Below I talked about "The Next Game Console" and what it should look like and promised more to come. Here it is:

Game Streaming: OnLive is a streaming game service (www.onlive.com) that is set to launch in the next few months that is unfortunately a bit ahead of its time - but it will happen. Streaming games is a system in which the games themselves are processed in a centralized server in a remote location and then broadcast to your screen. No game machine is needed other than a simple add-on to connect your screen to the server and to transfer controller movements over the internet. The game itself is processed in the cloud - which means that the billions of dollars spent on Xbox's and PlayStations and Wii's and gaming computers to distribute the game experience to your home will not be required. There are some serious technical issues that will need to be overcome before this can become a reality on any large scale - but I am looking forward to see how OnLive roles it out.

Good 3D Gaming: I expect that as with any new development in technology that we will look back at the early attempts at rendering games for 3D televisions as clunky and as not adding much to the actual game play. This will be true until we get the Metal Gear Solid or the Final Fantasy VII of the 3DTV gaming era - and then we won't be able to look back. Metal Gear Solid in particular was a breakthrough in rendering games in 3D on a 2D screen - and it was done in a way that the game play was massively enhanced by the experience. We will see the same for 3D gaming - and when combined with technology like Natal for motion sensing and voice control, we might finally begin to move into the future that we expected to be in.

Shorter Episodic Games with a Longer Life Span: This one isn't really related to the next console per se, but I've included it because it's something that I really want to see. The average age of gamers is increasing and for most of us investing 30 plus hours to a single game is just not something that our schedule will allow. Ever. For us watching a single season of Mad Men on TV (13 hours over three months) is a considerable investment in time and effort - but it is short enough for us to be able to give it the hour per week that it requires, and long enough for us to become invested in the characters and the narrative. I'd love to see Halo 4 released as an episodic game over twenty episodes released as an hour of game play per week over a season. I understand that games aren't movies or television - but one of the great things about watching a live event or of a new episode of a television seriess or a newly released movie is the buzz around it - the talk and the social aspect is part of the experience. Right now this is experienced only by the most fervent fanboys that buy the game on release and play it for thirty hours in the first week. That just doesn't work for most of us, or even a majority of the rest of us.

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