Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts that streamed games will become a $38 billion market by 2035 and that the dedicated console will stop being a mass-market product, with analyst Nathan Naidu comparing consoles to record players kept alive by enthusiasts and collectors. The case depends on surplus GPU capacity pushing compute prices down late this decade — something Naidu concedes has not happened yet, as AI demand is currently pushing prices up: AWS raised reserved GPU prices about 20% in July, its second rise in six months, amid a memory shortage analysts do not expect to ease before 2028. The report estimates Microsoft holds roughly 40% of streaming with Xbox Cloud Gaming at about 220 million hours last quarter, with Nvidia's GeForce Now ahead on technology and Tencent leading in China; Microsoft announced a next-generation console for 2027 in July while cutting 3,200 roles and shedding five studios. The article also notes Epic chief Tim Sweeney saying the company is retooling for maximum AI acceleration with Claude and Gemini already built into Unreal Engine 6, and a survey of more than 2,300 developers in which 52% said generative AI is harming the industry.

Bloomberg Intelligence·Microsoft·Xbox Cloud Gaming·+5