I believe open world games will be the next popular genre. The whole world is combining electronics all in one, games should be no different. Open world games will take off this gen and there's no doubt about it.

Genres like FPS, racing, platformers, jrpgs etc. are extremely limited and not worth $60 IMO. They get repetitive and with diminishing returns they are not worth it. In open world games you can combine all the genres in one, there is something for everybody. With the new consoles (Xbox One and PS4) open world games are a lot easier to acomplish than in previous gens.

Imagine playing a open world Uncharted, Gears of War, or pretty much anything, it would be a whole lot of fun. You can walk around, have a day and night cycle, fight random people throughout the open world, do missions, do more diverse minigames, find people online just by walking to a certain place, walk around the world with friends in co-op mode etc. If you're connected online the world can change through updates and tweaks. That is the future.

I think the success of the GTA series, the fable series, the Legend of Zelda series, the fallout series, the elderscrolls series, the borderlands series, the dead rising series, the infamous series, and probably many more are examples of how gaming is moving in that direction.

Do you agree? Am I crazy?

an open world pokemon?

I need my linear game once and a while.
Sometimes I get frustrated in an open world RPG because there is too much to do and I'm afraid to forget stuff.

But I think it can happen, from fighters to racers to fps to open world.

as long as it something like zelda, i agree but something like GTA just takes way to much time and being so huge, the gameplay is just not as great as linear games.

So, JRPGs don't tend to have open world gameplay?

Most of the time they do but they are very limited in how they play and appeal to a small group of people. I'm saying they have grinding (like jrpgs) but combine every other genre into a game as long as its done right.

Not all. Does FF XIII ring any bell to you ?

Certain genres would not work as well as they do as open world games. You're asking for too much. If they were to combine all the genres like you suggest, it would have 1 dominant genre that plays well and other, more mediocre, genres that aren't as well made due to the dev team not being used to working on the other genres. Games like what you say will probably come into existence more often now, but I doubt they'll become the next Gen standard genre.

Nope, not everything benefits from being open world. I prefer more focused games with filler kept to an absolute minimum.

The same thing was said for this gen, and it didn't happen.

Making an open world game is a lot harder and time consuming (and therefore, expensive) than making a linear one, so the vast majority of studios will keep betting for the same thing as now: games that make you believe they are open while restrained in a closed scenario.