This article was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

Back in December, former NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime gave his thoughts on cloud-based gaming, suggesting the technology will evolve over the next decade to become something “really meaningful for players.”

Now, in a recent interview with Japanese outlet Nikkei, current Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has reiterated that viewpoint, but doesn’t seem to think dedicated hardware is going anywhere any time soon.

In the interview, translated by Nintendo Everything, he said:

“It’s possible that cloud gaming could capture the public’s interest in 10 years from now, however at this point in time, I do not think that dedicated hardware will go away. It’s a long way off before we’ll really know the outcome.
With that said, it would be pointless to solely focus on methods of play that can only be had on dedicated hardware. Once your audience starts saying they can play on other consoles or smartphones instead, you’re finished.”

It’s nice to hear that we’ll be keeping our dedicated Nintendo boxes for the foreseeable future, but that second point is an interesting one. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo’s experiments with the cloud evolve in future, what with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Resident Evil 7 currently being streamable on Switch - albeit only in Japan.

Would you be interested in seeing Nintendo experiment more with cloud gaming in the future? Let us know down in the comments.

Source: Nintendo Everything

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