The next dominant genre in gaming.

[bulletproof12]

i think RPG's-MMO's or rythm games. if they develop more guitar heroes, rock bands and hell maybe even a kazu saviour who wouldnt buy them??

image MMO-Rock bands....or WoW where instead of pressing heal, heal over time, heal you have to play the song....on second thought dont, just stick to reading the first paragraph

 

[KaynSlamdyke]

Basically, whichever genre dominates the consoles (yes, MMOs contradict this, but I believe they're the only gaming genre that can't be done well in consoles), become the next dominant genre. Oh, and I'm not ruling out MMOs.

Well there's a contradiction there...

But my god. If someone actually got around to making a console MMO other than PSO and released it so it worked with your gamertag on Xbox Live? I think we'd have a genre definer there...

 

[shadow skill]

Probably MMO's asuming they do not implode under their own weight. Anyone who thinks Jrpgs will be supplanted by Wrpgs is on crack, it's like suggesting that Microsoft will actually get somewhere in the Japanese market. People must remember that as long as you stay away from Final Fantasy crap you will find Jrpgs that are not strictly turn based, don't have lame ass random battles etc. Besides with companies like Atlus around I do not see a lack of non Squareenix talent when it comes to making Jrpgs.

 

[Melaisis]

In short, MMO's need to stop copying WoW and try creating something new. Else we will see the fall of the MMO age very soon.

I concur totally mon amie.

We don't quit WoW just to move onto a similar clone, eh? Personally, I think the entire scene is growing stale at an amazing rate. Look at predicted critical successes like Hellgate or even Tabula Rasa! They are no where near as popular as even, say, Anarchy Online, despite bringing a whole new element (or five) to the genre.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to vote in favour of the rise of Western RPGs here. C'mon, BioWare have to get some decent competition sometime, right?

 

[jezz8me]

Obviously the next big thing will be dating sims all the people who sat around playing WOW all day will need them.

Personally i think it will be the 3rd person shooter because of the success of uncharted, MGS4 (yea probably more accurately stealth). And FPS is just going further and further away from a single player friendly genre. We will probably just be filled with anything involving "action."

I hope this fascination with guns dies down, i find sword combos much more fun.

 

[Nettacki]

What about fighting games?

Maybe, just maybe, but considering that the biggest fighting games coming out this year are relatively few AFAIK (Also, they're all sequels to existing series like Tekken, Street Fighter, and other proven series), I doubt it would become dominant again like it did in the SFII and arcade days.

 

[HuCast]

I think the new hype will be open sandbox games with way more possibilities than GTA...Just Cause 2 confirmed, Mercenaries2, Prototype, Borderlands and stuff like that show the direction.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

MMOs appeal to people because they are persistent and allow for a sort of development. There's also the online social element. Not everyone will like them, but a significant portion of the population has played and will play them.

The next big game will most certainly be online-capable and be accessible to the masses. What I think it will be will be a combination of the persistence and development characteristics of an MMO with the twitch elements and fast pacing of an action game - in short, an online action game with personalized, permanent characters layered over a general, changing story. In addition, it will bridge the gap between the casual and hardcore gamer, allowing you to log on for 30 minutes or 30 hours a week and still entertain. There are games that have tried at this and have been horrible failures - no one's gotten it right yet.

Bridge the casual/hardcore and action/RPG gaps and you'll have the next best thing.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

I'm not a big fan of MMOs but I think that they could really kick off. I mean imagine a free-roam game like GTA or Crackdown but as an MMO! I think that has a lot of potential.

 

[jezz8me]

It is done http://www.sa-mp.com/ and it is not that big. When i get my new computer ima playing though. Bobs tool shed is a popular server i think.

 

[Kayevcee]

It would be nice to see the action-puzzler neatly exemplified by Portal take off, and by that I mean more in that spirit of off the wall puzzles and characters rather than frantically produced cash-ins. However, the "what the hell do I do now?" experience that you run into playing puzzle games (at least, more frequently than in good examples of other genres) may put a lot of people off.

When it comes to the mass market, people appear to like three things- joining an online community, levelling up and shooting stuff. Ergo I have to agree with the MMOFPS supporters.

-Nick