Gaikai CEO: Apple Biggest Threat to Consoles
Cloud-based gaming not really a threat.
Gaikai CEO David Perry has said that his company's cloud-based gaming service does not pose a threat to the traditional console market - but there is a big threat to that side of the industry in the form of Apple.
"We don’t think we’re a threat to console. I think the threat to consoles is actually Apple. I think the concern there is that they’re generating hardware so quickly now," Perry told GamesIndustry in an interview.
"If you’re creating and shipping new hardware every 12 months, and during that 12 months you’re also giving pretty impressive upgrades, the features that people want, and you’re giving them those every 6 months and hardware every 12 months, I think the idea that you would have five to seven years on hardware refreshes is becoming a technical problem.
"So I honestly don’t think we’re a challenge at all for the consoles, I just think the consoles are different. The world is changing." The exec added that the price of software has also been an issue with handheld consoles in particular, referring to the App Store's ability to sell iPhone and iPad games for 69p.
"I just find myself impulse purchasing because they keep the prices down. If the iPhone games were $60 each, or £60 in the UK? So Imagine your iPhone games were £60 each, you’d be hesitating all the time. But when it’s £2 or whatever then you’re like “OK” and you click on it, and now that microtransactions have kicked in, there’s a game I’ve recently spent $90 on, there’s another game I spent $70 on.
"And I’m a big fan of that idea, you only pay for the games you love. So you fall in love with a game, and you spend a bunch of money in it, no harm no foul."
"We don’t think we’re a threat to console. I think the threat to consoles is actually Apple. I think the concern there is that they’re generating hardware so quickly now," Perry told GamesIndustry in an interview.
"If you’re creating and shipping new hardware every 12 months, and during that 12 months you’re also giving pretty impressive upgrades, the features that people want, and you’re giving them those every 6 months and hardware every 12 months, I think the idea that you would have five to seven years on hardware refreshes is becoming a technical problem.
"So I honestly don’t think we’re a challenge at all for the consoles, I just think the consoles are different. The world is changing." The exec added that the price of software has also been an issue with handheld consoles in particular, referring to the App Store's ability to sell iPhone and iPad games for 69p.
"I just find myself impulse purchasing because they keep the prices down. If the iPhone games were $60 each, or £60 in the UK? So Imagine your iPhone games were £60 each, you’d be hesitating all the time. But when it’s £2 or whatever then you’re like “OK” and you click on it, and now that microtransactions have kicked in, there’s a game I’ve recently spent $90 on, there’s another game I spent $70 on.
"And I’m a big fan of that idea, you only pay for the games you love. So you fall in love with a game, and you spend a bunch of money in it, no harm no foul."
Companies:
Apple
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