The Future of Console Based Games 2010

Researchers

Ender Atalay
Shahid Butt
Marnix Eedens
Prewies Gaja
Richard Gerding
Kammi Heydari

Introduction

Duck hunt- a Nintendo game

Remember the dusty yellow days of Duck Hunt, where ducks where flying on your screen while you were shooting with your gun. It was not long before Nintendo days soon gave way to Sega nights and eight bits became sixteen. Mario met Yoshi, Sonic met Tails, and gamers met the new generation of the console wars. The bits kept doubling and doubling, and the gaming industry kept on growing.

Some may wonder what the new generation of consoles has to offer that was not available before. The incredible speeds of the new processors allow for amazingly lifelike graphics and wonderful special effects like realistic smoke, water, reflections, and animations. Giving game developers the tools to create any world imaginable brought gaming to new levels.

Now, in 2005, three contenders the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Xbox are ready to battle it out to conquer the home console market. Nintendo, the long time champion of home entertainment, is back with a renewed version after their last system, the Nintendo 64. This video console did not meet sales expectations. About four years ago, Sony introduced the PlayStation 2, which was to be the bigger and older brother of the PlayStation, a console that made its way into one out of every five homes in America. New to the console market is Microsoft. Bill Gates and his partners has poured his resources into creating the Xbox, a high speed, powerful gaming machine.

Topic Selection
In the first case we made a top three of choices to research this included terrorism and internet dating. After discussing the topics we came to the conclusion that the gaming industry was the way to go for us, as we are all active gamers. In addtion, we as group are hungry to know how the future of console based games will look like in 2010.

Some interesting links:

• History of game console based games
• Games and violance

Interesting links concerning business prospects:

• Online gaming till 2008
• Japan and the gaming industry
• Sales U.S.A during recession
• Possible reason why gaming market is growing: cyclical growth

Uncertainties

To be updated

Research questions

1. What are the expected technologies in next generation consoles?

• What are the expansion possibilities using new media?
• How well is the computing power keeping up with gaming?
• What are new technologies that will enable new kinds of gameplay? (Virtual reality)
• Who is the biggest technology player in the game console industry?
• At the moment can technology increase the realism of the games?
• What technologies are going to be introduced soon?
• Is technology more important or the quality of games?

Researcher: Shahid

2. How does the Interactive Entertainment Market look like in the future?

• Who are the main players in the console market today?
• What are the advantages & disadvantages of a game console?
• How will each game consoles brand develop in the future?
• Who are the secondary competitors or substitutes for the next generation game consoles?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the secondary competitors?
• What are consumers looking for in the future? (integrated, portable or separate game console)
• How do consumers choose for a game device?

Researcher: Marnix

3. What are the possibilities of security on the gaming console and the games? How can it be improved?

• What are the existing technologies available in the game consoles for preventing "illegal copying"?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies?
• How does the present situation of game piracy look like (=trends)?
• How will the various game consoles try to prevent game piracy in the future. What is DRM and how can DRM effectively be used in preventing copying?
• Who is BIG and what is their main purpose?
  

Researcher: Ender

4. Will there be a trend where more people focus on outdoor activities/sport? How does this influence the amount of time people spend on gaming?
Researcher: Richard

5. In what way can restrictions by government/parents/society influence the gaming console industry?
Researcher: Kammi

6. What are the influences of possible economic recession on the gaming console market? What can be done to anticipate this?

• What is the effect on the game market in case of a recession in Europe?
• What is the effect on the game market in case of a recession in Japan/Asia?
• What is the effect on the game market in case of a recession in the U.S.A?
• How did the game industry response during previous recessions?

Researcher: Prewies

7. Which trends can be recognized in the development of games? (size, graphics, amount of programmers)?
Researcher: None

8. Which trends can be recognized in the different kinds of game play? What can be expected in the future?
Researcher: None

9. What new game experiences can be expected? (Virtual Reality)

• What is virtual reality?
• Does virtual reality have a different level of experience than playing a gami consule?
• Is virtual reality a new phenomenon?
• How "real" is virtual reality?
• Which technological development are necessary to make virtual reality commercial attractive?
• How can virtual reality benifit game consoles?
• How can virtual reality become a substitute for the game console?
  

Researcher: Prewies

Driving Forces

Ender:

• Preventing game piracy: Digital Rights Management
• The increasing use of modchips and emulators

Shahid:

• Supercomputer on a chip
• Technology Standards: letting the consumer decide

Marnix:

• The rise of home entertainment systems
• Embedded Systems
  

Kammi:

Prewies:

• A growing market during a recession
• How violence spoils your child

Richard: