There’s a narrative going around that video game consoles are dying and that most games will be playable only via cloud services in the future, but the only major player that is pushing this idea is Microsoft, according to the latest thoughts from Mike Ybarra, Blizzard Entertainment’s former president. Ybarra, who “decided to leave” the World of Warcraft and Diablo maker earlier this year, said that “those losing push the narrative that fits for them,” sharing his belief that consoles will never die.
Ybarra said:
- “I think those losing push the narrative that fits for them. Consoles will never die in my opinion.”
- “If your strategy is to win the living room, you need exclusive hits because winning is both a platform and games perspective.”
- “Sony knows how to make hits, and how to pick the hits from others to be exclusive.”
- “If I was them I would double down right now because the blood in the water is all over the place.”
The original word from the former Blizzard exec:
I think those losing push the narrative that fits for them. Consoles will never die in my opinion.
— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) August 30, 2024
Xbox head Phil Spencer recently explained at Gamescom 2024:
I think as an industry right now, there’s a lot of pressure. It’s been growing for a long time and now people are looking for new ways to grow. I think for us, as players and as fans, we just have to anticipate there’s going to be more change in how some of the “traditional” ways games were built and distributed. That’s going to change for all of us. But the end result has to be better games that more people can play. If we’re not focused on that, then we’re focused on the wrong thing.