That is a fantasy you are humoring. Also it is kind of derailing, you didn't tell us how you think things will progress. Digital Rights Management apply to consoles just as much PC. The EULA is in the back of every game manual I have seen. It will be there in the future as well.

Its probably going to keep going the same for 2 more gens. Then the casual market will go fullblown on mobiles. Handhelds are going to go the way of the dodo though. iPad/pod/phone are eating too much market share.

As for PC DRM, I was referring to the stricter always-online games like AC and Diablo 3.

Yea, Blizzard and EA are robbing you. Hopefully that kind of BS doesn't make it to the future.

We can agree on that. Hope On-Disc DLC and online passes don't either.

I'm more scared of action games than anything with all of these fps's draining every other game genre the gaming industry is basically shoveling.

Consoles do run max settings, just for 6 years ago.

That toribash reference, anyways. With the increasing gaming world as we live in. FPS and really pointless and easy games will take over. With toribash being pointless (Sorry it really is.) it is no where easy to learn and even more difficult to master.

With that said most people in the gaming world SAY they want a game with more challenge but never
1)specify what more challenges they want
2)get the harder challenge but quit because to them it's to hard.... (hypocrites all of them anyways)

People also claim for realism, THE IDEA of realism, not the realism itself. Take DayZ, the War Z, and Arma2 as prime examples, for as gaming as they are. They are as close to realism as I've ever seen. (Even Far Cry 3 to an extent is realistic) But no body wants that because of the difficulty factor not being able to 360 no scope or quick scope or not being able to God Mod with their games.

So with all that said the future for gaming is very dim with a bunch of 7 year old kids on PSN and Xbox Live yelling that people hack and have no life because they aren't good at a game. It's no different then those who make the games, they do it to make money, and don't care if it's going to last more then that one big gross check. Just look at call of duty, most of their money comes from the release date. Then everyone complains about it being shit and it doesn't get much revenue after that.

me and a friend just literally just spent half an hour just laughing at the posts in this thread, what the hell people

Alright, to clear some things right off the bat, these are some of the trends I've been seeing. Discussing graphics and realism in a thread about the future of consoles is about as relevant as discussing the maximum speed a dog can achieve in a conversation about corn. The topics do not overlap, stop trying, people. What determines rather a person picks consoles or pc is accessibility, your average person doesn't have much of a knowledge of computers or how much of a good experience he can achieve with one for that matter, and buying an xbox, throwing a game disk into it and pressing play is certainly easier than going through all the steps to get a functioning gaming pc. Though I have to agree that the computer experience is much more satisfying, I ALSO need to admit that only people really determined to get into gaming would have any practical use for all of this. The average person's life does not revolve around playing videogames, so why should they invest any more time than they need to just to get "optimal graphics"?

Now, to discuss the actual future of consoles. I've discussed this with co-workers and the game critic Yahtzee even made a blog post about what I'm about to say, consoles are bad. The mere fact that Sony and Microsoft try to have exclusive titles to alienate the other's industry is completely insane and damages everyone, specially the players. You have no idea how many people I know of who have a PS3 yet love Halo, or who have an Xbox yet would love to play Metal Gear Solid 4. The amount of fuel that the two companies put on "console wars" makes anyone with some knowledge on this topic cringe profoundly. But along comes Valve, Steam's famous overlords, trying to fix this problem. Currently, they're trying to move some of their userbase to start using TVs to play their games, and have a console in the works, as well as openly sponsoring other consoles such as NVIDIA's SHIELD or some others that I can't seem to be able to remember by name right now. Valve's masterplan isn't to get into the console run necessarily (though that will be part of the package), but it's to hit the casual population with an easy alternative that allows them to play games in the same platform and spec ranges as a PC player without having to deal with the complications of actually handling and maintaining a computer. I genuinely believe that Valve has the power to kill off the console's dual monopolies and end this idiotic console war people are so obsessed about.

We seem to have forgotten that consoles are essentially DVD players for games, do you guys play xbox or do you play games on an xbox?

Bleh, this thread is full of so much youngfag stuff it's unreal. Console vs PC (or console vs computer in general) is such an old argument it's shocking that people don't get the primary differences between them.

Each provide a different experience & are better suited for a different end of the market. It's like comparing an arcade machine to a home game. Yes you get ports between them, but there's no arguing that you get a better experience on what it was originally made for. FPS being better on PC, fighters better on an arcade cab (preferably with a bunch of people yelling over your shoulder!) & generic action games better suited to being on a console etc etc.
Ignore the graphics shit & get to the meat, a game lives & dies on it's game play. Remove a game from it's natural element & the gameplay suffers. If you're so bothered about realism then go out the house & get some real life.

As the line blurs between console & PC thanks to the "consolization" of PC hardware & OS' it's going to become more about "should you play on a desktop PC or the one sat under your TV". Hell arcades have been running PC hardware for years now, it was only a matter of time before that spread throughout the home too. Can you say "original Xbox"? ;) Why develop dedicated hardware when you can get the same results these days using off the shelf gear?

I'll not bother with an "in my day" speech when it comes to games in general. Indie pretty much has that covered, well indie & Ebay.
Oh oh oh, I read someone say something about DRM being a PC only thing... I lol'd, seriously I lol'd. :'D

As long there is indie scene in gaming, games have future. By that I mean originality which many new games lack.
It's just sad that few guys in some basement can make a game that can parry every high-budget shit from big (and almighty) companies that are more concerned how their product look on ultra-high graphic settings and forget about play-ability, which is more important.