Big Tech, Innovation and Implications for R*

[Jimbatron]

I notice Netflix are looking to enter the gaming market:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63048019
I doubt this will worry R* Take2 in the short term. But it’s worth considering what happens if other big(ger) tech firms follow suit.

 

Lets consider one scenario: Google enter in 10+ years time (GTA VII timescales!)

 

It struck me the other day, a new estate has been built a few miles down the road from us. It’s nothing special but Google have had Street View of it up with in a year. Pretty impressive how quickly they get so much of the world up, and you can feel like you are taking a walk down a virtual street….

 

Could the Google cars that take the Street View pictures be adapted, not just to take a series of 2D images, but interpolate 3D models?

 

If you then remember that I’m talking about technology a decade away, if consoles and PC hardware has advanced enough, the implications are massive.

You are talking about an open world game with a life sized photo realistic city. Even with enough budget, you couldn’t employ enough 3D artists to create this. There wouldn’t be enough talent globally even if you could hire them all.

 

This I think might be the biggest risk for R*’s future. Their trump card, IMHO, is the beauty of their open worlds. They could perhaps diversify into historic settings that couldn’t be mapped irl (E.g RDR or Sci-Fi/Fantasy), but would they be king anymore, as they are with GTA currently?

 

This might be viewed as a huge “what if”, although I’d say it’s more of a “when and who”. I can’t imagine that kind of tech won’t become available eventually.

 

Google because of their existing interest in mapping I think are best positioned currently to make that advance. The advantage for R* here, and I know a bit about the company strategy, is that I don’t think Google would necessarily enter the gaming market wholesale. Their strategy is often to develop the tech and sell it on if it’s not their core business. R* might therefore be able to ride off the back of it but what’s the chance the get exclusivity on it?

 

Still, this kind of tech could really transform the future of open world / sandbox games. I find I fascinating to speculate. Interested to know what others thing - do people who know the industry better think it is plausible, or still more than a decade away?

Edited September 28 by Jimbatron

[Zello]

Google tried with Stadia and it failed. Amazon's games have also not been successful and a lot of have been cancelled. Those big companies have no experience and are taking a different approach and will keep on failing.