Chris Weaver has a prediction for the future of the games industry, and as a researcher at MIT (as well as a contributing writer to Next Generation), he is in the position to make an accurate prediction of this sort. Weaver has written a piece speculating how faster Internet connections – through the use of Photonic technology (his forte) – will vastly improve online gaming ("Gone will be concept of latency because human perception is the slowest portion of the entire transmission chain") as well as distribution. He proposes that one day, retail outlets will no longer be needed for entertainment distribution.
There are two sides to this point, however. While the internet has shown its impact in the entertainment industry as
the speed has progressed ? first with magazines and online news sites, then the music industry and Apple?s iTunes, and
now with movie and game piracy ? the size of games are also increasing at an exponential rate. Sony?s use of Blu-Ray
discs further proves this point: will the connection speed increase to a point where it is feasible to download an epic
12 GB PlayStation 3 game? Maybe a generation afterwards, but as the scope and size of games every 5 years or so (at
least in the console world), there will still be somewhat of a necessity for a physical disc bought from the store ?
not to mention those who still find comfort in buying tangible items as opposed to electronic property. Then again,
Steam seems to be doing pretty well.
With that said, Weaver?s prophecy seems very feasible, almost inevitable, but how far into the future will we have to
wait to see his prophecy come true?
