The Future is [VR]ight Now.
The video game scene is ever-changing, with the next big breakthrough always around the next corner to outshine the previous one. The Video Game Awards narrows down the "best games of the year" to four or five titles, but there are likely a dozen or so games worthy of the nomination, and the community will let you know when they feel that a game has been snubbed. Apart from those dozen or so games, there are 8,000 other games released to the market every year that try to break boundaries and create the next big game genre. Every game is competing for the spot of 'Game of the Year', but very few are worthy of that accolade.
The last major release that shaped the gaming industry for the future would be God of War (2018), which set a new standard for storytelling within an action-oriented game. Before that, Demons Souls (2009) and Dark Souls (2011) would be the largest shake-up in the gaming world since online gaming. Demons Souls and Dark Souls launched a new genre of video games, called 'souls-like'. If you're not familiar with gaming terminology, we often use the name of games that stand-out in the industry to classify the new sub-genre they've created. For example, Metroid (1986) and Castlevania (1986) launched a new sub-genre of action-adventure games called a 'metroidvania'. The distinguishing factor of a 'metroidvania' game is using newly discovered items within the later parts of the game to access areas that were previously inaccessible earlier in the game. 'Souls-like' games are characterized for being very difficult in nature, with brutal enemies, punishing bosses, and an in-game currency used for upgrading your character, which can be lost by dying.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling about various sub-genres. What you should get from that is that the gaming industry is stagnant, until it's not. Every 4-5 years, something groundbreaking comes through that shapes the industry for a while. Fornite (2017) is a good example of a game that has shaped the industry that you may have heard of. The logistics of the video game industry are hard to read. It's difficult to tell when a game will succeed or fail. Often, we use 'hype' as a means to justify a games success prior to release. If a game has a lot of 'hype', or excitement, about its release, it's likely to do well, though this is not always the case.
The current shake-up in the industry is virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), formally called extended reality (XR). You most likely know what VR is but if you don't, then you've got some learning to do. Virtual reality is the act of 'entering' a computer generated world through exterior means, usually a virtual reality headset. The player can interact with things in the world by using a controller, often controller attached to the hands to mimic the player's hands within the game. This gives the feel of actually being in computer generated world.
The interest in VR skyrocketed a couple of years ago when the technology became viable with industry-standard technology. Now, we're exceeding expectations. Half-Life: Alyx (2020) launched with much anticipation and amazing reviews, being cited as the next big thing in VR. So, what are the next steps.
It was anticipated that VR technology would boom in 2019, and it did, but what does the future hold. One day, we could be playing every game in virtual reality. Games within games? It's already a thing. Living within a game? That sounds like a step in a dystopian novel.
Only the future can tell.
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