The Future of Games is Flash

Among many of the prophesies on future of the videogames industry is its eventual transition to the cloud. If games are run virtually, it means that gamers don't need to physically own software. David Perry, chief creative officer at Acclaim Entertainment, likens it to the arcade where people were willing to pay to play on hardware they could never afford.

People don't care if they own a physical copy of Texas Hold 'Em on Facebook, but there's a problem with moving more complicated games directly to the cloud. It requires a really fast Internet connection and better broadband penetration. Perry expects that is at least five years away.

That's why Acclaim has decided that the future is Flash, particularly because Adobe continues to add more 3D support. With Flash, the game is saved on Acclaim's servers. It's persistent. Everything is cog-based and scalable. Flash, says Perry, gives you unlimited power.

He is spearheading the development of a next generation API that brings development tools to developers. The suite would allow them to easily implement virtual currency, achievements, guest passes, prepaid cards, and alternative business models to their games. Developers could also adjust prices in real-time and instantly update their micro-transaction offerings.

These tools would all be hosted within FanHub.com, which is currently in the final stages of development. Essentially a Flash game publisher, it would host the catalog of games and give developers 80% of revenues. The model, says Perry, would allow developers to take back their own industry.

Right now the Flash games business is leaving a lot of money on the table, he says. If you aren't within the first or second tier of Flash games, they're buried on the pages of Web portals. Most developers release their games for free or rely on pre-roll ads – none of which make much money. And there's the problem that if a game has been distributed across multiple sites, it's nigh impossible to make sure all portals have the most up to date version of the game.

While the most poignant part of Perry's broad talk about the future of the games industry had to do with the Flash future, he also touched on the need for building community, interacting with audiences, and exploring new markets and business models.

There's not game industry veteran who became successful by not taking risks, says Perry.

Source: http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-future-games-flash

Back when I was much younger, Perry developed some really good games for ZX Spectrum. But it's been a downward spiral ever since...for some reason I really feel sorry for him. Even his Earthworm Jim games had nothing on stuff like Herbert's Dummy Run or Three Weeks in Paradise.

Arguably his last great game was Supremacy for Amiga. Once he got into licensed stuff in the early '90s, his talent just died.

This in intriguing.

But a lot of people will still want to have games because they want to play the game over and over and over again -- not having to worry about servers being up and games being pulled, etc.

But a lot of casual gaming will continue to go that way.

Of course, we would have to have a merger of TVs and computers to really do this in a more group-oriented (family) setting.

Mike from Morgantown

I think this generation is the evolutionary point where games are branching out into numerous paths rather than competing down a single evolutionary line. The audience for games has broadened and changed, and the avenues for reaching gamers have exploded.

Free MMOs have become huge due to very inventive business models (such as the 1/10/89 model of microtransaction in free games). The hardcore may not pay much attention to them but they have millions upon millions of dedicated customers. One called Perfect World has over 50 million subscribed players world wide (It's big in china, thusly the enormous user base. Only 1 million play in the US, and more around the world).

"Casual" gaming has exploded and become common place through the DS, Iphone, Ipod touch, and the home casual console Wii. Revenue from games like Peggle, Chuzzle, bejeweled and countless sudoku, crossword or word games are huge and it's sprouting lucrative genre's the "core" gamer doesn't know or care about, such as the Search Puzzle genre.

Downloadable titles via PSN, Wiiware, and Xboxlive arcade have created an entirely new model of gaming. Smaller games in different genres than you would find on retail discs (giving oldschool a new school feel often times, I won't complain) as well as giving new ways to sell normal retail games.

Flash is becoming alot more viable as a development tool and as more and more business models sprout up, they will get more and more of an audience, and higher and higher quality games.

Steam is a system in and of itself almost. Valve hit the motherload in creating a network only means of distributing games, and a platform to play them on. Backlogs of classic games, a large variety of casual games, and plenty of modern games that are download on demand, often at cheaper prices than retail. It conveniently keeps track and applies patches and updates, has it's own friends list and networking options it's practically the PC gamers XMB.

Traditional disc based "core" gaming on consoles will continue to exist obviously, but numerous other forms are branching out from this single evolutionary line. Many are extremely lucrative, and the influence will be felt across all models. Gaming is changing.

Lmao, I love it.