Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The end of gaming as we know it

Having a 3 1/2 year old is an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways. As a gamer, it's become fascinating. Now that my little guy is a full-fledged person, I see the world very differently through his eyes. One thing those eyes tell me is that console gaming as it's known today is at its end.

My son and I have gradually spent more time playing video games, and I love it. Naturally, one of the reasons I had him was because I needed a reliable partner to game with (ahem). Had he been born 5 years earlier, say, in 2002, he would have probably taken a PS2 controller in hand and tried mightily to control the race cars and trains that he loves so much. However, since he's come "of age" in the era we're currently in, he simply asks for my iPad or iPhone, presses a button, and within 30 seconds is knee-deep in whatever game he fancies at that minute. There's no controller, there's very little wait, and the delivery mechanism is the same - just a little bigger or smaller, depending on the specific device.

Which got me to thinking - if this is what he knows, why would he ever change?

It's probably obvious to most people; the whole notion of having a machine plugged into a television set, swapping out discs and holding a controller is really an antiquated notion. It won't exist in 10 years; perhaps even 5.

Case in point: My son LOVES cars and racing games. I had the new Need For Speed Hot Pursuit cranking on my 42-inch HDTV while he sat next to me playing Reckless Racing on the iPad. Hot Pursuit is a visceral, visual experience that looks amazing; Reckless Racing looks great but is a top-down, simple game. No matter how cool the wreck I created on TV, I got nothing more than on occasional glance up from Leo, followed immediately by his attention being focused right back to the game in his hands.

His whole entertainment and gaming universe is fundamentally different than it was for kids even 10 years ago. Everything is instant, on demand, mobile (and I don't mean mobile in the traditional sense; just mobile in that it's everywhere), and available at the push of a button. Each of his favorite shows is instantly watchable on phones and computers; all of his favorite games are too.

That's why it's obvious to me that the next generation of consoles - the successors to the PS3, 360, and Wii - will be the last of their kind. The notion of being tethered to a stationary object like a large TV will seem to kids in 2020 the way adults now view typewriters; a relic from a distant past that we faintly remember.

It's not that all gaming will be mobile, though. Far from it. Gaming will be persistent, permeating our lives more than ever. The games will be immersive feasts for the eyes and ears that will be different than we can comprehend.

What will change is the notion of the console itself. I've got a feeling that the iPads and iPhones of today will look and feel in many ways the same, with the main difference being projection abilities. Instead of plugging into a TV, the gamer of 2020 will play a single game on a single "console" in 4 or 5 different ways - on their phone or projected in 3D Hi Def onto the wall and every step in between. Controllers won't exist, as motion-sensing and touch becomes so integrated that we won't recognize the difference between the two.

We can already see how much closer these machines deliver the sound and visuals of consoles. In a decade what's cutting-edge now on consoles will be passe on mobile devices.

Frankly, I can't wait. Leo doesn't realize it yet, but he can't either.

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