Okay, as early as this sounds, I have thought this over time and time again. I know we are on the brink of the next gen consoles (with Nintendo seeming to take first dibs with their Wii2/Stream/Cafe) but we have to ask ourselves this. With as much graphics and processing power that Playstation, Nintendo and Xbox can muster without being too expensive, there will come a point in time when the graphics can only get so "real". At that point it's almost the same as watching television and we all know how boring that can be at times. So I got to thinking about what the next leap in gaming would be after the next gen consoles (Thinking ahead, I know lol).
Lets start out by making this easy to understand from my perspective. With the introduction of the Wii, gaming has been changed forever. Motion gaming is here to stay, that much we know with both PS3 and Xbox360 following suite. So, with that said, I also began thinking about how graphics are becoming more realistic and when it gets to the point of looking "human", then what's next? Well you could always work on rendering, real-time situations and gameplay but even if gaming developers nailed that down, then you come to another dead end. There has to be something more for consoles besides graphics and gameplay or mark my words, "gaming will die".
Now, this is where things get interesting. If companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo wish to keep people connected to games, there has to be a shift in technology. Such a major shift that would set us into the next frontier in gaming... Virtual Reality. Yep, you heard me right.
Virtual Reality is inevitable whether you want to believe it or not and here's what evidence I've gathered that supports my claim.
First off, the increase of support and use of 3D. Every form of media is currently testing the waters from handheld gaming, network cable/satallite, cell phones, TVs and movie theatres have all seen a spike in interest for the support and continuation of 3D.
Secondly is the introduction of motion gaming. Of course this wouldn't have taken off had it not been for Nintendo. I remember attending E3 in 2006 when the Wii was introduced and avaliable to play on the show floor. It just felt... right.
Thirdly is a little periphiral by Sony that intrigued me, the Sharp Shooter. This was where things started coming together because with the introduction of Killzone and it being in 3D was enough to blow my socks off. This was almost as close as it got to virtual reality but that reality is still far off.
Now, I said above that these few things is what led me to believe that virtual reality is on the horizon. When you add all these things together, 3D, motion gaming, life-like graphics and a special periphiral, you have virtual reality. Now wait one minute before you go saying, "We already have all of that!". Not quite...
The special periphiral will be similar to 3D glasses except when you look through them, the landscape of the videogame is displayed through the glasses in real-time! I bet you're saying, "huh?!". But can you visualize it? Putting on a pair of glasses that give you an augmented reality of the game in your living room?! The technology that would drive this idea would be the pair of specialized glasses, a holographic emitter and reciever built into the glasses and the use of 3D technology. With all of this put together, we have virtual reality.
So now can you see my vision? This isn't impossible and if you don't believe me go take a look at (www.darpa.mil) and see for yourself. Technology is limitless given how fast it's developed these days. Give gaming consoles 15+ years and I can almost garantee gamers will be in their living rooms with special glasses roaming dark corridors in Resident Evil, running down the field on Madden and stalking your enemies with Call of Duty.
With that being said, I would love to see this happen. All signs point in this direction it's just a question of when, how much and is the gaming world ready.
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