Future of Video Games

Sherman Chin on LinkedIn.com asked the question, “Where is the video game market heading?” I shared my answer on LinkedIn but I will post it here as well to share with you my thoughts on this matter.

The overarching directions of all games will definitely be online integration. Different genres of games will have different types of online components. Similar to the evolution of user-driven Internet (Web 1.0 -> 2.0), the same thing is already happening with games themselves. More and more integration will occur with games that exposes game usage data. Leader boards, blogs, photo albums and so forth, these will become staple features as games try to keep up with one another. Direct integrations with websites, wikis, blogs, MySpace and eventually with services such as YouTube for real-time video capture and share is only a matter of time.

As development cost for AAA titles increase exponentially, companies will try to find ways to extend shelf life and capitalize on the franchise after a game’s been launched. And the online market place is perfect venue for this. Contents will come as bite size chunks that you can buy individually. Larger packs of contents will be released at higher price points and/or accompanied by a box product.

The 3rd generation consoles and the handhelds will further the online integration. With wireless technology built in with all of them, the world of gamers will become a lot more tigthly integrated. Devices communicating with each other to share contents transparently, match-making will occur more and more on-the-fly. Turn your game on, whether on PC, on consoles or on handhelds, and at your fingertips will be like minded players to either play the game with you, or interact with you at a community level. It really is a beautiful thing, as communication technologies bring the world together, so would game devices bring the gamers together at an unprecedented level.