Well, here’s a new one for you. When people talk about the death of gaming platforms the PC usually comes up, but Square Enix is turning that notion on its ear. In a recent interview with MCV, Square Enix grand poobah Yoichi Wada said that the company believes there’s going to be dramatic change in the industry that will shift attention away from physical media and onto download and sever based content.
Mr. Wada went on to elaborate that âIn ten yearsâ time a lot of what we call âconsole gamesâ wonât exist,â and that Microsoft and Sony are already ramping up for the big change and third-parties should follow suit if they want to stay in the game.
The reasoning behind his statement is that the games market is changing from a hardware-based model to a network one, where “any kind of terminal becomes a potential platform on which games can be played”. Mr. Wada said that Square Enix is ready for the change, and they’re already stepping up production on their social and browser based games.
While we are seeing movement in this direction with things like OnLive and the success of browser-based MMOs, I don’t think that consoles in the traditional sense are going anywhere. Besides, I think that Square should finish up with their current disc-based project before they move on to figuring out how to exploit the digital market. Wouldn’t want them to get tuckered out. What do you guys think? Is there any truth to Square’s claims, or is this just going to be a dead end for the company?
Source: MCV