With a new generation of video game consoles, increasing online game play and distribution, cross-platform development and play, in-game advertising and more, there are earth-shaking changes going on in the video game industry.
Competition among game publishers is more heated than ever, which means a smart strategy, future-focused perspective and staying ahead of rivals is critical for success.
Predictions:
-The growing cost of development for games on next-generation platforms will increase demand from publishers to require new games to be deployed on many platforms.
-Increased cross-platform development will mean less money for optimizing a new game for any particular platform.
As a result, with the exception of in-house titles developed by the console manufacturers themselves, none of the three major platforms (Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Revolution) will end up with games that look significantly different from each other, nor will any platform show any real "edge" over the others. Many games will be written to a "lowest common denominator" platform, which would be two threads running on a single CPU core and utilizing only the GPU.
2006 is one if the biggest years for games in history. What a wild and wacky year 2006 has been for gamers. While it will best be remembered as the year that the “next generation” really got into full swing with all three major game companies having new consoles on the market for the holyday season, much more than this happened in 2006.
