Gaming in the future (5-10-15-20 years)

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Hello, everyone,

I'd like to learn from you how you think gaming will be in let's say 5/10/15/20 years from now on.
Personally, I'm rather interested in the 5-10 years span, but there you go. Chose what you like, but please no further than 20 years from now on.

And please try to stick on discussing the Future … We've had many, many more than enough discussions how gaming is today … and was in the past. Please try to use current developments only for argumentation on how you see the future.

To begin with it, I think hat in the newxt years retail will only contain games with mass market appeal from hige companies - and everything apart from the main highway/road will probably be found as download-only.

Alrik

 

[zakhal]

In the next 5 years console generation stays the same. And because of that graphics cant get any better so companies will concentrate on making better games instead. Motion controllers on xbox/ps3 might be an exception to this and they could ruin it. New controller is a good excuse to make crappy games. But what I think is sure is that once the next console genration launches after 5 years the trend will change back to graphics again.

Game companies have done poorly year after year and future looks bad so many good new projects might be canceled and only sure sellers like sequals get made. This is going to last as long as the economical situation stays the same.

The next console-generation is download only. They wont have external media at all. Theyll be pirate-proof and sell even better than now vs PC.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

As an update, I'd also like to see how you see gaming per platform. Thank you.

 

[Anderson]

Developers will continue to cater to the console crowd. Oh yeah, and the sky will fall, the earth will open up and swallow every living creature, and the world will be engulfed in flames.

 

[GothicGothicness]

There'll be a lot of great games made by my company and all of you will be playing TMoF.

Aside from that most games will be in 3d, and you'll use yourself to control the character... games are streamed via OnLive and similar services.

 

[DArtagnan]

Once bandwidth issues are resolved on a wide scale, it will be like OnLive or a similar fully hosted service.

You will likely be able to purchase controllers to fit your needs - or they will be provided as part of the service, and possibly there will be controllers for a number of established "genres" - and you will simply buy them and go online with a small device capable of being fed the data and displaying it on whatever screen.

As for game design, it will start to evolve eventually - even to include stuff for old-schoolers, once the gap is bridged between the old and the new.

So, developers will be picking up where old-school games left off, and evolving them to suit the new audience. Old-school gamers will adapt and we'll see better games.

However, as Hollywood has proven - it's always safer to go with universal and well-known themes, and it's a risk to challenge the minds of the audience. Most movies doing that, invariably can't compete with the big spectacles. But there will be more breathing room to experiment - because the audience will be MUCH bigger as gaming becomes truly accepted as a means of entertaining ourselves.

In fact, I see gaming becoming the ultimate form of entertainment eventually.

Also, games will evolve that we can't even think of now - as new kinds of controllers and new levels of interaction open up. The Kinect thing is just a minor first and clumsy step.

Whether that will actually create better games, I can't say - but I doubt the mouse/keyboard will be the norm in 20 years.

However, there will always be throwbacks and nostalgia, and the PC will probably not fade away in the forseeable future.

 

[Dwagginz]

I think in the next five or so years, we'll see a plateau of quality. Developers will be getting the last bits of performance out of the PS3 and 360, and in terms of the PC we'll see greater optimisation and better use of multicore processors. I expect the PC will slowly begin to adopt BR discs for installations, too, especially with a number of games starting to hit the 20-30GB range.

From about 5-15 years, assuming the next generation's life span is 10 years again, we'll see a surge in performance and quality for the consoles, but I also think that it perhaps won't be as big a jump between the PS2 and PS3/Xbox and 360 as we're slowly getting to a point where graphics are getting more and more realistic, but it also seems like companies want to focus on things like 3D and usability.

I think the next Microsoft console will use BR discs because DVDs are just too small now, and maybe this next generation will be the one where the lines between PC and console blur even more, that's assuming that keyboards and mice finally take off - Something that's not begun to happen, even after 20 years or so of trying.

In regards to games, though? Multiplayer'll decline in popularity to the point where games will be constructed predominantly for multiplayer (Such as Call of Duty and BFBC2 are now) or they will have just a single player component. So many games try multiplayer now but have no success with it because of these high flyers, and I think publishers/developers are going to stop wasting resources on them. I would also hope that RPGs take off again, as I think they've got a good footing next year (Especially in the first half of 2011) so if publishers capitalise on The Witcher 2 and Dragon Age 2's success, we might see another few RPGs over the next year or so.

 

[hishadow]

In 15 years:
- most games will include some "online" component
- digital distribution will be the norm
- few innovations in realtime graphics
- at least one major game-related patent war in the us
- Blizzard will not have managed to create a "heir" to World of Warcraft
- Adventure games will remain the same

 

[DeepO]

There will be more diversity whatever I mean by that. Average age of players will be higher. Retrogaming will be stronger than ever. That´s all I shall reveal for now.

 

[JemyM]

Games are presented as instant "experiences" with expanded controls such as motiontracking or 3d.

Games are also presented as multiplayer games using the currently popular devices (phones or whatever) that can be played for free expects the player to pay for additional content or get credits for recruiting other players.

Mainstream companies will completely abandon traditional genrés.

Games that require dedication or investment in either learning or taking time with the game will be produced purely by indie developers.

The use of DVD, Blueray and similar will be replaced with online services that downloads/cache the games for a fee.

Windows will be seen as the underdog, an alternative for those who "think different".

Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will be released.

Bioware games will be packaged with a wheelchair icon.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

- at least one major game-related patent war in the us

I think this is an interesting thought. Thanks, haven't thought of it yet, but this appears to be likely imho.

It might be only a matter of time, then unil the first "gaming patent wars" break out.


I think we might perhaps be seeing the try of the already big compabnies to squeeze out smaller ones … Indies who can't afford OnLive, for example.
And OnLive being bought by EA, of course.

I tend to see rather a tendency of the big ones becoming bigger - until Oligarchy. Monopoly at its best. Like it is already in other computing areas.

And everything on BlueRay, of course.

 

[Dwagginz]

- digital distribution will be the norm

With PC games, it is. It's very close to being a 50:50 pull with retail.

Bioware games will be packaged with a wheelchair icon.

Meow! Put those claws away, Jemy!

 

[hishadow]

With PC games, it is. It's very close to being a 50:50 pull with retail.

Yeah, we're almost there. I was also going to say that BluRay will also substantially raise bandwidth usage, but then I remembered that the Age of Conan patches are already pushing far beyond.

 

[skavenhorde]

15 years from now I'll be plugged into the matrix

 

[Thrasher]

You'll never get my secret plans to take over the world. Nice try, though…

 

[Philistine]

Simplicity will rule the day. The PC will finally die as a serious gaming platform. This happened because of the mainstream public and developers becoming frustrated by virus and incompatability issues - the inherent divergent nature of the PC environment. Consoles streaming from the game-cloud will be for home entertainment, while casual games will be owning the phone and sneaky worktime gaming. Regarding the casual side of things, expect to see some kind of Sims Online/Facebook crossbreed replacing WOW as the most played,... I hesitate to say - game?

 

[Corwin]

I think true 3D will appear for PC's much like it's coming to a TV set near you right now. Also Grimoire will finally be released!!

 

[Couchpotato]

In 20 or 30 thirty years it will most likely be what onlive is offering now.You will rent but never be able to buy the software.No hardware or software needed just a plug and play black box for the internet connection.Best thing about it is it will eliminate piracy.Which is what developer and publishers want.

 

[xSamhainx]

i think people will still be playing w/ keyboards and handheld controllers. All this lame alternate full body controllers and such fad is going nowhere, it will go the way of the dodo. It may look fun at first, but the novelty will wear off soon enough.

I think people generally want to sit in front of their computers, or in front of a television w/ drink and a controller and play their games. Just the way it is

 

[hishadow]

i think people will still be playing w/ keyboards and handheld controllers. All this lame alternate full body controllers and such fad is going nowhere, it will go the way of the dodo. It may look fun at first, but the novelty will wear off soon enough.

I'm also fairly sure kinect and 3d-displays will be relegated to niche markets like the rest of the gitar heroes. Mouse and keyboard will still be king since people will still be whining on the internet.

The time prophet has just informed me that we might soon see some major change in how games are delivered in the browser. Up to now it's been either Flash or Java. Google is now proposing another solution called Native Client, which if it works out will allow "traditional games" to run within the browser at full speed.