Alternate History: What happens to gaming if the internet never existed?

[SvennoJ]

Thinking about it a bit more, VR would have been more popular today without the internet. Although kickstarter does seem to have pushed VR back into the public view, I believe Sony always had plans for a revival. They have basically been working at it since the eye toy, GT5 already had head tracking support. Without the internet game stores would have flourished, perfect places to demonstrate and let people try out VR. Without the internet people would also visit each other a lot more, facilitating word of mouth after experiencing VR at a friend's place. Pictures and videos simply can't show VR to the masses.

The flood of cheap downloadable games has also hurt VR more than help it. As well as the race to the bottom for game prices, dragging peripherals along. The constant push for better graphics thanks to DF and you tubers with endless pixel comparisons and 4K nonsense has also moved the focus away from stable 60fps performance and make VR seem even less appealing due to lack of fancy graphics in screenshots and videos.


I also believe that games would still have been more varied, risky and less pc without the internet. No SJW or public outcry when something gets blown out of proportion on social media.

No internet would probably also have helped HVD to become a reality. Bigger, faster storage instead of let em download the rest. Without Netflix etc 4K blu-ray or rather HVD would have caught on instead of becoming a minor digital upgrade due to streaming requirements. More and faster storage also means more extras for games, pre-rendered cut scenes instead of stuttering in engine endless talking bullshit, better light maps, textures, uncompressed sound. Making games download friendly has held them back a lot.


Gaming would be vastly different today without all the 'free to play' time sinks and micro transactions that the internet era has made possible. PC, handheld and console might actually be a lot bigger without the likes of Netflix, You tube, Facebook, Twitter, gaming websites, free to play phone games taking up so much time. I know that when I was a kid I played a lot more and watched a lot less than my kids do now.