The End of Video Game Consoles
In 1995, the reveal of Super Mario 64 rocked the video game world. It, along with the Nintendo 64 console that accompanied it, were a quantum leap forward when compared to the 16-bit Super Nintendo. The move from flat 2D sprites to three-dimensional immersive environments left players overwhelmed. It was like watching a technological revolution in real-time.
Since the mid-1990s, video games have continued evolving. Polygon counts and graphical fidelity have skyrocketed. Controllers have gone from simple pieces of plastic with a handful of buttons to technologically advanced wireless devices featuring on-board microphones, haptic feedback, and more. And game cartridges with limited memory have given way to multi-terabyte discs and on-demand streaming.
To put it simply, video games have come a long way. But some signs point to the idea that they may not be able to go much further.
Video Games & The Law of Diminishing Returns
This isn’t to say that the video game industry is finished innovating. It’s simply to recognize that game companies are facing the law of diminishing returns. They’re at a place where the increase in quality for a game simply isn’t worth the additional manpower and resources required to reach it.
Think about it like this: The difference between a Super Nintendo game and a Nintendo 64 one was like night and day. But the difference between a Playstation 4 and a Playstation 5 game is barely noticeable. The technological similarities between the ninth generation of consoles (Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S) and the eighth generation (Playstation 4 and Xbox One) are even evident in the fact that most eighth-generation games will play on ninth generation consoles.
This fact has made buying new consoles at launch less important than it’s ever been, even for hardcore gamers. If they’ve already got a PS4 or Xbox One, they won’t really need the next generation of hardware — at least for a few years.
The Advent of On-Demand Game Streaming
But there’s another change that’s having an even greater impact on the future of video game consoles. And it may be their death knell. It’s the advent of on-demand streaming.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all dipped their toes in the streaming space, each with varying levels of commitment. But once they’ve jumped in wholeheartedly, the very idea of video game consoles will become quaint.
On-demand streaming shifts the necessary processing power from consumers’ homes to servers run by game companies. This means that players will no longer need a device that boasts superior tech specs to run the latest game releases. All they’ll need is a stable internet connection. This means that gamers will be able to play newly released games using any device, from a PC to a smartphone. Even televisions could be built with the ability to stream games, mirroring the way they already offer on-demand movies and television.
The Future of Consoles
In the future, the internet itself will take on the role of traditional video game consoles, giving users the ability to play their favorite games from anywhere, as long as they have internet access. And as broadband technology and access continues to improve, this reality will only become more ubiquitous and unchangeable.
Perhaps video game consoles’ last great revolution will be the one that replaces them with on-demand streaming, turning consoles into nothing more than a relic of our analog past.
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Starchi is a Starter-incubated DeFi game built on the Polygon network. The theme of the game centers on the adoption of unique creatures, known as Starchi, from infancy and nurturing them into adulthood. The game has a built-in play-to-earn economy that offers players wages and rewards based on their completion of certain tasks. The game will function on a dual token economy, $START and $ELIXIR. The $START token is used to gain access to the game and trade Starchi while $ELIXIR is used to gain access to different in-game and economic rewards.
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