What will be the future of video games?

Craig Allen, CEO of Spark Unlimited, a video game company, explains the future of the game industry and all the news innovations !

For many years, games have been driving to achieve a greater simulation of reality, as it has been a good measure for judging the evolution of our underlying technologies.  Vector graphics became 2D artwork which lead into 3D worlds – and as those worlds have become more detailed and filled with believable systems in terms of physics, artificial intelligence, and natural language control – the achievements have been both visual and self evident.

However, there is a point at which we have diminishing returns from greater technology as the benefits become harder to quantify.  For example, in the early years, Pixar’s films were visually changing as more powerful technology enabled improved graphical representation.  However, today – despite vast improvements to their rendering techniques and greater sophistication of technology – the films must succeed or fail much more on the merits of their story and characters as audiences are no longer dazzled by the uniqueness of a computer generated film.

In the game industry, we have been using the measure of visual fidelity and the power of new systems to drive perception of value and demonstrate the need for players to purchase and upgrade their hardware in order to have the ultimate experience.  What’s interesting is that while there will always be innovation and technologies enabling new experiences that seek to provide a better reality simulator (like the Oculus Rift), many players today are embracing more unusual projects – particularly on mobile – where technology limitations force a greater focus on creativity.

In the end, life is a game - so as our real world becomes increasingly quantified, tracked and socially ranked we’ll continue to infuse gaming systems into our lives and at some point reach the level of ultimate gaming reality.  Whether that’s seeing the world through a pair of Google Glass or other kinds of hardware presenting alternative layers of reality – graphics are a short-term benchmark for change.  The real changes are going to be social and generated by the ability for people to have better information and feedback on their decisions and actions.  Such lifestyle-enabled systems will lead to new forms of entertainment.  Others will motivate change by offering incentives or generating social currency based on performance data and usage.

In any case, the future will deliver a more realistic virtual world.  It’s just the one we already live in.

Discussing the future is always interesting because your vision of the future reveals a bit about how you think about current trends in society – excitement for how issues might be resolved or concern about new terrors to be unleashed – in essence the conversation indicates whether you feel we are moving toward a brighter or darker future.  The good news is whatever you think you’re almost always wrong because of unexpected innovation.

With that in mind, fundamentally I’m an optimist. I believe the future will amaze us not only by what we expect but out of innovation we have yet to imagine.  As we know, mobile technology and the Internet have revolutionized the way we live, work, communicate and understand our world.  As more of our environment becomes intelligently ‘online’ - from fabrics to appliances - the information available to create new businesses and improve the lives of people through data driven solutions will continue to be dazzling.  I feel we are born with an innate desire to improve ourselves, our communities and our world – and we will have much better tools to provide people a path to sharing, coaching and celebrating such individual and team achievements. 

For example, I know a group of senior citizens who have challenged each other to stay fit by monitoring and sharing their fitness data as recorded by a wearable device.  The social currency of data relating to their health goals has these people living better lives and motivating each other to keep improving.  The future will enable us to have more efficient social communities built around improving whatever data is being collected and targeted for change - whether that is helping to improve citizen involvement in government or by creating greater customer loyalty through deeper understanding and response to customer feedback.

That said, robots would bring the next great wave of change.  Intelligent devices that are autonomous, helpful, and transformative will radically change how we have traditionally operated a labour-driven economy.  Just as the Internet and mobile technology have been evolving services, communications and information – intelligent devices will soon impact all industries and change the equation in terms of who brings value to an organization.  Any job that is repetitive and primarily non-creative will be at risk.  One could look negatively on this and be concerned about the loss of an existing paradigm.  Or, more positively, that we will have the opportunity to able to enter a new age of human creativity as society is required to place greater value on things that are unique, crafted and more personal in nature.

I am also fascinated by what we will be able to do with Nano-technology, highly personalized medicine, immersive team-based learning, and artificial life.  Each holds a promise for a better future but also has the potential to bring new miseries into the world.  More than ever we are going to be challenged to find a fearlessness to work together across lines of traditional business and governance as many will resist letting go of old habits and systems even when they fail.  So as exciting as it is to contemplate the future, what I am really excited about is the ability to connect today with people who share a vision and desire to build a better world for us all.

Spark Unlimited is a video game company based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2002, the first title from the studio CALL OF DUTY: FINEST HOUR established on console game systems what has since become one of the biggest franchises in the industry.  Currently the company works with many global partners to create games for all platforms and also provides strategic consulting for how to transform business through the use of game theory in order to motivate or change desired user behaviours while increasing audience participation and engagement. My role is to represent our group’s capabilities and match partners with the world’s best game talent to build or enhance their operations.