Today at the LG booth at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, game streaming company Gaikai showed off their streaming app built into the next generation of LG HDTVs. Running demos of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Darksiders and Bulletstorm, Gaikai and LG officials showed onlookers what they believe to be the future of game electronics, effectively building modern game hardware into the TV.
“Consoles are basically dead,” said Gaikai officials. “They’ll get one more generation out, but they’ll have to come up with something new and fast.”
Of course, that might not necessarily be true just yet: Streaming technology isn’t entirely equal to local hardware yet. Demos of SSF4AE showed clear input lag, which more than just the hardcore will turn their noses up at. But certainly that will improve as time goes on.
What do you think? Do you want to ditch your console and play your games directly through your TV and the Internet? Let us know in the comments!
I may be old fashioned, but I want to own my content. I'm not on board with this streaming stuff or the all digital age. Give me a game in a box any day.
I don't think streaming games will ever be the mainstream hit that companies want it to be. I can see some form of cloud gaming with saves and data on a cloud server, but streaming?
For one - the data speed is no where NEAR fast enough yet, and by the time it IS it'll be pretty damn expensive. Internet providers are already starting to charge for how much consumers use - imagine what happens when the usage quadruples because of all the gamers streaming. And then you have to worry about outages, slow periods inclement weather - all sorts of things that will affect usage. Any kind of hiccup will be a death knell for this kind of service.
Give me my console or PC to directly run my games and I'll be as happy as a clam.