Clouds or Consoles


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Alright,
welcome back to Tech Between the Lines!
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I'm Between Two Pixels, and as always,
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I'm here with the one and only Finn
Circuit.
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Today, we're diving into the ultimate
gamer debate: cloud gaming versus
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traditional consoles.
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Finn, are you ready for this?
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Ready as I'll ever be.
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Though, I gotta say, every time someone
says "cloud gaming," I picture
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my old Atari cartridges weeping in a
drawer somewhere.
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Ha!
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I mean,
it's wild how the lines are blurring,
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right?
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Xbox is pushing this "play anywhere"
thing-TVs,
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handhelds, even VR headsets.
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It's not just about the box under your TV
anymore.
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We've got Google Stadia-well,
had-Xbox Cloud Gaming,
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PlayStation's streaming, and of course,
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Nintendo Switch doing its own hybrid
thing.
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Yeah,
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and don't forget, back in my day,
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a LAN party meant lugging a CRT monitor
the size of a microwave to your
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buddy's basement.
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Now you just log in from your phone.
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Progress, I guess.
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Dude, my first LAN party was Halo 2 in a
friend's garage.
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Extension cords everywhere,
pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling.
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But now,
you can literally play with anyone,
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anywhere, no cables required.
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It's a whole new battlefield.
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So,
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let's break down how cloud gaming
actually works.
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Instead of running the game on your
console or PC,
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you're streaming it from a server farm
somewhere-like,
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racks of GPUs doing all the heavy lifting.
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Your device just decodes the video stream
and sends your inputs back.
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It's kinda like Netflix, but for games.
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Yeah,
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except if your internet hiccups,
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you're toast.
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I mean, it's great in theory-no need for
a thousand-dollar graphics card.
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But you better hope your Wi-Fi isn't
fighting with your neighbor's microwave.
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Totally.
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But when it works, it's magic.
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Like, NVIDIA GeForce NOW lets you run
Cyberpunk 2077 on a Chromebook.
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A Chromebook!
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That's bonkers.
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You don't need a gaming rig, just a
decent connection and you're in Night
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City.
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Yeah, "decent connection" being the
operative phrase.
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I tried streaming a game once on hotel
Wi-Fi.
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Let's just say, my character spent more
time rubber-banding than actually
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moving.
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But you know, there's something about
consoles that cloud gaming
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just can't touch.
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The feel of a controller,
the click of a cartridge,
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even the smell of a new game manual-yeah,
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I'm old, sue me.
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There's a reason people still line up for
PlayStation 5s and Xbox Series
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Xs.
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Oh, for sure.
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The hype around those launches was insane.
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I mean, people camping out overnight,
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tracking restocks on Twitter,
the whole nine yards.
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It's like a rite of passage for gamers.
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I remember lining up for the original
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Xbox in 2001.
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Freezing cold, coffee in hand,
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arguing with some kid about Halo.
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There's a community aspect to it.
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You don't get that with a download code
and a progress bar.
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Yeah,
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and there's just something about holding
the hardware,
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you know?
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Like, it's yours.
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It's real.
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Even if it's just a plastic box with RGB
lights.
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But here's where cloud
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gaming really shines: access.
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You can play anywhere, anytime,
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on basically any device.
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No need to drop five hundred bucks on a
new console.
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Just grab your phone, tablet, whatever,
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and you're good.
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Yeah, I'll give you that.
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The entry cost is way lower.
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You don't have to sell a kidney to keep
up with the latest hardware.
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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, for example,
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lets you stream games to your smartphone.
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That's a big deal for folks who can't-or
don't want to-buy a new box
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every few years.
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Exactly.
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It's democratizing gaming in a way.
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You don't need the latest console to play
the latest games.
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Just a subscription and a halfway decent
screen.
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But let's talk about
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the elephant in the room: latency.
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Cloud gaming lives and dies by your
internet speed.
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If there's lag, you're done.
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Especially in fighting games or anything
that needs split-second timing.
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I tried playing Mortal Kombat on Stadia
once-felt like I was fighting
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underwater.
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Yeah, latency is the final boss.
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But there's some cool tech trying to
solve it-like,
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low-latency protocols, edge computing,
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all that jazz.
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I geek out over this stuff.
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The difference between 30ms and 100ms can
make or break a match.
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But, uh, not everyone has fiber in their
neighborhood,
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right?
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Not even close.
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I'm still on DSL half the time.
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And don't get me started on hotel Wi-Fi.
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Until everyone's got gigabit speeds,
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cloud gaming's always gonna be a
little...iffy.
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Yeah,
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it's like, the tech is there, but the
infrastructure isn't always keeping
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up.
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It's a classic "future's here,
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but not evenly distributed" thing.
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Okay,
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here's a big one: do you actually own
your games in the cloud?
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Or are you just renting access?
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With consoles, you've got the disc,
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the cartridge, whatever.
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But with cloud gaming,
it's all DRM and licenses.
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If the service goes down,
so does your library.
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Yeah,
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just ask anyone who bought games on
Google Stadia.
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When they pulled the plug,
poof-your games are gone.
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That's the risk.
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You're at the mercy of the platform.
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If they lose a license or decide to shut
down,
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you're out of luck.
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It's kinda scary,
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honestly.
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Like, you could spend hundreds on a
digital library and have nothing
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to show for it if the servers go dark.
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At least with a console, you can dust off
your old games and play them
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years later-assuming the hardware still
works.
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Yeah,
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and don't get me started on DRM.
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I miss the days when "ownership" meant
you actually owned something,
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not just a license that could vanish
overnight.
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So,
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what about hybrid approaches?
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We're seeing more of this-like,
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you can play on your console at home,
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then pick up where you left off on your
phone via cloud.
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Remote Play, cloud saves,
cross-platform stuff.
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It's not all-or-nothing anymore.
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Yeah,
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but some of these "hybrid" features feel
half-baked.
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Remember the Sega Dreamcast modem?
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That thing was supposed to bring online
gaming to the masses.
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Instead, it mostly brought busy signals
and headaches.
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Ha,
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fair.
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But I think we're getting closer.
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Like, cross-save between Xbox and PC is
actually pretty slick.
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You can start a game on your Series X,
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then finish it on your laptop.
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That's the kind of flexibility people
want.
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Yeah,
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as long as it works.
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I'll believe it when I see it.
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Or, you know, when it doesn't crash
halfway through a boss fight.
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One
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thing that's super exciting is how cloud
gaming could reach billions of
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people who never owned a console.
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No hardware limits,
just a phone and a connection.
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Industry folks are predicting huge growth,
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especially in places like Southeast Asia,
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Africa, and South America where consoles
are expensive or hard to get.
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Yeah,
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that's a big deal.
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If you don't have to import a PlayStation
or pay a fortune for a gaming
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PC, suddenly gaming's open to a whole new
audience.
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That's good for the industry,
and for players.
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Assuming, again, the internet holds up.
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Right,
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and as infrastructure improves,
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the market just explodes.
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It's not just about selling boxes
anymore-it's about subscriptions,
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access, and reach.
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But at the end of the day,
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some folks are always gonna stick with
consoles.
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Others are all-in on the cloud.
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It comes down to what you value-nostalgia,
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convenience,
maybe just what you grew up with.
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I see younger gamers who don't care about
physical media at all.
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Me?
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I still like a good cartridge.
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Yeah,
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I saw this Reddit thread the other
day-total warzone.
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Some people were like, "I'll never give
up my PS5," others were flexing
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their cloud setups on a tablet.
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It's a generational thing,
but also geography and tech comfort.
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Some people just want to play,
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wherever, however.
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Others want the ritual, the collection,
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the shelf full of games.
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Yeah, and that's fine.
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There's room for both.
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Just don't try to take away my old-school
hardware,
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alright?
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So, where's all this headed?
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I mean, with 5G, fiber optics,
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edge computing-gaming's only gonna get
more accessible,
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more seamless.
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Maybe one day,
latency won't even be a thing.
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You'll just play, anywhere, instantly.
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Wake me up when I can play Doom
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on my toaster.
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Until then,
I'll keep my expectations in check.
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Tech moves fast,
but people-and infrastructure-move slow.
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Fair enough.
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But hey, whether you're a cloud convert
or a console diehard,
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it's a good time to be a gamer.
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And that's what matters.
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Yeah, I'll drink to that.
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Alright, that's it for this week.
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Between,
always a pleasure arguing with you.
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Same,
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Finn.
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Thanks for tuning in, everyone.
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We'll catch you next time on Tech Between
the Lines.
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Later!
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See ya, folks.
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Don't forget to back up your saves-and
your expectations.