The future of gaming begins…with the log-in
I’ve seen the future of gaming and it’s not the high end graphics, not the vibrating controller, not – for all the hype – the camera that puts you bodily into the game. It’s the log-in process. Both PlayStation 4, which launches tonight, and XBox1 require you to be yourself.
There’ll be no more anonymous gaming: you, your pathetic noob low scores, your embarrassing alter-egos, your unfeasible amount of hours wasted – will all be identifiable. The reason is that with the new platforms, gaming is going social.
In less than a decade, console and PC games have moved from primarily linear, narrative games you play against the computer AI, to online, multiplayer games where you can get sworn at by 15-year-old boys, to a whole new world where there’ll be hundreds of competitors in vast, open worlds.
And the idea is that sharing, socialising and communicating will now happen on the games platform, in and around the game itself. That’s the real innovation in the PS4.
The stakes are high. The computer games industry, grossing $69 billion globally last year, already takes more money than movies at the box office. While music sales have collapsed because of piracy, and while TV viewing declines and fragments, the computer game remains the last bit of digital real estate that is truly defensible as an economic product.
Not only are the games hard to pirate, if you want the full online experience you have to pay. For the big-name game titles in the pipeline for these new platforms, there will be monthly access charges. Other stuff is available for download only.
Though it is gamers who have pushed the social sharing aspect – uploading their greatest kills, drives, jumps etc to YouTube to bore the pants off everybody else – it’s highly advantageous for the games industry that this now means you have to have a real identity. It means the age-related content system can be made to work – if parents want it to; and that the industry can finally break out of the teenage boys and 3am dad demographic. Again, if it wants to.
If the industry is successful in attracting a wider demographic – 50 per cent of game players are women, it is said, but there were very few in the queue outside the launch today – then it will face an identity crisis. Up to now its ethos has been male, competitive, violent. Now with Sony saying it wants to build in much more rewards for collaboration, a more family friendly environment, does some of the buzz disappear?
Personally, while some of the titles delivered with today’s console look great, I can’t wait to put on my horned helmet, pick up my two handed sword and zone out in the mythical landscape of Tamriel, when the multiplayer version of Skyrim (Elder Scrolls Online) comes out. I don’t know whether I’ll concentrate on slicing people’s heads off, or experimenting with zoned out communal living alongside a bunch of people with lizard’s heads. At least I’ll have a choice.
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