Where do you think the gaming landscape will be in 20 years from now?

[dreama1]

Where do you think the gaming landscape will be in 20 years from now? 2036 AD? The atari generation of gamers will be pushing into their 70s and 80s at this point. We''ll have an older generation sympathetic and relatable as gamers to the young. Strange I know..
For the first time in gaming history we'll have a generation that is dead or dying off of old age at this point with their stories gone as well. People will look at it like a relic of the past.

What will the new generations think of us? Some people today won't touch anything older than PS2. It'll be funny to hear one day that the offspring of that generation won't touch anything older than the PS4 ironically it'll come in full circle.

Will the Xbox 360 and PS3 ever be as admired and looked back on in admiration  as the NES one day, or will they be forgotten in the sands of time for the most part?

A bigger question what will old old retro of the 90s look like price wise at this point?

Try and keep it as grounded in reality as possible.

[indenton]

I don't feel that generations of video games will simply disappear.  As long as people like AVGN stick around on the internet, the existence of NES, Atari, Commadore 64, I feel like any curious gamers will at least be aware of the video game roots.  There are PLENTY of let's play channels and Internet personalities which are still highlighting some of the primitive consoles and franchise

I do think there's a point of which some platforms have simply become inaccessible.  But then we have platforms like Virtual Console and the PlayStation Network.  It's digital, but consoles like the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1 & 2 do still have there place with Nintendo and PlayStation (not so much with the PSVita).  We even have Steam and GOG bringing some older PC and MS-DOS games to the digital market. 

Then we have the Developers themselves like Square Enix which knocked it out of the park with Bravely Default finally realizing what people loved about there earlier RPGs and the long awaited reveal of the FF VII remake, yes it's for new platforms, but if that isn't acknowledging what they did right in the past, I don't what is.

Key Developers breaking away from the shackles of publishers to make the games they themselves (and the fans) want, inspired by there own past accomplishments.  It's happened with Rare and Konami and I bet there are more to come.  The future might not contain the old consoles themselves, but we can tell that there are developers out there who want to carry the flame in a respectable manner.  The traditional game collecting of a shelf full of cartridges may become even more scarce, it looks like it's becoming more digital, but in the end it's about the games, it's about the experience right? 

[hexen]

My guess is that it will be largely the same as it is now. We'll probably have some level of VR by then, but I am skeptical it will be well developed, even in 20 years. Physical media will (sadly) almost certainly be completely phased out, but unfortunately I doubt consoles will die, though they have been on life support even this generation. Micro-transactions will either have been phased out by consumer disgust or overwhelmingly rampant. Indie games will probably be much more prevalent with technology making it easier to make a quality product which will likely result in a lot of innovative/creative games.

[thewelshman]

My guess is that it will be largely the same as it is now. We'll probably have some level of VR by then, but I am skeptical it will be well developed, even in 20 years. Physical media will (sadly) almost certainly be completely phased out, but unfortunately I doubt consoles will die, though they have been on life support even this generation. Micro-transactions will either have been phased out by consumer disgust or overwhelmingly rampant. Indie games will probably be much more prevalent with technology making it easier to make a quality product which will likely result in a lot of innovative/creative games.

You make a great point. With the accessibility of technology for people, homebrew and indie games will become increasingly available and will be a key factor in pushing the industry. You look back on computer and hackers are the reason the industry is where it is today. People pushing the technology to its limits to see what it can do. Where there are games, there will be people who want physical releases. Collectors, like me, who grew up with consoles being released every few years will be collecting them well into their 70s. Video games are a part of our lives.

[bikingjahuty]

* Aside from a niche retro development scene, physical games were be no more. Everything media will likely be close to 100% digital.


* Console gaming will still exist, however most of it will be mobile since phones and tablets are showing themselves quickly to be viable platforms for HD gaming


* Expect the emergence of many small developers becoming household names, while several large devs will likely die out over the years due to the insane cost of producing AAA games.


* Greater integration between social media and gaming, along with games beginning to have more marketing and micro-transactions in them.


* Gaming as a staple of day to day life; with the boomer generation dying out fast, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Y will be running society, meaning one of their favorite past times, gaming, will be much more common.


* a small, but dedicated group of "retro" collectors that seek out games on the now current gen and earlier.

[gf78]

Hopefully, gaming will be similar to what it is today 20 years from now.  Unless something major happens to me physically to affect my ability to play, I don't see myself stopping.

I also actually think we will see some Demolition Man style VR 20 years from now.  Enterprising companies will utilize teledildonics technology to make virtual sex a reality. 

[burningdoom]

-More life-like graphics for big-budget games.

-More of a creative atmosphere for low-budget games thanks to the embrace of the indie-gaming community in the last few years.

-Mostly digital downloads and/or streaming gaming. Most companies will have moved on due to lower production costs and ease of digital distribution.

-I think traditional consoles will be a thing of the past, and we'll all have things like the Roku Stick but for gaming.

-Phones will be built to handle games that only consoles previously could. We're already starting to see some pretty amazing graphics on some phones.

-In contrast to the VR thing, I don't think it will happen. We've been down this road before in the 90s, and people didn't like it. Some things just don't catch on, and I think VR is one of them. We really haven't heard much about the Oculus Rift since the initial promoting of it.

[maximo310]

I feel that in addition to mostly everything beng digital, companies will also try to push streaming for game content possibly due to advancements in technology.

[rayne315]

I feel that in addition to mostly everything beng digital, companies will also try to push streaming for game content possibly due to advancements in technology.

I do not thing pushing streaming would be very wise from the perspective of new games are 20-50GB a piece anymore. That is a shit ton of data to be transferred everytime you want to play a game.

From a data standpoint my ISP only give me 200-250 GB of data a month. If streaming games became popular ISP's would get absolutely bogged down and It doesn't matter how many MB' upload/download you pay for if your ISP reaches the limits of their structures.

[kamikazekeeg]

I feel that in addition to mostly everything beng digital, companies will also try to push streaming for game content possibly due to advancements in technology.

I do not thing pushing streaming would be very wise from the perspective of new games are 20-50GB a piece anymore. That is a shit ton of data to be transferred everytime you want to play a game.

From a data standpoint my ISP only give me 200-250 GB of data a month. If streaming games became popular ISP's would get absolutely bogged down and It doesn't matter how many MB' upload/download you pay for if your ISP reaches the limits of their structures.

20 years is a hell of a leap tech wise and we are at the point where our internet infrastructure has to be overhauled and expanded with the likes of fiber, giving everyone a severe boost.  In 20 years, we'll be looking at the speeds right now as if we were looking at dialup now lol

I think most gaming will be digital for sure.  There's really no reason not too, but I could see some form of physical content continuing on.  Gaming by way of an SD card/USB type plugin.  Small, cheap, can hold plenty of gigs.  With everything basically digitized now, I don't think the old school will ever be forgotten.  As long as companies like Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft still exist, they'll want to release those games again and again.  Not too mention that parents who brought up their kids on those games and then will bring up the next generation on them, it'll still hold a place.  Plus a lot of properties and characters are a part of pop culture.  That stuff doesn't disappear when we still have stuff from the 80's coming back.  In 20 years, things that were popular right now will have that nostalgia for those that grow up.

[rayne315]

I feel that in addition to mostly everything beng digital, companies will also try to push streaming for game content possibly due to advancements in technology.

I do not thing pushing streaming would be very wise from the perspective of new games are 20-50GB a piece anymore. That is a shit ton of data to be transferred everytime you want to play a game.

From a data standpoint my ISP only give me 200-250 GB of data a month. If streaming games became popular ISP's would get absolutely bogged down and It doesn't matter how many MB' upload/download you pay for if your ISP reaches the limits of their structures.

20 years is a hell of a leap tech wise and we are at the point where our internet infrastructure has to be overhauled and expanded with the likes of fiber, giving everyone a severe boost.  In 20 years, we'll be looking at the speeds right now as if we were looking at dialup now lol

I think most gaming will be digital for sure.  There's really no reason not too, but I could see some form of physical content continuing on.  Gaming by way of an SD card/USB type plugin.  Small, cheap, can hold plenty of gigs.  With everything basically digitized now, I don't think the old school will ever be forgotten.  As long as companies like Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft still exist, they'll want to release those games again and again.  Not too mention that parents who brought up their kids on those games and then will bring up the next generation on them, it'll still hold a place.  Plus a lot of properties and characters are a part of pop culture.  That stuff doesn't disappear when we still have stuff from the 80's coming back.  In 20 years, things that were popular right now will have that nostalgia for those that grow up.

What Im saying is that how many customers do you think the typical ISP has? even a local brach? 10,000? 100,000?
now how many of those housholds do you think are/will be gaming households in 20 years? 1/3rd? a half?
and how many days do you think the average gamer plays a game a week? 2 days? 3 days?
In 20 years how large of files do you believe the typical AAA game will be? what it is currently (20-50gb)? 100gb? A TB?
(NOTE: all numbers above are strictly guesses.)

so knowing that a single fiber optic cable has a 10-50gb/s transfer rate depending on distance from the source (the source being the server that holds the data) which would in this case either be places like Nintendo/Sony/Microsofts's server locations or It would be sourced from the developers servers. meaning that If you live anywhere more than 500-1000 miles (800-1600km) away from said locations your looking at the 10gb/s range.

using my lower end numbers a local ISP will be looking at 33.33TB of traffic a day from gamers alone (simple math below) and this is completely ignoring things like peoples sleep times peak hours and other stuff like that. (which would realistically put 90% of that traffic in a 8-10 hour stretch) and to try and further put that into perspective the company I work for has roughly 2000 employees and we are a data heavy industry and our transfers only account for >2 TB of transfers a day as we have a 10TB allowance for the work week and rarely get close to it.

10000/3= 3333 gamers * 2 days = 6666 the number of times a game needs to be streamed in a week * 35gb average of current data requirements for a AAA game=233310gb/1000=233.31 TB in a weeks time /7 days = 33.33TB of data a day just for 3333 people connected to a local branch of an ISP

so If you look at all the data then you will see how improbable it will be that streaming new games becomes a thing.

[gf78]

I can't see game streaming becoming the sole method of "distribution" for gaming.  As Rayne pointed out, that is a helluva lot of bandwidth and with the "progression" of broadband in the US, even 20 years from now we won't be able to make this a widespread reality.  Just a few years ago, I was finally able to receive high-speed internet.  It's a local company using towers for an LTE signal.  Max speed is 10MBps up, 1MBps down.  All plans are tiered with a data cap, the highest being 35gigs per month.  I registered for a tax ID number so I could qualify for a business plan with unlimited data.  I pay $162 a month for that and my phone service.  It is the only internet available in my area with the exception of Hughesnet and Excede.  If anyone has ever had experience with these two "providers" you will know that this is no option at all.  As it stands, I have to kick my kids of their laptops, phones, iPod's or whatever they are using to be able to play online as the bandwidth isn't enough for them to watch YouTube or whatever they are doing and allow me to have a smooth gaming experience. 

As for future delivery options for games, I would have no problem with game cards similar to 3DS cards.  They have enough space to store today's larger games and undoubtedly, they will be able to cram more into a card that size in 20 years.  I would love it if you bought a game, then when they release DLC (good stuff like Bethesda's), you could save it directly to the card that your game is already on. 

[kamikazekeeg]

I feel that in addition to mostly everything beng digital, companies will also try to push streaming for game content possibly due to advancements in technology.

I do not thing pushing streaming would be very wise from the perspective of new games are 20-50GB a piece anymore. That is a shit ton of data to be transferred everytime you want to play a game.

From a data standpoint my ISP only give me 200-250 GB of data a month. If streaming games became popular ISP's would get absolutely bogged down and It doesn't matter how many MB' upload/download you pay for if your ISP reaches the limits of their structures.

20 years is a hell of a leap tech wise and we are at the point where our internet infrastructure has to be overhauled and expanded with the likes of fiber, giving everyone a severe boost.  In 20 years, we'll be looking at the speeds right now as if we were looking at dialup now lol

I think most gaming will be digital for sure.  There's really no reason not too, but I could see some form of physical content continuing on.  Gaming by way of an SD card/USB type plugin.  Small, cheap, can hold plenty of gigs.  With everything basically digitized now, I don't think the old school will ever be forgotten.  As long as companies like Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft still exist, they'll want to release those games again and again.  Not too mention that parents who brought up their kids on those games and then will bring up the next generation on them, it'll still hold a place.  Plus a lot of properties and characters are a part of pop culture.  That stuff doesn't disappear when we still have stuff from the 80's coming back.  In 20 years, things that were popular right now will have that nostalgia for those that grow up.

What Im saying is that how many customers do you think the typical ISP has? even a local brach? 10,000? 100,000?
now how many of those housholds do you think are/will be gaming households in 20 years? 1/3rd? a half?
and how many days do you think the average gamer plays a game a week? 2 days? 3 days?
In 20 years how large of files do you believe the typical AAA game will be? what it is currently (20-50gb)? 100gb? A TB?
(NOTE: all numbers above are strictly guesses.)

so knowing that a single fiber optic cable has a 10-50gb/s transfer rate depending on distance from the source (the source being the server that holds the data) which would in this case either be places like Nintendo/Sony/Microsofts's server locations or It would be sourced from the developers servers. meaning that If you live anywhere more than 500-1000 miles (800-1600km) away from said locations your looking at the 10gb/s range.

using my lower end numbers a local ISP will be looking at 33.33TB of traffic a day from gamers alone (simple math below) and this is completely ignoring things like peoples sleep times peak hours and other stuff like that. (which would realistically put 90% of that traffic in a 8-10 hour stretch) and to try and further put that into perspective the company I work for has roughly 2000 employees and we are a data heavy industry and our transfers only account for >2 TB of transfers a day as we have a 10TB allowance for the work week and rarely get close to it.

10000/3= 3333 gamers * 2 days = 6666 the number of times a game needs to be streamed in a week * 35gb average of current data requirements for a AAA game=233310gb/1000=233.31 TB in a weeks time /7 days = 33.33TB of data a day just for 3333 people connected to a local branch of an ISP

so If you look at all the data then you will see how improbable it will be that streaming new games becomes a thing.

That's very good reasoning, I certainly didn't know the numbers when it comes to this stuff, but that makes sense.  I was less pushing for the idea of streaming being the big focus for gaming, more of just the overall digital landscape being a much bigger focus, and that our internet would be significantly better then compared to now, but what you said does push out game streaming being a big deal.  Short of maybe some brand new advancement that puts fiber to shame by then, it's a far off idea, especially when we consider how long it is taking to get our current infrastructure boosted to higher standards.