My Gaming Predictions for 2011

It’s that time again when the predictions are rolled out for 2011. I’m not going to make explicit predictions – because with technology that is almost impossible. After all, 2 years ago where was Twitter and Facebook and where are they now? The pace of change is so huge that it would be a bit silly to try. That said I can make predictions of trends I expect to see over this year and into 2012. So here we go…

Gazing into the FUTURE!!!

First – I think it will be towards the end of 2011 at the earliest before we see games that use new motion gaming technology such as Sony’s Move and Microsoft’s Kinect with any kind of real gameplay power. By this I mean that when a new platform comes along, initially we see the gaping of existing ideas on the new platform. Their retro-fit concepts don’t really take full advantage of the new platform so it takes time for developers to get to grips with it and make something that does it justice.

Second – Mobile gaming will continue to grow in scope and reach. This follows on from the point above. The iPhone and Android have been around for a while now and so are producing titles that really suit the platform and make it a gaming experience worth having. The low barrier to entry for new developers means experimentation is still rife. All this means more games playing with more ideas.

Third – Transmedia 2011! Transmedia is the idea of a media experience that transcends one platform. More often than not it is the story that lives across different media forms. I don’t just mean say a PS3 port of a PC game, but a game that offers a PS3 experience and a PC experience that together combine to make something even bigger. This can be cross-media too; so games into TV, films into books. Again to be truly Transmedia, the experience has to be extended and built upon and not just mirrored. This idea has been around for some time now, but this year I think we’ll see it really start to grow. So take the example of Deus Ex Human Revolution – where the story exists in the game and in a novel…

Forth – Social Media integration by the big players. I expect to see many more integrations of Wii, Xbox and PS3 games into social media such as Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. Mobile games are doing this well but the main consoles have been a little too isolated. Now social media is here to stay, I think games will take advantage of this more.