The Future

To look into the future of 21st century gaming i first think we need to take a galnce back at where we came from. 30 years ago we were just getting to grips with the basics of gaming, joysticks and 16bit colour. Compared to where we are today with realistic graphics this is a technilogical acheivement, even the jump to games becoming 3D are landmarks in the progress that has been made. But with all these leaps in technology and gaming being made new leaps are growing harder to come by as companies continue to experiment in pushing the bounderies for the next gen gaming experience. So what comes next? what new technoligic landmark is in store for the future of gaming?

With all this in mind developing games for the future faces significant issues. One i think is the financial issue faced when creating a next gen game or console, early days in gaming history had it easy ( or easier) than modern games. Pacman during its reigning days only cost $100,000 to create and with an audience of about 10 million as imagined the game made a handsome profit, but in 2004 halo 2 was created at a cost of $40 million, but with the audience still ranging roughly the same (8 million) the profit made was still quite desirable, but less in comparison to what has been achieved in the past days of low expense production. This issue of games costing more to make and still bringing in the same profit as previous releases could have the potential to lead to a 21st century great video game crash, but has been avoided and even solved in some cases.

The Nintendo Wii (despite how much i hate it) actually gains kudos for being one of the consoles which have saved themselves from this potential financial blackhole. This is because of them appealing to a next gen audience with more than your typical gamer titles. The likes of Wii Fit and Wii Sports, which are more family or excersice based, rather than your average student style blow the head off that zombie game appeals to more than just those 10 million gamers in the UK. Because of this Wii Fit made roughly....(researches nintendo's sales records)...£16.3 million in the UK alone, only Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 3 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Which for an excersice based title aint too shabby. This on top if their usual titles like Mario Kart should help keep Nintendo's bank balance in the black for at least a decent time in the next gen race.

But what else is in store for the future of gaming? With Ninendo covering the aspect of a game being more than a kill the nazis or escape the hordes of undead genre, how are the people who keep these genres strong in the market goin to stay above everything else? Graphics and gaming systems have almost reached their peak with performance, and although the likes of AI still has sum cacthing up to do the possibilities of better graphic capabilities are growing slim with todays currently available technology.

The next step i think could be a controversial one as VR and Mind control devices beacome a reality, making fantasy envioroments and creatures that are only present on TV screens beacome what we see and feel. This will increase a gamers experience but is this step the one that should or can be taken?

Moving swiftly on to my personal gaming history the next chapter would have been Mortal Kombat for the Sega. With its competetive button bashing, it was destined to bring out the temper tantrums of any 10 year old who just lost to their big brother, but thats what made it so fun! I remember playing this game with abseloutly everyone. Although we had a rule that Johny Cage was not allowed to be used because his shadow kick was too easy to win with and was classed as cheating. But that aside, the classic phrases like Scorpions 'get over here!' will be something that i surely wont be forgetting anytime soon.