4. Cloud Gaming
If you haven't heard about cloud gaming yet, you certainly will do soon. In simple terms, cloud gaming is a streaming service for games. By hosting a game on a server and then streaming it to a device, a world of opportunity opens up and it is touted to be the next big step for game distribution. In theory, by hosting a game on a server, you could play on any device, anywhere and without the need to graphics card. Yes, the idea could lead to you being able to play a game on maxed out graphic settings on your iPhone. Sound too good to be true? Well, that is because it is...but it is highly unlikely to be for long. Currently there are problems with latency (the time between input and output) that seriously hurt the experience. Plus, it requires you to be online all the time to play your games. If releases like Sim City and Diablo 3 and the troubles they had at being always online are anything to go by, this foreshadows some of the problems cloud gaming could have. The landscape has proven that we probably aren't ready for DRM content and that companies aren't either. But in five years time? It is a real possibility. If cloud gaming figures out its problems and can provide a great service, it could well make conventional gaming platforms obsolete.