At Develop yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House looked towards the future of PlayStation, saying how “there are two or three potential directions that our industry and our form of entertainment could go.”
One of these directions is streaming, with House pointing towards their acquisition of Gaikai and commitment to PlayStation Now as being “very much in the spirit of looking at how the distribution method is going to shift over time.” He then brought up the music industry, which saw a decline in music downloads year-over-year, while streaming is “something like 30% up.”
He added:
No one can make perfect predictions about where these things trend, but it says to me that convenience of streaming has been embraced first in music, now in video and television, and it’s going to play some role in our business as well. Our goal, rather than have the future dictated to us is to try and be a pioneer, shaping the way it goes. That’s what we’re trying to do with PlayStation Now.
According to House, the second direction gaming could go is sensors:
We’re also seeing a revolution in the development of sensor technology, whether it’s lifestyle fitness management or the trend for wearables, I think we’re on the cusp right now of seeing a huge number of these different sets of technology get down to the physical size and low cost where they’re going to be very ubiquitous. This could play some sort of role in a new generation of interactive experiences.
Thirdly, House talks about virtual reality, which is already getting a big push with Oculus and Project Morpheus:
There’s just a sense that we have that the technology is again reaching that tipping point, it’s on the cusp of being something that really delivers you true presence, of feeling like you’re in another world. When that’s delivered it’s really magical and I think that how far, how large, how quickly that’s going to become a major part of what we do remains to be seen, but we definitely think the magic of that experience leads you wanting to pursue it.
Mark Cerny also chimed in, talking about he thinks the future of gaming, even the next 5-6 years, is difficult to predict, but Sony is in a good place to deal with whatever happens.
[Source: IGN]
