Peter Moore knows a lot about building video game consoles. He served as chief operating officer and president of Sega of America from 1999 to 2003, the developer behind Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox 360 from 2003 to 2007, and executive vice president of EA from 2007 to 2017. (You might because of his (maybe temporary) Halo 2 and grand theft auto 4 tattoo, which is completely fair. ) Moore has left the industry, but the former gaming mogul still has a lot of important thoughts on the current state of the gaming industry.exist March 8 IGN interviewMoore speculates that console gaming as we know it may be coming to an end.
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When asked about the stagnant console business, Moore said it’s at a crossroads.Microsoft is heavy investment In the field of cloud technology, it seems that the need for gaming-specific hardware will no longer be expected in the future.
“What you’re seeing now, and certainly hearing from companies like Microsoft, is is the cloud going to replace the need for custom hardware? Is streaming going to change the way we play games on the devices we’re used to now, especially smartphones? How? I don’t think people are playing the game less, they’re just playing the game differently,” Moore explained. “There’s a growing generation that won’t be sitting in front of a TV watching this week’s game.”
Moore noted that he has been having these conversations with industry colleagues since 2007. But this time, he seems more convinced than ever that the industry is increasingly going all-digital, and that the little black box under the TV will soon be obsolete. It’s a thing of the past. Although he said that Microsoft is already on the way, PlayStation is the product he is looking forward to. “Sony is very much a hardware company, so I would say that’s your barometer company. Microsoft is not,” Moore said. “But I think it’s a very serious question and I’m sure Tokyo, Redmond, Washington and Kyoto are asking it. That’s what everyone is doing right now because when you start doing it next [hardware] You have to be prepared to take billions of dollars of losses over a generation. “
These comments come at a particularly interesting time for Microsoft.The company is preparing for the rumored mid-cycle Xbox Series X/S Updates Later this year, it will reportedly be an all-digital system. Some recent big-budget Xbox games, For example, the recently released Alan Wake 2 and upcoming Hellblade II: Senua’s Legend, does not exist or will not be available on a physical disc. It’s clear that Microsoft is betting its chips on a digital future, but with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2 and uncertainty over Sony’s post-PS5 plans, the console market could look very, very different in just a few years.