Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, has said during an interview that cloud gaming won’t replace consoles until a decade from now. Furukawa is the sixth president of the gaming giant, which has seen its fortunes in the gaming industry rise with the success of its newest console.
He joined the company in 1994 as an accountant then he moved up the career ladder towards the global marketing and executive departments. Meanwhile, in 2017, the gaming giant launched Nintendo Switch, an innovative hybrid console that provides an optimal gaming experience both at home and on the go. In 2018, Furukawa succeeded Kimishima as president.
As Nintendo Everything reports, during a recent interview with the Japanese business website Nikkei, Furukawa said that cloud gaming won’t likely replace consoles until 10 years from now. The president explained that dedicated hardware like the Nintendo Switch isn’t going to become obsolete very soon. However, he thinks that it’s counterproductive to provide content solely for specific consoles. “Once your audience starts saying they can play on other consoles or smartphones instead, you’re finished,” he told Nikkei. Therefore, in the next few years, Nintendo will surely keep creating content for the Switch, but without overlooking the potential of cloud-based gaming.
Game streaming services like Google Stadia are still in a very early phase. Stadia itself, despite the immense hype surrounding its release, has several issues, like excessive data usage, latency and lagging. Additionally, many users need to stick to a limited data plan or don’t have a high-speed internet connection available, so they still prefer to play offline with their consoles. Game streaming services probably won’t permanently replace devices like the Nintendo Switch until high-speed unlimited data plans are available to everyone. For now, Furukawa’s decision to keep producing quality content for consoles seems the best solution for both gaming companies and their customers.
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Source: Nikkei (via NintendoEverything)
