Gaming: what does the future hold?

We've seen a lot of games focusing on serious themes as technology progressed and developers, especially the AAA side of the industry, have had ways and tools necessary to create their own gaming visions

As a consequence we had an ever decreasing number of light-hearted titles that in the previous generations (prior PS3/360) were quite prominent - not to mention the fall of the arcade genre -. Add to this the conspicuous development costs that have several game studios take a comprehensible play-it-safe approach by releasing a product that may not innovate but that will most likely yield revenues.

Do you think this trend will be maintained as technology evolves and as we progress into the future? Should we expect it to even grow bigger and have games blur the lines with movie productions?

Yeah it probably will continue... like you said, it's a safer bet to make games like that.

This is one of the main reasons I've sort of become disillusioned with AAA gaming and the usual stuff we see from AAA devs, and the main reason why I've embraced Indies & Nintendo more as the generation has gone on.

I'm hoping streaming doesn't become the norm just yet.

It will eventually normalize. At this point, tech is near flat lining in performance. We are not going to see performance gains like we did in the past. This would equate to a market with hardware that is generally stable which is good for gamers. I anticipate this across the board stabilization with the next three years. The good news is that some Indie devs are more willing to delve into the more quirky and arcade style games. With the overall refinement of software the quality of indie games have significantly improved.

I see games, more games. Some will be fun, others not. But I expect just as surely as the sun rising rising in the east and setting in the west that vocal gamers will shit on good games and praise mediocrity. I am sure I won't be hard up finding fun stuff to play, but many more will come here like "oh man haven't had one good game to play since..." and mentions some ridiculously outdated game. I expect gaming journalism to remain a shell of its former self, those remaining Bay area gaming websites and YouTube channels will sound like they're being run by millennials baptized by NeoGAF when it was a Russian troll farm PR machine for Sony.

I think it depends on the developer and publisher in question, because a lot of them still produce lighthearted and fun games. Right away Larian comes to mind for Divinity Original Sin - they inject their sense of humor into almost every corner of the game, and give players a lot of options about how they want to play and proceed through the game.

I don't think it always has to be about a really overly-dramatic atmosphere and dark themes, and heavy focus on story. That isn't all gaming is. Some games are better for focusing on that stuff, others aren't. I think the reason why a lot of games go this route is because gaming became mainstream, and a lot of people essentially want to make it into a second Hollywood, but we see how they've handled a lot of their shows and movies.

@aia89: I think we will have an increased variety of games catering for different ages and themes.

I think the fact we have more mature games in recent years reflect the fact that the gamers are growing up.

Look at the forums on Gamespot, we have teenagers to 40-50 plus. Developers focus on different markets.

Additionally there are more gamers, counties that were once poor are now getting rich and enjoying this fairly expensive hobby!

There’s a variety of games out there now.

I say this all the time: there’s a game(s) for everyone today.

There’s never been more of a plethora of games than there is now. You just have to not be lazy and look.

You want a light hearted game where silly 1950’s robots hunt you? Sir You Are Being Hunted. You want to play in WW2. COD or BF. You want a wacky pink filled apocalypse world with crazy characters. Rage2. You want to fight Zombies? Days Gone. You want to play as meat in a platform we? Super Meatboy.

Etc etc.