The future of gaming

Back in the day when you had the Atari system as the primary video gaming system on the market things were different. Well actually things were the same but we are finally beginning to see what the future holds in gaming. Things were the same because just as then and now you have to actually buy new games for your system. Whether you have the Wii, Xbox or Plyastation, you are required to have games. Although new advances are changing the gaming process, we still aren’t quite to the point where buying games is totally obsolete.

The new wave in gaming is the “on demand” method where games are downloaded to your system when you want to play them. With the on demand method you are simply downloading games from a master server that the console interacts with. This can be done through a subscription based model as in pay a fee per month in order to download x amount of games. Other options are the pay per game download or the ultimate unlimited games for a one time fee. We are getting close and some systems have a form of this already taking shape. Soon all game systems will function in this way and buying actual physical copies of games will no longer be needed. Just as with music, the need to buy compact disc isn’t really there anymore as MP3 related technologies began to hit the market. Imagine a system you buy or download that has its own version of itunes but solely for videogames. Just as with itunes, there is no system to buy as long as you have a computer. Once we reach the point where all video games from the various platforms are gathered and cataloged, we will be a step closer. Games could be accessed 24/7 via the computer or one special console for the TV that will allow you to download and play any game at any time.

Another direction videogames are heading in is the pre packed game consoles with and without on demand features. Imagine a console that comes installed with thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of games. Just as with a computer with internal memory, the console could have a certain amount of gigabytes that stores the games. Simply by plugging the console to a TV will allow you to bring up the games and play them with no external game copies needed. These games could either be popular titles from various game manufactures or brand new games that the game console maker develops. Some of the things written about in this article are based in part on the direction videogame technology is headed. Even if something appears to read as impossible or far fetched, it really isn’t. It is in fact the future of video gaming.