Gaming's future 'on the network'

Gaming's future 'on the network'

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website, in San Francisco

The gaming luminaries span the games industry

The future of the games industry lies with the internet and content delivered from central servers, a panel of game luminaries has predicted.

"Everything is moving towards the network," said Neil Young, general manager of EA Los Angeles.

Phil Harrison, Sony's head of worldwide studios, said: "Public utility computing is absolutely the future of the games industry."

The panel was assembled by developer Dave Perry to discuss industry issues.

The panel included online gaming pioneer Raph Koster, Fable creator Peter Molyneux and Dungeon Siege creator Chris Taylor.

"A huge game changer for our industry is for there not to be a requirement for there to be a machine in the home," said Mr Young.

"[Instead] the game is playing as an instance on a Google server farm in Oregon, for it to be rendered, sent down the pipe and shown on a television that you paid an extra five or 10 dollars to your cable company to guarantee you had good enough bandwidth for gaming.

"That to me seems inevitable."

Flash is pointing the way to the future more so than the current generations of hardware Raph Koster

Mr Koster added: "The games will be playing off the same back end, and will be serving different heads of the game on different devices."

Mr Harrison pointed out there would always be an issue with delivering gaming content to players from servers due to the "speed of light".

Data sent over fibre optic networks is subject to the limitations of the speed of light, which means interactivity between the server and gamer will never have a latency below 70 milliseconds.

That could impact the kinds of experiences it was possible to offer people in the future because data could not move back and forth fast enough.

In the short term, Mr Young, said different devices, from consoles to the web and PCs, would co-exist in the home.

"For content creators your canvas just got bigger," he said.

Raph Koster, who was the lead designer on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, said the console industry was already being beaten by the web.

"Overall if you look at audience reach, quantity of games made and for that matter, although its difficult to measure, creativity, the web is kicking the console industry's ass in a major way."

He said Flash was the next big platform.

Are the days of the console numbered?

"It's pointing the way to the future more so than the current generations of hardware precisely because it is well on its way to becoming completely ubiquitous."

He said advances in the graphic possibilities of Flash in the coming year would further challenge the console business.

But he admitted that no-one was making money from Flash games at the moment.

Mr Harrison, who oversees the software line-up for the PlayStation 3, said: "In our proprietary view of a platform, it is a combination of technology, business model and consumer experience.

"The web, with Flash, is missing the business model aspect and consistency of consumer experience.

"Once it has figured it out then what you [Raph Koster] have said will become absolutely true."

Game creators look to the future

ame creators look to the future

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website

Games aimed at casual players have been big in 2007

The developers of some of the world's most popular video games are in San Francisco this week to discuss the future of the industry.

They will look back on one of their most successful years and discuss tackling the challenges ahead.

Jamil Moledina, director of the Game Developers' Conference said: "We had an incredible banner year in 2007 with games like Bioshock, Halo 3 and Uncharted.

In the US the industry's revenues grew 43%, with software sales up a third on the previous year.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Moledina said: "It's often dangerous to make predictions about the future but the industry has taken on a sense of casualisation."

In this sense casual games are those that people can play and complete in minutes rather than hours and are aimed at children, women and older people. Many of the titles prepared for Nintendo's Wii are casual games.

He added: "There's definitely an increasing interest in approaching that larger audience of media consumers."

New markets

Traditionally the games industry has concentrated on its core audience. Titles like Halo 3, which pulled in the biggest ever earnings for an entertainment release in a single day, showed that the hard core gamer remained a potent market.

FROM THE DOT.LIFE BLOG How on earth will the games industry surpass last year's commercial and critical high? Darren Waters, technology editor BBC News website Read Darren's thoughts in full

"But the success of the Wii, RockBand, Guitar Hero and casual games point to new areas of growth," added Mr Moledina.

For instance, he said, Guitar Hero games made more than $820m at retail, a record for any single franchise in any one year.

Mr Moledina added: "The Wii has re-proven the point that five to 95 year olds like playing games."

Veteran game designer Sid Meier will speak at the conference to shed light on "the key things you need to capture the interest of the public at large".

"We have Facebook here talking about how they have managed to get so many eyeballs playing games in such a short space of time," he said.

Developers and publishers were looking at this area very closely, he added.

But, he said, these new developments would not change everything. "Not all games are going to be casual. There's still going to be a huge market for the core base which drives everything."

One of the games aimed squarely at the core audience in 2008 is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which will be demoed at the week-long conference.

Gaining control

The event will also feature talk about the future of the human computer interface.

"Game worlds are a fairly complex universe, however the controllers we have are often a bit intimidating," said Mr Moledina.

Emotiv systems will be showing off its latest headset that uses sensors to detect brain waves to allow gamers to control characters and objects in a game world.

Mobile gaming is starting to be taken seriously

Israeli firm 3DV will be demonstrating its camera technology that can detect depth of movement.

Gamers can swing an imaginary golf club or interact with a 3D world just by using their hands and arms and without the need for a controller.

"A lot of people experiment with different ways to get into the game; to convert a fairly complex way that humans think and behave and have that map in a natural way to a complex game world," explained Mr Moledina.

The conference also features a strong mobile gaming element.

"We are seeing more and more big game companies take the space seriously. The sea change is that traditional game developers are less snarky about mobile and casual than they were because of the power of phones today."

Microsoft's head of Live services, John Schappert, will give one of the conference's keynotes, where he is expected to unveil new features for the Xbox Live service.

"Microsoft hasn't delivered a keynote for two years so it will be interesting to see what they have for us," said Mr Moledina.

On the trail of Manhunt 2

On the trail of Manhunt 2

By Darren Waters Technology editor, BBC News website

Manhunt 2 is the most controversial video game in history. Banned last June by the British Board of Film Classification, it is at the centre of a legal row that is defining what is and what is not acceptable in video games. But what makes this game so objectionable?

In the US adult gamers have been able to buy and play Manhunt 2 since last year. But in the UK the game is not available for sale and developers Rockstar are not even legally able to share the game with journalists.

Copies of the game can be bought on eBay from US sellers. But in order to play it I had to visit the developer's London offices in person and be shown the US copy of the title.

The BBFC says its position is clear. When it was first banned in June last year, David Cooke, director of the BBFC, said: "Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone.

"There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game."

Developer Rockstar is no stranger to controversy - it faced criticism over last year's title Bully, mainly from a press which mis-understood the game and assumed the player took on the role of a bully. In actual fact, the player's role was to challenge the bullies.

But its highly successful Grand Theft Auto series has come in for regular criticism that the titles glorify crime, especially violence.

There are concerns about the whole tone of the game and what it may or may not do to people who play the game BBFC spokeswoman

Rockstar says its position is equally transparent: It says it makes games that are "well within the bounds established by other 18+ games".

Before playing the game I sat through two of the most violent films of recent years - Saw and its sequel.

Both films have 18 certificates and are blood-laden, gore-fests which feature torture, mutilation and strong violence throughout.

Manhunt 2 boasts a range of murder methods

Manhunt 2 is a similarly violent and blood-infused experience. The player takes on the role of Danny, who makes his escape from a mental institution leaving behind a trail of murdered guards and inmates.

The method of his killing is particularly gruesome - the player can stab, kick, beat, axe and even suffocate characters in the game.

There is also the option to make the deaths more spectacular - the longer a certain button is held, the more violent the ensuing death.

Death and murder is one of the principal elements of the game, along with basic puzzles.

After about two hours playing Manhunt 2, it is impossible to argue with the BBFC's assessment that the game is unremittingly bleak and callous.

The game is on sale in the US

But the violence is stylised - and not particularly real. The deaths play out as mini-scenes reminiscent of action in the current crop of horror movies that are doing so well at the box office, such as Hostel, Cabin Fever and the two titles I had watched.

And the amount of killing in the game is no greater than in any number of titles that have been released in the last 12 months - from Call of Duty 4 to Bioshock.

The game is currently in limbo. After the BBFC was told to issue the title with a certificate by its own Video Appeals Committee, the organisation sought and won a judicial review which forces the VAC to look again at the game.

The BBFC successful argued that the VAC had been guilty of "a very serious misdirection of law" on the question of harm.

The BBFC has been the UK's "censor" for more than 90 years but in the last 20 years it has asked for fewer and fewer cuts in films, reflecting both a modernised certification system and a more liberal attitude.

Last year it asked for cuts in just five films, compared with almost 60 in 1989. No figures are available for games but Manhunt 2 is certainly the most contested title in UK history.

As games become ever more photo-real and as developers start tackling ever more adult themes the BBFC could find itself at the centre of more disputes if it continues to be the body which classifies games in the UK.

The player controls Danny, who escapes from an asylum

There is a growing body of opinion calling for pan-European game classifications to replace national systems.

There is currently a voluntary system, called PEGI, which sits alongside BBFC ratings in the UK.

Dr Tanya Byron, who is conducting a review of video games and their impact on children, is believed to favour PEGI replacing the BBFC.

One game developer told BBC News that he believed the Manhunt 2 controversy was "the BBFC trying to prove it has teeth in an attempt to avoid being pushed out of the way in favour of PEGI".

Rockstar says it is committed to seeing Manhunt 2 released in the UK and one staff member said he was "quietly confident" the VAC would rule in its favour.

Critics of the classification system point out that the VAC is a panel chosen by the BBFC and it is unclear when the committee will meet to decide the game's fate. A spokeswoman for the BBFC said no date was in the diary.

She said: "Classification is not a science; it's a judgement based on guidelines.

"It went too far. There are concerns about the whole tone of the game and what it may or may not do to people who play the game.

"Our judgement is a line we have drawn at this game," said the spokeswoman.

"If the VAC do not find in our favour, then that line has to move," she added.

Gamers and the game industry are waiting to see what happens to that line.