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This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Alth

This is a trend that will continue to accelerate. And I think we grossly underestimated how much time and money people are willing to spend on video games. Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years. There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

deleted 6y ago
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HenryKissinger 6y ago
I'm more skeptical. VR will remain a niche, and future games will feature improved graphics. The new haptic feedback on the PS5 controller will add a minor feature. Other than that, games will remain the same on the fundamentals. Couch co-op may make a comeback.
- defterGoose 6y ago
  > Couch co-op may make a comeback. This. Local multiplayer has been severely lacking from games since networking got really fast. Most people of my generation who grew up playing things like GoldenEye and Halo locally would buy anything that gave even minimal service to this niche. My buddy and I stayed up til 2am the other week co-opping "Wild Guns" on his Super NT. Totally out of left field and something I never would have cared for when I had an SNES.
- axaxs 6y ago
  Nvidia Shield, 2 Xbox controllers, Retrox. Everything you need to bring back the coop days! That said, I also wish newer games embraced it more, but at least I found some outlet.
- chansiky 6y ago
  I'm extremely skeptical as well, but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Half the stuff I see people do online goes against any logic I ever thought people would do. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes off for something completely out of left field. Like what is the weirdest, dumbest thing you could think of doing with vr technology, for example - watching 2d movies with your friends, or playing minesweeper, and I bet that's going to be the thing that makes it hit big.
  - Vinceo 6y ago
    Haha, love this comment. Exactly my thinking as well:)
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    > but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Eh, I'd be cautious. Remember the late 90s, when the day when you'd primarily control your computer by talking to it was imminent? Or (also in the late 90s) when PDAs were going to take over the world? Or that thing where you'd have documents embedded in other documents and no applications as such? Or... tech has a lot of fads, is all I'm saying, and often significant resources are spent on them. Some of them go somewhere. Some eventually emerge in a massively different form (PDA -> smartphone). Some just die, though.
  - solatic 6y ago
    > but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Except that this belies the politics of BigCos. The BigCos are throwing money at it because a) everybody else is doing it, and nobody wants to get left behind, so it's a good bet for executives to fund b) it's a shiny new thing, so it's an interesting project that will get adoption internally from people at the lower levels who will be eager to transfer to and work on the project. Neither of those have anything to do with whether or not there's actually a sizable market for it, but we won't know whether a market will appear for it as the market potential is nearly entirely dependent upon execution (i.e. early VR didn't sell well due to low resolution, motion sickness from low refresh rates, lack of a killer app, etc.). It's pretty easy to throw money at projects. Coming up with something that's good enough to sell at mass-market volumes is an entirely different question.
  - mycall 6y ago
    Bigscreen VR is exactly what you are talking about.
2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
>* Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years.* Production value or number of games? I still see lots of games being made. But there most stuff to wade through to find a good one.
neixidbeksoxyd 6y ago
> There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape. I have been dreaming of better interfaces (controllers) for games for decades. The Wii, despite it's limited power, was a huge leap forward in how we played games. Unfortunately Nintendo is the only gaming company taking risks while Microsoft and Sony keep doubling down on graphics with the same controllers from 30 years ago. If someone made a non-VR console with VR-style controllers it would be a huge leap. Instead we keep getting the same old immersion-killing 4-button-mashing consoles and games with upgraded graphics cards.
- maroonblazer 6y ago
  Keep in mind that 1/3 of the population suffer from motion sickness, so for them (I'm in this group) VR isn't an option for the most part. Of course if this is a solvable problem - those who otherwise suffer from motion sickness are symptom-free in any VR application - then I agree VR could have a bright future.
  - gsich 6y ago
    That can probably be trained away.
    - rsynnott 6y ago
      Even assuming this is true (I'd be inclined to doubt it) why on earth would anyone bother?
      - zrkrlc 6y ago
        Because all your friends are playing a VR MMO and are talking about it nonstop on social media
    - pen2l 6y ago
      Go on, how? I'm getting into boat-sailing, and I'm saddened by the nausea it causes. I'm looking into ways to reduce this, and I'm thinking ways to deal with motion sickness incurred in VR-games is probably applicable to me.
chillwaves 6y ago
I strongly agree with this, for one the demographic shift alone. Or even people introduced to gaming in their twilight years are coming online. Like with social media, the psychological implications are not clear.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

HenryKissinger 6y ago

I'm more skeptical. VR will remain a niche, and future games will feature improved graphics. The new haptic feedback on the PS5 controller will add a minor feature. Other than that, games will remain the same on the fundamentals. Couch co-op may make a comeback.

defterGoose 6y ago
> Couch co-op may make a comeback. This. Local multiplayer has been severely lacking from games since networking got really fast. Most people of my generation who grew up playing things like GoldenEye and Halo locally would buy anything that gave even minimal service to this niche. My buddy and I stayed up til 2am the other week co-opping "Wild Guns" on his Super NT. Totally out of left field and something I never would have cared for when I had an SNES.
axaxs 6y ago
Nvidia Shield, 2 Xbox controllers, Retrox. Everything you need to bring back the coop days! That said, I also wish newer games embraced it more, but at least I found some outlet.
chansiky 6y ago
I'm extremely skeptical as well, but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Half the stuff I see people do online goes against any logic I ever thought people would do. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes off for something completely out of left field. Like what is the weirdest, dumbest thing you could think of doing with vr technology, for example - watching 2d movies with your friends, or playing minesweeper, and I bet that's going to be the thing that makes it hit big.
- Vinceo 6y ago
  Haha, love this comment. Exactly my thinking as well:)
- rsynnott 6y ago
  > but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Eh, I'd be cautious. Remember the late 90s, when the day when you'd primarily control your computer by talking to it was imminent? Or (also in the late 90s) when PDAs were going to take over the world? Or that thing where you'd have documents embedded in other documents and no applications as such? Or... tech has a lot of fads, is all I'm saying, and often significant resources are spent on them. Some of them go somewhere. Some eventually emerge in a massively different form (PDA -> smartphone). Some just die, though.
- solatic 6y ago
  > but the fact that Facebook, Apple, and Google are all dumping tons of money to develop some form of it makes me convinced that its an upcoming market that has the potential to hit big time. Except that this belies the politics of BigCos. The BigCos are throwing money at it because a) everybody else is doing it, and nobody wants to get left behind, so it's a good bet for executives to fund b) it's a shiny new thing, so it's an interesting project that will get adoption internally from people at the lower levels who will be eager to transfer to and work on the project. Neither of those have anything to do with whether or not there's actually a sizable market for it, but we won't know whether a market will appear for it as the market potential is nearly entirely dependent upon execution (i.e. early VR didn't sell well due to low resolution, motion sickness from low refresh rates, lack of a killer app, etc.). It's pretty easy to throw money at projects. Coming up with something that's good enough to sell at mass-market volumes is an entirely different question.
- mycall 6y ago
  Bigscreen VR is exactly what you are talking about.

2muchcoffeeman 6y ago

>* Although, I think production has somewhat plateau’d in the past five years.* Production value or number of games? I still see lots of games being made. But there most stuff to wade through to find a good one.

neixidbeksoxyd 6y ago

> There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape. I have been dreaming of better interfaces (controllers) for games for decades. The Wii, despite it's limited power, was a huge leap forward in how we played games. Unfortunately Nintendo is the only gaming company taking risks while Microsoft and Sony keep doubling down on graphics with the same controllers from 30 years ago. If someone made a non-VR console with VR-style controllers it would be a huge leap. Instead we keep getting the same old immersion-killing 4-button-mashing consoles and games with upgraded graphics cards.

maroonblazer 6y ago
Keep in mind that 1/3 of the population suffer from motion sickness, so for them (I'm in this group) VR isn't an option for the most part. Of course if this is a solvable problem - those who otherwise suffer from motion sickness are symptom-free in any VR application - then I agree VR could have a bright future.
- gsich 6y ago
  That can probably be trained away.
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    Even assuming this is true (I'd be inclined to doubt it) why on earth would anyone bother?
    - zrkrlc 6y ago
      Because all your friends are playing a VR MMO and are talking about it nonstop on social media
  - pen2l 6y ago
    Go on, how? I'm getting into boat-sailing, and I'm saddened by the nausea it causes. I'm looking into ways to reduce this, and I'm thinking ways to deal with motion sickness incurred in VR-games is probably applicable to me.

chillwaves 6y ago

I strongly agree with this, for one the demographic shift alone. Or even people introduced to gaming in their twilight years are coming online. Like with social media, the psychological implications are not clear.