By Sam Kimmel
Greetings gamers! I’m so happy to be back in the new year after taking some time off for the holidays. I’ve been giving my future some serious thought over the past couple of months, and I think this year will really be fun for me creatively. I can’t say too much about it now, but I do tend to make this blog more of a weekly thing. I am also streaming now on Twitch! I’m streaming a few nights a week (mostly just Cyberpunk at this point.) I really appreciate all of the support I’ve received so far.
Alright enough of all that…let’s move on to the real meat-and-potatoes here.
While we look into the future as the new year has begun, let us wonder into what could be revolutionary in the gaming world for the 2020s. I’m stepping away from doing research on this one only because it wouldn’t be my full opinion, or my own predictions if I based it all on bits of someone else’s findings. So, I will be just giving you my gut reactions and brainstormed predictions for the coming decade.
The following are my predictions for what will happen to the gaming industry:
- Sports Video Games Will Almost Completely Move to a Subscription Service Model
The holidays aren’t the only thing that come around once a year. Madden, NBA 2k, FIFA, MLB: The Show, and several other franchises continue to churn out new titles ever year. I don’t believe this is a model that is going to continue to work in the long run though.
Right now what has really kept the franchises alive has been the micro-transactions throughout each of them. I’ve always been a huge fan of these games over the years though. However, there have been movements made in government to clamp down on these micro-transactions. If they are removed from these games altogether, then I think these developers will need to make up the lost profit elsewhere. Because of that I could see them putting a halt on their yearly releases, and instead trade-off for a new revenue system.
This is something that won’t happen in 2021, but I think that all of these games will transition to a subscription service model in the next 10 years. Some of the biggest games in the world are played through a subscription service, or even free. Those of you that love these games like I do will even have to admit that there just hasn’t been much innovation in the industry recently to draw new audiences or gamers that have stopped playing them. Every year these titles might get a slight graphical increase, but other than that they are mostly just roster updates with new soundtracks.
The online play is fun though and I know is taken pretty seriously in the competitive gaming realm. However, I think that’s just another reason why these games will become subscriptions. It’ll be easier and more affordable for them to each just focus on updating an existing game rather than having to pump out a new game every year. We will always have sports games, but how they are operating and producing will drastically change in the next decade.
2. Video Chatting Will Become the Common Way to Communicate in Parties and Online Gameplay
“Out with the old and in with the new,” so they say. We’ve become accustomed to these audio-only parties and groups on our platforms, well not anymore! I think a lot of gamers will still use this way to communicate, but I actually believe it will be the video chats that really takes over. Just the past year alone, we’ve seen a ton of people all over the world connect with each other through: Zoom, Google Meet, Facebook Messenger Video, etc. There are a lot of gamers out there that have begun streaming during this time and it makes a lot of sense, but I think there will be a service on PlayStation or Xbox that will allow us to video chat with one another. I feel like we are almost there now even!
I think we are finding out that gamers really love having a camera that is on the player themselves while they are gaming. This adds personality and uniqueness to each individual gamer while allowing the viewer to feel like they are connecting more with them. I believe we will see this method transfer to parties as well! It could be a really fun way to “hangout” with people that you may not be able to physically be with, and will allow gamers to connect all across the world.
3. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Will Become Mainstream
I think the AR/VR systems are going to make huge improvements in the coming years. The hard part is over. The technology is there for this type of entertainment, and it’s only going to get better. Take Pokemon GO for example, there’s a game that no one would’ve really thought was possible before it came out. I’m sure many Pokemon fans dreamt about having a game like this to play growing up. Now it has opened the flood gates for, what could be, waves of innovative titles down-the-road.
The capabilities are kind of endless when it comes to what the developers could do over the next several years with improving VR/AR. I think we’ll see it become much smoother over the coming years to a point where it could be a serious contender to the “traditional” methods of gaming we’ve come to know.
This could be the decade we see AAA games make large strides as well with it. We’ve already gotten a taste of what they could do too. In fact, Half-Life: Alyx was released just this past year and received great reviews from a ton of outlets. Not to mention that it was even labeled as a “Game of the Year” by some critics out there.
I would love to see where the future could go with this technology. Imagine being able to play a sports game, or a large scale first-person online shooter while being completely immersed in it via AR/VR! I truly believe we are heading towards the golden years of AR/VR, and it’ll be this decade.
4. Video Game Actors Will Become Larger Celebrities in the Next Few Years
We’ve already seen video games surpass movies, TV, and music in terms of profit. This was no fluke though! The writing behind these major titles has really went to new heights the last few years. Especially in single player campaigns, it has become crucial for a story to have solid writing. It used to be that the games that really stood out every year were the ones that had good stories paired with strong gameplay. However, now it has just become expected that a AAA single player story will be captivating and entertaining.
Sure, gamers alike already know some of the major video game actors such as: Troy Baker, Nolan North, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Ashley Johnson, etc.
Unfortunately, if you don’t game then you probably won’t recognize some or any of those names. This will change completely within the next 5 years though. Just as it is important to have a good script, it is also crucial to have the performances to bring these words to life. I’ve always tried to give these actors their well-deserved respect because it has been a medium that was overlooked for storytelling almost all of my life.
Even if you don’t listen to pop music, there is a good chance you know who Ariana Grande is. You may not watch sports, but you sure as hell know of Tom Brady. Maybe you don’t like movies for some reason, but you definitely know Will Smith. You get the point. The notoriety of these other celebrities stretches beyond the fans of their respected industries. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see the best video game actors finally receiving the recognition.
5. We Will See a Rock Band-like Game with Real Instruments
One of my fondest gaming memories is whenever my mom surprised my sisters and I with Rock Band for the Xbox 360 on Christmas. We played that all day just jamming out and building our band. I used to always think, ‘wouldn’t it be amazing if we could learn how to play the real instruments with a game like this?’ There really isn’t a game out there like this that encourages players to learn the actual instruments, but I definitely believe it’s something that will happen in the near future.
It will probably take a while for the learning side of this idea. You wouldn’t be able to just pick up and play A Day to Remember your first time booting up the game; however, if the game was designed well enough then it would motivate players to continue to learn the instruments. You could definitely make it so if you are a little more of an experienced musician then you could just connect an instrument and start playing along with its library. I don’t know if this is something that is even being thought of at the moment, but it would be revolutionary for the gaming industry…and maybe even create some badass musicians from it!
6. The Biggest FLOP of 2021 Will Be…
That’s right. Evil Dead: The Game is easily my pick for this one. I know that there are fans of the Evil Dead series out there that can’t wait for this game, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. The reveal trailer just didn’t do much to draw me in. This looks like a title that would’ve came out on last-gen consoles (PS4/Xbox One) just by the graphics. The cooperative online shooter is still a worthy genre to pursue, but I just didn’t see much innovation with this one. It is completely possible that they held off showing too much to avoid spoiling anything, but I get the feeling that the trailer is essentially the game. If that is the case, then it just looks like other similar titles that we’ve seen before already with an Evil Dead skin over it.
I’ll leave the link to the trailer here and let you be the judge for yourself though!
Dishonorable mentions — The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Back 4 Blood, Monster Hunter Rise, and Hogwarts Legacy
- The BEST Game of 2021 Will Be…
Horizon Forbidden West. Guerilla Games much-anticipated sequel to the 2017 masterpiece, Horizon Zero Dawn, is set to release late in 2021 and I think it will come out swinging. I’ve been following the development of this game for quite some time now and it has me eager to see what they end up adding to the game. Guerilla Games has already come out and said that they have rebuilt this game from scratch in-order to get the most out of the PS5 capabilities. I’m interested to see how they utilize the haptic feedback of the PS5 controllers as well. I think we’ll see them take some chances with the game, and we don’t have any reason to believe this won’t be a success so far.
Horizon Zero Dawn was on numerous “Game of the Year” lists back in 2017, and I think you’ll see a similar result with its successor. Aloy is a strong female protagonist to carry the story, so as long as it is well-written then the campaign should be exceptional. I always thought that Horizon Zero Dawn was one of the most beautiful games to ever be played on the PS4, but I think the sequel will be that much more breathtaking when you take into consideration the power of the PS5 graphically. I’m looking forward to looking back on this post after the game is released and seeing if I was right. If not, we can all at least have a good laugh at these.
Honorable mentions – God of War: Ragnarok, Gotham Knights, Resident Evil Village and Far Cry 6
I’d just like to wrap this up by saying once again, thank you! Thank ALL of you that have supported me thus far. I continue to receive new followers on this site, and I’ve heard a ton of feedback on previous posts. I’m looking forward to building this blog up throughout 2021. I have some “big picture” goals for myself and this blog, but for now I am simply going to work hard at pumping out the content weekly!
You can also find me on Twitch @kimmel_n_bits where I mostly stream Cyberpunk 2077 for now (I hope to have my full review of that game coming soon!) I try to stream a few times a week, and it is typically in the evening. However, I may be streaming some mornings over the weekends as my schedule allows. You can also follow my page for direct notifications on when I start streaming.
In the meantime, I hope you all are staying safe out there as we look ahead to greener pastures (fingers crossed!) Until the next one…goodbye everybody!
KimmelNBits 