Cast your mind back to November 2006 when Nintendo, with much furore, released the Nintendo Wii. Nothing like it had been seen before, a games console with a motion sensing controller. Fast forward four years and Microsoft have taken the motion sensing phenomenon one step further and developed Kinect (the controller-free gaming experience for Microsoft’s Xbox 360). With the gaming industry delivering new innovations to the user experience and interactions with video games, GfK is curious as to what the future gaming experience will look like and whether motion sensing or controller lead technologies will emerge as the dominant experiences of the future.

 

Exciting times lie ahead within the gaming industry and the buying options for new and used games have never been so wide. New game downloads are increasing at great speed and the used game market is strengthening, with Tesco, Asda and Argos all now offering a used game service. All this is great news for ‘gamers’ but the real opportunity is a platform which combines the two: trading online.

Electronic Arts CEO, John Riccitiello, recently claimed that 2011 will be the year revenues from downloadable games overtake the traditional out-of-box experience[i]. Being an avid gamer myself, a statement like this took me by surprise, especially coming from such a senior figure in the gaming industry. I have little doubt that this scenario will eventually happen, but this year?. There are two big reasons for my scepticism. First, the cost of new games – mixed with the widespread availability of cheap second hand games – and, second, limited storage space on consoles when used more widely in the ‘connected home’ rather than just for gaming.

This week’s tech news has been dominated by Windows Phone 7, but the radar will soon switch to next month’s release of ‘Kinect’, Microsoft’s new motion sensing system for the Xbox 360. While Microsoft is playing catch-up in the smartphone business with Windows Phone 7, Kinect is definitely a leading edge (and potentially revolutionary) tool that could redefine the gaming industry…and technology in general.

The Xbox division at Microsoft has been very busy developing Kinect and the ‘Xbox Live Game Hub’ which is the key gaming feature for Windows Phone 7. The Xbox franchise has never been more important for Microsoft and it is a long time since industry commentators suggested that they should have never entered gaming. Last week Steve Ballmer was in London talking to students about both Windows Phone 7 and Kinect but indicated that he was more excited by the latter. “The device that I’m most keen on…is the next generation of the Xbox 360,” he said. At first this seems very strange, as an estimated $400 million will be spent marketing Windows Phone 7, but when considering the technology and potential behind Kinect it is clear to see why this is so exciting and why it will be shaping the way we interact with technology.

The availability of games is still the biggest driver of hardware choice amongst gamers, but how is this going to change in today’s digital world?

With console manufacturers increasingly shouting about accessories such as motion sensors, blu-ray drives, huge storage capacity for media and a variety of online options for their new hardware, it’s important to reflect on the key reason why consumers buy consoles in the first place.

A recent survey by GfK Technology indicated that the list of games they can access is still by far the biggest driver when deciding which console to purchase next – 73% cited the range of games as the most important feature in influencing their next console choice.*

With this in mind, we thought we’d take a quick look into the software side of video games and try to predict how things will develop in the short term. Having surveyed a series of dedicated gamers, here are our three favourite ideas:


1. Trading of digital games