The future of Video games will not be very bright. I have a prediction, that in 10-20 years, the video game market will crash. How? allow me to explain:

There are 2 ways that the market will crash.

1. Inabillity to improve

In about 10-20 years, videogames will be nearly impossible to improve on. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft will spend tons of money trying to improve upon their technology, but alas, will fail, losing thousands of dollars, and relying on their older systems for sustainment, and then the same old stuff will get boring, and people will start doing other things, making video games cheaper, with less people buying from them, making them stop and lose much money.

Or, a little more likely:

2. Everybody makes them

Video games are improved so much, and are so realistic, that it isn't possible to possibly improve graphics anymore, so production costs get really cheap, and the companys make loads of money. With this, many other companies want a piece of the action, and make their own systems. With this, there is a flood of systems that are very cheap because of costs, and eventually everybody has them, so no more sales are made, and because they can't be improved upon, the companies lose lots of money, and video games are basically made useless. The outcome is the same as the above, with nobody playing anymore, and Nintendo, and maybe even Sony and Microsoft, dying out.

i'm telling you, the end of videogames is near!

That does it for me no more pixel art, for the next 10-20 years, if you need me I'll be playing video games.

Edited by jalonso

 

Well, then it can only be hoped that companies start to improve the story and game itself, not just improved graphics on the same story over and over again. But well, maybe there comes a day where originality is all used - the world end. Old world gets used, old.

NES returns.

And thank god there are sceners. Maybe in future we have games with superb graphics, but are actually only few MBs (or even KBs), like that Krieg game wich is only 20 kbs or so. Well, obviously those things take lots of resource from hardware, and did you know that every time new hardware piece (like graphics card, for example) comes out, it has twice as big power use as the old product had. So, maybe ther comes a time where new tecnology is produced and it takes less resource.

But well, so far we can only hope for nuclear reactors for power. Quantrum computers rule too.

Edited by inkspot

True, and companies might come up with more innovative ways to play. Or at least Nintendo, Sony will create video games that do things that video games shouldn't, and Microsoft will make the same old stuff, with the best graphics.

i hate close minded people.  you hear about em all the time throughout history.  RandomBlink did a great job at quoting just a few.  and your no better if you think "In about 10-20 years, videogames will be nearly impossible to improve on" and "and are so realistic, that it isn't possible to possibly improve graphics anymore"

not to be rude (and i'm definately not mad nor do i have a grudge against you), but its people that think like you that cause regression instead of progression in this world.  I do admitt however, that it is extremely hard for us to imagine what the future may hold, and that is completely natural.  on the otherhand, I am never closed-minded to the fact that there is no end to it.  As soon as somebody says, "we've already learned everything there is to know," I immediately fear for our future.  So many times have people said that, and so many times they have been proven wrong.

my prediction is that graphics wont matter in the future.  As soon as we can play a game in our head, anything is possible.  for example; when you dream, it seems so realistic and plausible to you - even if it is completely bizzar and out of this world, your head still interprets it as real.  Now combine that power into the gaming world and what do you get?  answer: A game as realistic as your mind will allow.

the programming for such a thing would be quite weird though.  It'd be completely opposite from today's programming.  Instead of programming in every single thing that you CAN do, instead you program all of the things that you CAN'T do.  This is because a computer is a dumb piece of tin that you need to tell exactly EVERYTHING that it needs to do in order to work.  while your brain, on the other hand, will do whatever it wants to, which you then need to limit. 

also, even if it doesn't go this far, and games stay on a computer screen...  even if games become so realistic that we can't tell the difference between that and a live-action movie, we still aren't doomed.  People will then use that graphics power to create things that we normally dont see.  And also use that power in a more artistic manner.  I wish people would realise that realism isn't that great - its the process of creating something thats never been seen before that people want.  I mean, common! You have presented before you a tool to create anything that you can immagine, but instead you choose to just recreate what we see everyday.

my two cents worth

Hm, I never thought about it that way.

I guess you're right. I was sort of basing this off of the new graphics systems, which don't really improve on gameplay, only graphics. The only real improvement I see in videogames game-wise, is the transistion from 2D to 3D from SNES to N64, and since it's impossible to improve upon the dimension to 4D, I don't really see how improvements can be made that much from now. It's impossible for a 2D surface to display actual 3D, and same goes with 3D to 4D, though this really doesn't have much to do with the subject.

So I guess I stand corrected.

Or maybe life is a video game I am playing and you all are just the AI units...
hmmmm...


Edited by randomblink

heh. You know, I could honestly care less if the video game market crashes. in the past 5 or so years I've seen about 5 games worth playing :P. I've got my NES hooked up, atari 2600, and a sega genesis, what else could you want? :)

Virtual Reality is a cool concept, but it's sort of scary. I mean you have the weirdos who play MMORPGS all day and cease to function normally. Imagine what someone coming off of too much Virtual reality would do...o.O

But I definately don't think video games is declining. It's still considered somewhat new and rapidly growing at least to people I've talked to.

Once earth gets infested with robots (the peaceful "man-made" kind :D) even those people with no lives will have someone they can play football with so video games will completely vanish.

Another prediction (unrelated): WW3 will be fought over the internet.


Edited by miau

Snader, as much as I may like you, you just spammed very pointless.

Anyway, games wil not die. Creativity is endless. until graphics are as good as real life, where 3 console generations further.

Just alittle piece of my mind on this topic...

 I've always played videogames. I was born with an atari controler in my hand and haven't stopped playin' since. I've witnessed the rise of the nes and it's 500+ titles, the genesis vs snes no hold barred war, the triumphal arrival of sony and failed attempts of panasonic in the gaming world, the downfall of nintendo's way of thinking with it's N64, the almost popular dreamcast, the miraculous break of the x-box and the always omnipresent competition and bounderies-breaking PC games... And of course, I intend to see what's gonna happen next.

 You might say that I'm a big videogame fan. Well, almost. The state of videogames are slowly killing my passion for it. Games that come out today are merely the same games that were out 20 years ago, without much new elements and usually better graphics. Why usually? Because graphics aren't about how realistic they are: it's about how much you believed in them and how you forgot that it's pixels or polygonal models. Some 2D games from back then still mop the floor with some of the newer 3d games because the some of them aren't believable. Gameplay is redundant for most games. Few games are truly innovative and numerous try to copy them, making a ocean of carbon copies that engulfs the originals.

 That is why I decided I'd design game. To change the way we play them. I am quite certain that I am not alone in this position. So will the industry die? Not as long as their people who are frustrated enough to walk straight up to the current generation of developpers and say "Wake up, what you are doing is not in the right direction. Do this instead" It's bold, rude and arrogant, but it is needed to make people realize that nothing in this industry is granted.

  My goal is to make videogame as a great art form. Make people see that waht we've seen is just the beguinning, t'is but a scratch of what videogames can offer to our world. Maybe it's time we reconcider and redefined what we call "videogame".

  If things stay the same as it is now, yes the industry will die in 10 years. If it evolves and redefined itself, it'll be around for at least another 100.

 Anyways that's my thoughts... And Indigo, well said! :D
Later!

 

i doubt videogames will "die" as you say, i am aware that graphics will be maxed out and that will mean more challenges to keep the video game fanatics holding on, but i also notice that graphics arent important, people keep saying that they are with the new xbox 360, but if graphics are all the same (at that level of perfection you speak of in the next 20 years) then wont it force game designers to become more creative and focus on the important elements? that would be GREAT!!! it would go back to the days when storyline and ingenuitity are the heart and soul of the industry, instead of games being focused on graphics, and no real reason to play. as for this thing you say about FPS being all alike, i thing that is pretty close to the truth, but the reason they are all like that is you cant improve much on perfect gameplay, though most FPS lack a lot in the story department.  As for videogames being easy money and everyone wanting a peice of the action, i think that as scripting evolves it will not be as easy as it is now to be a game designer. this is all of the top of my head (my 13 year old head) and i would like to hear about loopholes you see in my thoughts. 

The future of video game is matrix