Gaming in 20 years realistically

[dreama1]

Gaming in 20 years realistically. Where will we be at what will the prices be for retro higher or lower? What will be the mindset of the industry?

[soera]

There wont be much gaming in 20 years. Its going to be all mobile crap apps.

None of the kids now will give 2 fucks about retro cause even now a lot of stuff is digital. Almost everything will be download available or emulated to the point of consoles probably wont even be sold at that time.

[maximo310]

There wont be much gaming in 20 years. Its going to be all mobile crap apps.

None of the kids now will give 2 fucks about retro cause even now a lot of stuff is digital. Almost everything will be download available or emulated to the point of consoles probably wont even be sold at that time.

I second that notion. It's no surprise how much a lot of tech companies are advocating a shift to digital releases, so physical copies of games are going to become more coveted by that point in time.

[bikingjahuty]

In 20 years I believe most entertainment will be streamlined to single devices, mostly phones and TV. We are already seeing this trend grow, and I believe within 10-years it'll dominate. As a result, dedicated platforms like game consoles and MP3 players will be phased out. I don't think that this will be the last gen of game consoles, but would be surprised if there if there is more then two gens after this. Also physical media will become less and less common for new releases, and within 20-years I can see it being phased out.


In terms retro gaming's future, I think new consoles will become popular to play and collect for as the generation that grew up with them gets older and settle into careers. We are seeing this now with NES, SNES, Genesis, and it's starting to transition to PS1 and N64 (Saturn has been expensive for years). So I think there will always be consoles that are popular to collect for because there will always be groups of people that like them. I can see many of these older games getting digital releases which will definitely decrease the demand for many games, but I don't think retro gaming will ever die or no one will do it anymore.

[badATchaos]

Once broadband becomes more reliable/faster, streaming services akin to onLive will be the thing, at least for big budget games from major publishers. No need for DRM, sending out updates/patches, or upgrading hardware. At the same time I don't see App stores like Steam or iTunes going away.

As far as retro gaming and collecting goes I don't see it going away either. There will always be a market for old or obsolete items no matter the time differential between the collector and the item in question. As long as there's a contemporary version there will always be someone who'll appreciate the history or origins of it, and what to collect for it. The same way people collect muscle cars, currency, vinyl records, and antique firearms.

Take me for example, I'm 24. The NES came out five years before I was even born. I grew up playing N64 and GameCube games but that doesn't mean I don't care for their predecessors. I currently have more NES titles than any other platform (other than Steam that is ). I really enjoy 8-16 bit stuff. As time goes on the market will shrink, but there'll always be people like me who'll invest in things before their time.

As for "mindset" that's even hard to determine on a year to year basis sometimes. -Not sure how you can predict that far ahead. If there's another War World there might be no mindset at all.  If you know, tell me so we can all get rich.

[dashv]

In 20 years I believe most entertainment will be streamlined to single devices, mostly phones and TV. We are already seeing this trend grow, and I believe within 10-years it'll dominate. As a result, dedicated platforms like game consoles and MP3 players will be phased out. I don't think that this will be the last gen of game consoles, but would be surprised if there if there is more then two gens after this. Also physical media will become less and less common for new releases, and within 20-years I can see it being phased out.


In terms retro gaming's future, I think new consoles will become popular to play and collect for as the generation that grew up with them gets older and settle into careers. We are seeing this now with NES, SNES, Genesis, and it's starting to transition to PS1 and N64 (Saturn has been expensive for years). So I think there will always be consoles that are popular to collect for because there will always be groups of people that like them. I can see many of these older games getting digital releases which will definitely decrease the demand for many games, but I don't think retro gaming will ever die or no one will do it anymore.

These are my thoughts exactly.

My current tv already does netflix, hulu, and light gaming all built in. It even has enough horsepower and network connectivity to replace any need for a media center. It is the media center.

In the future I imagine one of the big 3 May partner with tv manufacturers to provide "app" versions of their titles leveraging the processing power in newer TVs and phones.

Sony's idea that it's going to stream all non-ps4 games to it's latest console is a step in that direction.

If not phones, other wearables will come along as die electronics continue to shrink in size and increase in capability.

As for retro, the neo hipster crowd alone will never let retro die and clone makers are getting good enough that a whole new generation (like my 11 year old) is being exposed to legit retro.

[theflea]

well I've been collecting for over 20 years now and when I first started most people thought I was crazy.
I was on my bike every weekend hitting the garage sales picking up old Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, NES, and other older games from the 80s. I was real young and I remember some weekends going out with nothing but a bag of change in my backpack picking up games for 25c - 1.00. There was one I gave a full bag of pennies to (think it was close to a dollar) lol and bought a box full of old Atari 2600, 400/800 and INTV games.

Nowadays People look at my collection and they look in awe, Even those old Atari games no one cared about people love.
Ya prices have shot up a lot, a rare game like Little Samson would cost ya maybe $50-80 back then from ebay. I remember almost spending a $150 for one only six years ago. I so regret not buying it now. lol

How will game collecting change in the next 20 years?
Well like most people say, slowly it will become more and more digital and not much will be psychical copies. Games you buy in a store will just be cards that you scan a code off of and the game downloads to your console. For me as long as games have a psychical copy I'll be buying the newest consoles, the second it's all digital, ya I might buy a console (after it's been out a while and gone down in price) and download the games I want to play here and there. But I won't pre-order games, buy collector editions and all the games I do buy and download would be games that are on sale. I'll never buy an online only game at full price. I was excited about Titanfall & Destiny til I found they where online only then I passed. (maybe if I see them reduced under $20.)

I can see Sony and Microsoft selling a system that's just a receiver that plugs into a TV and you can access games and movies and download it to your TV and start playing. I think Nintendo would hold out, they will keep making handhelds and consoles of some kind, might be all download only with some silly gimmick. (have you guys seen the patents of Nintendo's next game console & handheld?)

Buy this time I might be done with collecting games (at least for the new stuff) lol

[bloodybaron]

I think that everything is going to be digital like everyone is saying, but I think that is just going to promote collecting older physical copies because they'll no longer exist and even just gamers who play the newer stuff and don't collect get pissy when they don't have a manual with a new game.  So yeah everything will be digital, but I think the retro game fad is far from over and will still only grow as its been doing.