What will gaming be like in 5 years time?

[Coppernerves]

Lets' say I stop being able to play video games for five years.

When that 5 years are done, and I try to get back into gaming, what am I likely to experience?

Will games be on discs at all? Or just downloaded?

What really excellent games will be cheap but easy to find, buy, and get running?

Will the multiplayer components of games like COD and Halo be sold separately, with F2P models?

What will be the biggest problems?

Will there still be lots of pointless touchy movey gimmicks, or will the new inputs actually go to good use more often?

Any ideas people?

 

[SonicWaffle]

Any ideas people?

I imagine that, whatever happens, people will still be having the same stupid flamewars over it. You could leave the community for a century or two, come back when we all have chips in our brains that act as supercomputers and allow us to telepathically game with one another, and you'll hear people bickering about which brand of head-chip is better or whether is pandered to/ignored/evil feminazis from space.

The gaming is pretty much a side-project to give us all something to fight over ;-)

 

[Zhukov]

The writing will still be on about the same level as a low budget, direct-to-DVD movie sequel.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

To my parents, the control scheme will still look like something developed by NASA,
and may begin to look like such to me.

 

[370999]

More focus on online features such as DLC, multiplayer, etc. In fact, I could see us having to "rent" a game for a certain time period. After which time it expires. Could be a way to make more money out of multiplayer focused games.

Generally though, most of the same. I can't see any real radical changes.

 

[Smooth Operator]

All bloom, flailing and QTE, released 3x per year with $15 DLC every week which adds a new color of bloom.

 

[Vegosiux]

Pretty much the same as today, but all of us will be 5 years older, some of us will be 5 years wiser too. The community will still be as it is, full of peole don't know or care to know, and a few very wonderful people I'll always be happy to play a game with.

Games will still be varied in quality, maybe some niche genres will die for a while while others are resurrected, and so on in a cycle.

The publishers are going to try their damnest to make us fork out our money for nothing and keep full ownership of their product even after we have purchased it.

The usual.

 

[omicron1]

It will look like 2007-8. The new generation will be solidified, the runts of the new-IP litter will have died off, at least one prominent series of today (I'm betting Assassin's Creed) will be gone, and new IP will be a thing of the past.
This is based on the IP cycle's correlation with console cycles - new IP ebbs when new systems emerge, and returns when they near the end of their lifespan.

Additionally: indies will be their own recognized market with at least one large-scale publisher (think Paradox, but for one- or few-man projects; Steam will be as big as any console for exclusives; at least one of the digital platforms will be dead (I'm betting Gamestop's Impulse, or the remains of Direct2Drive), and one of the digital platforms will incorporate OnLive-style streaming to mobile platforms.

 

[JEBWrench]

After a brief period of being best game evar, The Elder Scrolls VI: Hammerfell will be remembered as totally overrated, followed by "Skyrim was waaaaay better".

Assuming that the usual trend continues.

 

[madwarper]

Either a) it'll just be more of the same, b) it'll be so revolutionarily different that we can't currently comprehend what it is or c) something else.

Definitely, one of those three.

 

[Neekoolawous]

Steam will have finished porting every video game ever to it's servers and Half Life 3 will still be a pipe dream.

 

[felbot]

ill be playing wasteland 2 and project eternity.

 

[JEBWrench]

Either a) it'll just be more of the same, b) it'll be so revolutionarily different that we can't currently comprehend what it is or c) something else.

Definitely, one of those three.

Nay! Since the world is ending next month, there will be no gaming in five years time!

The answer is clearly d!

 

[psychguy57]

The image i have is that it will be not to dissimilar than what is happening now. Games may cost more download based, maybe disks will be more and more. The biggest difference i can think of is that the community will be different. I believe that gaming will become an accepted art form, the community will become more mature. We will have critics in the major papers, art journals will include games. The indie mark will probably have a bigger influence. Maybe the major game companies will have indie branches. Maybe EA will have come to their senses about Co-Op. I even could go onto believe that MMOs will be console based. All i can do is believe, speculate, and hope.

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

Id appreciate the idea of being able to connect to all of my friends who only play on Xbox live (since I only have a PC). Id be grateful for that.

 

[veloper]

Interactive movies similar to the walking dead, streamed to the TV via rental services, with the option to get commercial breaks at a cheaper subscription level. Also much bloom.

 

[TrevHead]

I expect smartphones to have wireless controllers and display on the TV.

PCs will become a closed system like consoles. Microsoft is using Windows 8 as a thin wedge to get themselves onto PC, Windows 9 will probably go the full hog, with PC devs having the choice of playing by MS' rules on their digi distro to use the latest APIs like Direct X (DirectX11.1 is already Win8 only), or stick with outdated tools that slowly becomes the next MS DOS.

And if the new rumours are true, Intel is even further screwing over PC gaming with their plans to get rid of motherboard sockets for their processors. Instead they'll be soldered to the MOBO.

I expect that dual booting PC's will be more commonplace as ppl use Linux and Steam for gaming and Windows for office tasks. Also there are more rumours on Valve getting into the hardware market http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/27/valve-economist-sees-the-future-discusses-ar-tech-hardware/

My guess is it'll be an analog keyboard but could also mean they are getting into home computers or consoles.

 

[endtherapture]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 will still cost £40 in shops.