DigitalBattle.com

Video games have come quite a long way from the days of Atari but despite vast improvements in graphics, writing and gameplay mechanics, the business model hasn’t changed much. You buy a console, hook it up to your television, buy games and peripherals for it, then start all over once the next generation comes out. CD technology made things a little different in that backwards compatability was a possibility. You could play PS1 games on your PS2. Game companies have found a limited degree of success with the advent of downloadable games like Wiiware and XBox Live Arcade, but the majority of the games still come in hard copy disc form, primarily due to constraints of internet connection speed and console hard drive capacity. These days broadband is cheap and readily available in most areas, and storage space isn’t an issue. Computer stores are selling terrabyte hard drives for relatively cheap. Sandy Duncan, a former VP in Microsoft’ European branch who’s responsible for getting the 360 launched in that continent is predicting that within five to ten years consoles and handhelds as we know them will be dead. Much of technology moves towards consolidation and multiple functions. His predictions are that in the future, handheld gaming will take place on next-gen cellphones like the iPhone or devices similar to the iPod Touch and home gaming will be services added to your basic television package by your television/internet provider. It’s hard to say whether or not these sorts of predictions are accurate as it’s really impossible to predict the future.