Could the Most Ambitious Game in the Universe Change the Industry Forever?

Let’s face it, we all get tired nowadays when we hear about developer x or y saying stuff like “innovative/brand new/the most -insert epic adjective here- experience” when presenting a video game. Which actually sums up half of every E3 conference so far. I’ve played so many games like these but I never said to myself things like “oh my god, this is the best experience ever, I can actually FEEL the game” (FIFA 15 pun intended). But now, hope has been restored with an upcoming title that has the potential of actually delivering that kind of experience, and maybe even change the way games are built.

[JBSleek]

There is no changing the industry. One game surely isn't going to do no matter how great I think this game is going to be.

[sinspirit]

MineCraft.

[JBSleek]

Good game but it changed the industry?

[sinspirit]

@JBSleek

Yes. It greatly pushed the indie developer status on the market, became a world wide phenomenon, became one of the most iconic games in modern day, made Youtube "Let's Play"'s ever more popular and basically gave people a Youtube career, inspired dozens of voxel-based games and really changed the viewpoint on modern games that graphics don't need to be advanced, and it really pushed the ability to purchase a game while it is still in Beta at a cheaper cost giving developers that only have early prototypes the ability to show people what the game is and where it is going while in its early stages which has made dozens of games possible because the person(s) wouldn't have had money or time to finish them before this trend had started.

Maybe it wasn't innovative, or rather "original". There had been other games with similar concepts before it, but MineCraft did it all so well and provided insight to other developers on how to use these concepts right and in their own way, and so we have StarForge, Terraria, Cube World, and many other games that share similar formulas in their own fashion.

[christian hour]

Yup games can definitely change the industry, the first halo game basically proved you could do an fps correctly outside of PC (goldeneye was a stepping stone, but its controls didnt rival a mouse/keyboard, not that halos did either but they definitely set the standard for consoles) and what Bungie did with halo 2 completely changed the way developers did matchmaking.

In fact I dare say they pioneered the method every online game uses today that doesn't require searching for user owned servers, as well as the impressive onsite stat tracking they introduced with halo 2.

Never seen it done before then, seen it poorly emulated but never matched countless times since.

And Minecraft is a good example, it introduced procedural generation to the masses and popularized the idea that you can make a game without giving instruction to the player on what they should do or how they should play.

I think if that never happened, games like no mans sky might be laughed at by investors in the same way executives laugh at you for pitching a point and click adventure game in this day and age.

No Mans Sky is the game I've always dreamt of when I grew up reading Dune, Enders Game series etc. It's incredibly ambitious and even if the gameplay consists of explorign and documenting planets and wildlife, that'll be all I need.

I don't need to shoot a gun or kill an alien to enjoy a game. No doubt these will be features, just saying I'm happy enough being able to explore an infinite universe with my fellow humans :)

And just a side note to Robert Craciun, should he be reading; a few more line breaks in your article would definitely help the overall structure and readability of your article ;)

From someone who doesn't mind reading through walls of text I enjoyed what you had to discuss, but I know a lot of people will take one look at that and in typical internet fashion, declare "TL;DR".

Or in typical N4G fashion;

"Hey I read the title, I'm ready to comment on this article now!"

[eagle-eye]

I think that there's a slight chance it will. I bet that more developers will use procedural generation in their games.

[Snookies12]

I love procedural generation in games. If a game has that feature alone, it makes me 10x more likely to buy it.

[user5669510]

Wasn't devs already doing it

[joab777]

True. And we dont actually know if this game is any more than an impressive tech demo. Now, if they continuously give us the tools to make the universe our own, it could be special. We wont need quests and storylines if we can do what we want with it. But I am not sure if they can.

Anyway, I do wonder what future companies could do with tech like this? Thats how it could change the industry.

Though...honestly its already been changing. From Levine, cliff B. and so many others r leaving companies and/or forming their own small companies. With growing tech, maybe we dont need huge teams etc. Maybe that means more freedom for us. Seriously, give us the tools to build what we want in the world like Minecraft.

[medman]

@jbsleek
I disagree with you. I think in every generation we see games that change the direction of the industry and influence where gaming goes next. We see copy and pasted cover mechanics, multiplayer modes, character development, etc. etc. in games that succeed in this area. I think games like GTA, Halo Combat Evolved, Doom, Cod Modern Warfare, Gears of War, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Mario, Zelda, Minecraft, Bioshock, etc. etc. all do this, and they are far from alone. All these games (and many others)"change the industry". You can argue whether or not you think the changes are for the better, but I believe for the most part they have been. So in fact I believe that one game can change things, because it's happened so many times before.

[aliengmr]

No Man's Sky is the first to be noticed, not the first to attempt something like this. In terms of "scale" NMS isn't the biggest either.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[johny5]

Yes, it's called Doom!

[Golden_Mud]

actually a lot of games changed the industry , one of it was the first level colored game developed by Wozniac when Steven was working at Atari , that surely changed the industry after all , I guess we wouldn't had colored games.

[ATi_Elite]

Games that changed the Industry:

Doom
World of Warcraft
Call of Duty
Half life
Half life 2
Goldeneye 007 (MP for console)
Crysis
Grand Theft Auto III
Street Fighter 2

and a few more

[user5669510]

3D star bound or space mine craft is going to change the industry . The game looks good so far but I'm failing to see what's all the hype about.

[Squeaky_door]

Star citizen