Gaming Predictions That Aged Horribly

The gaming industry loves predictions.

Every new console, genre, technology, or business model inspires bold declarations about the future. Sometimes those predictions turn out to be brilliant.

Other times?

They become hilarious reminders that nobody truly knows where gaming is headed.

Let's revisit some of gaming's worst predictions.

Few predictions have aged worse.

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, countless analysts and commentators claimed that PC gaming was dying.

Consoles were growing rapidly, mobile gaming was exploding, and many believed the PC's best days were behind it.

Instead, PC gaming became stronger than ever.

Steam grew into one of the industry's most powerful platforms, indie games flourished, and PC hardware became a thriving ecosystem. Today, many publishers consider PC releases essential.

The patient didn't just survive.

It became healthier than ever.

When smartphones first appeared, many traditional gaming companies dismissed mobile titles as simple distractions.

The assumption was that mobile games could never compete with dedicated gaming platforms.

Then games like Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Pokémon GO, and Genshin Impact arrived.

Mobile gaming eventually became the largest gaming market in the world, generating revenue that many traditional publishers could only dream of.

A few years ago, this became one of the industry's favorite talking points.

As live-service games and multiplayer experiences grew, some executives suggested that traditional single-player games were becoming irrelevant.

Then players responded with titles like The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, God of War, Hogwarts Legacy, and Black Myth: Wukong.

Single-player games never disappeared.

Players simply wanted great ones.

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Before Dark Souls became a phenomenon, conventional wisdom suggested that games needed to become increasingly accessible and forgiving.

The idea of a brutally difficult game succeeding in the mainstream seemed unlikely.

Then FromSoftware built an empire around exactly that concept.

Not only did difficult games survive, they created an entirely new genre.

Many gamers and industry observers believed physical discs would remain dominant forever.

After all, players liked owning their games.

But convenience proved incredibly powerful.

Today, digital purchases account for the majority of game sales across much of the industry. Physical media still exists, but its role has dramatically changed.

Gaming history is filled with confident predictions that turned out to be spectacularly wrong.

The next revolutionary game, platform, or trend probably isn't the one everyone is predicting today.

It's the one nobody sees coming.

-Foures

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