CHENNAI : The future is here” sounds like a cliche tagline of some tiny machine that chops potatoes with the press of a button. It sounds very uninteresting — but is potentially life changing. I would like to say the same of parallel developments in the videogame world. Maybe we don’t see it right now, but there is a slight optimistic possibility of it changing our gaming experience. What are these parallel stories in the game world?
There’s been a recent increase in the Walking Simulator games available on VR modules. Could that be the future? Walking Simulators have long since existed — ‘Gone Home’, ‘Life is Strange’ and ‘Dear Esther’ are all in the league of those point-and-click games that narrate a story. Apparently, the VR version of the game is supposed to give us a more heightened sensory relationship with the game, meaning we might connect to Alternate Reality better. Ubisoft’s recent game ‘Transference’ set out to be this immersive adventure — with a disturbing story. The only problem is that the game would not work as well on any other format.
Bringing me to my next proposition —shouldn’t the future be a trans-platform storytelling experience? This seems very likely. The big-name developers in videogames are moving towards an era of ‘Gaming as a service’ — a real money-spinner. If games are ‘living’ or developed as a continuing entity, then that could mean we would see more ambitious ventures like ‘Project Stream’ and ‘Project XCloud’.
Non-ownership of a console could no longer be a hindrance to the gaming experience (on the other hand, this spells for more microtransactions). Incidentally, it would be great if this future of a cross-platform streaming experience could also drive demand for fast Internet.
Simultaneously, the future need not necessarily mean ‘gaming consolidation’ — there could be new consoles, and even a resurrection of old ones. For example, Mattel’s ‘Intellivision’ is making a comeback as ‘Amico’ with the same disc controller of yore, making the console accessible to those who are not just gamers, and also with 8-player functionality, and games that are not age-restricted. Could this mean that New is not really all that New?