'Consoles to die in 5 to 10 years', says ex-Microsoft man

[tuddy]

I doubt it'll happen in the next decade, but this will eventually happen. Though I bet gaming wouldn't be an entirely online pastime, and games would still be offered on discs/cartridges/whatever (in the "traditional" way; IE- going into a shop and buying the game), but "streaming" or downloading your games would be encouraged with bonuses such as discounts or free gifts you wouldn't get for buying the game in a shop; or possibly even vice-versa.

[R4mbo]

I would just say NO. I would never accept streaming as an alternative for consoles, I want to OWN my games and also want to be able to play them offline. And I dont think that there will be NO box in the future, I dont think they will implement this game-streaming services and the hardware to play the games into a TV.

[Shrygue]

Hard copies of games will always be better than downloaded versions. If one takes care of optical media well, it would last for ages and wouldn't have to worry about data corruption or possible DRM protection on a hard disk or such with the latter.