Do you guys think that Smart TV's will be the future of gaming?

[Regal]

until people learn the hard way that local processing and autonomy is superior to a centralized experience over which you have no control

I don't know man. People said the same thing about DVDs vs Netflix. We all know who won that battle. I legit think there is a world where there start being "gamephiles" who are considered the extreme nerds who choose to spend tons of money on local hardware to get the best experience. Just like audiophiles, cinephiles, etc today.

A low-cost experience that is convenient and "good enough" always wins. Game streaming is in that category. Yeah we on Agora might not be the target demographic but best believe that this is the future.

Microsoft isn't buying up all these companies for fun. They are doing it to make their game streaming service the best. They lost the console wars but have a huge lead on the game streaming wars.

 

[passerby]

it's all a matter of whether or not companies are able to keep up with server costs i guess, + whether or not they put in the effort to make the thing accessible to normies, corporations like pushing for subscription based services where consumers don't own anything anymore cloud gaming really is the next step

what i can see happening is like someone like Netflix adding cloud gaming to their app and this becoming the Next Big Thing™, it has to be preinstalled on the TV somehow or else it won't take off, normies won't just search up an app on the TV's play store, and the TVs should come bundled with some kind of bluetooth gamepad, without that normies won't bother and will still buy consoles because that's what they're used to, that's the path of least resistance to them

Good points. These days, I think access matters more than the actual gaming medium. With so much IP consolidation, even streaming giants like Netflix likely don't have the cash to acquire entire libraries of exclusive content from Sony, Microsoft, et al. As such, they won't compete with console stores anytime soon.

 

[HammerKoopa]

Yessss. This is a great point. Unfortunately, though, TV manufacturing is now dominated by a handful of companies that increasingly want long-term control over user data, not just at the point of sale. That means ending the production of traditional TV setups. It's realllly hard to find a non-smart TV in the typical size and price point consumers want. I recently made a whole Substack post (or rant, lol) about the exact point you made here (https://shannoncuthrell.substack.com/p/the-illusion-of-consumer-choice).

Great and incredibly dystopian article. I was not aware Google had its own ISP on your side of the hemisphere, that is really disconcerting and just seems like part of a long term plan to choke hold and monopolize as much of the internet experience as they can.

" I like the relationship executed at the point of sale, not forever latched on via the mountain of legal agreements required in the setup process. "
We should of read the terms and agreements on the installation wizard when we had the chance bro!

To answer to the thread, while i do believe consoles are nearing their obsolesce, Smart TVs are not the future for them. It is and has always been the PC, the original purpose of consoles was to have a dedicated machine that could play games and have features the average home computer could not possess without skyrocketing in price. However that has not been the case for a long time now, your average GAMER COMPUTER RIG and your last PlayBox tend to share internal components to a point you could even see getting a console as a downgrade if you can set up a PC to handle it and console exclusive games becoming more of an oddity. Case exception being Nintendo that still include a gimmick to their console to build the games around and keeping IPs exclusive to the console as well. I agree with previous points that cloud gaming will remain a choice, but it wont be the console killer.

 

[Regal]

Great and incredibly dystopian article. I was not aware Google had its own ISP on your side of the hemisphere, that is really disconcerting and just seems like part of a long term plan to choke hold and monopolize as much of the internet experience as they can.

This is off-topic but boy do I have a rabbit hole for you about how Africa, India, and many other countries have been taken advantage of: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-basics-internet-africa-mark-zuckerberg

https://www.wired.com/2014/02/whatsapp-rules-rest-world/

 

[HammerKoopa]

This is off-topic but boy do I have a rabbit hole for you about how Africa, India, and many other countries have been taken advantage of: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-basics-internet-africa-mark-zuckerberg

This dystopian cyberpunk future we are headed towards is going to provide the sweetest threads

 

[passerby]

Great and incredibly dystopian article. I was not aware Google had its own ISP on your side of the hemisphere, that is really disconcerting and just seems like part of a long term plan to choke hold and monopolize as much of the internet experience as they can.

" I like the relationship executed at the point of sale, not forever latched on via the mountain of legal agreements required in the setup process. "
We should of read the terms and agreements on the installation wizard when we had the chance bro!

To answer to the thread, while i do believe consoles are nearing their obsolesce, Smart TVs are not the future for them. It is and has always been the PC, the original purpose of consoles was to have a dedicated machine that could play games and have features the average home computer could not possess without skyrocketing in price. However that has not been the case for a long time now, your average GAMER COMPUTER RIG and your last PlayBox tend to share internal components to a point you could even see getting a console as a downgrade if you can set up a PC to handle it and console exclusive games becoming more of an oddity. Case exception being Nintendo that still include a gimmick to their console to build the games around and keeping IPs exclusive to the console as well. I agree with previous points that cloud gaming will remain a choice, but it wont be the console killer.

Thank you! I appreciate you reading it. And true, true. PCs will probably remain king for a while, but that also depends on whether gaming uptake grows beyond its current levels. Smart TVs may replace consoles and PCs when the market graduates from niche to mass-audience scale.

 

[ryan]

Smart TVs are very powerful nowadays.It would have been unheard of to be able to browse the web or access a basically infinite library of videos on your TV 20 years ago. I don't think it'll happen. Although the slow death of disc-based games is sad.

If smart tvs are so powerful then why does every one I have the misfortune of using run like dogshit with 3 mins of input delay?

In regards to cloud gaming, if games move to the cloud then I no longer play new games. Plenty in my backlog to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

 

[GENOSAD]

Even if it doesn't take off, I guarantee you that corporations are going to try like Hell to make it work. Tech has always been going in the direction of "the one device" that can do everything; a smartphone that renders your MP3 player, landline, pager, watch, and handheld console useless. It's always going to be cheaper to integrate as many features as possible into one device, even if it means constant updates and half-assed products.
If anyone's going to fall for the subscription-based no-console-necessary scheme, I think it's going to be the console market. Microsoft already has people hooked on their Xbox gamepass, and even if you don't have an Xbox, Microsoft loves nagging Windows users to get one so that they can play Minecraft or Solitaire. Supposing Microsoft wanted to pull this (which I honestly don't see happening), it wouldn't be too hard for them.
If the console market doesn't bite into it, then the next best thing to bank off of is children. "Hey parents! You're confused by today's state of games, aren't you? Just get this TV with built-in games and let your kid play without having to constantly buy games for them!" In a few years' time, those kids will have been conditioned to know cloud gaming as their only experience.
I think it's possible, but honestly I don't see it happening for another few decades or so, if at all.

 

[Yabba]

Look, all in one smart tv gaming isn't going to take off because charging for two overpriced boxes is always better than one.