How are consumers fighting this all-digital future? Well, it’s a pivotal moment for consumers and most game fans know it. I think the plan in the next few years is going to be an increase in focus on cloud gaming. They’ve taken away most of the ability to have the sort of ownership you want with discs. I think we’re going to see a point in the gaming industry where cloud gaming is more prominent among the companies that are trying to offer that way of gaming.
That essentially means that they’ve taken away the options consumers had with physical media and there is a distinct possibility that they’re going after hardware next. If you think about it, we’re seeing crazy prices out there for your PS5’s and your XBOX and with no end in sight in terms of prices coming back down. There is an easy answer to this saying it’s because of chip prices.
We all know what’s going with AI and the costs involved with that. The proof in the pudding will be how your Sony’s and Microsoft’s offer the next generation and how they help to onboard you into the next generation. That means the harder questions need to be answered here and as I’ve elaborated on Bluesky.
The answer simply cannot be just cloud gaming. There has to be an ability to buy into the next generation hardware without needing to remortgage. And here lies the conundrum the gaming industry has to answer to consumers.
How are consumers responding to all this? Retro gaming is becoming more and more popular and if you’ve been enjoying AC: Black Flag as of late. If things don’t get better quickly you can expect even more pirating going on if you catch my drift. Not that I condone any such activity, of course. But the way some of these companies are behaving to fans that have been there with them since the beginning. Well, it’s distasteful, if not, a future that was bound to happen at some point.
However, gaming companies have an obligation to better communicate with their fans when things like this become front and centre of the experience of any platform. When gamers rights are being taken away so effortlessly, it’s no wonder why gamers are finding other ways to circumvent some of the frustrations they have even if they’re in a minority, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be heard.
Going digital isn’t the issue for the majority here. It’s the fact that many people will be locked into a single store with PlayStation. There has been no word on how they will handle the future relationship of consumer transactions. I personally do not think that answer will come until we are deep into that announcement of a reveal of the PS6.
However, it cannot stay as the status quo. Because no matter how great PlayStation Studios games are. Gamers are becoming more price conscientious. If things do not get significantly better across the board with that, I think a lot of these platforms have stopped listening entirely as well.
Well, they’re going to find that it can work both ways unless they provide real acknowledgement that’s not just based on sole greed.
Craig Clark
From gaming industry headlines to all things Manchester United and entertainment, Craig covers the stories everyone's talking about — alongside his own published works.