The Modern age of Gaming

The Modern age of Gaming.

What problems do we face in our search for the ultimate entertainment experience?

The main reason why the Games industry has had issues from the early 80’s through to nowadays is because of the alarming rate of money it now costs to even create and release the simplest game. A good example of how much money matters is to take a look at the stats produced by Atari (In 1982) which “released a version of Pac-Man for its 2600 game console, also known as the Video Computer System (VCS). The game was written by a single programmer over a couple of months and had a total development cost of US$100,000. It was not a very good port, as the game flickered annoyingly and struggled to overcome the limitations of the VCS hardware. Nevertheless, it sold over 10 million copies at US$30 a shot, with a cost of goods sold of just about US$5.” This very early video game shows the struggles software producers and programmers, in that time, had by having to be reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars just to create the basis platform of a video game. However you can argue that the amount of copies brought by consumers, had Atari in a good position. On the other hand, and maybe most importantly, the feedback of the game was poor, causing the company in the years to come to keep producing endless games with improvements to each one, therefore starting an ongoing cycle of development.

In this last decade, we’ve seen sales and profits rise and fall, which is down to the ever-growing expectancy and demand of the public. Every time a major game hits the shelves, people are always looking ahead to the sequel. This decade has produced one of the best and well known games to be produced, the Halo saga. “In 2004, Microsoft released Halo 2. Over 190 people are listed in its credits, and the game took three years to complete with a total development cost of over US$40 million. The game did record sales in its first month, and has currently sold over 8 million copies at US$50 a crack”. Again, this is a newer, faster and more intricate console game than Atari’s Pac-man, but it still took the same amount of time to develop, however the only difference is the massive gain of money which was put into this project, $40 million. Comparing the two games within the 20 year gap in the industry, the development costs have raised an incredible 400x.  

Even after adjusting for inflation, the figures above are staggering. The cost of developing high-profile games has increased dramatically over the last few years, with costs for the next generation of consoles expected to continue this trend. “Estimates have ranged from a 20% to a 100% increase in development costs for next-generation titles”.

Quotes by www.arstechinica.com.

And what is there to look forward to in the future of the Games industry?

I think the potential is there to make big strides forward into the games industry by introducing realistic film techniques/real-time rendering to give the consumer a sense of altered reality within his/her gaming experience. The main items I would personally like to see in the future generations of games are; A.I and holographic materials. Firstly the introduction of Artificial Intelligence would significantly increase the amount of interaction between player and game. An example of how this could be used would be in a future version of the Mass Effect series (If it’s still going by then) or a similar game with the same user interface. The player could involve him/herself within the game and its characters by being able to respond to any and everything that happens, especially with the dialogue of the game.

Secondly, the introduction of holographic gameplay would majorly boost the atmosphere, as well as the overall game play. However I have researched into holographic evidence being used right now and it’s nothing compared to what my thoughts of it are (which are like holograms on Star Wars). But you never could know, the technology has moved on so fast in the last couple of years with the definition and detail of the graphic/visuals of games, so why could they look deeper into getting the player interaction to a level, as mentioned above, to a stage where it is as if he/she is the character and every movement they make, is thought about by the game engine and is turned into appropriate actions.

The only factor that can make these ideas turn into reality is money and lots of it. You’ve seen $4 million dollars can create Halo 2, so how many Halo’s does it take to produce a game that can think for itself, interact with the player on personal levels and develop a sense of altered reality? We will have to wait for many years to come in my opinion to see even a glimpse of my ideas and more to come.