#8. Predictions

Every year, humans as a species create new technologies and improve them over time as other technologies become available. A great example is how print moved to radio, then radio to television, then television to internet. There are many other technologies along the way and in between every technological innovations, but in a general sense we create them to satisfy a certain need.

When it comes to video technologies, we are in an interesting time. In the age of streaming and gaming, how we entertain ourselves is itching to get more and more interactive. While seeing where the buck stops is just about impossible at this time, we have a decently clear path to where things are going within the next 10 to 20 years. These are some general predictions about some of the changes we could see in video entertainment:

Streaming
As of right now, Netflix is the leading streaming service. Everyone and their grandmother bums off someone's Netflix. If you had asked me a year ago if anything could knock it off it's pedestal, preventing it from being the primary streaming service of the future, I would say you're crazy. But now, there are multiple factors to consider. For one, Netflix is losing a lot of it's contracts with television studios (many of which are opting to create their own streaming service.) Because of this, Netflix has been making it their mission to churn out as much original content as possible so that, when they eventually lose a lot of the contracts that brought users to their platform, they can maybe keep them around with their Netflix Originals such as Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, House of Cards, etc. Secondly, Disney, the soon to be monopoly of all monopolies, is looking to knock them off their pedestal. In December 2017, Disney bought the film and television division of 20th Century Fox. Disney had, prior to the deal, 30% of Hulu stock. When they bought 20th Century Fox, they had acquired their 30% of Hulu as well. Disney now owns 60% of Hulu with the remaining chunk of belonging to Comcast. Disney aims to make their own streaming service which will now include, I assume, Fox television and Disney television being streamable. Along with that Disney had a multitude of Netflix original programs such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, and more that they could move from Netflix to their own service. While Netflix is said to be bringing 700 original titles into 2018, perhaps to combat this coming apocalypse, their film division is sub par, making films that are middling in critical reception while also expensive to make. Bright was their first Netflix Original "blockbuster" that did good for a film just released on a streaming platform, but not as good as it would need to be to make it financially viable (granted it has been greenlit for a sequel, nobody knows how truly deep the pockets of Netflix are.)

Gaming

I'm not much of a gamer, but two things seem to be the focus of gaming companies. The first is virtual reality. While this concept did exist in the good ol' days, it couldn't be close to as realized as it is trying to be now, and will be in the future. VR is a a good way to immerse users in a different world, making it's best use (so far and in my opinion) by tying into something like film and tv  (see It and Rick and Morty), allowing users to join their favorite worlds. The only setbacks with it is that you can't move as much unless you had an empty room to walk around in. There are currently VR parks being made to make environments meant to be walked around with the VR headsets. 

The other thing that gamers seem to be hyped about is cross platform gaming. There is a game, currently, that is all the rage known as Fortnite. Recently, the developers of the game have made it to where mobile players of the game can play with console players and vice versa. There had been talk in the past of cross platforming Xbox and PS4, but, as of right now, it hasn't come to fruition. However, PS4 does cross-platform with Fortnite's mobile and Mac players, and so does Xbox. PS4 and Xbox just don't cross-platform with each other. While this seems to be a feud that won't end for a while, it is pretty much inevitable for them to cross-platform. It just makes sense. 

Augmented Reality

Something that has been mostly, not ignored, but maybe has less emphasis on is Augmented Reality (I'm going to continue to capitalize that.) Augmented Reality is like Virtual Reality, except the idea is adding a layer to what is already in front of you. It is made to enhance your world and, ideally, would involve as little technology as possible to attach to. Google Glass had a decent idea with glasses that put things in front of you in a small square in glasses. Nintendo has played with Augmented Reality in the past and are toying with similar themes with their new Nintendo Labo "tech." So far, no real breakthroughs have come from this technology except with Pokemon Go. It allowed users to walk around and catch Pokemon in their neighborhood. It did have complications like the Augmented Reality wasn't totally well developed (animated characters would float over things etc) also multiple accidents have happened like users walking off cliffs looking for Pokemon. (Or finding abandoned dead bodies, but that's another issue.) My ideal Augmented Reality device would be along the lines of Google Glass, but allowing users to interact with what is in front of them either with their hands or with voice commands (or maybe way down the line with their thoughts.)


An Amalgamation of All These Things

This is all assuming we will still be watching movies and tv shows or playing video games like we have in the past. Some may argue that what is next is some sort of entertainment device that could utilize all of these things. There are two videos online that I especially enjoy that take the concept of a tv show or a scene and allows users to choose their own adventure in a sense. You're essentially playing a tv show. One is That Moment When, a tv show produced by Cracked and making the rounds on a site called Eko that sets up a scene and a player gets to choose what happens in the scene by clicking one of the buttons on the screen that makes the main character do something and you watch how the scene plays out. It is much like the Telltale games that are so popular that made choice based gaming the hot ticket of it's time. The other is a short film called Possibilia 
by The Daniels (directors of one of my fave films Swiss Army Man). An inter-dimensional love story about a couple breaking up and the possibilities that come with that conversation. There have also been discussions about how hard it would be to tie a narrative to VR, but, by attempting to fuse all of these platforms, something pretty neat can be made that will change entertainment forever.