Square Enix executive and Final Fantasy producer Naoki Yoshida has told The Financial Times that he believes it’s 5G mobile networks that’ll eventually spell the “demise” of console gaming.
Many analysts and industry professionals have long said that console gaming will eventually fizzle out, only for ever-increasing consumer demand to prove them wrong. However, Yoshida thinks that once 5G becomes global standard, players will be able to enjoy “high-quality” gaming experiences without being tied to any kind of hardware or television screens, driving them away from home consoles. He further believes that console demand is unusually high due to people staying at home during the pandemic, but the shift to 5G isn’t going slow down and things will change.
Yoshida said:
Once 5G becomes the global standard, there will definitely come a time when we can transfer images to any device. Players can enjoy a high-quality gaming experience on any device by not being tied to a gaming hardware or TV monitor. We’re definitely heading in that direction, and I don’t think coronavirus will slow this shift. With home consoles, you need to sit in front of the television … and turn on the power and wait for the hardware to start up, so it was a time-consuming entertainment. With stay at home, there were more opportunities to turn the switch on.
Elsewhere in the interview, Yoshida said that the pandemic forced companies to work remotely, and although flexibility is welcome, working from home came with its own set of unexpected drawbacks.
[Source: The Financial Times]
