Thats a very big question. I think the first step to understanding this is outlining what is happening in the industry: i) casual gaming is growing (iphone all

Thats a very big question. I think the first step to understanding this is outlining what is happening in the industry: i) casual gaming is growing (iphone all the way to wii) ii) piracy is growing iii) social gaming is growing (attached to facebook's growth) iv) game studios merged in the 90s and 00s and now are too big v) in app purchases actually do work vi) kickstarter games and indie games are growing in popularity. My summary of this is that larger studios are sticking with what works (makes money) and are looking more and more like hollywood - they want low risk games and are mostly only concerned with money. Games in this category: COD, NFS etc. Piracy is growing, and taking a large cut of revenue. Diablo III and other games made a lot of money, but implemented quite strong DRM - maybe they are taking Diablo's lead and ensuring revenue (or at least making it hard for widescale pirating. Casual and Social gaming is growing introducing new places to play, leading to different types of games (Temple Run, Farmville etc) that are built on a different revenue model - FREEMIUM. This means that in app purchases support the development and support of the game, along with advertising. There may be a merging of hardcore games and casual games in terms of business models, but I think even the games themselves may become more similar. The growth of indie games will ensure a large scope of game level/immersiveness.