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The Future of Gaming – Where is it headed?

by Stephen Jackson

Here at Gaming Respawn, we love bringing you original content and sharing our passion of video games and writing with fellow gamers! With the next-gen now well and truly on top of us (so it is now current-gen right?) we ask the question, what direction is gaming heading in? What does the future of gaming entail and where is it headed?

Virtual Reality? Graphics? eSports? More over-priced DLC and Season passes or Early Access titles which stay, well Early Access? The gaming industry has changed as we know it and will keep changing, but where exactly do some of our team think it will end up?

Who do you agree with most? Where do you think it will go? Let us know, we are dying to hear from you!

 

Daniel Choppen – Editor-in-Chief & Media Editor

As we have seen recently, I believe that sites such as Twitch and YouTube will grow exponentially. This would be due to the massive input from all parties involved. There will be more content creators, due to the low barrier of entry and growing lucrativeness of the business. Game publishers and advertisers will also begin to use these platforms more effectively as marketing tools and the viewership will also increase. This would be due to increased quality of streamers and from the improved attention from games companies.
I believe that this will lead to a change in the types of games we play. Esports is proving to be more and more successful and so we will see an increase in games trying to capitalise on this, especially with the growth of YouTube and Twitch. Also the diversity of platforms available will vastly change the way games are created. With laptops almost as powerful as a PS4, and phones growing to be more and more powerful, it only makes sense for both the quality of games to increase and the scale.
I would also like the see a change in gaming culture. I’d like to see publishers take more care with their games and begin to treat them as artworks and not just products. Similarly I’d like to see the community improve. It seems we have a very vocal minority at the moment that gives the industry a bad name. Hopefully with time, these people will grow up a bit and learn that we do not need to be exclusive of our hobby. Because of this, I think we’ll see an increase in the types of people getting involved, with a massive growth of women and different age groups.

Kane Newell – Editorial & Features Writer

The future of gaming doesn’t really interest or excite me at the moment. I just don’t see it going anywhere good which is a bit saddening. I’ve been extremely disappointed with this current gen. There have just been to many problems. Games get announced way to early, and then publishers hype them up like it will be the next coming of Jesus himself. Only for the game to get delayed or flop and leave many disappointed. There always seems to be a new trend that rubs people up the wrong way. E.G, online passes, DLC passes, exclusive preorder bonuses only available a certain places. Held back game content later sold for money or given free exclusive to one console. But enough about this gen, my concerns with the future of gaming and VR is simple I don’t trust them. I look at the Sony Move and Xbox Kinect and I see the failed promises, lack of content and zero support. I don’t think VR will take off, it will just be another fad that won’t have many reasons to spend hard earned money on. And gaming will go back to the old traditional way that it’s always been before until someone thinks of the next “ground breaking trend”

Jorge Godinez – Reviewer

It still amazes me everyday how far video games have come. Because of my youthfulness, I was not around when the first revolutionary video games were created. I am talking about games like the first Mario and the first Zelda. I never even played games like the first Metal Gear Solid when it was released because I was so young. Now having gone back to play a lot of these games, it is truly astounding to see where video games are now as we know them.
As the stories improved so did the gameplay and graphics. The story no longer was told to you through a booklet packaged in with a game. Now the game told the story with dialogue and cut scenes prepared to excite you. Gameplay was no longer just moving with a simple D-pad and using one or two buttons. Gameplay improved just as controllers started to get more buttons, gifting you the option to command your character in many new ways. Finally, the graphics. The graphics in today’s gaming can be so real. Video games managed to evolve from 8-bit pixel graphics to graphics that compete with real life. It poses the question, where do video games improve from here?
We know that virtual reality is something a lot of companies are looking into as the next big thing but I believe that “true” realistic looking virtual reality is still a longs way ahead. Right now we only have head sets to let us see into a new world but who knows? Maybe one day we can actually be in a video game. For now, I hope that video games keep being made like they are now, fun and enjoyable. Because, “above all, video games are meant to be just one thing: fun. Fun for everyone” (Satoru Iwata).

Jesse Marsella – Reviewer

I hope the future of gaming is going, virtual reality. I love the idea of having to actually run around physically to get my in-game character to move forward and using a fake gun to have my character use its in-game weapon. I know that’s years away, if that, but that’s where I want to see gaming eventually end up. On a more recent future of gaming note I remember during E3 this year during a Minecraft demo  they showed off the “hololens” ( link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yg6ljnASxw). I think right now the implications would be huge for RTS games and I would love to see something like this implemented in any real time strategy games to organize and move units. 

Daniel Garcia-Montes – Reviewer

It’s normally very difficult to tell in what direction the gaming industry will go. During the generation of platforms that gave us the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube, gaming was simple. We buy games, play them, unlock stuff after beating them, and that’s it. Then came the next, much more complicated generation of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. With the new systems on the block, we still buy games, unlock stuff, etc. But then, we get updates and extra additions depending on the game: new story missions, new characters, new weapons, new online modes. And more often than not, they will cost extra. Things had quickly gotten more complicated. Now in the current generation of PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii-U, things have not gotten any easier. If anything, they’re even more complicated.


Back when I still played my PlayStation 2, I never imagined how complicated things would get once the newer generation of gaming platforms was available to us all. Back then, we could pop in our games and start playing them right away. Now half the time we have to wait for updates and downloads that could last twenty minutes before we are able to start beating up the forces of evil or shooting our dearest friends in the face. And I greatly miss backwards compatibility. But with these complications come some pretty cool features. Granted, quality games simply cost more nowadays to produce and gaming companies need the extra revenue to provide us with these games.

Unfortunately, some companies take advantage of the whole “charging more cash for more content” business practice, though apparently Nintendo doesn’t do this as much as other companies like EA and so on. Now it’s come to the point where many gamers are more jaded than ever and believe every game company is seeking to cheat us out of our hard-earned cash by providing us with barebones games that don’t become full games until after we buy and download more stuff. So what’s going to happen when the PlayStation 5, Xbox Infinity, and Wii-Z plug themselves into our television sets? Good question.

Will things become even more complicated? Or will gaming companies surprise us and simplify gaming for us? Wouldn’t it be nice if any extra stuff like extra characters, story missions, maps, etc. came already packaged into games like they used to back in the day? The thing is, would games cost even more than they do now if they came packaged with every possible addition? Would they take even longer for companies to develop them? Would anyone even buy these more expensive games after waiting an average of three or four years for them to be available? It’s very possible all those things would happen, but I’m far from being an expert on the matter. I normally prefer not to stress myself out over the politics of gaming and get all ornery over how everything sucks like the average Democrat or Republican does over government politics. I just wanna have some good, harmless fun by cutting off Orc heads and snapping the necks of terrorists. Is that too much to ask? Call me easy to please if you wish, but I simply try to be happy with what I get.

Although, how freakishly realistic will graphics look in a few years, right? Maybe it will come to the point where gaming companies will simply start hiring real life actors and using advanced animatronics to fool us into thinking that we’re controlling digital soldiers and assassins fighting against monsters and aliens. Didn’t that just blow your minds?

Michael Fitzgerald – Reviewer

It seems like they’re going to be pushing VR a lot, with the eye being to making it the standard format for games in the future. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see that working. It’s nice as a novelty and something that you can have, but to me the best thing about gaming on a console is the simplicity at heart of it. You plug in your console, attach your controller, insert game and switch the power on. Simple, elegant and easy for anyone to do. Even those stupid kids on YouTube eventually managed to get a NES working after some trial and error.

Forcing someone to slap on a VR visor on top of that just defeats the purpose in my eyes. I know I’m coming across as a crusty old man here, but I don’t care. I’m sick of Wii motes, I’m sick of Connect and I’m sick of all the unnecessary garnish that people within the industry keep trying to crowbar in as an essential part of the experience. People want to have VR? Great, let them plump up the cash to have it as an optional extra but don’t make it core to gaming.

I hope, against hope, that when Nintendo finally release the NX they just release a console. Just a standard console with specs that match the PS4 and X-Box One. A standard console, with a normal controller, that they just make games for. God I’d be so freaking happy if they did that, you wouldn’t believe. Ask yourself this question, if you could only purchase one machine, would you purchase the one that has little to no third party support and the worst multi-plats? Chances are, the answer to that question is no. That, in a nutshell, is why Nintendo has been struggling since the days of the N64. The N64, Gamecube, Wii and Wii U have all had some excellent games. I’m talking some true bonafide classics. But, with the exception of the Wii attracting all the casuals who probably didn’t even think of it as a console to begin with, they’ve all been stomped by SONY and Microsoft. Why? Because if you’re the kind of gamer who wants to play all the major releases, the consoles just didn’t provide as good an experience as the SONY and Microsoft equivalents.

If Nintendo really want to succeed, they have to go back to what they haven’t done since the days of the SNES. They need to start producing multi-plats that match up to their competitors. They need to have versions of the top games that match what the other two are providing. If they can do that, alongside producing excellent first party games based around their eternally endearing cast of characters and mascots, they could provide a genuine challenge to SONY and Microsoft.

That being said, we’ll probably get an inferior machine with some kind of wacky controller that you control with your buttock cheeks and the odd decent Mario game that people will never play because they’re playing Madden NFL on their PlayStation or X-Box.

Optimistic sod aren’t I?

 

Stephen Jackson – Gaming Respawn Founder

Unfortunately,  I can’t see the gaming industry changing too much in the future, with regards to how the industry operates. I think we will see more of the same bad, repetitive, rinse and repeat strategies and games which we have become accustomed to. So long as people keep coughing up their hard-earned cash, why would things change? Unless people vote with their wallets, over-priced DLC, season passes and cash grabs will continue to tarnish the industry.

However despite all of that, what will be possible to do in video games will only continue to increase in scope as time passes. I really think that virtual reality is where the industry will be headed and within a few years time, it will be mainstream and a part of everyday gaming routine. I could be wrong, who knows, it could completely flop. It wouldn’t be the first breakthrough piece of tech to absolutely tank. But there is a market for it and gamers around the world can’t wait to get their hands on virtual reality. I think the deciding factor will be whether or not the games can live up to the hype and deliver the experiences gamers want.

In 2016 and the years that follow, I fully expect us to be playing games which look as close to real-life as you are likely to get and that excites me. Game worlds will get bigger and what we can do within in them will become unprecedented. The question is, will developers and publishers, with the 2015 mentality, be able to take full advantage and steer gaming into new heights and uncharted territory?

Stephen is Gaming Respawn's Editor-in-Chief and takes care of the day-to-day running of the site. You're most likely to see him chilling in the news section where he happens to spend most of his time covering the latest news.

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1 comment

D.G.M. August 10, 2015 at 15:44

I really liked this article, some really well thought out and insightful opinions here. Good, good stuff. I didn’t mention this directly in my own opinion piece, but on the topic of VR gaming, I agree whole-heartedly with Kane, Jorge, and Michael (sorry, Stephen). I hope to the video gaming gods that VR doesn’t become too mainstream and takes over the gaming scene, just that it remains as an extra option (one which I personally have very little interest in).
I can see VR working for third-person and first-person shooters, but for more crazy, action adventure games or free-roamers similar to Devil May Cry, Batman, Mass Effect, and so on….I just don’t see it working very well. I would like at least some parts of gaming to remain simple and fun.

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