This Gen ... 10 Years From Now

[Flojomojo]

As many others have already said, I think the Wii U (in spite of being the commercial failure that it was) will end up being the popular home console to collect for and play from this generation 10 years down the road. The overall lack of required online connectivity and update patches will make it a lot more functional a decade from now than the Xbox One and PS4 will be, and the Wii U does still have a few dozen standout titles published on physical media that will likely become pretty sought after by collectors in the future.

 

I just realized that my Wii U is probably the most resilient modern console I own.

 

I have mostly downloaded games on my Wii U, but I just remembered they're all on an external hard drive. The disc drive on my Wii U could die, the external drive could die, but assuming everything else is OK, I should be able to just plug in another USB external drive, download my purchases (wait a while), and go back to playing. If I were smart, I'd be backing up my progress for games I cared about.

 

I guess I could do this with Xbone and PS4 too, but assuming their firmware would allow me to insert and format a new disk drive if the internal one went bad. I don't think it would be as straightforward, though.

[Gabriel]

 

Well, you made me laugh.

 

I was more referring to the fact that what few ones that are good will be unplayable in the future, but yes... very funny.

 

Well, generally speaking, I don't think the ones which are so reliant on online play or DLC for basic functionality are worthwhile in the first place.

 

Very little of what I see promoted nowadays has any longevity. They're the modern equivalent of the endless sports titles on the Genesis or the me too mascot titles. They're all marketing and nothing beyond that.

 

Admittedly, I'm not the audience. I don't care about any of these games now. But I really don't see most of these modern games holding anyone's attention for long enough to be relevant a year from now, much less 10 years.

 

I really think we've reached the point of video games as a toilet tissue style consumable product. I don't see people having nostalgia for this stuff years from now. I don't have nostalgia for the last roll I wiped with, why should anyone else?

[Pixelboy]

Well, generally speaking, I don't think the ones which are so reliant on online play or DLC for basic functionality are worthwhile in the first place.

 

Very little of what I see promoted nowadays has any longevity. They're the modern equivalent of the endless sports titles on the Genesis or the me too mascot titles. They're all marketing and nothing beyond that.

 

Admittedly, I'm not the audience. I don't care about any of these games now. But I really don't see most of these modern games holding anyone's attention for long enough to be relevant a year from now, much less 10 years.

 

I really think we've reached the point of video games as a toilet tissue style consumable product. I don't see people having nostalgia for this stuff years from now. I don't have nostalgia for the last roll I wiped with, why should anyone else?

I tend to share you general sentiment. I also believe that the gaming industry and gaming community are like any natural ecosystem: There will still be video games in the foreseeable future, and if there are any franchises today that are worth bringing back 10 years from now, one company or another will find a way to make it happen if there's a profit to make from it.

[Bixler]

I know that I posted in another thread about picking up an Xbox One Scorpio eventually (I meant the slim but whatevs), but I generally agree with this thread.

 

I dunno how people feel about the Wii but that's the most recent home console that I've had a total blast with. My girlfriend and I pull it out regularly to play multiplayer games together. So many terrific titles, and the game collecting community has helped bring many sleeper hits to the general light (much to the chagrin of my wallet...)

 

Meanwhile all I've heard about this current generation is disappointments and marketing disasters and buggy train wrecks. The only games that look even remotely appealing to me on the Xbox One are Rare Replay, Master Chief Collection, Gears of War Ultimate, Sunset Overdrive, and The Witcher III. Not too many to choose from, and we're three years into this generation. Something about games in this gen when compared to the last – heck, the PS3 had lots of terrific titles, as did the PS2 and Xbox and GameCube – seems really... off. Like games are all flash and little substance. A generalization, but perhaps that's what has come from the enormous amount of marketing behind games that have such little depth (Battlefront, No Man's Sky, Watch_Dogs, The Division... to name only a few). Game collectors fear for collecting for the Xbox One and PS4 in an increasingly digital age, but honestly... how many of the games coming out now are you going to want to play 10-15 years from now?

Edited September 7, 2016 by Bixler

[Keatah]

 

I think this is spot on for the direction the 'mainstream' industry is pushing towards. Shift games to focus on online play so they can shut down servers and force players to buy the latest games/sequels if they want to keep up.

 

All this "keeping up" stuff. It's a game in and of itself. Something I'm not interested in playing.

 

Additionally, I have so many games from the past and even recently that I don't give a rat's ass what the industry does today.

Edited September 7, 2016 by Keatah

[Flojomojo]

http://m.imgur.com/91sn32Q

[Clint Thompson]

I don't know - some of this may very well all change very soon. Maybe you could pick up a very cheap first generation VR headset for the PS4 and console as well for super cheap and enjoy some of the early offerings that VR had to offer. We're definitely entering new territories with gaming and where it could really end up in 10-years. VR, AR and now incremental upgrades on just a console mid-life, who knows what it could bring and what we could possibly miss from this generation.

[spacecadet]

I forgot to mention the PS Vita. The Vita is an absolutely amazing handheld and I'm guessing will be the last non-Nintendo handheld for a while, and among the last pure gaming handhelds ever released. If the rumors about the Nintendo NX are to be believed, Nintendo will be going hybrid home/handheld, with maybe some mobile games thrown in for those who don't go the NX route. So the Vita may end up being the most powerful pure handheld the world will ever see, and it's got some amazing Sony-exclusive games on it too. I also just think its hardware is a pleasure to use.

 

I don't know if it'll ever reach beyond cult status but I could see it being similar to the Sega Nomad down the line, where people slowly discover it and it commands high prices on the used market due to its relative scarcity. (Within 10 years, I think Vitas will be pretty uncommon on the used market.)

[+Sargon]

If my Wii U is still working in 10 years

 

If/when Nintendo discounts the Wii U to sell through remaining inventory, I will almost certainly buy an extra one to keep around for when mine dies. I wouldn't be shocked if they are highly sought after by future collectors, especially Wii U Gamepads in good condition.

[supercoupe91]

They are just going to keep updating the current hardware. We will still be in the current gen in 10 years.

[onmode-ky]

I don't have nostalgia for the last roll I wiped with, why should anyone else?

By coincidence, I recently switched to a generic brand toilet paper. The previous roll was definitely superior. Ah, those were the good ol' days!

 

onmode-ky

[Gregory DG]

Good question... Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede will live on forever. But will people still be playing the original Batman Arkham Asylum, Halo 4, Bioshock, God of War 3, etc. in 30 years? I highly doubt it.

[bretthorror]

I'm pretty sure modern games have more of a chance to live on forever than old arcade games. 30 years from now there will be collections released on PC or whatever is rolling in the console/handheld world just like we've been getting arcade compilations for the last 20 years. People are inevitably going to want to go back to games they played years earlier, it's just going to be a different process of playing them. I don't see how people of the future are gonna lose the nostalgia bug. The games that are gonna be hurt are the MMOs and online required games that'll be ghost towns and even then, some people somewhere will have servers set up to play the games.

 

There are always going to be people out there who want to explore the history of video games, and I personally think 30 years from now, those out of their element are going to be more handsomely rewarded than what I did when I went back 25ish years (at the time) to things like the Astrocade or 2600.

[negative1]

Good question... Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede will live on forever. But will people still be playing the original Batman Arkham Asylum, Halo 4, Bioshock, God of War 3, etc. in 30 years? I highly doubt it.

 

although i think arcade games are going on still.... new games get re-released all the time.

 

my friend just got resident evil 4 for the xbox one, which is 20 years old, and there are plenty of other games series still going strong.

 

so it is, and will be possible.

 

later

-1

[Professor Gull]

I think we also need to look outside the box as well on much of this stuff. In 10 years who will own the software properties? If it falls into hands of folks wanting to keep the old current games alive they will find a will and a way they always do. A rehashed 360 able to get DLC or updates. I know we have not seen it much with the 9th generation but there is still time to work on that and more current game rely heavily on patches and DLC so I would bet someone will find a way to get it to the masses in the future in some manner.

[Flojomojo]

I think we also need to look outside the box as well on much of this stuff.

 

 

Amen. I wonder if anyone thought that the old cartridges would one day be playable from a menu on a web browser?

 

https://archive.org/details/consolelivingroom is like the Atari department store kiosk only a zillion times better.

 

I like to think that such miracles will happen in the future, too.

 

[godslabrat]

This generation has been a real disappointment for me, I basically may as well have not gotten the new consoles at all.

 

That's how I feel. I actually opted out of the PS4/One, and have some serious retrospective regrets on the PS3/360. Had I known about some of the weird turns the market would take, as well as my personal life, I would have made much different buying decisions.

 

As many others have already said, I think the Wii U (in spite of being the commercial failure that it was) will end up being the popular home console to collect for and play from this generation 10 years down the road. The overall lack of required online connectivity and update patches will make it a lot more functional a decade from now than the Xbox One and PS4 will be, and the Wii U does still have a few dozen standout titles published on physical media that will likely become pretty sought after by collectors in the future.

 

The same goes for the 3DS series as well. Generally speaking, the consoles that require the least online connectivity are the ones that are going to hold up best over the long term. More games released on physical media to collect, a greater focus on the offline single player experience in those games, less update patches, etc. The more geared towards offline usage a system is the better it will hold up in a decade's time when all the servers from this generation are down, and from this generation I think the winners are going to be the Wii U and 3DS series.

 

 

...and Doom, because Doom is always a winner.

 

It's a shame this information can't be harnessed now, and put to good use. If we really see a Dreamcast-like future for the Wii-U, then it would be great if Nintendo could NOW encourage hobbyists to start their own network services, and open up their online store to ports of old titles (suddenly I want to play classic Doom on my Wii-U, thanks for that).

 

Now that the system is slipping off into the sunset, start building the community now, and maybe make a few bucks off of it. Better than letting people hack your system for free. But it won't happen, because Nintendo is Nintendo.

[Shawn]

I'll still be playing the Far Cry series 10 years from now I know that for sure. Same goes for the 007 series from the 10 years before this.

[R.Bear]

Sadly I'd imagine not all that many since so many multiplayer console games can't operate without their servers and they seem to get taken down very fast when the game loses popularity. In addition, many single-player games seem to have some online features too which won't work long into the future. On top of that, who knows how long the digital downloads will be available for and the DLC bought via. the store as well as the PSN/Xbox Live Account authentication.

 

"Current" modern consoles are definitely going to be more of a pain in 10-20 years assuming the hardware even still works by that point than those a couple of generations before...

 

From purely a gameplay standpoint, I think JRPGs and other types of offline RPGs will probably be the most-played. Other types of games seem to rely on online/multiplayer components much more.

 

I definitely think the PS3/360 will hold up better than the PS4/Xbox One as "retro" gaming systems in future. Hardware failures aside, the PS3/360 (More so the PS3) rely on online features much less than the current generation systems, especially with the earlier PS3 games some of which offer no network connectivity at all.

Edited September 10, 2016 by R.Bear

[+wongojack]

I guess I'm not really worried about the servers going dark before I'm dead or whatever. Even if they do, It's easy to convince software that its phoning home even if not connected to the original server. That fits with the "we'll be pirating our own games" comment above. I can see spoof servers or the ability to burn a patched version happening. Or Microsoft might just stay in business too.

 

Personally, I'm interested in playing any Quantum Break sequels. I could see replaying that if it becomes a strong series.

[Mord]

From purely a gameplay standpoint, I think JRPGs and other types of offline RPGs will probably be the most-played. Other types of games seem to rely on online/multiplayer components much more.

 

Or at least the 75% or less of the JRPG that's on the disc, given the remaining 50-200 dollars of DLC won't be available (legally) once they shut the servers down. And that's assuming the RPG is truly offline given some devs decisions to add an online check-in.

 

Now that I think about it, the DLC on the PS4 and Xbone can both be set by the publisher to require online checkins every time you start the game to activate the DLC you purchased. (Minecraft on the PS4 is one such example I remember people complaining about.) So even in those cases you're going to be out of luck even if your console continues to function after they shut those consoles out of their servers.

 

I use to like buying up JRPGs on consoles - actually have quite a few as far back as the PS1 and Dreamcast days. But mid-way in the PS3 generation the above things really turned me off of most of them. I guess the silver lining here is that it means I technically have more time to actually play the impulse rpg purchases over the last decade or two.

[Shawn]

I guess I'm not really worried about the servers going dark before I'm dead or whatever. Even if they do, It's easy to convince software that its phoning home even if not connected to the original server. That fits with the "we'll be pirating our own games" comment above. I can see spoof servers or the ability to burn a patched version happening. Or Microsoft might just stay in business too.

 

Personally, I'm interested in playing any Quantum Break sequels. I could see replaying that if it becomes a strong series.

 

The Dreamcast has been using spoofed servers in this manor for a long time so I think you are correct in assuming the current gen of consoles will end up doing the same. At least I hope so.

[Professor Gull]

I do wonder though how PC gaming will go though in the future. Not that I see Steam going under but one does have to question where all the properties go and places to get the downloads if Steam does disappear.

[Newsdee]

places to get the downloads if Steam does disappear.

If that were to happen, I suspect there will so many disgruntled users that they'll come up with a Sneakernet to massively share terabytes of content between themselves by swapping disks...

Edited September 12, 2016 by Newsdee

[negative1]

I do wonder though how PC gaming will go though in the future. Not that I see Steam going under but one does have to question where all the properties go and places to get the downloads if Steam does disappear.

 

almost every steam game has a hack or crack for it.

 

i'm not ever going to worry about steam going anywhere.

 

especially, when they built in an offline mode for games.

 

 

later

-1