With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.
EA, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard ready for future streaming of games
Source: investor.ea.com
According to PCGamer, a number of gaming companies are working out the future logistics of being able to stream games (à la Netflix) as they see that as the future of gaming. EA just released Origin Access Premier which gives you access not only to all the games they have available but also access to upcoming games such as Battlefield 5 and Anthem earlier with no restrictions on the amount of time you wish to play. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes that streaming games to phones and TV’s could ultimately replace consoles. Activision Blizzard has said that “Over the long-term, we think cloud-based gaming and streaming is a very strong positive for the industry, and particularly for us,” said COO Coddy Johnson, and is currently in talks with a tech provider about this possibility.
Ozzy’s Thoughts: Personally, I like Netflix and other streaming services. Being able to just sit and watch my show(s), no commercials, no major delay, just play and go. I like that I can go back to old shows I haven’t seen in years and watch them again or if you’re just sick of TV channels, watching new shows without needing to setup a time to be able to do nothing for the next 1/2 hour to an hour. That all being said, there’s some problems I have with gaming as a streaming service.
1) I think we all know about TV streaming services that have a show or movie contract expire. What about when that happens with games? Yes a company’s platform won’t expire there games (EA won’t loose a contract with the Battlefield series just like Netflix wouldn’t loose Orange is the New Black) but what about third party games?
2) I know buying a game/movie digitally that it’s in the realm of you don’t ACTUALLY own it. That store could go under and now that game is gone, that would suck. So what about all those games I’m streaming? What would happen to all games I worked hard on? (I know it’s gone, just asking questions here.)
3.1) The major point with me, ignoring all of the above, is my internet or indeed everyone’s internet if you live in the U.S. Net neutrality is gone in this country. ISP’s were already at war with Netflix LONG before now, blocking the use of it, wanting to charge more for it, etc. That was just with TV shows and movies. Now we’ll have games (massive in size compared to a TV show) streaming. ISP’s will no doubt get mad about this as well. Now we’ll have to pay for “gaming fast lanes.”
3.2) And if we were to ignore ISP’s stopping us from streaming something. What about our actual internet? Like a lot of people, I have bad internet (which is putting it politely.) Unlike a lot of people in this country I do have options of ISPs, all of which are worse than my current internet (or in the case of the ISP I ACTUALLY want, I can’t have because I live too far away.) Streaming TV is already a bit hard right now. What about when I want to stream a game, would it even be possible?
Right now, going by EA’s Origin Access Premier, you’re not “streaming” it like a TV show. You download the whole game, and play it until you don’t want to. So right now it’s a way of paying a little and getting a lot. Which is nice. But what about the future when I do have to stream a game live? These company’s are thinking about that and by a technological standpoint it’s interesting and cool. I highly doubt, however, my ISP will be happy about that unless I pay them more.
