Where do you think gaming is going?

[Wolf Kanno]

With the next generation consoles on the horizon and some even in your hands now, what do you think the future holds for the medium? Where do you think social gaming is going? What about motion controls? Is the Steam Model going to be adapted by Sony and Microsoft? Will handhelds become more dominate or will other portable devices start eclipsing them? What about exclusives or the future of some third party gaming companies? What trends do you see becoming more dominate?

[qwertysaur]

Social gaming like farmville is going to crash soon. games like draw something are going to be like board games, coming full circle from where many games had their origins.

[NeoCracker]

Social gaming will proceed as normal. There will likely be adjustments, but the facebook gaming isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. :p

Gaming specific platforms will continue on as always, along with the grown of the mobile gaming market with Iphones and what not. Mobile's only add more options which appeal to different people.

I have no clue on Motion controls.

We will see an increase in Downloadable games, but Disk based games will still be common place.

Really we will see a lot of what we already have in place continuing forward, just with the incorporation of new Ideas and play styles.

However I do wonder on MMO's if we will see the continuation of both Subscription based gameplay or more the style of Guild Wars, or if GUild Wars style will win out in the end. This I have little to no Idea about. :p

[Polnareff]

I'm going to be very scared if mobile gaming gets any bigger, mainly because of the lack of "big" games. Ironically, I can't seem to play games that are meant to be played in small chunks, even though my attention span should probably be more suited to those types of games. Most games I play are RPGs and fighters, and fighters control like crap on phones.

As for exclusives, it seems that trend is mostly dying, at least on Microsoft's end. Microsoft right now just has GoW and Halo, which do push millions by themselves, so it's not like they need any more than that. But Nintendo has Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Smash Bros., and all the ones you expect from them, while Sony has Sly Cooper, Ratchet, Infamous, Uncharted, Twisted Metal, LBP, etc.

I'd rather have the Steam model or games on disc rather than have phone games take over everything, which is something I really fear.

[Shorty]

I don't understand handheld consoles and why they're so popular. They only seem to be increasing in popularity and I just don't get it.

I think that motion/interactive gaming may become more popular in the future as they develop the platform more.

[Polnareff]

I can explain that very easily.

Handheld games are cheaper to produce, and the handhelds themselves sell as much, or sometimes even more, than the big consoles. This is why a lot of JRPGs are on DS, PSP, 3DS, and Vita now, because they can have the same amount of content as the ones on console, but can also be developed for a fraction of the cost that it takes to make a console game. It makes sense when you think of it that way. Sometimes making games for consoles is too expensive and risky, especially for a new IP.

[Shorty]

I guess I can understand that. I personally don't really feel that playing on a handheld console contributes to the "gaming experience" that I want. I like to get really involved in games that I play and I feel like on a little itty bitty screen that may be difficult to do.

[krissy]

first thing we'll see is digital gaming overtaking physical gaming

that is, physical media will be less used, and streaming/downloadable games will become a matter of fact

just like movies before it

netflix also needed a few years/improved speeds to become a household name, didn't it?

soon after, 3d sex games.

[Bolivar]

Social gaming will continue on platforms like Facebook, it's always been there, we just won't hear about it as much with companies like Zynga imploding. The bubble has burst.

Motion gaming is dead, and has been dead for a few years now. It was popular for about a year or two until the Wii Fit became the machine's bread and butter and now even Nintendo pretty much moved away from it. The dancing fad kept it going a little longer, but now that's fad is about as dead as the karaoke and rock band fad has been. Microsoft breathed a little fresh air into it with Kinect, but now we're on Dance Central 4 and the industry is still stumped on how to make an actual video game for the thing. Minor integration is its only real future, just like SIXAXIS was, and that was gone after a short while, too.

I'm not really sure about the whole Steam model question. Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live borrow ideas from eachother to differing degrees, they always have, but they're all consolidated networks that provide comprehensive solutions for developers and an additional channel for buying games. If anything, Steam has to follow the console's model and start providing non-gaming entertainment on its service. One original thing the console's could learn from is the Steam Workshop, but I doubt the manufacturers would allow a platform to be that open; even more doubtful is the console consumer being sophisticated enough to take advantage of it.

Another Steam concept would be our networks becoming more like social networks. When you log into PSN you're going to have a status feed, just like twitter or facebook, showing which games your friends are playing, screenshots they've posted, achievements they've unlocked, and even comments they leave.

There's going to be a new big gaming genre, but I don't know what it is. 16-bit had beat 'em ups, 32 bit had RPGs, PS2 had hack n slashers and now we have FPS and WRPGs. Circumstance dictated this: those were the only two genres developers were already familiar with making in HD. But now we have an HD-veteran development community and we're either going to see a new genre emerge, or see some of our older ones coming back and proliferating more. I'm talking about the reemergence of JRPGs or a true generational leap for action games, racers, fighters and strategy. Or, again, a new genre. Who knows.

Some of the more novel innovations were hinted at in a Gabe Newell interview at CES with the verge (http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852144/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box-future-of-gaming). This includes biometrics and gaze tracking in our controllers, to all the screens in our house streaming from one box. This is the inverse of the OnLive, Gaikai phenomenon, which streams content from their central servers to your home. Instead, your home network is going to stream things to your different rooms, and possibly even your mobile device.

The OnLive game streaming will be bigger, though, too. Sony bought Gaikai, so expect to be able to press X on the PlayStation Store and begin playing a game. I think PSPlus will give you this game streaming subscription. Expect Microsoft to do the same.

Smartphone integration is ironically something I'd actually really like to see. It's all over the place now, everybody's on their own, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the networks better integrated moving forward, where it's all on there, from purchasing games and remotely getting it ready on your console, to setting up matches with better social integration.

More than anything, I hope we don't just get the same machines with more ram and newer graphics cards.

[Roogle]

I have made a bit of a transition to PC gaming because this console generation has been so long. My main genre is Japanese role-playing games and those have been in decline for a long time, it feels like -- at least on main consoles, anyway.

[Pike]

I guess I can understand that. I personally don't really feel that playing on a handheld console contributes to the "gaming experience" that I want. I like to get really involved in games that I play and I feel like on a little itty bitty screen that may be difficult to do.

For me, the explanation was very simple. I was in a big family and consoles were never "mine" and they were almost always in use. Handhelds were, by definition, mine. I could keep them under by bed and never worry about someone else playing them when I wanted to play. So handhelds were very important to me growing up. Not so much these days when I can have my own console, but granted I play 99% of games on PC these days, so...

[Night Fury]

Down the shitter.

[Loony BoB]

Theory time!

I think more and more games will become downloadable, with PSN & Xbox Live becoming more and more like Steam as the days go on. Boxed games will still be procurable, but not be seen as essential in most cases and most of these kind of games will be procured from stores that sell a variety of goods rather than just games. Online stores will become the go-to place if you want boxed games, really.

Despite what some people say, I think that the home console will continue to progress just fine. The handheld console will still have it's place, too. I don't think that phone gaming will make handheld games redundant due to the control mechanisms.

Motion gaming will not become mainstream for some time yet - at least, not until 3D gaming really means 3D gaming (ie, you don't have to look at a screen which is in a fixed position). Once 3D gaming really takes off and you can immerse yourself in 3D environments, essentially moving around a world in first person mode, I don't think motion gaming will really get that involved. I also don't think many developers are that keen on attempting to make AAA motion games. Until that starts to happen I don't see the status quo changing.

3D gaming on a flat screen, though, will become more popular over time. Just like HD gaming kicked in when HDTVs became the norm, 3D games will kick in en masse when 3DTVs become the norm, which isn't too far around the corner. Once enough 3DTVs are out there making good use of the technology, Sony won't be far behind. I say Sony because they are the only massive developer-publisher out there who also manufacture 3D televisions. :p They'll use it as a selling point for the PS4, I'm sure. At the moment I see it as a gimmick when it gets mentioned but I'm sure once enough of those TVs are sold then the concept will grow into a standard thing.

When (or shortly before) the PS4 is released, the PS3 will drop in price dramatically and the sales of PS3s will shoot up due to all the people who never bought one suddenly wanting to take advantage of the massive number and variety of games available on that console compared to the PS4.

Multiplayer gaming will continue to boom, but not in the way it has so far. Instead, games like Journey which don't require you to wait in a lobby will become much more normal. For FPS games, one might simply choose the map they want to fight in and the other people will simply slot into the game. In co-op, you will not even be given a choice - you will start the game either with some people having already begun, or on your own while you wait for others to connect (much like in Far Cry 3, which was fantastic). The enemies will scale up/down depending on how many have connected to the game. I have a gut feeling that non-FPS games will close a lot of ground on FPS games when it comes to multiplayer, although I honestly don't know exactly how this will happen. I just gotta feelin'!

Some of the big indie developers in the past five years will become huge, while many others will crash and burn. Point and click adventure game developers will pick up on the mobile gaming industry and start really hammering in good quality storylines to such games.

In general, gaming will not change dramatically. FPS games will continue to dominate, WRPGs will continue to outsell JRPGs, developers will rise and fall based on AAA games doing well or failing, innovation will bring about great games, huge developers will continue to bring out great games, we'll continue to spend a lot of money but enjoy games as a result of it.

Wild, left-field prediction: In an unprecedented shocking twist, Nintendo will start releasing games on other people's consoles after the Wii U doesn't live up to expectations.

[Pete for President]

Where I think it's going: more shiny AAA titles who do their best to make things explode as much and as shiny as possible, more gameplay gimmicks from the motion department, even less gameplay and more scripted events, and of course a lot more rebirths because omg who knows what havoc fresh ideas might bring.

Where I hope it's going: I hope Dark Souls 2 will be good. Amazingly good. And then they end the series like proper legend.

[Araciel]

Down the troutter.

yea

[Madame Adequate]

It's mostly disappearing into two distinct camps: Business bulltrout that puts out the same game year on year and makes smurfloads of money anyway, and disappearing up its own asshole as pretentious indie bulltrout continues to be the only alternative anyone seems to be able to come up with.

Almost everyone has trying or is trying some sort of gimmick like motion controls and they're almost all going to fall through or be one-shots that can't be relied on in the long term.

The last gasp of gaming will be Gaben making his Gabenbox, and it will be Good, and he will make his Gabenbox 2, and it will be better, and that'll be the end of that. After that gaming's gonna have to either limp along being boring and derivative as hell or it's going to have to crash, implode, and start again like we saw in the 80s.

There will actually be some good games in there of course, this actually looks like a strong year for space 4xes for example, but ehhhh. Where are the Morrowinds, the Warcraft IIIs, the Red Alerts, the Fables... okay maybe not the Fables. The thing Fable was promised to be when it was called Project Ego.

[Del Murder]

I think the shift in focus towards cell phone and social media games is real and will last a while. I think cell phone processing power will only get better and they will eventually replace dedicated handheld systems as the leader in on-the-go gaming (if they haven't already). Handhelds will survive as a niche market and forgotten genres like JRPGs will still find a home on them, but the 3DS and Vita won't have nearly the library that the DS, GBA, or even PSP had.

PC gaming will continue to rise as your computer and your television become more and more integrated. There will still be a market for dedicated consoles, but the next PS or XBox will have less users than the PS3 or 360 had. The next versions of these systems will only be hardware upgrades and the differences will not be as noticeable from this generation as they were from the prior generation (diminishing returns). The major difference will be the way games are delivered, with much more games being downloaded rather than read from a disc. Eventually (maybe not the next generation), there will be no more discs.

Nintendo will continue to be in its own league and will continue to push the envelope on ways to change how people play games. The Wii U will actually end up being a pretty good system but won't be as popular as the alternatives due to the hardware inferiority it will have to the next Sony and Microsoft systems. The Wii U controller will eventually get a redesign but that won't help it be useful for third party games. Nintendo's first party games will make good use of it, especially the Zelda game.

Games themselves will still be focused on sequels and spinoffs for a while, but consumers and developers will eventually get sick of that and we may enter either a) a lull period where no one tries or b) a gaming renaissance. DLC will still be used more and more but the 'day 1 DLC' days or the days of DLC that clearly was intended to be part of the original experience will probably end.

[black orb]

>>> Tablets will smurf handhelds consoles..:luca:

Other than that, I cant fathom any other important changes.