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It is a well known fact that once every five years or so console developers churn out a new batch of hardware, each one intended to better the next. It has come that time once again, and while the PlayStation 2 is already released and doing booming business, we are all still waiting eagerly for the rest of the range of next-gen consoles to arrive on our doorsteps. However, while these beauties are the near future of console gaming, one can't help but imagine what the future of gaming will actually bring. The Xbox's killer launch app has achieved much of what we have all dreamed about future consoles doing. It has great graphics, mile-long draw distance and incredibly advanced artificial intelligence. Things do appear to be coming on very well, but not so many of us realise just how drastically the future of gaming may change.
In an ideal world, within the next ten years or so, there will only be one console on the market. There will not be a bunch of new consoles released every 5 years, but there will be just one console, and like PCs, upgrades will be the way. Similar to the N64 expansion pack, these upgrades will not be complex, and will comprise of a simple peripheral to be plugged into the back or underneath of the console. This way, the console can be easily upgraded for half the price of a new one, yet will be much, much easier than upgrading a PC. Companies will therefore compete in making the better upgrades, rather than new consoles in themselves. Games will have hardware requirements, but will not be gobbledegook of numbers and statistics, but mere statements like 'requires level 3 expansion or higher'. Having more than sufficient hardware will merely result smoother graphics, or more advanced bump-mapping. Having the bare minimum hardware won't mean games run with choppy framerates and many glitches, but they'll run perfectly normally, just without some of the flasher effects and graphics. This is something which shall be drastically different to the way games run on the bare minimum PC requirements,.
There are likely to be many makes of these consoles, but all will be able to run the same games and accept the same upgrades, as is the case with PCs. This way Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can still make profits with hardware as well as software. Games consoles will ideally be standard in future households, like video players and TVs are today. Imagine what it would be like watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, except answering questions yourself, interacting with the very programs. That would be one of the many revolutions in technology that we would be likely to see, and a revolution which would be very well received in the video-gaming community.
It is very difficult to speculate the direction in which the industry will go. We could be seeing what I have hoped for, or we could be seeing a race in which there are as many hardware developers as there are software developers. But the consoles themselves are unlikely to be the only things to change. I hypothesize that there will be another quantum leap in gaming, similar to that jump taken from 2 dimensions to 3. No longer will there be any hardware restrictions, which means quality in games will be purely down to the talents and effort of the programmers. Fogging will merely be a myth, an aspect that can only be witnessed in games like 'Space Army Men, Bjorns revenge 12 air and land attack by sea' and 'Gradius 3 and 4 again'. Extras will run rife in gaming, things seen currently in games like Metal Gear Solid 2 will be the norm in future games, and because of such ludicrously advanced hardware, all the flash effects that current consoles struggle to achieve would be rendered with aptitude and ease..
As with what has happened with the internet, user-made games by people who aren’t programmers or computer whiz’s shall also be a common site. There are likely to be applications which allow people to make their own games, such as Dreamweaver with the internet. Magazines will no longer be in this format, but large programs with loads of information similar to demo discs with today’s magazines. As is coming with all our current new consoles, the internet will be the norm, as will broadband (bless it). Online gaming will be the in-thing, and you won’t be saying to your mates ‘lets go down t’pub n get a half pint (heh heh)’, you’ll be saying ‘lets go online and get a virtual half pint (heh heh)’. User made levels, patches and extras will all be available online as will endless free downloads. Everything is likely to be customisable; music, skill level, weapons/items, clothes etc. No longer will you have to play as some half pint super hero who’s actually about 120 years old and was invented by a senile old book-writer, oh no, advanced face mapping, body mapping and the like. will mean that you can play as YOU in games. You will be the hero. You can meet people, talk to people, live with people all online with MMORPGs. You can earn a reputation and become a baron of gaming, or be the most hated person in gaming since um.... someone.
And of course, where would future of gaming be without the endless churn of sequels? ‘Gran Turismo 12’ anyone? ‘Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, I Swear it is, No lie!’??? But here, you only have to buy one game, and by means of a new law which will be passed when pb becomes prime minister, the developers are obliged to just make downloadable upgrade patches which add those little extras which are the only difference between the original game and the sequel. For those lazy people, you will no longer need to go out to buy your games, just download them from virtual shops. Games can be kept on these terrabyte big hard drives with no need for them to be written onto any kind of media, and top scores will go onto both personal and world wide high score tables. Fancy a quick England versus Germany match? Just pop online and you’re away. Want to kick the crap out of a llama? Just pop online and you’re away again. Online gaming, along with infinite numbers of extra patches and extras means that never will you run out of new things to do in your games.
So I come to my final point. In the ways stated above, the future of gaming sure does look bright, but it also seems too scary, novel and complex for anyone to attempt. Imagine MSN messenger. Everyone has it, and there are about 2 billion users worldwide. Imagine all these individual people, not having conversations, but having a quick multiplayer game with each other. Its a daunting thought, but one that must not be forgotten. We are living in a high-tech society, and if our discoveries and advances are embraced and utilised, improved on rather than duplicated, I am sure that come the Future of Gaming, it will be a wholesome experience that even the most critical of us will enjoy. By all means, enjoy your PlayStation 2’s, GameCube’s and Xbox’s, but just think for a moment what you have, and the potential for growth in the video-gaming industry.
Thanks for reading,
½ Pint
In an ideal world, within the next ten years or so, there will only be one console on the market. There will not be a bunch of new consoles released every 5 years, but there will be just one console, and like PCs, upgrades will be the way. Similar to the N64 expansion pack, these upgrades will not be complex, and will comprise of a simple peripheral to be plugged into the back or underneath of the console. This way, the console can be easily upgraded for half the price of a new one, yet will be much, much easier than upgrading a PC. Companies will therefore compete in making the better upgrades, rather than new consoles in themselves. Games will have hardware requirements, but will not be gobbledegook of numbers and statistics, but mere statements like 'requires level 3 expansion or higher'. Having more than sufficient hardware will merely result smoother graphics, or more advanced bump-mapping. Having the bare minimum hardware won't mean games run with choppy framerates and many glitches, but they'll run perfectly normally, just without some of the flasher effects and graphics. This is something which shall be drastically different to the way games run on the bare minimum PC requirements,.
There are likely to be many makes of these consoles, but all will be able to run the same games and accept the same upgrades, as is the case with PCs. This way Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can still make profits with hardware as well as software. Games consoles will ideally be standard in future households, like video players and TVs are today. Imagine what it would be like watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, except answering questions yourself, interacting with the very programs. That would be one of the many revolutions in technology that we would be likely to see, and a revolution which would be very well received in the video-gaming community.
It is very difficult to speculate the direction in which the industry will go. We could be seeing what I have hoped for, or we could be seeing a race in which there are as many hardware developers as there are software developers. But the consoles themselves are unlikely to be the only things to change. I hypothesize that there will be another quantum leap in gaming, similar to that jump taken from 2 dimensions to 3. No longer will there be any hardware restrictions, which means quality in games will be purely down to the talents and effort of the programmers. Fogging will merely be a myth, an aspect that can only be witnessed in games like 'Space Army Men, Bjorns revenge 12 air and land attack by sea' and 'Gradius 3 and 4 again'. Extras will run rife in gaming, things seen currently in games like Metal Gear Solid 2 will be the norm in future games, and because of such ludicrously advanced hardware, all the flash effects that current consoles struggle to achieve would be rendered with aptitude and ease..
As with what has happened with the internet, user-made games by people who aren’t programmers or computer whiz’s shall also be a common site. There are likely to be applications which allow people to make their own games, such as Dreamweaver with the internet. Magazines will no longer be in this format, but large programs with loads of information similar to demo discs with today’s magazines. As is coming with all our current new consoles, the internet will be the norm, as will broadband (bless it). Online gaming will be the in-thing, and you won’t be saying to your mates ‘lets go down t’pub n get a half pint (heh heh)’, you’ll be saying ‘lets go online and get a virtual half pint (heh heh)’. User made levels, patches and extras will all be available online as will endless free downloads. Everything is likely to be customisable; music, skill level, weapons/items, clothes etc. No longer will you have to play as some half pint super hero who’s actually about 120 years old and was invented by a senile old book-writer, oh no, advanced face mapping, body mapping and the like. will mean that you can play as YOU in games. You will be the hero. You can meet people, talk to people, live with people all online with MMORPGs. You can earn a reputation and become a baron of gaming, or be the most hated person in gaming since um.... someone.
And of course, where would future of gaming be without the endless churn of sequels? ‘Gran Turismo 12’ anyone? ‘Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, I Swear it is, No lie!’??? But here, you only have to buy one game, and by means of a new law which will be passed when pb becomes prime minister, the developers are obliged to just make downloadable upgrade patches which add those little extras which are the only difference between the original game and the sequel. For those lazy people, you will no longer need to go out to buy your games, just download them from virtual shops. Games can be kept on these terrabyte big hard drives with no need for them to be written onto any kind of media, and top scores will go onto both personal and world wide high score tables. Fancy a quick England versus Germany match? Just pop online and you’re away. Want to kick the crap out of a llama? Just pop online and you’re away again. Online gaming, along with infinite numbers of extra patches and extras means that never will you run out of new things to do in your games.
So I come to my final point. In the ways stated above, the future of gaming sure does look bright, but it also seems too scary, novel and complex for anyone to attempt. Imagine MSN messenger. Everyone has it, and there are about 2 billion users worldwide. Imagine all these individual people, not having conversations, but having a quick multiplayer game with each other. Its a daunting thought, but one that must not be forgotten. We are living in a high-tech society, and if our discoveries and advances are embraced and utilised, improved on rather than duplicated, I am sure that come the Future of Gaming, it will be a wholesome experience that even the most critical of us will enjoy. By all means, enjoy your PlayStation 2’s, GameCube’s and Xbox’s, but just think for a moment what you have, and the potential for growth in the video-gaming industry.
Thanks for reading,
½ Pint
Ah, the idea of convergence with consoles...
Every other industry has converged on a set standard-
You buy IBM compatable PCs
VHS Video Players
PAL TVs
So, will consoles follow suite? Well, personally, despite the big advantages of convergence, I don't think we'll see it for a LONG time.
The reason I say this is simply that, despite how popular one console is, other console amnufacturers are going to go off and do their own thing.
You see, the reason VHS was embraced was simply that it had the best sales, and hence the whole video industry used this standard.
Even if the PS2 does far better than the other consoles, Ninty aren't going to start making a console that will play PS2 games...
Not only that, but even if they wanted to, Sony have copywrited most of the code needed to run PS2 games anyway!
Sega almost started convergence when they allowed PC manufacturers and set top box makers to incorporate DC technology... it's a pity none of the ideas have made it!
Sonic
Every other industry has converged on a set standard-
You buy IBM compatable PCs
VHS Video Players
PAL TVs
So, will consoles follow suite? Well, personally, despite the big advantages of convergence, I don't think we'll see it for a LONG time.
The reason I say this is simply that, despite how popular one console is, other console amnufacturers are going to go off and do their own thing.
You see, the reason VHS was embraced was simply that it had the best sales, and hence the whole video industry used this standard.
Even if the PS2 does far better than the other consoles, Ninty aren't going to start making a console that will play PS2 games...
Not only that, but even if they wanted to, Sony have copywrited most of the code needed to run PS2 games anyway!
Sega almost started convergence when they allowed PC manufacturers and set top box makers to incorporate DC technology... it's a pity none of the ideas have made it!
Sonic
It is a well known fact that once every five years or so console developers churn out a new batch of hardware, each one intended to better the next. It has come that time once again, and while the PlayStation 2 is already released and doing booming business, we are all still waiting eagerly for the rest of the range of next-gen consoles to arrive on our doorsteps. However, while these beauties are the near future of console gaming, one can't help but imagine what the future of gaming will actually bring. The Xbox's killer launch app has achieved much of what we have all dreamed about future consoles doing. It has great graphics, mile-long draw distance and incredibly advanced artificial intelligence. Things do appear to be coming on very well, but not so many of us realise just how drastically the future of gaming may change.
In an ideal world, within the next ten years or so, there will only be one console on the market. There will not be a bunch of new consoles released every 5 years, but there will be just one console, and like PCs, upgrades will be the way. Similar to the N64 expansion pack, these upgrades will not be complex, and will comprise of a simple peripheral to be plugged into the back or underneath of the console. This way, the console can be easily upgraded for half the price of a new one, yet will be much, much easier than upgrading a PC. Companies will therefore compete in making the better upgrades, rather than new consoles in themselves. Games will have hardware requirements, but will not be gobbledegook of numbers and statistics, but mere statements like 'requires level 3 expansion or higher'. Having more than sufficient hardware will merely result smoother graphics, or more advanced bump-mapping. Having the bare minimum hardware won't mean games run with choppy framerates and many glitches, but they'll run perfectly normally, just without some of the flasher effects and graphics. This is something which shall be drastically different to the way games run on the bare minimum PC requirements,.
There are likely to be many makes of these consoles, but all will be able to run the same games and accept the same upgrades, as is the case with PCs. This way Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can still make profits with hardware as well as software. Games consoles will ideally be standard in future households, like video players and TVs are today. Imagine what it would be like watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, except answering questions yourself, interacting with the very programs. That would be one of the many revolutions in technology that we would be likely to see, and a revolution which would be very well received in the video-gaming community.
It is very difficult to speculate the direction in which the industry will go. We could be seeing what I have hoped for, or we could be seeing a race in which there are as many hardware developers as there are software developers. But the consoles themselves are unlikely to be the only things to change. I hypothesize that there will be another quantum leap in gaming, similar to that jump taken from 2 dimensions to 3. No longer will there be any hardware restrictions, which means quality in games will be purely down to the talents and effort of the programmers. Fogging will merely be a myth, an aspect that can only be witnessed in games like 'Space Army Men, Bjorns revenge 12 air and land attack by sea' and 'Gradius 3 and 4 again'. Extras will run rife in gaming, things seen currently in games like Metal Gear Solid 2 will be the norm in future games, and because of such ludicrously advanced hardware, all the flash effects that current consoles struggle to achieve would be rendered with aptitude and ease..
As with what has happened with the internet, user-made games by people who aren’t programmers or computer whiz’s shall also be a common site. There are likely to be applications which allow people to make their own games, such as Dreamweaver with the internet. Magazines will no longer be in this format, but large programs with loads of information similar to demo discs with today’s magazines. As is coming with all our current new consoles, the internet will be the norm, as will broadband (bless it). Online gaming will be the in-thing, and you won’t be saying to your mates ‘lets go down t’pub n get a half pint (heh heh)’, you’ll be saying ‘lets go online and get a virtual half pint (heh heh)’. User made levels, patches and extras will all be available online as will endless free downloads. Everything is likely to be customisable; music, skill level, weapons/items, clothes etc. No longer will you have to play as some half pint super hero who’s actually about 120 years old and was invented by a senile old book-writer, oh no, advanced face mapping, body mapping and the like. will mean that you can play as YOU in games. You will be the hero. You can meet people, talk to people, live with people all online with MMORPGs. You can earn a reputation and become a baron of gaming, or be the most hated person in gaming since um.... someone.
And of course, where would future of gaming be without the endless churn of sequels? ‘Gran Turismo 12’ anyone? ‘Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, I Swear it is, No lie!’??? But here, you only have to buy one game, and by means of a new law which will be passed when pb becomes prime minister, the developers are obliged to just make downloadable upgrade patches which add those little extras which are the only difference between the original game and the sequel. For those lazy people, you will no longer need to go out to buy your games, just download them from virtual shops. Games can be kept on these terrabyte big hard drives with no need for them to be written onto any kind of media, and top scores will go onto both personal and world wide high score tables. Fancy a quick England versus Germany match? Just pop online and you’re away. Want to kick the crap out of a llama? Just pop online and you’re away again. Online gaming, along with infinite numbers of extra patches and extras means that never will you run out of new things to do in your games.
So I come to my final point. In the ways stated above, the future of gaming sure does look bright, but it also seems too scary, novel and complex for anyone to attempt. Imagine MSN messenger. Everyone has it, and there are about 2 billion users worldwide. Imagine all these individual people, not having conversations, but having a quick multiplayer game with each other. Its a daunting thought, but one that must not be forgotten. We are living in a high-tech society, and if our discoveries and advances are embraced and utilised, improved on rather than duplicated, I am sure that come the Future of Gaming, it will be a wholesome experience that even the most critical of us will enjoy. By all means, enjoy your PlayStation 2’s, GameCube’s and Xbox’s, but just think for a moment what you have, and the potential for growth in the video-gaming industry.
Thanks for reading,
½ Pint
In an ideal world, within the next ten years or so, there will only be one console on the market. There will not be a bunch of new consoles released every 5 years, but there will be just one console, and like PCs, upgrades will be the way. Similar to the N64 expansion pack, these upgrades will not be complex, and will comprise of a simple peripheral to be plugged into the back or underneath of the console. This way, the console can be easily upgraded for half the price of a new one, yet will be much, much easier than upgrading a PC. Companies will therefore compete in making the better upgrades, rather than new consoles in themselves. Games will have hardware requirements, but will not be gobbledegook of numbers and statistics, but mere statements like 'requires level 3 expansion or higher'. Having more than sufficient hardware will merely result smoother graphics, or more advanced bump-mapping. Having the bare minimum hardware won't mean games run with choppy framerates and many glitches, but they'll run perfectly normally, just without some of the flasher effects and graphics. This is something which shall be drastically different to the way games run on the bare minimum PC requirements,.
There are likely to be many makes of these consoles, but all will be able to run the same games and accept the same upgrades, as is the case with PCs. This way Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft can still make profits with hardware as well as software. Games consoles will ideally be standard in future households, like video players and TVs are today. Imagine what it would be like watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire, except answering questions yourself, interacting with the very programs. That would be one of the many revolutions in technology that we would be likely to see, and a revolution which would be very well received in the video-gaming community.
It is very difficult to speculate the direction in which the industry will go. We could be seeing what I have hoped for, or we could be seeing a race in which there are as many hardware developers as there are software developers. But the consoles themselves are unlikely to be the only things to change. I hypothesize that there will be another quantum leap in gaming, similar to that jump taken from 2 dimensions to 3. No longer will there be any hardware restrictions, which means quality in games will be purely down to the talents and effort of the programmers. Fogging will merely be a myth, an aspect that can only be witnessed in games like 'Space Army Men, Bjorns revenge 12 air and land attack by sea' and 'Gradius 3 and 4 again'. Extras will run rife in gaming, things seen currently in games like Metal Gear Solid 2 will be the norm in future games, and because of such ludicrously advanced hardware, all the flash effects that current consoles struggle to achieve would be rendered with aptitude and ease..
As with what has happened with the internet, user-made games by people who aren’t programmers or computer whiz’s shall also be a common site. There are likely to be applications which allow people to make their own games, such as Dreamweaver with the internet. Magazines will no longer be in this format, but large programs with loads of information similar to demo discs with today’s magazines. As is coming with all our current new consoles, the internet will be the norm, as will broadband (bless it). Online gaming will be the in-thing, and you won’t be saying to your mates ‘lets go down t’pub n get a half pint (heh heh)’, you’ll be saying ‘lets go online and get a virtual half pint (heh heh)’. User made levels, patches and extras will all be available online as will endless free downloads. Everything is likely to be customisable; music, skill level, weapons/items, clothes etc. No longer will you have to play as some half pint super hero who’s actually about 120 years old and was invented by a senile old book-writer, oh no, advanced face mapping, body mapping and the like. will mean that you can play as YOU in games. You will be the hero. You can meet people, talk to people, live with people all online with MMORPGs. You can earn a reputation and become a baron of gaming, or be the most hated person in gaming since um.... someone.
And of course, where would future of gaming be without the endless churn of sequels? ‘Gran Turismo 12’ anyone? ‘Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, I Swear it is, No lie!’??? But here, you only have to buy one game, and by means of a new law which will be passed when pb becomes prime minister, the developers are obliged to just make downloadable upgrade patches which add those little extras which are the only difference between the original game and the sequel. For those lazy people, you will no longer need to go out to buy your games, just download them from virtual shops. Games can be kept on these terrabyte big hard drives with no need for them to be written onto any kind of media, and top scores will go onto both personal and world wide high score tables. Fancy a quick England versus Germany match? Just pop online and you’re away. Want to kick the crap out of a llama? Just pop online and you’re away again. Online gaming, along with infinite numbers of extra patches and extras means that never will you run out of new things to do in your games.
So I come to my final point. In the ways stated above, the future of gaming sure does look bright, but it also seems too scary, novel and complex for anyone to attempt. Imagine MSN messenger. Everyone has it, and there are about 2 billion users worldwide. Imagine all these individual people, not having conversations, but having a quick multiplayer game with each other. Its a daunting thought, but one that must not be forgotten. We are living in a high-tech society, and if our discoveries and advances are embraced and utilised, improved on rather than duplicated, I am sure that come the Future of Gaming, it will be a wholesome experience that even the most critical of us will enjoy. By all means, enjoy your PlayStation 2’s, GameCube’s and Xbox’s, but just think for a moment what you have, and the potential for growth in the video-gaming industry.
Thanks for reading,
½ Pint