Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda recently published his New Year address to talk about the future of the video game industry and the direction of Square Enix.

In his address, Matsuda says cloud streaming services for gaming are starting to show signs of “taking off”, and he believes cloud gaming will ultimately change the way people buy games in the future. Matsuda also said how Square Enix approaches future changes in gaming will determine how the company grows in the future.

“Against this backdrop of significant change, the current generation of game consoles has entered the late stage, and the next generation of consoles has become a topic of discussion in the digital entertainment industry. Meanwhile, cloud streaming services for gaming have at last begun to show signs of taking off. Streaming is likely to bring a number of new platform operators into the market in addition to the existing console providers, while platform holders are also joining the PC gaming space. These developments produce a growing number of avenues through which game publishers and developers can provide content. In particular, game streaming services will be the ultimate driver of a rapid transition from the sale of games in boxes to digital consumption. Streaming also lends itself to new subscription-based business models, so we believe deciding how to engage with these forthcoming trends will be key to future growth.”

Matsuda is the first CEO of a major Japanese publisher to publicly state his support for cloud gaming. Last year, Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot even said there would be no future for game consoles.

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