The future of videogaming is driven almost solely by technological innovation and not by creative endeavour. The reason is simple. For all the recent talk of the importance of the story, there are only seven basic plots anyway, and chances are, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are across all seven. In all likelihood you have probably already played all seven too! So in ten years time will videogaming resemble the videogaming of today? Will videogaming evolve in response to the wants and wishes of gamers? Will we get the videogame experience we demand or will the videogaming landscape be formed by the emerging technologies of the day? Sorry to burst your bubble, but your videogaming future won’t be the one you wish for and nor will it be the one the masses clamour for either. We’ll get what ‘they’ give us and it’s already happening.

Casual gaming; it’s huge. That’s what we read, that’s what all the industry data tells us. Suddenly the videogames industry has reached an untapped market and for the first time taken the videogame world mainstream in the process. The figures speak for themselves. But let’s be clear. Casual gaming isn’t a new phenomenon. Tetris just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Nor was it something the market was clamouring for either. Mobile phone gaming has been around for over a decade, much of which has been uninspiring. Things kicked off in 1997 when Nokia launched the 6110 complete with the first ever mobile phone game – the black-and-white Snake. While those free embedded games gained a measure of popularity, in terms of commercial, mobile phone games were about as popular as stringless yo-yos for much of the last ten years.

Casual gaming has risen to prominence, not because of a huge, building demand for casual games but for developments all tied to technology. Improvements in mobile phone hardware generally, and the rise to prominence of the iPhone more specifically, created a greater market for bite-sized, casual games. People had to download something to their Apple iPhone. Sony, Microsoft and to a lesser extent Nintendo, also had to have downloadable titles, small enough in size to be easily downloaded during the early days of broadband and miserly capped plans. The rise to prominence of the humble ‘casual’ game is an almost entirely ‘industry pushed’ phenomenon dictated by technological innovation and business necessity.

Yes there are people out there, myself included, who enjoy a casual game but the market was never begging for another Tetris. The videogames industry has a simple aim. Increase the market and increase sales, and they will sell us anything that will achieve that goal. Whether we were actually asking for what they are selling is totally irrelevant.

Online Multiplayer is no different. Is there an audience for online multiplayer? Absolutely; a long standing, long established audience. And it’s a well served audience too. However, if ever there was a game not crying out for online multiplayer, a game with such a strong single player campaign, it was Unchartered. But here we are, a few months out from the sequel’s release and Unchartered 2 is about to launch with a multiplayer component. Did we ask for it? Not me! Does the game need it? No.

Online Multiplayer is of crucial importance to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 business model. Gold memberships generate a tidy sum for Microsoft and that river of gold would dry up pretty quickly if Microsoft stopped publishing games with significant multiplayer campaigns. While Sony doesn’t charge for the PS3’s online services, it still must compete, service for service and feature for feature with Microsoft’s Xbox 360. And single player campaigns suffer for it. Resistance 2 was a far less involved and far less compelling single player campaign than Resistance: Fall of Man. Blame it on the developer’s focus on creating a compelling multiplayer experience. Trouble was, Insomniac wasn’t serving its loyal fan base as much as it was serving its master, Sony and Sony’s business strategy.

The PSP Go is another case in point. It’s a solution to a problem we didn’t know we had. A solution for those too lazy to pop down to their local videogame store of choice and pick up a UMD game on special, who will now have the pleasure of paying full price to download the digital copy to their UMDless PSP. Again, Sony weren’t responding to its loyal customer base. If they had been we might have dual analogue nubs, a more powerful battery, faster Wi-Fi and a comprehensive solution for those with existing UMD libraries. No, Sony’s push for digital distribution redresses piracy issues and increases margins – all sound business reasons. Just don’t kid yourself that Sony is looking out for you or responding to your feedback.

Which is why I’m troubled by Project Natal. I’m all for innovation. I’m just not convinced that different is necessarily better, and I’m absolutely convinced that the ‘different’ in question isn’t something that anyone put their hand up for. Project Natal turns my body into the controller. Not OK. Up until now, I’ve been perfectly OK having the controller be my controller. There’s a point where a game is just asking too much of me. That point is pretty much anytime I have to get off the couch. Quick sidebar: before the advent of the wireless controller, I’d reluctantly get off the couch/beanbag/recliner when the controller cord wouldn’t reach. Incidentally, there is a technology the masses were clamouring for, once we’d experienced the Wavebird and realised how good a first party wireless controller could be. But we still had to wait while Microsoft and Sony took their own sweet time bringing their wireless controllers to market. But back to Natal. Bottom line, I’m playing a game to relax and enjoy. If the game’s asking me to get off the couch then I’m not happy.

Is there a place for games such as Wii Fit and EA Sports Active? Absolutely. EA and Nintendo can pretty much print money and sleep soundly knowing that at least a few of the million fatties that packed on the pounds over the years playing videogames can hopefully shed a few kilos or at the very least stop gaining anymore, now that they are up and on their feet for at least thirty minutes a day.
But as an interface for controlling games more generally, Project Natal has about as much appeal as root canal therapy. Beyond the problem of forcing me off the couch, there’s a question of how well the interface can mimic and interpret my movements. If I’m playing a basketball game, can I do a crossover dribble with my right hand? The reason I ask is that I can’t manage that feat in real life. Nor can I slam dunk. If I was to jump as high as I can, I wouldn’t pull it off. If Project Natal is to interpret my moves perfectly, I won’t pull it off in-game either. If, however it’s a little more generous in translation, then I’ll make the basket but at the expense of a realistic control system. If however I can slam dunk in real life, I’m still not seeing the appeal. Why virtually slam dunk a ball when I could go down to the local court and actually do it?

Again, and this is just my view of the world, but when I play any sporting title, I’m under no illusion that my skill level is such that I’m good enough to play cricket for Australia, basketball for the Lakers or represent Australia at the Olympics. When I play NBA Live I’m executing moves and ball control and a level of physicality, with the mere push of an analogue button. Moves that no matter how much you coached me and how much I trained, I just couldn’t pull off, in real life whether on the court or in the lounge standing in front of Project Natal.

Project Natal is Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s Wii controller interface. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against imitation. I’ve covered the imitation/innovation debate before and I won’t bore you with the details now, although interestingly enough, it too was about motion controllers! The more things change … Nor am I against greater levels of immersion although I absolutely don’t think that should be the end goal for the industry. There are many ways we can make titles more immersive. The other week I touched on the bright idea of bringing the gaming world smells into your lounge room. As much as it would make the experience more immersive, that idea made as much sense as tipping a bucket of cold water over your head every time you swim through water in a videogame.

The Big Three have been criticised in the past for failing to innovate, but innovation for the sake of differentiation, regardless of the merits of the innovation, is a far greater crime. Again I ask, what came first? Project Natal, or a universal clamouring for such an interface?

I don’t think we asked for it, but it does seem like we’re getting it. Just watch. All those folks bemoaning complicated control interfaces, who are threatened by modern day controllers, will soon be begging for their controller back. Sure, right now they take a certain comfort and certainty from knowing exactly where their arms and legs are. Come the day when they have to move their arms and legs with a degree of control and coordination that they have never been able to muster before in their everyday life and they’ll soon realise their mistake.

That’s progress for you!