2010 has witness an earth-shaking change in terms of free online games, imposing a far-reaching effect on future direction of online games. The predictions exercise, as we did last year and the year before, is becoming a bit more difficult as it seems we’re bound to repeat ourselves in some ways. From mini flash games, to simple text-based games, to 2D flash multiplayer browser games, to 3D adobe shockwave player-powered browser games, to today’s 3D popular browser games, we have been amazed by what the online games evolve. In the upcoming 2011, traditional subscription-based MMORPG will be on the verge of existence because of the Blizzard’s WOW, and relatively sluggish market, plus with the new trend in the rise: 3D browser games.
The evolutions of the market are rarely totally surprising, and most of the major trends have been cooking for the past few years. This time, we really feel like most of the big changes are there indeed, as online gaming is finally becoming the mainstream, and industry actors following a traditional model are finally realizing they are in big trouble. Nevertheless, the evolutions are still very interesting to look at and comment. So, what do we think will be the main trends for 2011?
The astonishing development of internet has ushered in a brand new landscape of net culture, part of which is the on-demand entertainment, esp. online games with a huge number of players attached to them. By incorporating streaming video, audio, and a whole new set of user interactivity, online games enable gamers to play imaginary roles and carry out actions in response to various settings in virtual worlds. There are action games, fighting games, puzzle games, racing games, retro games, room escape games, shooting games and sports games and so on. Although we feel that some platforms have a better chance at thriving than others, fragmentation is likely to persist in the future as the number of devices explodes and the hardware becomes less important. At the moment, platforms are both a springboard and a limitation, as the fastest-growing ones have become increasingly competitive. The situation is likely to continue until we see some true cross-platform endeavours succeed, which leads us to trend #2.
By cross-platform, we don’t mean a game ported to different ecosystems (like many social games that exist on different SNs) or the same game being accessible through different platforms (as Final Fantasy XI did a long time ago), or what many games are doing through Facebook Connect now, but rather we refer to it in the spirit of what CCP has announced they want to do with Dust 514: different gameplays, on different platforms, targeted to different audiences, but linked. The word “trans-platform” has been used, maybe it’s a better definition.
MMO Game Site is one of the largest free online games portals that offers online games for free, web browser games for free and social games for Facebook. Even we feature a huge list of Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) that can be played without any charge fees and top up services. in 2011, we are ready to bring you the very latest information about free online games, and 3D browser games, and social games on social networking sites on Facebook, Orkut, and more. We are not sure what CCP’s game is going to be like, and this specific bet seems very risky, but we definitely see enterprises like this mattering a lot in the future.
