Just thought I would get some thoughts as to where games are going these days.
Obviously the gaming business has to evolve and follow trends. So after a successful AAA blockbuster, you are bound to get clones galore.

What I am seeing:
A return of survival horror
Slender, Outlast, Amnesia ect. Though it seems the trend is to give you no weapons

Platformers
Mostly tied to the massive Indie community, we are seeing the return of platformers. Some of these are obviously remakes (Or HD versions). Think this may be tied to the mobile platforms

The Anti-hero seems to be back.
The brooding, dark dude that just gets the job done, as opposed to the boyscout fighting for freedom.


Noticed anything else?

Guilty Gear...

Indies are more prominent then they ever used to be, that is what it seems like.

@Sinncross
Yeah, I think the Indie studios have done a lot to revive gaming. Kickstarter has also given a lot of small studios the chance to make "games for gamers BY gamers" e.g. games that are just FUN

Full Digital

Digital and more sequels. Although that last one isn't really true, there have always been sequels to popular games. Other than that I don't see any hugely different trends. Although a trend I hope to see is the sharing of libraries. MS announced and then back tracked on this after the whole world blew up over their online requiremenst, but Steam is putting this into Beta next month. I think that a sharing system for digital games will make things so much easier on both consumers and the companies and will make digital so much more palatable.

The advent of digital gaming is both really good and really bad, if and when games go completely digital (God forbid) it will be a sad state of affairs, half the fun of owning titles is being able to display them in a collection. Let's pray that day never comes. On the other hand considering retail, Gamestop being the first that comes to mind, the industry may not let physical games die, retail makes up a big part of the video game industry.

There seems to be a definite a push for pure digital distribution to reduce costs and push profit (and built in DRM). I think we've seen AAA gaming coming apart in the last few years and AA almost completely disappearing. Indies, mobile and free-to-play are making a massive push but I think this is more publisher-driven than developer.

I'm with Video Vengeance tho, the absence of physical media would make playing and collecting games (which I'm sure most of us consider the number 1 hobby) leaves us with nothing to show for our passion. Already these day's it irks me when I'm installing a game to the PS3/Xbox and I've got only a 2-page manual to flip through that's simply the EULA.

After listening to many comments on the stupid sales estimates for games like Dead Space 3, Resident Evil 6 and pretty much any AAA Square-Enix game, I just wish both developers and publishers would be more practical. Dead Space 1 is a perfectly good looking game that made almost 2 mil sales, Dead Space 2 had some visual upgrades and sold much the same. For Dead Space 3 there was a raft of graphical upgrades (and associated costs) and then bloated sales estimates because, somehow mimicking and providing substandard gameplay that's done better in well established franchises will supposedly draw numbers, WTF?

I've seen some articles (mostly from Europe and North America) discussing how for all the debate online, those of us interested in engaging topics like these represent a minority. Most consumers will just by the yearly sport franchise, the latest COD and GTA (not to say they aren't good games in their own right). On top of that there are millions of people who don't seem interested in moving beyond the simplicity of browser-based and mobile games. I feel a lot of "AA" and "AAA" games will end up surviving thanks to initiatives like Kickstarter and completely independent studios if publishers continue to make decisions purely on profit.

EDIT - another aspect that you guys at AWX must deal with is review-based buying which probably also doesn't do much for encouraging people to actually think about what they like vs. simply following the masses.

All games would eventually go free to play

thanks, smart-phones

SupaPhly said ...

All games would eventually go free to play

thanks, smart-phones

yea and infested with micro transactions and adverts too then ... gee thanks mobile gaming

I would seriously hate for that to happen

Indie games are going to keep getting bigger, but it won't be long before there are too many platformers glutting the market.

As for traditional studio games, I see more cinema, less interactivity coming from them.

The free-to-play model can work without being intrusive or giving other players an unfair advantage. Valve has proved this with Team Fortress 2 and DOTA2.

Unfortunately not every publisher seems to get that.

Certainly glad that it's easier (in a sense) for indies to get out there and be successful.
If anything I just hope they make self-publishing easier each generation. Steam is already miles ahead in that sense, I'm sure consoles will catch up eventually.

The other thing is the model in which games are actually bought vs rented.
This is a tricky one, and certainly ties into existing rental models and how a large part of the fanbase will always prefer physical copies, and the notion that when you pay for something, you own it outright.
Essentially I'm talking about a Netflix type of model, PS+ so far is the only service that sort of provides this, and that's a set monthly fee with a large library.

Obviously there are other factors to consider, but I think the one thing that plenty of companies have proven is that we as consumers, given the opportunity, will devour content like it's the end of the world.

I have found that there seems to be a move towards the more cartoony style graphics as well. It's really hit or miss though. Sometimes it works (Call of Juarez Gunslinger, just of the top of my head) or it can look cheap.

Sometimes you can do so much more with cartoons...
Guess it's like cooking. A GOOD chef can make anything work, while a bad chef can use all the finest ingredients (voice actors, graphics, sound) and still have a steamer on their hands

It seems that a lot of games are getting ports/remakes to new platforms.
Pretty happy about it, since the remakes/ports tend to be complete versions. If this becomes the standard, I would be more than happy to wait a year after a game got released on console, then buy it on pc for less, with more content.
It seems more and more certain that game releases are now released in this form:
1) Hype the heck out of game
2) release game at full price (Make sure to remove some content from "standard" editions, so people will buy more pricey "special" editions)
3) sell as much dlc as possible
4) re-release "complete" game later on different platform

5) re-re-release game
6) remake-re-re-release

Tebulot said ...

It seems that a lot of games are getting ports/remakes to new platforms.
Pretty happy about it, since the remakes/ports tend to be complete versions. If this becomes the standard, I would be more than happy to wait a year after a game got released on console, then buy it on pc for less, with more content.
It seems more and more certain that game releases are now released in this form:
1) Hype the heck out of game
2) release game at full price (Make sure to remove some content from "standard" editions, so people will buy more pricey "special" editions)
3) sell as much dlc as possible
4) re-release "complete" game later on different platform

5) re-re-release game
6) remake-re-re-release

If we start to see this I will also be happy and you know it will hit Steam and be cheaper during sale time

Noticed a big surge in crowd funding after the whole Mighty No. 9 thing, even see Square-Enix is now helping smaller developers crowd fund their games as well. will be really glad if this picks up. means everyone can finally have whichever games they want. less risk for the publishers and they can finally gauge how much an interest an IP has accurately. I think this is probably how were gonna get the majority of our games in the future.

Of course it also means everyone will have to pay for their games before their released but i think thats a small sacrifice to make if it means we can finally get rid of all the shovelware developers put on the shelves these days

@Ragna
Yeah, I just hope the big companies don't find some way to kill the indie scene. The whole point of Kickstarter (and similar) is that big corporations are left out of the loop. I would be rather hacked of if I fund a kickstarter that turns out to be an EA ghost

Pity Bioware didn't get the memo thet re-releases should be complete editions.

"Where are games going":

From AWX to my house