It’s human nature to look to the future and ponder what awaits us in the unknown ether of time, which is what a bunch of well-informed video game experts did in 2009.
Some managed to paint a pretty accurate picture of the future of games, like predictions that forecasted the decline of game stores and physical media. The rise of digital distribution may seem inevitable now, but 10 years ago it was just an inkling, one of a number of possible futures.
Other predictions were wildly off the mark, like the assertion that graphics would be so realistic, we wouldn’t be able to tell a game still from photograph. Graphics are better, of course, but at a certain point you have to hone incredibly minute details to achieve realism, things like teeth shininess and eye whiteness and making regular facial expressions. That’s not even considering mirrors and reflection and complicated lighting.
And of course, there are plenty of huge changes from the past decade that nobody saw coming, like VR. Nobody had predictions about affordable, consumer-grade virtual reality because it was still science-fiction in 2009. Then Oculus VR hit Kickstarter in 2010, and the rest is history.
Check out the video above to learn more about what hit the mark, what missed, and what was entirely unpredictable.
