What Games are changing the Industry?

The Game Industry is a young fast paced environment that continually sees innovation. There always seems to be one or two games every year that simply blows away the preconceptions of what video games are and what they could be. Already, there has been one in 2012 that has done this.

-Journey-

Journey released in March and became the most purchased game on the PlayStation Network(PSN) ever. Created by ThatGameCompany, Journey is a unique experience that takes the player to a world blanketed in sand. As an unnamed character the player begins a journey to the top of a distant mountain.

Besides the outstanding visuals, which have to seen to be even be believed, there is a unique twist that is a breakout from what has ever been done before in the industry.

By chance, one single other player can join your game. This is entirely random, happening only if two players are in the same environment at the same time. Somehow a server watching the game seamless syncs two different player’s games into one.

This opens a new world of cooperation that has never been done before; people who joined my game would actually go out of their way to help me. Not for their own survival, not to speed up the progression of the story, and not for any additional value.

For me, I felt as if my unique story merged with these strangers, and together we were making our own new one. That floored me. But I wanted to push the bounds, I wanted to see what happens if I separated from them. Well, it turns out that the stranger just disappeared. But then they reappeared later! As if we had parted ways, had our own adventures, and somehow bumped into one another. After the excitement wore off, I realized that the stranger wasn’t the same as the first.

And while I still had a great time moving through the world, running into these other people, it dimmed the experience. It felt as if the empty sandy world of Journey was actually teeming with life. My choice to leave the first player was diminished as the consequence was mitigated by the fact that just around the corner was another player.

As the game ages and more people put the game aside, Journey will become barren and finding that one person, that oasis in the middle of the emptiness, will have a greater impact. Yet the game is a herald of that which is yet to come. New ways of cooperation are open to us in games that transcend all other mediums.