On the release of the Roku 4, the company’s strategy gives short shrift to gaming.
If you consider gaming an important part of your streaming entertainment choices, you may not have much in common with the chief executive of the streaming platform Roku.
In advance of the roll-out of the company’s Roku 4 earlier this week, company CEO Anthony Wood discounted the value of gaming in the streaming video market, suggesting that not only his company but others would not make gains by marketing to gamers. Instead, he described gaming as a feature that would be available on the company’s products, but would not be a strategic marketing opportunity, according to Bloomberg.
Currently console like the Xbox and Playstation have captured the bulk of the gaming market, with mobile gaming also taking a chunk of the sector. With those two platforms well entrenched, Wood believes that streaming services should focus on other entertainment options.
Other companies have tried to market streaming alternatives to more pricey consoles, like the Nvidia Shield or Playstation TV, but none of these devices have paid off.
Still, Apple and Amazon, with relationships that make for potentially more fruitful opportunities, are pursuing gamers for their streaming platforms. Apple is banking on its connections to mobile gamers, while Amazon has been building a network of studios to develop games for its devices.
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