The way EA sees it, the all-digital future is not a matter of if, but when. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Executive Vice President of Strategic Growth Matt Bilbey discussed the publisher’s outlook on the state of traditional consoles. As a reminder, the second-largest publisher already laid out plans for a streaming service at its E3 2018 conference.
“I don’t think it’s a case of ‘Will it or won’t it"’ It will happen. It’s just [a question of] when,” Bilbey stated. According to him, the streaming future is based around smart TVs. “If we’re able to put an application on that smart TV…then we’re actually able to use the understanding of how those people are playing games…” he noted. In theory, streaming applications could replace traditional consoles. However, Bilbey also said that he doesn’t see the video game console going away. They just may not appear as we see them today. “The console makers are smart groups. I think they’ll find new roles that consoles can play in people’s lives.” He noted that there could be multiple spaces where a console in this new age could fit, whether it be built-in to a television or on a mobile device. Bilbey did note many potential issues when it comes to video game streaming, chiefly bandwidth. But according to him, this is an issue that could be resolved in the next couple of years.
Video game streami...