It was a day of forward-looking business statements on Gamesindustry.biz. Videogame execs, like all high-profile businessmen I suppose, are keen on making grandiose predictions, usually involving the projected success of their own company or products. It rarely goes pear-shaped - predictions get lots of press and make the shareholders feel all warm, fuzzy and rich. And if they turn out to be wrong hardly anyone notices, because hype and inflated opinion are the lingering gas cloud on which the industry majestically floats.
Hence, two semi-interesting predicto-rants from top-ranking industry lurkers. The question is, do you agree with either of these and if so why? And how much?
1. "Most PS2 consumers will transition over to the PS3" - Kaz Hirai (source here). That'll be most of 130 million users. In fact, Hirai was quoted earlier in the day as wanting to sell 140 million PS3s. So he's backed down quite considerably in the intervening hours. By tomorrow morning it'll be, "well, 20m would be nice..."
Anyway, what do you reckon? Can PS3 outsell PS2? Or even get close?
2. "Every consumer will ultimately go online" - Peter Moore (source here). This is something Peter has been pushing heavily since joining up as president of EA Sports, a future industry where all consumers make their game purchases as digital downloads, bypassing boxed copies and highstreet retail. What do you think? Do game boxes hold the same sentimental value as boxed DVDs and CDs, which lots of users say they'll never abandon in favour of music and movie downloads?
Do you feel there's tangible charm in boxed videogames? Would you be happy to go 100% digital?
