I've noticed a trend lately where the exponential growth of technology seems to be rapidly outpacing gaming, especially on dedicated game consoles; so much so that the console manufactures have had to all but completely do away with the traditional "console generations" of days past just to keep up.
This isn't just a "PC MASTER RACE" rant either, AAA and indie PC games alike are facing the same problem, whether it be because the games need to be ported to the aging consoles or the fact that games in general need to do something unique and innovative, and become grander in scale, depth and freedom than their predecessors in order to keep current customers satisfied and create new generations of fans. Games like Metal Gear Solid V and No Man's Sky that failed to live up to the grand visions that both the designers and gamers had in their minds. The latter being a game that could have spent 20 years in development and still never be able to live up to it's full potential.
The big budget games of this era already take almost a decade to be released; often still being rushed, buggy, and unpolished; so is it not far off to see the games of the future taking 10-15 years to complete and being outdated before they hit store shelves? How much money and manpower will it take to keep up with the demand for bigger and better games? Will big budget games drop out of the race to make way for more simplistic, casual games; or maybe some deep indie games with awesome gameplay mechanics that may be lacking in the graphics department? (BTW, Neon Chrome is a good recent example of this, you should seriously play it right now!)
I personally hope for the latter, but with the recent trends in mobile gaming, I'm not that optimistic. Not that casual games are bad in any way, but I would not want a future where that was the ONLY option. Nor would I enjoy a future where the latest blockbuster was little more than a somewhat interactive movie, which already seems to be a frightening trend as well, but may be just a symptom of the phenomenon I mentioned in the beginning of this thread.
This isn't just a "PC MASTER RACE" rant either, AAA and indie PC games alike are facing the same problem, whether it be because the games need to be ported to the aging consoles or the fact that games in general need to do something unique and innovative, and become grander in scale, depth and freedom than their predecessors in order to keep current customers satisfied and create new generations of fans. Games like Metal Gear Solid V and No Man's Sky that failed to live up to the grand visions that both the designers and gamers had in their minds. The latter being a game that could have spent 20 years in development and still never be able to live up to it's full potential.
The big budget games of this era already take almost a decade to be released; often still being rushed, buggy, and unpolished; so is it not far off to see the games of the future taking 10-15 years to complete and being outdated before they hit store shelves? How much money and manpower will it take to keep up with the demand for bigger and better games? Will big budget games drop out of the race to make way for more simplistic, casual games; or maybe some deep indie games with awesome gameplay mechanics that may be lacking in the graphics department? (BTW, Neon Chrome is a good recent example of this, you should seriously play it right now!)
I personally hope for the latter, but with the recent trends in mobile gaming, I'm not that optimistic. Not that casual games are bad in any way, but I would not want a future where that was the ONLY option. Nor would I enjoy a future where the latest blockbuster was little more than a somewhat interactive movie, which already seems to be a frightening trend as well, but may be just a symptom of the phenomenon I mentioned in the beginning of this thread.