The whimsical CEO who once disrupted the auto and space industry is no longer hiding his ambitions for a lucrative new industry.
High-end electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report and its charismatic CEO Elon Musk have undoubtedly transformed the automotive industry.
Even Musk’s critics and naysayers — and there are many of them — are forced to acknowledge that the billionaire forced all vehicle manufacturers to convert to electrification.
Who would have imagined five years ago that Ford (F) – Get Ford Motor Company Report was going to make the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-seller F-150, one of its priorities.
What about Jeep (STLA) – Get Stellantis N.V. Report, the all-terrain car brand par excellence, a favorite of safari fans, which should soon launch its first all-electric model.
German giant Volkswagen (VLKAF) is set to spin off luxury brand Porsche in hopes of unlocking value and catching up with Tesla.
Musk’s success and his ability to put Tesla at the center of automotive conversations have also allowed the emergence of new players like Rivian (RIVN) – Get Rivian Automotive, Inc. Class A Report and Lucid (LCID) – Get Lucid Group, Inc. Report for example.
Having become the richest man in the world due to the stock market rise of Tesla, of which he holds 21% of the shares, Musk is also one of those who have relaunched the conquest of space with SpaceX.
If his personality and his multiple controversies divide, it is however difficult to bet against Musk.
Of course, there are broken promises on autonomous cars or even its inability to meet deadlines, or to respect product launch schedules.
Disrupting the Video Game Industry
But few doubt its ability to disrupt an industry. Musk is now showing his ambitions in the video game industry.
Musk now wants to expand the number of games compatible with Tesla cars. And to do this, he is aiming big. The billionaire wants to include more than 50,000 video games available on the popular platform Stream in the Tesla infotainment system.
The announcement was made, as often with the Musk method, during an exchange on the social media Twitter with users who challenged him on Cyberpunk, 2077, a game that has previously been displayed on the infotainment system for the Model S Plaid.
“New Model S/X version of Cyberpunk when?” asked one user.
Musk responded: “We’re working through the general case of making Steam games work on a Tesla vs specific titles. Former is obviously where we should be long-term.
Musk did not give further details.
This announcement from Musk suggests that Tesla was not demotivated by the opening of an investigation in December by regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after reports emerged that drivers can play video games on the car’s touchscreen while in motion.
The probe followed an investigation by The New York Times into Tesla’s video game features highlighting the so-called “passenger play” option. The report stated that an update in Tesla’s software package added at least three games that drivers could access while the car was in drive — and that in a warning that appears before the game starts, Tesla signals it is aware of this and that “playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers.” The outlet reports a button asks if the player is a passenger, but a driver can also play by simply touching it.
Tesla decided to disable the Passenger Play feature.
Transforming Cars Into Living Rooms
The company has never hidden its ambition to transform its cars into living rooms on wheels where passengers can be entertained by watching films and TV shows in streaming, even playing their favorite video games or simply doing something other than driving once they have activated the autonomous driving system.
Making the Steam library accessible from Tesla Arcade, the video game space of the Tesla infotainment system, is a big step toward realizing this ambition. Ultimately, Tesla’s objective would probably be to monetize access to this type of service.
But It makes sense to wonder how Tesla will manage to technically integrate super-advanced games from Stream.
The new versions of the Model S and Model X embark a new computing platform with a computing capacity of up to 10 teraflops (measurement of the speed of a processor or one of the arithmetic calculation units of a processor) capable of offering an experience equivalent to that of the latest consoles, gaming type (SNE) – Get Sony Corp. Report PlayStation 5 or Microsoft (MSFT) – Get Microsoft Corporation Report Xbox Series X, according to The Verge.
Tesla cars already have high-end graphics cards in the Media control units and in the electronic control units, according to an update provided in November by the company.
Since the introduction of video games in Arcade in 2019, the system currently offers around 20 games.
Stream is both an online content sales platform, a personalized game library accessible via the internet and a community platform.
Thus, it is possible to buy a very large number of products, in particular video games, on this platform. This will not be a purchase of the physical product (box and CD), but of the computer version, so you will be able to download the game directly to your computer once the transaction has been completed.
Steam is very well known because it is the platform that offers one of the largest selections of video games in the world. Coming from all walks of life and from all publishers, whether small independent games, or big games from international development teams.
Whether you’re looking for the immersion of role-playing games, the realism of simulation games, strategy games or the unexpected of adventure games, all types of video game entertainment are offered on the platform for all types of audience.
