The future of the game: Nintendo continues to profit, just not so big

If you can't make bold predictions about the changes in the game industry in the coming year, you'll never be an expert in the industry, even though these predictions will always fail and some may end up miserable. But that's the fun of forecasting. When we can revisit these predictions later, we wonder how we were so wrong. Some, such as "the 2013 gaming industry will have a higher income than this year," or "many new tablet games will be introduced" so conservative and cautious obvious predictions are not fun. What we want to look for is more passionate predictions than these.

Nintendo

Nintendo will continue to stick to its Wii U mainframe, with no dramatic changes in price or hardware, relying on the release of some popular software to push hardware sales forward. The Wii U host's sales performance will be somewhat improved, but the dynamism, excitement and sales performance that Nintendo once saw in the 3DS camp still failed to reproduce on the Wii U mainframe. By the end of 2014, there would still be no "killer apps" on the Wii U platform that could drive the climb and rely entirely on the gaming platform. In the corner of a secret room in the dark, Nintendo is quietly developing a successor to the Wii U Mainframe, which plans to introduce the successor to the game market within a few years. The biggest surprise of Nintendo in 2014 was that it didn't have any big surprises in the year. Even though the company will continue to make a profit, it is not as big as profits.

Microsoft and Sony

Microsoft and Sony have been showdown with each other for the next generation of host markets for the entire year, but until the end of the year, there is still no one to be a visible winner. If Sony is slightly ahead of its sales performance, Microsoft can fight back by cutting prices or bundling software. But Microsoft's body-sensing system, Kinect, will gradually showcase its game as a new product and service, with a Kinect game in the sales of every day's Xbox One host. Sony's secret weapon is Gaikai, which will be added to the year, providing backwards compatibility for old-fashioned PlayStation games and bringing streaming games to PC platforms and other platforms.

With their relatively low prices and stunning inventory of existing software, the previous generation's Xbox 360 and PS3 will still be on the market. At the same time, PS Vita TV will become a powerful hot-selling product in the 99-dollar streaming TV box market, squeezing Roku and Apple TV aside, unless Apple TV can eventually add apps to its own app.

Game Software

New games have brought new upgrades to the old host platform, such as Destiny (Destiny), which has attracted a lot of interest. The real battle will be ignited on the next generation of mainframe platforms, and "fate" and "Titan's Downfall" (Titanfall) are works that can drive hardware sales. The early view was that the next generation of Halo works would also stimulate the market. The launch of the Spy War crisis (Watch Dogs) may be a bit later than originally expected, but it will still be excellent. In the meantime, the appearance of "Wizard 3" (The Wicher 3) and Star Citizen on the PC platform will reignite the interest in PC games, like the Pillar of Eternity (Pillars of Eternity), Torture: The wave of twisting Monla (Torment:tides of Numenera), and the "God-made Shroud" (Shroud of the Avatar), this independent game created by Kickstarter will give people a deeper understanding of PC games.

Mobile platform

Everyone is staring at the new type of game emerging on the mobile platform, and in 2014 we will see many large publishers exploring every popular game type on the mobile platform. Zynga will launch a series of new games and bring many popular old games to the tablet computer and return to profitability again. Dena and Gree will move forward more firmly and eventually transform the business into smartphone gaming more fully. And the 2013-year leader game of the Puzzle & Dragons, the Legend of Candy Smash (Candy Crush Saga) and Tribal Wars (Clash of Clans), will be overshadowed by the fact that new games are constantly attracting powerful audiences.

Overall overview

2014 will be another great year for the gaming industry, and there will be mergers among mobile publishers. As the next generation of hosts drives the sale of software, traditional publishers will perform well, but expanding to new platforms and choosing business models remains important. Some highly-paid executives and designers will leave the big companies, and some of them will be releasing some surprising new games. 2014 will also be a surprising year, because at least one major market competitor (probably Apple, Google, or Amazon, or perhaps even a big black horse like Samsung), will release a key new piece of hardware that plays a role in the gaming world.