to the new realities. Sony is trying to catch up with services like PlayStation Plus and the PlayStation Portal device, while Japanese competitor Nintendo is cited by analysts as the most unprepared for the streaming era. Despite the gloomy forecasts for the mass segment, no one claims that consoles will completely disappear from the map. They will probably be able to maintain a loyal audience among users who value maximum performance and owning physical hardware, but experts are adamant that they will simply cease to be the main means of accessing their favorite virtual worlds.