The future of the console gaming industry is a matter of wide debate in the industry; whether or not some form of disc will be used at all in future consoles remains to be seen. Speaking to MCV, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada talked about how he thinks this shift from a traditional retail market will have a transformative effect on the industry.
“In ten years’ time a lot of what we call ‘console games’ won’t exist,” said Wada.
Wada noted that there will initially be “a big negative impact” at distributors in the switch to cloud computing and digital distribution, though he added that the format-controllers Sony and Microsoft are ready for the change.
“Somewhere around 2005 the console manufacturers’ strategy shifted,” explained Wada. “In the past the platform was hardware, but it has switched to the network. A time will come when the hardware isn’t even needed anymore. With that, any kind of terminal becomes a potential platform on which games can be played – that’s exponential growth in the potential of gaming. The potential size of the market is enormous.”
For its part, Square Enix will embrace this change with more social and browser games as well as keeping close tabs on the beta for Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. “Social and browser games are going to grow dramatically – especially in areas like Asia which does not have as big a console market,” added Wada.
