2015 saw a great many changes and shake-ups in the video game industry, with many more expected in 2016. Here’s a brief look at what’s to come as the new year plays out.
Nintendo Boldly Goes
After the tragic passing of Nintendo President Satoru Iwata earlier this year, 2016 will be the time for his successor, Tatsumi Kimishima, to show what direction he intends to lead the company towards. To that end, Nintendo already has a number of projects set to debut next year, among them being the Nintendo NX system. The NX has been the topic of much speculation, and is believed to be a new console designed to succeed the Wii U.
No doubt, Nintendo will continue with the phenomenal success of its Amiibo figurine line by releasing new versions and creatively using them to work alongside games. However, a more exciting change will be Nintendo’s first steps into developing games for mobile systems. 2016 will see release of Pokemon Go! Developed by Niantic, which is receiving up to $30 million in funding from Nintendo and Google, Pokemon Go! is an augmented reality game that will allow players to find and capture Pokemon in real world locations.
Additionally, DeNa has partnered with Nintendo to develop a free-to-play game called Miitomo for mobile devices. It will let users creatively communicate and share interesting facts with each other using their own Mii characters, with the strong possibility of tying into other games.
Mobile Gaming Consolidates as It Grows
Both analysts and publishers see big changes coming to the mobile games industry. The ongoing trend, marked by moves like Activision Blizzard’s $5.9 billion purchase of King Digital Entertainment, is one of consolidation where a small number of large companies will control almost all of the mobile games market. Expect to see more buyouts, partnerships, and major investments as companies compete to grow. We’re also likely to see a number of major investments come from Asia in the coming years, as successful companies look to expand globally.
Although smartphones will continue to represent the large majority of mobile gaming, expect companies like Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, and Google to continue efforts to bring them to living rooms using set-top boxes that will handle all forms of entertainment under a one brand umbrella.
Consoles Entertainment Expands
Big plans are in store for the PlayStation 4 console, with the most prominent being the PlayStation VR (formerly Project Morpheus) headset. With it, the PS4 will be the first gaming console to officially support virtual reality content, and Sony has partnered to have a line-up of games ready at launch. Currently expected to launch sometime in the spring, the virtual reality accessory doesn’t have an official release date or price yet. However, it may turn out to be similar to an all-new console launch for Sony.
Sony is also expected to further expand the entertainment value of its network with services like PlayStation Vue, which gives cord-cutters a viable subscription based alternative to cable TV providers. The second season of the PlayStation Network TV Show, Powers, will premiere in 2016 and it’s very likely that more original programming will follow.
With the PS4 leading in sales, Microsoft will have a lot of ground to make up. It will continue to add games to the backward compatibility library to incentivize Xbox 360 owners to upgrade to an Xbox One. We’re also likely to see more cross-platform connectivity between the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs with games like Gigantic and Fable Legends as Microsoft pursues a more unified experience across all its devices.
Step Into Virtual Reality
Consumers got a taste of virtual reality technology this year with the creative use of 360-degree videos, seen through devices like Google Cardboard and the recently released Samsung Gear VR. However, 2016 is posed to be the year that truly brings us into the VR era with the launch of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR headsets.
Oculus VR has partnered with a number of game developers to build a library of games, including the recently announced Rock Band VR, and each Oculus Rift headset will come with an Xbox One controller. Furthermore, Xbox One games can be streamed to a Windows 10 PC, and viewed through a Oculus Rift headset to give users the feeling of playing inside a movie theater with a massive screen.
HTC hasn’t been as open with its plans for the future, but the fact that it has partnered with Valve (developers of Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and the Steam platform), big things are expected to come.
The Microsoft HoloLens, a standalone head-mounted computing device that uses augmented reality, is also expected to release sometime in the first quarter of 2016. Being a Windows 10 device, it will be able to stream games from an Xbox One to a virtual screen. However, even though the E3 presentation of a holographic Minecraft was very impressive, as was October’s reveal of mixed reality gaming through Project X-Ray, it is still unclear how well the HoloLens will compete against VR devices like the Oculus Rift.
eSports: The Name of the Game
With estimates showing that eSports will grow to 300 million viewers by 2017, and bring in $1.9 billion in revenue by 2018, eSports will certainly be a key to success next year. Both Activision and EA have formed their own respective eSports divisions.
Activision Blizzard will expand its already strong presence in the eSports community, marked by games like Call of Duty, StarCraft II, and Hearthstone. The Call of Duty World League, was announced last September, and is geared to grow both the Call of Duty Championship competition and viewership. Overwatch, a comic book superhero and villain style competitive shooter being developed by Blizzard, will give the company yet another eSport game to promote when it releases next year.
EA will focus on developing its Battlefield franchise and successful sports games like Madden NFL and FIFA into eSports. In the future, you might expected heated family arguments over what type of football event they should be watching.
With two of the largest game publishers in the world, along with a great many independent games, working to establish a lasting eSports presence, it may only be a matter of time before others follow-suit. 2K Games’ Battleborn, which releases next year, is a likely contender but there could be a lot of temptation to eventually turn Grand Theft Auto Online into an eSport.
