The next generation is upon us. Tomorrow and next Friday two brand new consoles will be hitting the shelves. Both are unique in their own way and both share similarities. Everyone is focusing on the machines and everyone is focusing on the competition. Who's the best, who's winning, all those things are what get tossed around. But no one is really focusing on the future of the industry, no one is really talking about how will this games industry evolve over the next decade or so. That's what this post is about, it's about what this new generation means to me
I believe out of all the industries in the world, the gaming industry is the most malleable. While over the years the video game industry has absorbed much of the techniques that are used in other traditional forms of media, they've always have been morphed in such a way to fit within the gaming space. Video games require that level of modification because unlike any of the other forms of media, video games are interactive. Your brain engages with the medium in a completely different way.
So what does this new generation mean to me? Well instead of spending hours explaining every little thought and detail, i'll give you the short response. It's the future. In a literal since video games are the biggest indicator in which ways tech will move forward and the rest of the world will follow closely in that trend. I've recently attended a class which talks about the concept of Play. In this class we learned exactly why Playing as a child, and mixing play within your work is important. It leads to more creativity a quality which companies now view as more important then leadership. Were seeing a rise in companies that attempt to make the workplace fun, Google is fine example. With a giant slide that workers can slide on to get from level to level.
We're seeing now a rise in effective educational games, that could benefit the child more the traditional forms of education. The government is now even using games to teach us how it all works, one particular game the springs to mind is a game which was designed to teach it's players how gerrymandering works. Even huge companies are looking to games teach fresh faced CEO's how to run a business, and to teach workers how their company actually works. Even in advertising, concepts and principles that are applied to games are being used to help consumers identify with a brand or product. It may sound ridiculous, and if it was a few years ago i'd agree with you, but games are becoming important to our society, they won't be going away anytime soon and they're going to become integrated within our social life. More people are playing games then ever before. That's a trend that is still rising and if you're one of those people who think they're on the down trend, then you're pretty wrong.
Okay, I'm done with that rant but lets get into the actual games/consoles and platforms themselves. This is an overwhelmingly big time for consoles and platforms. New consoles are coming from Sony & Microsoft but besides that, we have Oyua, Oculus Rift, Steam Boxes, all are on their way, competing in the market place. Tablets, smartphones, mobile platforms are all going to come out and advance and start rivaling the home consoles, and even PCs. These different platforms are going to morph and change and outpace each other. The competition in this space is going to lead to innovation. Pretty soon these new consoles won't have the issues of not ruining at 1080P and 60 FPS, and over time they'll be able to reach the same level as PCs or at least not lag behind. Our games will get bigger, the story telling will become more mature, and the cinematic qualities are going to rival or surpass movies in such a huge way. It may be hard to wrap your mind around it. From the days of Pong, how simple that game was compared to now, GTA V where you have an open metropolis to explore. Huge maps such as Skyrim. These games are going to get bigger. Think Skyrim times 10. Of course this is just my prediction, but how games have evolved on the last generation alone, should show you how much power these new machines will be able to hold
Of course this could be the beginning of the end for consoles as we know them now. Sony has build a large repertoire of studios, and acquires many more as days go on. This is a huge investment in their part, should they decide to exit the console space and just be publishers.Nintendo has enough brand recognition and loyalty to exit at any time and publish as well. Microsoft already said they want the Xbox One to be a 10 year device and update the software through cloud technology . I have no idea what exactly would come in place of physical consoles. Maybe we'll have the technology to stream games over internet connections, right onto our TV. Some say that there could be a huge console crash but i don't see that happening thanks to the internet and indie games, plus there is so many industries to tied to games. It would take something massive to bring it down now.
I wanna talk about Nintendo for a minute because they've been really brushed off the last two years. I predict we'll be seeing the Wii U make a strong return once PS4 and Xbox One are all out and side by side. Nintendo knows what their problem was, they know they've had weak software. So we'll see a huge push from them in the near future and we will get back to a three way tie between them. Nintendo just has to secure the games, and keep close ties to the fan base.
Well that's what i think about the Next Gen. It's going to a huge turning point. The game industry will mature on some level, and the innovation is going to be exciting to be a part of.
I'm done with news for the week. Stay tuned for this evening when I'll be covering the Sony Pre-Launch Event. Friday I'll post my weekly posts, Video Of The Week, Round Up and Plans For Next Week. Saturday I'll have another Top Ten post, and the topic I've picked is pretty exciting. Thank your for keeping up with this blog. It means a lot to be supported. It's a lot of work, but i feel encouraged enough to keep doing it.
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