• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

EA exec: infrastructure barrier for cloud gaming shrinking "very rapidly"

chadskin

Member
Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference today, the publisher's VP of investor relations Chris Evenden said EA has been laying the groundwork for a shift to streaming games through the cloud for some time, from its 2015 streaming service offered through Comcast Xfinity to its EA Access and Origin Access Xbox One and PC subscription offerings.

"We've been building an infrastructure both from a product and a marketing perspective so we can move our slate across to new platforms, and we can move with our games across to new platforms as well," Evenden said. "So all of these things, we've been working on for five or more years now, actually. But I think it's inevitable that the gaming entertainment world will move in much the same way that the music and video entertainment worlds have already moved, in the sense that people have moved from an ownership model to an access model. And you'll see that in gaming, just as you've seen it with Spotify and Netflix in other media businesses."

The technology for such a shift is essentially in place, Evenden said, noting that EA has been running a demo with one major internet company showing a streaming Battlefield experience indistinguishable from a locally rendered one. However, he acknowledged that test wouldn't work in areas without a robust online infrastructure.

"That infrastructure barrier is still there, but it's shrinking very rapidly," Evenden said. "And we think in the next couple of years, you'll see some major technological announcements that will prove to be commercially significant in the next three to five years."

One of the big reasons EA is preparing for a switch to a more streaming-oriented industry is that it would provide a much lower cost of entry for potential customers.

"Right now if you want to play FIFA in the United States, it will cost you $460," Evenden said. "You have to buy the game; you have to buy the console. In a streaming world, it could be $9.99 a month. The commercial details have to be worked out, but whatever number it ends up at is very much less than $460. So that extends your market, because all you need locally is literally a smart TV."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...ve-away-from-ownership-model-is-inevitable-ea
 

Marcel

Member
So does EA know something we don't about data caps or the distinct possibility of internet fast lanes under the current administration of the FCC? Because those seem like they aren't going away and would be obvious barriers to a streaming-only future.
 

L~A

Member
One of the big reasons EA is preparing for a switch to a more streaming-oriented industry is that it would provide a much lower cost of entry for potential customers.

Yeah, so that there's more money for them to milk out of their customers. They're not really interesting in making them save money.

"Right now if you want to play FIFA in the United States, it will cost you $460," Evenden said. "You have to buy the game; you have to buy the console

Yeah, well, maybe someone should tell him you only buy the console once every 5-6 years, and you usually don't do it for just >one< game. And you don't have to do it when it's still full price ;)
 
So does EA know something we don't about data caps or the distinct possibility of internet fast lanes under the current administration of the FCC? Because those seem like they aren't going away and would be obvious barriers to a streaming-only future.

Obviously EA means that only people who can afford to pay the taxes and fees can get access to.future gaming.
 

Joco

Member
Yeah no thanks. I'd rather buy a title once even if I have to pay more than deal with more monthly subscriptions. Not to mention the other problems that streaming will always have being entirely dependent on one's internet connection.
 

Marcel

Member
Also, having the infrastructure in place to make the streaming side better doesn't really matter when the internet delivery infrastructure in many parts of the world is still quite poor and may end up becoming worse if the big telecom/cable conglomerates get their way.
 

Piers

Member
Latency will always be a thing and very few will want their inputs delayed by as much as half a second.
 

chadskin

Member
Anyone know what these "major technological announcements" in the next 3-5 years he's referring to could be? Better WiFi perhaps?
 

giapel

Member
Negative knee jerk reactions from GAF as per usual. He said shrinking, not there yet. Who would have thought a few years back that we'd be streaming 4K movies? It's happening already. Netflix and Spotify haven't obliterated ownership in movies and music, have they? It's just an extra option for content delivery
 
Negative knee jerk reactions from GAF as per usual. He said shrinking, not there yet. Who would have thought a few years back that we'd be streaming 4K movies? It's happening already. Netflix and Spotify haven't obliterated ownership in movies and music, have they? It's just an extra option for content delivery
Movies/ music could not be anymore different, its apples and oranges. Gaming is an entire diff beast. Its a ways away.
 

Mithos

Member
That would end my spending on games, unfortunately. Not interested in this AT ALL.

That's how I feel about digital, 99% chance that if the game is only digital that I wont get it.
That last 1% is the games I just freaking MUST have.
 

Marcel

Member
Negative knee jerk reactions from GAF as per usual. He said shrinking, not there yet. Who would have thought a few years back that we'd be streaming 4K movies? It's happening already. Netflix and Spotify haven't obliterated ownership in movies and music, have they? It's just an extra option for content delivery

I listed many valid barriers to why the magic and fairy dust all streaming future isn't yet viable. They may bridge the technology gap on their end but that doesn't mean the all important infrastructure of internet delivery for the consumer will be any better. We still have fucking data caps.
 
Ctrl+F "Playstation Now"

0 results.

Cloud gaming already works decently in practice. The business model, however, is still nowhere near acceptable to the mainstream, and as everyone else has been pointing out, the Internet in the US is getting worse, not better.
 

Gestault

Member
If my buying habits represent any meaningful part of the market, someone at EA better understand how little interest I have in games as an "access" proposition outside of a *VERY* value-priced secondary arrangement. And also how little patience I would have for performance issues beyond software running locally on a machine in my home. And how many of the ways I use games rely on offline functionality. My spending, if this was their primary delivery method for games, would all but cease.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
they are salivating and drooling over the "service based market", where you dont own the hardware or the software, nor any rights to it as an owner, where they can dictate when you play, where you play and how you play
 
Yeah, well, maybe someone should tell him you only buy the console once every 5-6 years, and you usually don't do it for just >one< game. And you don't have to do it when it's still full price ;)

By the same logic we need to factor in the tv cost right lol
 

Marcel

Member
If my buying habits represent any meaningful part of the market, someone at EA better understand how little interest I have in games as an "access" proposition outside of a *VERY* value-priced secondary arrangement. And also how little patience I would have for performance issues beyond software running locally on a machine in my home. And how many of the ways I use games rely on offline functionality.

You'll also have a great time being at a disadvantage while streaming any multiplayer game due to latency issues.
 
Streaming data as required and buffering/caching most used stuff. How is it different?
Lol, you don't understand, how streaming games, which require inputs are far more data , is different than TV/music?
Why do you think its mainstream for those already but not games?
Input lag, poor connections in Developing areas, far more data being pushed...
 

Widge

Member
If it was delivered to be "good enough" and allowed me to play games on my work laptop without installing a single game, I'm on board.

It's why I have a streaming service for music and film, but also own physicals of what I love.
 

Marcel

Member
Yep.
Gaming companies need to start supporting avenues to support said things to become bigger if they really want this as the norm.

EA should donate money to support net neutrality in the United States if they actually want their streaming-only future to be anything more than shop talk for rich people.
 
I feel like streaming games will be like streaming movies (which is popular) and buying games will be like buying blurays (which is also popular). Ease of access vs quality, there are always going to be people who lean more towards one or the other. As long as they're both options what's wrong with that?
 
Negative knee jerk reactions from GAF as per usual. He said shrinking, not there yet. Who would have thought a few years back that we'd be streaming 4K movies? It's happening already. Netflix and Spotify haven't obliterated ownership in movies and music, have they? It's just an extra option for content delivery

"4K"
 

giapel

Member
Lol, you don't understand, how streaming games, which require inputs are far more data , is different than TV/music?
Why do you think its mainstream for those already but not games?
Input lag, poor connections in Developing areas, far more data being pushed...

Ok, in my mind I was thinking more along the lines of having the hardware and streaming game data. Not sending inputs and getting video back. That is indeed grim.
 

Arulan

Member
It's not hard to imagine this eventually becoming the norm on platforms that cater to the mainstream, value convenience over functionality, and are already closed-platforms.
 

Marcel

Member
It's not hard to imagine this eventually becoming the norm on platforms that cater to the mainstream, value convenience over functionality, and are already closed-platforms.

The mainstream won't care for it very much when they see all the overage fees they'll have to pay when they're already streaming everything else.
 
Um, no thank you.

There's never going to be a link fast enough to completely eliminate input delay. And that's just unacceptable to me.
 

Pachael

Member
And he forgot to add the prices of the loot boxes.

Yeah, that does seem like the logical endpoint of the current monetisation of lootbox/gacha games combined with the always-there subscription model on a closed platform and the streaming promise of the Onlive model. :/
 
Top Bottom