What do you believe lies in the future for gaming?

[ZeroAX]

This question came to my mind from reading this intro from a Eurogamer article

"Whether we like it or not, whether we're ready or not, cloud gaming is coming. The idea is simple - instead of buying consoles or high-end PCs, instead we log in to servers many miles away hosting the requisite hardware and while our control inputs are transmitted across the net, video streams of the gameplay are beamed back over IP. Say goodbye to the console and indeed piracy as we know it, say hello to the dumb terminal. "

Why does everyone think that cloud gaming will replace consoles? The way cloud gaming works today is totally stupid.

1) gaming is an interactive media. It's not like music and movies where the data takes a one way trip. Transmitting video of gameplay is a really stupid way of doing this. This sound to me like in order to make a "talking" movie they recorded the video, they recorded the sound and then they had a record player playback the sound at the same time as the movie. Gets the job done, many problems with this solution, and really kind of lazy and not a true solution.

2) I think everyone has a story about losing dozens of clicks of work because a facebook game lost sync to the server.


No I really don't see cloud gaming with the form of onlive and facebook games replacing gaming any time ever.

No what I do see is consoles becoming entertainment centers in every house hold.

Think about it. A console can play games, music, video (either disk or avi), pictures, it can connect to the internet, and it sits below your tv. Modern consoles have given tvs much added functionality. No need to buy a player from each company. They can just release their digital content on WiiWare, PSN or XBL. A breakthrough in digital distribution.

Consoles will be like digital malls. All kind of things in 1 convenient place.

This is the true reason MS got into the console business. Computers are not made for living rooms, consoles are.

What are your thoughts?

[Veno]

I think it's just some kind of trend that's gonna pass. Kind of like 3D and motion controls right now. Companies are trying to capitalize on it, so they can make a profit. I think the future of gaming will have to involve consoles and controllers, because that's how game are supposed to be played. 3D, motion controls, digital distribution, and this cloud gaming are just side dishes in my opinion.

[Anubis]

Honestly, I see a return to the older style of videogames at some point. The market may crash.

That or games are going to continue to grow like and be developed like their Hollywood productions, pushing out any smaller company that doesn't have millions of dollars to spend on PR.

[final fight cd]

3D, motion controls, digital distribution, and this cloud gaming are just side dishes in my opinion.

i definitely wouldn't be calling 3d a side dish...yet. it isn't even here yet. i haven't seen a new generation 3d movie yet - avatar for example - but my friends tell me it isn't about having objects 'pop out' at you, it is about creating 'depth' on screen. i don't know about you, but this sounds fucking awesome and if they can pull this off i am sure video games will never be the same.

[Pulsar_t]

Infrastructure isn't growing as rapidly as content providers hoped it would. Obviously it would benefit content providers to give their consumers as little control as possible.

The question that we should be asking: Is demand for large budget games strong enough to support the soaring costs and time needed to develop such games? Publishers are going to look to increase their audiences, and whilst ambition plays a factor in this it all comes down to the bottom line. With seventh generation of consoles tanking so many publishers it isn't far fetched that the cloud computing model with bite-sized games―akin to TV episodes―and family-friendly games like Natal and Move (or whatever the hell they're called now) are going to become the norm.

Let's stretch expectations a bit too much and say that fiber optics will be in place in most residential districts in industrial countries by the time the PS4 and Xbox3 come around. Do you really think publishers will still be bothered to give you the games in physical form?

[Flake]

I just hope that we gamers who enjoy the simpler, more classic style games aren't marginalized any further by game companies who focus far too much on 'AAA' titles that all end up being the same as one another.

[MrPopo]

The biggest problem I see with the Cloud is latency and bandwidth. Whatever my ping is to their server will delay my button presses by that amount just for the machine to recognize it. Then there's another delay in the results coming back to me over the video stream. And that stream is going to have problems because of how much bandwidth its going to take up. If I play two hours of Team Fortress 2 a night it would be the equivalent of me streaming a 1080p movie every night. That's going to murder your bandwidth. And all of that is assuming a perfect connection (i.e. no dropped packets).

Cloud computing is a good thing for large apps that are based around workflows. They can scale their fleets and can handle dropped connections if they're well written. A video game is far too real-time, though, to effectively use the cloud.

[wip3outguy7]

Bandwidth will catch up, or those who control it will start extreme capping and send us into the internet dark ages.

I'm thinking motion control of some sort will slowly improve and become commonplace in games, for better or worse. It is here to stay.

I think the next "motion" control is going to be 3D. Hey, everyone already owns an HDTV who's going to get one so the manufactures have to come up with something new for us to buy.

In all seriousness, I think 3D will be off to a slow start at a premium price. When other forms of media start accepting it, we will begin to see more and more games including it. Eventually we will have displays that won't require glasses and that will be that.

I think that eventually we will go as far as we can with 3D and interactive motion controls and we will finally start to see neural interfaces (which is what we should be doing right now instead of wagging stupid snickers bars and dancing in front of infrared cameras - that shit is holding us back). Once basic, outer-ware interfaces are the norm we will start to see wet-ware. No more wagging needed. No more charades in front of the TV. Hell, no need for displays anymore.

[Anayo]

I want control of my games to stay in my hands.

I do not want to rely on an external infrastructure for my game. Hence my hatred of firmware, DRM, and mandatory internet connections.

They're going to have to make it really darn convenient and awesome to win me over with something like that. By convenient I mean:
1. Super easy, like playing a flash game that just loads in my browser
2. Super awesome, like harnessing the power of a freaking render farm to play a game.

And I just don't see that sort of thing coming to fruition. Sorry!

[bobbynewmarkiii]

Surely cloud gaming is here already in the form of some of the hugely popular games on facebook? I've not played any such games, but am aware that 'farmville' is supposed to be some kind of video game, and is very popular with women and homosexuals who would not otherwise play games.

As for the future of gaming - diversification. People like those who visit sites like this have a significant financial thumbprint and will never let the traditional genres of videogame die. They may not be as prevalent as in days gone by, but I do not see 'video games' in the traditional sense dying out. Casual and cloud gaming will continue to gather pace, as will motion sensing and other stuff that I couldn't care less about.