Harrison: browser gaming is the future
Console-quality titles just five years off?
Web browsers, not home consoles, will be the true next-gen gaming platform, according to former Sony president Phil Harrison.
Speaking at the Italian Videogame Developers Conference in Rome, as reported by Develop, the industry veteran asked the crowd whether they believed they would ever see a Modern Warfare 2-calibre game running in a browser.
"I think the answer is yes," he said. "I think in the next five-to-ten years we will easily get this level of game inside a web browser, on your mobile platform, on your iPad, and we will be able to deliver that level of immersion to any kind of screen."
Harrison went on to predict a SEGA vs Nintendo-esque 'browser war' for industry domination.
"The gathering storm that I'm talking about is about the technology that is going to go into a web browser that is going to power very rich, very impressive gameplay."
"Somebody is going to win. Somebody is going to deliver console level 3D graphics, video and audio into a web browser. That will be the tipping point for the evolution of our industry that will accelerate what we can do in a browser, and I think will create the next generation platform for games."
Harrison went on to claim that 68 per cent of all global venture capital money invested in games is in online.
"These investments will create the economies of tomorrow," he explained. "These companies will be creating the new technologies, experiences, game business models of tomorrow.
"This kind of investment will start to see big changes in our industry in the next three-to-five years in our industry. There's a lot of space here, and those spaces are opportunities."