Much like movies and music, I think it will eventually go the way of streaming. OnLive worked as a proof of concept, even though it wasn't that popular. Sony seems to have high hopes for Gaikai, which puts a huge publisher behind the technology.
For the gaming public, streaming means no expensive hardware, a massive library of games to play instantly, and the ability to play there anywhere there's an internet connection. In theory anyway.
For publishers, it means total control of their product. The holy grail, a subscription model where the customer pays to keep playing.
Streaming is very doable with current technology. That is in the core markets: North America, Japan, S. Korea, Europe, and Australia. The problem is the video game industry is reaching saturation in those countries. Any growth right now has to be targeted at emerging markets. Particularly Brazil, India, China, and the former Soviet Union. Countries who don't have the network infrastructure to support streamed gaming. Even in North America, broadband is still relatively expensive for decent speed and data caps remain a nuisance.
So streaming will at best continue to coexist with consoles and gaming PCs for the foreseeable future. There will be another console generation after this one but I think you will see the eventual push towards a cloud based alternative. But that's 10 years out at least, me thinks.
For the gaming public, streaming means no expensive hardware, a massive library of games to play instantly, and the ability to play there anywhere there's an internet connection. In theory anyway.
For publishers, it means total control of their product. The holy grail, a subscription model where the customer pays to keep playing.
Streaming is very doable with current technology. That is in the core markets: North America, Japan, S. Korea, Europe, and Australia. The problem is the video game industry is reaching saturation in those countries. Any growth right now has to be targeted at emerging markets. Particularly Brazil, India, China, and the former Soviet Union. Countries who don't have the network infrastructure to support streamed gaming. Even in North America, broadband is still relatively expensive for decent speed and data caps remain a nuisance.
So streaming will at best continue to coexist with consoles and gaming PCs for the foreseeable future. There will be another console generation after this one but I think you will see the eventual push towards a cloud based alternative. But that's 10 years out at least, me thinks.