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Video games have never been bigger. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the industry as a whole took in 23.5 billion dollars in revenue in 2015; a five percent jump from the previous year and with huge AAA games and possible new console launches, 2016 looks like it could be even bigger. We've been here before though and in the 80s that resulted in one hell of a crash. So just where is the video game industry going in the next few years? We look at a few recent industry trends to try to take a guess.

Share your thoughts on the story.

Things in the 80's crashed for multiple reasons. Chief among them was the huge ego corporate triple A owners had grown, and thought they were geniuses and too big to crash. Rather than listen to their users and focus on what made them successful, they took the franchises into better directions and utterly failed the franchises. They also decided to focus on the console market in retaliation to inflated piracy claims on the PC side. Programming became console centric and flopped on the PC side of things. Simplified console controls do not work well on a PC setup. Other things like the casual game market wasn't even being tracked at that time. It wasn't until later that the popcap games type operations became noticed, by the gaming industry and were counted, when their incomes rose above a billion dollars a year each. Create a simple code frame and slap new artwork over and over onto the same thing and you now have a new genre of hidden object games. Were just getting that same thing with all of the remaster craze coming out for successful AAA games. Even Skyrim is getting some new face paint, and being dropped onto the fallout 4 frame, which is more or less a debugged and beefed up version of the same engine used on the original Skyrim. One point of relief is the recognition that it is the PC that has gotten the cr4edit for the long extensions of lifetimes to these franchises, as well as creating whole new cash opportunities on the console side of things. It's one reason that the remastered Skyrim is being given away to current owners of the full editions of Skyrim.

As long as humans continue to base their economy in a "take" instead of a "share" mentality, the "markets" will always crash and the planet will be depleted of the necessary resources to keep us alive in this ever growing world.

Nope, didn't want to be so realistic, still think people should know better

P.S.: Oops! Sorry, just realized the subject: "The Future of Gaming"....hmmm...in fact my comment describe any parts of our lives...but, still...sorry 😐

[Edited by B4Marc, 7/9/2016 5:32:58 PM]

The future of Gaming will start to go steady big names will keep on churning out the good stuff we all know which of these are the top studios etc, and as I see it (on Steam) far too many Indies and pixel games along with early access, like Microsoft you cannot keep bringing new Windows out every 2 years and thank heavens for that, Microsoft have realised this and will keep on making Windows 10 even better, on the other hand I visit my GAME shop every week and I see games New games reaching stupid money for the extra special game with maps and Tea shirts or whatever will get them those Big Bucks.

All in all gaming as far as I can see will be static for the next couple of years money has become the number one issue I personally will not pay £30:00 or above for a new game I wait 6 months and get that new game a darn sight cheaper, but we have also people who will go out and purchase any game on the release date good for them and good for the studios who love you.

I totally disagree with your sentiments about developers and publishers back in the 80s, it was a golden era. Console wars at the end of the 80s were not that big, everyone was happy.

Developers and Publishers were more open and would take anyone into their fold if they shown promise to further develop them also.

It wasn't until the latter half of the 90s that things started to heat up, due to warez usage becoming the norm, this forced developers and publishers down a different path. Around the same time PC gaming became stronger and more noticed by the public.

Bear in mind this wasn't just for the gaming industry, but everywhere, as share holders and public shares were becoming more and more accessible, and those share holders became the power behind businesses not the owners themselves, for good or bad they were in control.

The "golden era" is where the "management" got their funds and ego. You fail to notice the development lead time involved. The "open" attitude was a result of the casual market. Venues were created that only needed an art department, because the code became cookie cutter. Your Open attitude that you thought existed, was just a way to feed on new ideas from others. The reality was that it isn't hard to "break into" the industry. It takes a bit of code/art talent, but there are no real barriers that ever existed for "me-to" talents. Minecraft comes to mind where the main coder and only owner walks away with his billion dollar payday for simple coding and minimal artwork. It was a great idea for its time, but not any fabulous artistry of code or artwork. That particular case was a lottery with about the same odds as any other state lottery. But possible just the same and likely to happen again.

Warez has nothing to do with games or gaming. BTW warez usage is NOT the norm. Wasn't then or even now. I daresay that if you wagered that there were any "script kiddies" within 5 miles of you own residence, you would lose. This is part and parcel of the oversell and inflation of the truth about hackers. This time period also had the MPAA and RIAA and their ilk, sue the US and world for royalty payments from the sale of CD's and other recording media, under the premise that there is nothing else people would use them for. Sad thing is they won. You are paying royalties for every DVD and CD or tape or any media used. They created the hype and they profit from the inflation of reputations. The same people that bulk mail legal demands for payment of infringement. Most of which has been determined to have been fraudulent since. Before you cry foul, I am a strong defender of IP and the rights of people to own IP and profit from it. I defend any copy protection that does not abuse the user. The reality is that most people are not thieves. This has been a carefully orchestrated program of media to create that impression. Yes there are thieves, but not everyone is a thief. Respected studies from the university sector discovered that in the midst of the blitz, some 90% of piracy came from South America and southern Africa, to the few places able to tap into the developing connections. The numbers bandied about were counting places where the piracy was flowing but the entertainment companies were ignoring. Their Billions in lost revenues were in large part areas they ignored as not worth pursuing. Ever notice where zones have been set up? Region coding for your DVD. You believe that was some compatibility issue discovered by the disc manufacturers? It was further fallout from the lawsuits that you have to pay royalties just to own blank media.

All of this hoopla, is also the reason such a huge onus has fallen to the typical user. All of you are the thieves, and they already proved it in court. Copy protection is the price we all have to pay for unscrupulous business men and the third world left behind. One observation I've made over the years is that there is a significant number of game owners that also have a cracked copy because of draconian CP restrictions. Of course that practice is illegal now too. In my singular opinion, this "practice" of illegal software has been created for us, by the self same people trying to profit from it, and I don't mean the people doing the cracks.

Public shares by definition are available. They have become less accessible of late for financial reasons and not availability. The shareholders becoming any kind of power for anything other a hostile takeover, is simply wrong and unfounded. Never has auntie Ella, sitting on her 401K ever had anyone ask her for her opinion on running a company of any sort. Never has any closely held company ever issued any vested shares to the public. The only open participation ever exercised in any stock transaction is when the revenues of said company disappeared with the executives. The result is always bankruptcy for the company. Between steam early release and web Charity funds AKA crowd funding, never has it been easier. Check out Elite Dangerous. Amazing amounts of free money to the owners from public donations, and now a very closely held and private corporation. There are now free triple A source programs available and all you have too do is come up with an idea, do the art, and pay a royalty if you make any money.