Prediction: as more and more cities have WiFi and/or WiMax clouds deployed, more people will be able to access the internet at broadband speeds for low or no cost. The upcoming ubiquity of wireless broadband access will usher in an era of 80% and 90% Xbox Live, Nintendo WiFi and PlayStation 3 Hub connect ratios.
Game developers that had been ignoring online functionality will rush to add it. Those that have been doing it for years will be sitting pretty in the leadership position.
Companies that provide services that require broadband access will also benefit. Massive Inc. will be able to place ads more effortlessly into a greater number of games, for instance. Newly-connected gamers will be able to download Nintendo's back-catalog of games. Software that enables tethering of multiple broadband connections will make the digital distribution channel viable for multi-GB downloads, improving the viability of the digital distribution business model.
World of Warcraft will break 20 million subscribers.
Some negative side effects will result as well. The nation will need to learn to cope with an outbreak of MMOG addiction as unsophisticated gamers learn to cope with this particularly addictive style of game. Viruses will leap from PSP to PSP or even from PSP to Nintendo DS, bricking everything in their wake. Parents will fail to keep up with the speed of technology and will (as always) underparent, exposing their children to sexual predators who will use the new networks in sophisticated ways.
And gamers who have heretofore been big fish in small ponds will learn what true competition is like. Tens of millions of new gamers will be competing for the same leaderboard spots currently vied for by mere hundreds of thousands of gamers.
The impacts of these networks will
extend far beyond gaming, of course. Still, gamers are in for a wild ride.
