So what happened during the 2000's? Well video games really took off here and home consoles were the highlight as well as excessive addictions to handheld gaming.
One main step forward in the gaming industry was the amount of people that were enlisted in making video games. When Pac-Man was released one man designed, programmed and released the whole game in a few months. In 2004 the hit game 'Halo' was created and 190 people were involved in making it and it took 3 years to complete. (Source 1) Halo sold millions and is one of the top selling games to this day and has a whole franchise now but it just goes to show how much of a serious step the gaming industry took by employing such a mass amount of people to create amazing and new games.
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| Halo 1 (Source 5) |
So speaking of Halo, lets talk about the drastic improvement of graphics during the 2000's. 3D technology was coming into play and more or less all games are now made in 3D, 2D is old school gaming these days. With the introduction of High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) TVs and games get more and more realistic as the days go by. It is said that with HDRI this means that "we will have a feeling of being even better immersed in the game action with all good and bad consequences of this unprecedented experience." (Source 2) So what does this mean? Realism in games is the key point of the gaming experience and the graphics will help to include aesthetically pleasing qualities in the game as by now, graphics are one of the key points of making a game worthwhile. With the introduction of 3D televisions recently, the prospect of playing games in actual 3D has revolutionised the gaming industry once again, providing gamers with the best graphics possible.
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| Uncharted 3, a game with 3D capabilities (Source 6) |
The three big 'next generation' consoles of this time are Nintendo's Wii, Sony's Playstation 3 and Windows' xBox 360. Wii is considered the straggler of this group and the games for it are aimed more towards younger kids but there is a constant battle as to whether the PS3 or 360 is the 'better' console. 'While Sony focused on the future, Microsoft looked at the recent past.' (Source 3) Sony aimed to make the PS3 1000 times more powerful than the PS2 whilst xBox looked at their previous consoles and realised that they developed too slowly in the past and if they wanted to keep up to date with Nintendo and Sony then they had to get the xBox 360 right on the first go. So extensive research was put into the technology developed for 360 and making it powerful enough to stand up to Sony's PS3 upon release. One main failure in the past had been the xBox chunky controller so the 360 controller was scaled down and made slimmer which pleased game consumers greatly.
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| The next generation consoles (Source 7) |
Along with the new consoles came new technologies to improve the gaming experience. Cutscenes exploded onto the scene and having an extensive story to tell became mandatory for a good gaming experience. Cutscenes were originally done by regular animation skills but new technologies have made movement in cutscenes more accurate in movement. What are these technologies? Motion capture. Motion capture is when actors wear a body suit with spots on joints and are then filmed recording their scenes with incredibly accuracy and then 3D textures and models are put over the filmed joints. It makes the animation process easier and incredibly accurate (Source 4) so motion capture has been a revolutionary step up in cutscenes and telling the story of a game. Games that extensively use motion capture are games like Uncharted and LA Noire that used facial motion capture to recreate perfect facial expressions on the characters.
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| Motion capture used in Uncharted (Source 8) |
So home consoles were the big thing about current games, this leads on to the rapid increase in handheld gaming. There hasn't been a release of a new console in a long time (aside from the Wii U and the developement of the Playstation Orbis and the new xBox) so handhelds have really flown into the picture. The Nintendo DS is the most popular handheld and has had over 5 different releases of DS so far. Sony continues to make new releases of their PSP but the DS has stormed over the handheld gaming industry.
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| The first three Nintendo DS' (Source 9) |
So we've had a look at current gaming but what are the significant developments facing gaming at the beginning of the 21st Century? There are many, this is probably the biggest jump the gaming industry has had so far because it happened so rapidly from the jump from arcade 2D to home 3D consoles. Cutscenes have become an important part of the industry and the now hundreds of people behind a single game is what really gives potential to the industry and individual companies and accuracy is very important, as seen from new technology such as motion capture. But what pressures does the industry face? There are many, specifically for the console part of the industry. The massive step up in handheld gaming has left the consoles dragging behind. Are we the last generation of console gamers or are we just the beginning? Only time will tell.
Source 1: http://arstechnica.com/features/2005/11/crossplatform/2/
Source 2: http://www.idw-online.de/pages/de/news149909
Source 3: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-866288.html
Source 4: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/135143/gaming/motion_capture_in_game.html
Source 5: http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/6/66/Halo-combat-evolved.jpg
Source 6: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXWa6D7eQUAT1y1aI2qmetnBoKrtNViH7m9gkm5NxUE-3ZrFrIvAuhczwXlI89xT2UtW95DiHS7xjtqYT3Tw5WWXWHt2I3k4uM2e4J3XELQdzf0kOjGn6KjcVQMaZxnMyGbbmGWUdnQPf/s1600/Uncharted+3_2.jpg
Source 7: http://static.skattertech.com/files/2007/12/wii-ps3-xbox360.jpg
Source 8: http://mimg.ugo.com/200810/7343/unchartedcompare.jpg
Source 9: http://www.wiinintendo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ds-evolution.jpg
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