Gaming's Future Tech: Seven Cool Innovations

Peer deeper into gaming's potential future with four more burgeoning technical advancements.

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Sharing becomes a snap

How often have you wanted to record your in-game achievements and share them on social sites like YouTube or Flickr? Doing this is possible, but it usually requires specialized hardware or software, and the quality usually isn't up to much. EA's eagerly-anticipated Spore, due this September, will let you upload videos of the creatures you create directly to YouTube, with no fuss, hassle, or loss in quality. You can even try the feature out with the game's impressive Creature Creator, but imagine the possibilities. Wouldn't you love to share footage of your epic Halo battles, dramatic Gran Turismo crashes, or that time you pulled a perfect 920-degree somersault in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater without the hassle of third-party video capture?

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MMOs go mobile

As any Facebook, MySpace, Flickr or Twitter addict will tell you, the social-networking world doesn't stop when you step away from your PC. Thanks to today's Internet-enabled cell phones, you never need to be out of touch with the day-to-day happenings of someone you vaguely remember getting beating up by in high school. A new company is doing the same thing to gaming's popular virtual worlds, bringing all the form and function of PC games to your existing phone. Second Life is first up, but others -- perhaps including the uber-popular World of Warcraft -- are said to be coming.

Therapeutic games

Coincidentally, Second Life is also home to other potentially earth-shaking innovations. Recently, a team of Japanese scientists used a brainwave-detecting helmet to let a paralyzed man "walk about" in the game. Rather than pawn it off as just a gimmick or curiosity, they plan to use the technique to help treat depression in immobilized patients. Other recent studies have linked gaming to a reduction in bad habits like smoking and snacking, and games like Wii Fit are already helping players shed excess pounds. The idea that games are bad for you is on its way out.

Games get location-aware

If you can come up with a machine that moves, people will find a way to race it. Conversely, if you can come up with a cool new technology, someone will find a way to play games with it. So it's proving with GPS locators. One innovative group is already playing Pac-Man on the streets of Manhattan, and although they're not using GPS just yet, there are only a couple of technical road bumps in their way. Could you imagine sitting in a boring lecture, meeting or train carriage playing your favorite portable game, only to be informed that there's another player three hundred yards to the east, who wants to challenge you? OK, perhaps that's slightly frightening, but there's bound to be someone out there who'd like it.

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