Gaming in 2024....
As most of you already know we recently had our annual staff member interviews for our community members to view, and I was asked the question "Where do you think gaming will be in the next 15 years?".
At the time I fobbed it off with a simple shortsighted answer involving the current motion control war we are seeing between the three major players Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
Upon further thought on this question I have come to the conclusion that gaming could go almost ANYWHERE at this point. We have hit a point where you really have to wonder where or how gaming will evolve from here.
We have Xbox unleashing their new motion control system dubbed Project Natal next year, along with Sony's effort with a motion control remote. While they are good features, they are simply improvements on the current system employed by the Nintendo Wii. While they are a vast improvement, it's not really a major advancement in the world of gaming.
When I think back to my childhood when I updated from a NES to the SNES, I remember as a wide eyed kid being dazzled by the graphics presented to me in Super Mario World. From the SNES to the PSX was another huge leap, as it was to the PS2 and so on. Graphics have reached a point that they will always get better, but are we ever going to see those defining leaps we have seen in the past? We are at a time where photo-realistic graphics are the norm, is there really that much more that can be done?
In the short term I think we will see the ever popular world of digital distribution spread it's wings and become the norm. We have seen the STEAM network grow from strength to strength, and with more and more full version games and expansions becoming available on consoles via the Xbox Live, PSN Network and WiiWare services things can only become easier from there.
So now when I think about where gaming is headed in the next 15 years, I'm excited to say I have absoloutly no idea!