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What’s up in the world of video games?
Unless you have been sleeping under a rock the past few years, there has been a lot changing in the world of video games.
iOS and freemium
Without a doubt one very large changing force the last few years has been the introduction of the iOS platform with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Responsible for giving us lower priced games and also introducing the large majority of people to the lovely concept of "freemium" as it has become known. SImply that you get the base game for free and you have to put down some moolah before you get ALL of the game. The other way to do it has been in the roughly six bazillion different time-based construction games, where you can buy yourself free from having to wait for an action to be completed in the game. Lower pricing is nice and good, and some very large companies like EA say they make a very nice, big chunk of money off the platform.
Social shift
Games have become more social, in more ways than one. The traditional suppliers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have made hardware geared at letting people play together in real life as well as together over the Internet, to a varying degree of success. Where the previous generation was more about the single player experience, there has been a big push towards several people gathering around the video game to have fun together. Kind of like how it used to be back in the 1980's unless I'm completely mistaken.
Then we have the online tie-in factor of late. Add your Facebook or Twitter credentials and the game automagically regurgitates your latest high-score or beating a level for the whole world to see. As well as the ton of games available on Facebook, where people can constantly annoy each other with requests for yet another game. And don't even get me started on playing with unknown people online, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Play with your pals from far away instead, I'm sure the experience is more enjoyable. Nintendo is still lagging behind in the online playing department and I do hope they get their stuff together soon. Things are good as they are, but they could get so much better!
Achievements
Blessing or a scourge of modern gaming, the achievements are here to stay. Successfully complete a tutorial or jump off a roof, your progress gets recorded in some arbitrary way that doesn't really add to the overall game value, but rather gives you something to do in order to get 100% in the stats. Good for bragging rights, but in my mind they could be a bit more creative than they have been.
Pricing in general
Depending on what part of the video game business you choose to look at you can notice some trends. Hardware is surprisingly similar to what is always has been with relatively expensive consoles at first, then as time go along the device gets cheaper and cheaper until practically everybody and their uncle has it. Then they start talking about the next generation machine. Business as always and it applies to both stationary and portable machines. In terms of price per individual game the prices have started varying a bit more. Nintendo stubbornly refuse to drop the prices of their own 1st party games even though it's many years since their introduction on the market, while some larger titles on any system remain at about the same price as they did back in the SNES/MegaDrive era.
Where are we going?
I'm afraid my crystal ball is on the fritz and off to the workshop, so I can't do better than my usual speculation. I'd assume that portable gaming will change a bit in the near future, with Nintendo getting a real challenger to their near total dominance since 1989. Mainly from the iOS platform, but from other smartphones to some extent as well. I don't believe the Nintendo or Sony portables will go away completely and we'll all be playing portable games only on smartphones and tablets, but rather that the market share will be different and that the old competitors will have a smaller piece of the action.
In the stationary console market it's a bit more tough. I won't count out unannounced devices or things I have not yet tried myself, so the field is open. I'm not confident Nintendo can repeat the success they have had with the Wii, so the window of opportunity for Sony and Microsoft is very much open. Looking at the past and trying to extrapolate from it, I think the next generation consoles will have a slightly harder time marketing themselves. The areas where you have traditionally been able to "easily" upgrade and improve from one generation to the next isn't quite as easy this time around. Graphics are already pretty awesome and sound is as good as one could wish, for the most part. I'd love to see something really earth-shattering, but I won't hold my breath for it.
Where games will go in terms of content is even more difficult. There might be some really awe-inspiring trend a few months or years down the line and everybody will have their jab at it, as usual. I would like to see more system agnostic games that you can pick up on your portable device when out and about and be able to continue on the big, honking machine when at home. Kind of like how Amazon syncs progress in books via Kindle.
For all the wrongs that occur in the business, I'm still looking forward to what the future holds for video games. I'm a gamer by heart and I have a feeling I'll always be. And besides, if the future sucks too much there are an awful lot of awesome old games available.
Robert Falck
Robert is a freelance tech journalist from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on Bagel Tech and on his site streakmachine.com or you can follow him on twitter @streakmachine.
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Robert Falck