How do you think the gaming landscape will change in the coming years?

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

The gaming landscape has changed a lot over the years and it will continue to do so in the future. Based on current happenings, what do you predict the gaming landscape will look like in the coming years?

My personal prediction: This is probably an obvious one that we're all thinking already, buy I genuinely believe that Microsoft and Sony will go third-party. That may turn out to look different from how Sega went third party years ago, but I think the outcome will be largely the same.

You may have seen this image before. I made it a while back and posted it to /v/ to highlight that in the late 90s Sega was porting their games to PC and then started releasing games on competitive platforms like the Game Boy and N64, and then shortly afterwards they went third-party.

This is very similar to what's happening today. Microsoft and Sony both started porting their games to PC, then Microsoft starting doing ports to other platforms and now Sony has job listings up that mention games for Nintendo Switch and Xbox which comes as no surprise at all.

With their games going to other platforms and sales over their own hardware being sluggish it simply makes no sense to continue producing dedicated hardware.

I don't think they will step entirely out if hardware however. I think that Xbox's partnership with Asus is partial evidence. I think they will both probably license out their brand-name to third party hardware manufacturers to make handheld devices and probably some sort of box that sits under your PC like a console, but those devices will probably just be PC's that have access to multiple storefronts and Xbox and Playstation will probably try and push their own storefronts while also releasing their games on the other storefronts like Steam or Epic.

Sony in particular might keep making their own hardware but I expect it to become more open - or at least support Steam. And I expect they're going to try and profit from the hardware, so they definitely wouldn't sell it for a loss.

I expect the overall gaming landscape will be just Nintendo, PC, and handheld devices. And this is kind of already the case. I feel that the concept of a game console as we once knew it is already dead and the PS5 and Xbox Series systems are antiquated devices that are "struggling" due to their inability to adapt to the changing market. Maybe they won't go entirely third party but it's entirely clear that they will need to make big changes because the old model just isn't working anymore.

And in the PC space, I believe that what Nvidia is doing has created a bubble and it's not sustainable. Changes will definitely happen in the PC realm but I can't imagine what exactly that will be.

As I said earlier these predictions are probably rather obvious but I do believe quite strongly that something along these lines will be the case. What are your personal predictions for how the gaming landscape will change in the coming years?

 

[Netra]

Gacha, gacha games everywhere.

 

[Firenoh]

May I ask whom's ass is in your profile pic, good sir?

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

May I ask whom's ass is in your profile pic, good sir?

Princess Peach, it's from an official render for Mario Kart World.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Microsoft is going on full handheld pc their next console is powered by Windows 11. Sony on the other hand will invade the pc gaming alongside with its console releases. Since Nintendo lay down their cards with the Switch 2 it would be foolish for both Microsoft and Sony to rush things they will thinking of ways to win the consumers and counter Nintendo.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It all depends on whether or not the Stop Killing Games campaign passes and is turned into law.

Some developers are actually greedy enough that I can honestly see them stopping releasing games in Europe entirely, which would create either a second golden age of Piracy or such a gap on entertainment that we may just see the return of imports on a mass scale, something that hasn't been seen in the industry since the N64-era.

It's gonna be interesting either way.

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

I expect consoles to double-up as trashcans n dumpsters. the Valve RB-SF [Recycle Bin Super Fuckshit] users can angriLy throw their irritating devices into the digital rubbish crate to either trade out for new devices 3D printer cloned to their shithoLe back-end of the console n have to sign agreements/waivers that if you clumsiLy ramshackle yourself into the trash part n your stinkey foot hits the wrong keys or buttons PREPARE TO ENTER THE GAMES YOURSELF in an EXCITING CONVERSION from HUMAN to PRODUCT. gamers are considered disposable objects to these dirty ass arrogant companies that relocate to maze-like forests so their buildings don't get hit with rocket launchers or MGS cardboard boxes fiLLed with ninjas.

just watch, this wiLL unfold before our very eyes. even if we're dead cuz even 6 ft. under... we'll know. WHEEL NO.



...

wait,

wuT

 

[Bakuma1997]

At best companies will finally get their heads out of their asses and will start realizing selling garbage will net them garbage reputation

At worst the Videogame Crash of the '26

Considering i have tons of emulation fun and GOG has me covered in modern gaming, i am already bunkered in case of the worst

 

[nyka]

My worry is games are going to become a lot more chaste/conservative if these payment processors keep capitulating to hate groups like Collective Shout

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Well in depends the big company will still doing thier shit game lose a million dollars went bankrupt rinse and repeat while the indie studio will boom only thing left is indie console or handheld know the consumer wants a rival to Sony and Nintendo.

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

as a more serious post to this, tbh I feel like I'm lacking sufficient industry-trends/cycles/patterns info to truly weigh in on this in earnest. I try to avoid extraneous info from business evils just like I avoid TV n news (ADHD kinda makes ze teLLy a no-go but I'm workin on that n attempting reading books again even if it kills meh) ...cuz I get too worked up over injustices n multi-leveled abrasively-insulting individual or mass stupidity. omg I went off like a sawed-off in the Granblue Rising discord chat lol

 

[glokglakglak]

no one will own games anymore
but i don't fuckin care cos 1 i'm a pirate through and through and 2 i'm a retro gamer

 

[SpaceCadetGenocide]

At the rate things are going, it feels like every facet of the gaming industry is in a pressure cooker slowly building up to explode, and cause some sort of crash in the industry, consoles are getting too expensive and hard to find, games are becoming derivative and mediocre, and a lot of anti consumer trends like the recent payment processor scandal don't make the future look good for gaming. I feel like Nintendo will be least affected because they've always been very detached from the rest of the gaming ecosystem

 

[Vexicrypt]

I don't know about the whole picture but at some point they will 100% start remaking the remakes. Hopefully I'll be long dead by then. But if not, I'll still be playing old games and minding my own business I guess.

 

[NotReallyHere]

I think we're heading towards an all digital, streaming-focused future.

I don't keep up with modern gaming (I have none of the current consoles, or a gaming-quality PC) so I'm mostly just content to sit back and see where the technology goes. We've gone digital, streaming, and app-focused with movies, music, and broadcast TV, so why wouldn't games follow suit?

I know Xbox has made a lot of progress here, being able to stream GamePass games on nearly any device. In the future, I think it will be as simple as downloading a Nintendo, Playstation, or Xbox app on your TV, and playing the games with a wireless controller you already own. Sure, you'll pay a subscription fee, but you won't have to buy a $500+ console, or spend $80+ on games.

For retail sales, I can definitely see Sony or Xbox offering a controller bundle in stores, which comes with a gamepad and three months of their online service for $99 or so. Go home, download the app on your TV, scan the QR code you got in the box, and you're in business.

I think that could be a fair tradeoff. It would help to make modern games more accessible, instead of new releases being constantly gatekept behind full-priced launch window pricepoints and high console / PC hardware costs. And, of course, you wouldn't actually "own" anything, but you already don't own anything if you use Netflix or Disney+, so it's a business model that the average consumer has already shown they would support.

I'm not saying I like this, or that it's good or bad - I'm just reading the room, based on the current state of the digital media market

 

[Netra]

I see people having hope but there are no hope in the next year's, the big companies will continue abusing the consumer, the consumer will continue consuming sht, and nothing will be changed, sorry to be mean but we have passed a no go back point.
The news gamers don't buy a 60-90 game but they don't have problems with burn 100 dollar per month in skins or gachas system, the big companies are slowly migrate to this systems and knowing tencent has roots in every western game companies the only future I see is the total gachafication of the game industry.

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

I think we're heading towards an all digital, streaming-focused future.

I don't keep up with modern gaming (I have none of the current consoles, or a gaming-quality PC) so I'm mostly just content to sit back and see where the technology goes. We've gone digital, streaming, and app-focused with movies, music, and broadcast TV, so why wouldn't games follow suit?

I know Xbox has made a lot of progress here, being able to stream GamePass games on nearly any device. In the future, I think it will be as simple as downloading a Nintendo, Playstation, or Xbox app on your TV, and playing the games with a wireless controller you already own. Sure, you'll pay a subscription fee, but you won't have to buy a $500+ console, or spend $80+ on games.

For retail sales, I can definitely see Sony or Xbox offering a controller bundle in stores, which comes with a gamepad and three months of their online service for $99 or so. Go home, download the app on your TV, scan the QR code you got in the box, and you're in business.

I think that could be a fair tradeoff. It would help to make modern games more accessible, instead of new releases being constantly gatekept behind full-priced launch window pricepoints and high console / PC hardware costs. And, of course, you wouldn't actually "own" anything, but you already don't own anything if you use Netflix or Disney+, so it's a business model that the average consumer has already shown they would support.

I'm not saying I like this, or that it's good or bad - I'm just reading the room, based on the current state of the digital media market

this was very convincingly conveyed with clarity (no I am not tryin to be an aLLiteration nerd xD ) n it feels like a legit prophecy of what's to come. maybe Google bomb'd with Stadia but they may have had the right idea but just jump'd the gun a lil - but to be fair, the innovators rarely get the spoils... the ones who ride on the coat-tails of the idea n just tweak/refine it usuaLLy hit the jackpot. it's this way in music genre scenes as weLL. just the nature of art bein the reluctant bedfellow with business I guess. movies too! I smeLLs an eternal pattern lol

it's not that everybody's out of ideas - it's just that companies obv don't wanna take many chances on innovation or brand-new franchises as it's burned them so hard over the years thnx to so many casuals n cliquey-dependent ppl buyin AAA games for sometimes unsound n dubiously shallow or cliquey-dependent or idiosyncratic reasons... also nostalgia for casual franchises that are more or less 'household names'

I know me bein an oddbaLL makes it not much surprise that I've always rooted for the underdog, but... even on a more objective worldview-ish lvl - I hope the indie devs break through hard n the 'meek' inherit a much larger portion of the gaming hustle.. n also hope it takes a while before the 'Jedi turn Sith' syndrome happens to independent devs/companies if suddenly they are far more in the 'driver's seat' than the dismaL but stiLL beautiful n infinite-possibility-esque jam we got goin now.

 

[ActuallyaBiscuit]

Indie will grow and the big money greedy companies will (hopefully) get pushed out as their, bloated overhyped, over expensive and dlc ridden monetisation machines will die a painful death. The industry will reset and the cycle will begin anew. Well, that's my dream anyway.

 

[fake-kun]

The main change I predict is that all video games in the world will belong to me.

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

Nintendo has declared war on the second hand game market.
Switch 2 cartridges having single use authentication keys will do irreputable damage to accessability.
No. Shut up. I don't care if "Only third party games do it" Nintendo gave them the option and I vividly remember the Xbox One always Online & EA/Ubisoft third party DRM on PC.
This won't end well.
Especially when these single use activation keys cost a minimum of $80. Additional DLC will not be kind.

Microsoft is going full game pass, rumours of the next Xbox running steam (if true) will relegate their hardware to glorified entry level gaming PC's. The promised Steam Machine made manifest.
I can't deny the convenience of Gamepass. Stay winning microsoft.

The PS5 has no games.
And with Sony putting all of its "exclusive" games onto steam this potentially puts them onto the next gen Xbox.
The PS6 will have no games.

The Steamdeck still requires a major marketing push to become mainstream, but like the Vive/Index before it Valve won't go in all on Hardware. It will remain niche.

And the fact payment processors are threatening to cut off digital store fronts over certain content means that gamergate has yet again been justified as the single greatest watershed for the games industry.
Those who fought for journalistic integrity and consumer rights lost.
It's 2025, games you brought have been delisted. We both know this won't stop at NSFW content don't play dumb.
RIP future Asian games receiving legitimate western releases.
But how else can activists push the next Dustborn without removing "problematic" competition

Oh and lets not forget if the rumours are true, Grand Theft Auto 6 will normalise $100 as the default price point for AAA Games. That's before DLC & Pre-order content.

The future is looking rough, yet we endure.

We need as industry crash & the ensuing 10/15 years of recovery to course correct this mess.
We all have a back catalogue long enough to ride it out, let it happen.

 

[afureru]

A crash will mean less anti-woke slop in a medium, less anti-woke slop means a more sensible consumer base that can form actual collective opinion and discourse on where the industry should go to "benefit the companies". Everyone will be happy. For about a minute.

The real win would be phasing out gacha games outside of Asian territories, though.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:46 AM

gamergate has yet again been justified as the single greatest watershed for the games industry

This is completely true. Except in this case, the shed splashed the rain onto the lawn and caused the plant life to become ugly and overgrown.
I hope it excites you that the government is free and privy to judging the "woke" games you've been screaming to a wall about over the past 5 years as "NSFW" on the front of including sexuality and gender minorities at all.

 

[JPZ]

My worry is games are going to become a lot more chaste/conservative if these payment processors keep capitulating to hate groups like Collective Shout

This is my worry as well, we're even seeing it in Japanese games.

And in remasters and remakes where scenes are censored, altered or removed.

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

This is completely true. Except in this case, the shed splashed the rain onto the lawn and caused the plant life to become ugly and overgrown.
I hope it excites you that the government is free and privy to judging the "woke" games you've been screaming to a wall about over the past 5 years as "NSFW" on the front of including sexuality and gender minorities at all.

Dustborn was 100% funded by EU & US Tax payers. $1.4m raised by both the EU creative Europe project & the American counter-disinformation program.
It reached a peak international player count of 83 players.
These governmental & activist entities know their ideals are unpopular.
Yet these will be the same entities that determine what is "problematic" and should banned from storefronts now a prescient has been set.

None of the above is a subjective political opinion FYI.
Everything I just stated is publicly available, factually correct information regarding Dustborn and the current payment processor debacle.

All I will say is this:
We're on the cusp of censorship & state funded creative bias yet unseen within the games industry.

 

[Coon]

I don't really care, It is only important to me that they start to produce reasonable games again.

 

[afureru]

Dustborn was 100% funded by EU & US Tax payers. $1.4m raised by both the EU creative Europe project & the American counter-disinformation program.
It reached a peak international player count of 83 players.
These governmental & activist entities know their ideals are unpopular.
Yet these will be the same entities that determine what is "problematic" and should banned from storefronts now a prescient has been set.

None of the above is a subjective political opinion FYI.
Everything I just stated is publicly available, factually correct information regarding Dustborn and the current payment processor debacle.

All I will say is this:
We're on the cusp of censorship & state funded creative bias yet unseen within the games industry.

Ah yes, xenophobic US taxpayers investing governmental funds into an indie video game from a Norwegian game studio with the content of the storyline already sorted out in the midst of the largest far-right shift in history.
Frankly, I don't really care to grandstand about the game itself, if it sucks, it sucks, but I know a dogwhistle when I see one. You could at least pretend you aren't obviously terminally online. Trust me, you're talking about the wrong kind of puritans. Think 40+ year old white parents attending church, those are who you should be concerned about. The church is still in decline at the same time as you're writing this, even.