I liked that so called 'creepy' voice muttering,"Chanllenge Everything!", I was just wishing they would put a deep and dark laugh at the end, you know the, "boohaa haaa haaa ha!" type laugh. I am sure that would freak most kids out... it would be more fearful than a game like F.E.A.R!

Would be cool if you could patch that 'creepy' jingle into a game like StarCraft for the Ghost's voice when hitting a target with a nuke!

I can not agree with you that ALL multimedia, communication, entertainment and information markets will some day be melted together into some giant money pot. Do you think that the guys from Google will sell out to MS or better still, that Apple will some day be owned by MS?

If religion was like the gaming industry, do you ever think Islam and Christianity will be 'owned' by ONE of them? The same applies for gaming!

You have to understand that competition and various brands is what drives the market. Can you name any holistic product or technology that is developed, manufactured, produced, packaged, distributed, marketed and services by just ONE company? Even MS requires the services of thousands of independent clients in order to bring just their OS to the market. For example, the opening start and shut down jingles as well as many of the other sounds are produced in studios NOT owned by MS. Many of the drivers and other secondary required applications are engineered by companies outside the ownership of MS.

The same goes for the music, movie and gaming industry. Game developers even assign areas of development for games to outsourced companies. The saying, "Jack of all trades is the master of none!" rings so true in this debate as does it to the whole 'technological' sphere.

The only thing I totally agree with you on is the fact that all of this is driven by profits and the big players will all try to be bigger, money is what makes the world go round!

Your ideas are narrow-minded and greatly flawed...

Integration, synchronization and maximization are the key elements of digital multimedia (communication, entertainment and information) technologies. Follow the trends (generally) across multimedia technologies and you will see greater integration of technologies like phones integrating with cameras with Bluetooth and WiFi, or DVD players with HDD and USB. Consider synchronization of various hardware for example; phone with PC, or Pocket PC with Laptop, Car stereos with iPods, PC with CCTV, Fridge with PC etc. And maximization of technologies has hit record leaps in progression over the last 5 years or so.

So, what does that have to do with gaming... everything!

Gaming is becoming more and more a form of multimedia entertainment that requires the progressive integration, synchronisation and maximization of technologies. The integration of consoles, handhelds, PCs, laptops and other technologies will soon become common place as gaming and general day-to-day life are integrated (many business men will have a phone, PSP, iPOD and laptop with them as they travel), also remember that many (believe it or not) 'stay at home mom's play games too; when not shopping online!

Synchronization will also play a major part in gaming as more and more games will want (and need) to interact via multi platforms like Mac with PC with PSP with Console!

Maximization will play a part as gaming technologies are always upgrading and changing like PC graphics cards or console HHDs. So any gaming device will thus require the ability to be maximised in order to remain competitive and in demand.

So with these three things in mind... how on earth do you think that the end of gaming will be founded on 'one game... one device'? Sony needs PC and Microsoft just as much as Microsoft needs Nokia and Phillips in order to reach clients with their multimedia technologies.

Gaming is not just a device and a disk, it is an infrastructure of technologies working simultaneously to achieve an end, the one can not exist without, the other!

Let this not hamper your imagination concerning the future of technology, but may it help you expand your view of it!

I also have the right to be wrong!

Blizzard's games must have the best storylines ever. The best must be StarCraft and WarCraft. Many of the games mentioned here are like half a chapter of any Blizzard storyline...

F.E.A.R is not a story line... it is a sentance!