Thursday Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima said that the gaming console as we know it is dying. Although sales figures and sheer popularity speak otherwise, he envisions a future where digital entertainment moves "outside the box." This prediction has been spoken before by others in the gaming industry, placing all bets on cloud-based gaming that won't require a specific machine or a set of hardware requirements.
"In the near future, we'll have games that don't depend on any platform," Kojima said during an event in Tokyo promoting the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the Sony PSP. "Gamers should be able to take the experience with them in their living rooms, on the go, when they travel--wherever they are and whenever they want to play. It should be the same software and the same experience."
Bingo.
Naturally, Sony isn't all too keen on the idea. "It's a bold prediction," Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano said. "We hope he continues to develop for platforms, but we deeply respect his sense of taking on a challenge." After all, Sony is footing the bill to publish Kojima's latest game in Japan this month, and the US in June. Despite the manufacturing cost, hardware products rack in the gold dug up by 1st-party and 3rd-party software.
Kojima added that the latest MGS game--or software as he calls it--was designed to sharpen management skills. Kojima even indicated that it was a test platform, an experiment, to get a sense of what works in portable gaming. He will then take what he's learned from Peace Walker and apply it to his vision of gaming on demand.
