Will Cloud Streaming Kill the Videogame Console?

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Videogame cartridges and discs have mostly been replaced by downloads. Now, some console makers like Microsoft want to move videogames into the cloud-streaming business. Joost van Dreunen, an industry analyst and CEO of market research firm Aldora, joins WSJ’s Danny Lewis to talk about the new technology behind streaming complex, interactive videogames and how it could change the multibillion-dollar industry. What do you think about the show? Let us know on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or email us: [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free The Future of Everything newsletter. Further reading: Xbox Lost the Console War. Now It’s Redefining Gaming. The Tricky—but Potentially Lucrative—Task of Streaming Videogames Microsoft Plans Boldest Games Bet Since Activision Deal, Changing How ‘Call of Duty’ Is Sold The Road Ahead for Xbox with Phil Spencer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Z-scaler extended its zero-trust architecture with powerful AI engines trained by 500 trillion daily signals to prevent ransomware and AI attacks that target business.
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0:21.1	Okay, here we go.
0:23.1	Let's see.
0:23.9	Where is it?
0:25.0	Hey, it still has batteries.
0:26.2	All right, let's see if they work.
0:28.3	When I was a kid, my first experience with video games was playing them on a Nintendo
0:32.7	Game Boy, with the iconic plastic cartridges and everything.
0:39.3	I know you're not supposed to do this, but I mean, it's habit.
0:44.6	There we go. Hey, beautiful.
0:48.0	Nintendo still makes cartridges for its Switch console,
0:51.4	and you can still buy video games on discs for Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's
0:55.5	PlayStation. But more and more often, people are skipping the physical media and downloading
1:00.5	video games straight to their consoles or computers over the internet.
1:07.2	I can't believe this still works. This rules.
1:12.8	According to analysts at PWC,
1:15.6	digital downloads are rapidly taking over the video game market.
1:19.4	Just five years ago, most console owners,
1:21.9	the people with Xbox's, PlayStation, or Switches,
1:25.0	spent about $4.2 billion on physical games and $3.3 billion on digital
1:30.3	downloads. Fast forward to now, and those numbers have flipped. And PWC estimates that by the
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