What are THE HOT NEW THINGS in gaming?

So I have this research assignment for an internship to basically, uh, find out what THE HOT NEW THINGS in gaming are. I guess the guy assumed I would know something about this but I don't own any game platforms or have any smartphone games and I don't play any online games. So I call on the hivemind of ILX.

Oh and I guess less in the sense of individual games and more in the sense of trends / meta-trends / the next next-level shit type of shit.

The answer is not Tony Hawk's Skate peripheral.

Maybe huge open-world games with great graphics?

What are the most promising huge open-world games with great graphics?

hooking in people with a subscription based model so that your company's cashflow is ensured forever

spending millions of man hours slavishly recreating the intricacies involved when a digital bullet enters a digital brain

casual gaming

Fallout 3, FarCry 2, GTA IV, Mass Effect (1 + 2), apparently Just Cause 2 is pretty amazing

Also, facebook games are apparently really hot. Everyone on my buddylist was really into Farmville, but now they appear to be into some kind of City game, and some kind of Cafe game, and the ever popular Mafia game.

Popcap, also PC gamers only ever buying games in the Steam weekend sales.

indie platformers biting the 8/16 bit era just like indie-rock did to sixties pop

gamecrush

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2010/03/screen-shot-2010-03-23-at-11.00.18-am.png

gamecrush

http://www.raphkoster.com/2010/02/26/are-virtual-worlds-over/

intersting article about the effect of social gaming on MMO and Virtual Worlds.

I think the facebook games thing is a good suggestion. Those things make loads of $£$£ and reach a lot of people who otherwise probably wouldn't play 'video games' ... I remember reading that middle-aged women are one of the biggest demographics of fb-style game players. So as far as trends go, it's pretty unsurpassed in the number of people it reaches and the way they sort of work on a viral level.

Also, I guess you could mention these newfangled motion-sensing things coming out in response to the Wii... Xbox Natal and PS3 Move (or whatever it's called). Don't know how 'hot' these things will be because they're not available yet but I imagine there'll be more of a buzz about them soon.

Or downloadable content, maybe? It's not really a 'new' thing but when you incorporate downloadable indie games (a way to give small developers recognition) in addition to downloadable extras for bigger releases (a way to keep people playing their games even after they've finished them) it's substantial.

Yeah xbox natal and ps3 move.

My lil sis says that the kids in her school are all playing the new pokemon ds games which comes with a digital tamagotchi sized electronic thing that lets you take a pokemon anywhere and fight your friend's same pokemon thing

middle-aged women are one of the biggest demographics of fb-style game players

Middle-aged women who were teenagers and children during the original video game boom.

continuous micro-transactions... mini-DLC. pay for fuel for your spaceship or special ammo once every week or so. this is already present in Facebook type games, but will show up in platform games soon imo.

better fkn not

(actually it's already started: the EA store in FIFA 10 allows you to buy speed bursts and accuracy enhancements for your 'FIFA clubs' avatar)

so depressing!

Something happier might be the recent spate of really interesting platformers - VVVVV, Specter-spelunker-shrinks, even Spelunky fits in there.

Maybe indie games? The independent game market seems to be pretty busy these days, churning out some gorgeous looking titles.

augmented reality is getting on dsi and psp, maybe some homebrew stuff will follow.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/210958/new-ghostwire-trailer-dsi-title-uses-augmented-reality-for-creepy-gameplay/

free web games that trick you into paying money to upgrade your character

Saving the queen, my lord.

Heavy Rain for PS3 is a unique title that has been drawing lots of interest. The atmospheres are stunningly well-crafted and the branching narrative is a cool idea. I was sometimes unsure about the gameplay at times though. Like during fight scenes, I wanted to find out whether not pressing the button sequences would result in anything really bad or whether it was just to give an illusion of interactivity. There are genuinely like 20 different endings and despite finishing it this afternoon I only have 30% of the trophies.