Everyone says games are good value for home entertainment, despite the relatively high price. I'm not so sure. I think we're going to see a lot of price pressure put on games.As regular Giant Bomb readers should probably already know, Mythic Entertainment's Paul Barnett has a knack for saying crazy and incendiary stuff, but despite starting off by saying that 2008 was “a year of disappointing big games; budgets too big, development too long, platforms underdeveloped, and expectations were too high,” he actually keeps it pretty civil. He notes the surge of higher-profile indie games like World of Goo as one of the year's high points, and more praise is heaped on GTA IV, though it's tempered by the fact that Barnett doesn't like GTA IV, but he respects it. For 2009, Barnett sees a shift away from the traditional retail model for video games, comparing it to the painful transition that the music industry has been kicking and screaming their way through for the past 10 years or so. Hopefully video-game publishers will be more proactive about that kind of sea change than the music labels have been.
[Games] are going to be more fractal in nature; how you interact with the game will depend not only on what you play (360 vs mobile) but where you play. So, for example, a mobile game that interacts with a GPS (global positioning system) so that where you physically play the game in the real world will have a direct effect on the game you are playing.That's an awful lot to insight to soak up, and considering how tumultuous 2009 is promising to be, I'll be curious to see how accurate/ridiculous these predictions will look this time next year.

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Is This The First Teaser For Kane & Lynch 2?
Do I look like I read German?
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No Doubt Gets Cobain'd, Files Lawsuit Over Band Hero
Band "bitterly disappointed," Activision "believes it is within its legal rights."
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The End of N-Gage
Special interview with the world's leading N-Gage enthusiast inside!
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Go Watch Captain N (Actually, Go Watch Pole Position)
New cartoon site launches with plenty of awful third-tier cartoons for on-demand viewing.
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Netflix PS3 Discs Start Shipping
Watch your e-mail boxes... and then I guess watch your mailboxes, too.
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Garrus Returns! And Other Secrets About Mass Effect 2
Some familiar faces are back in BioWare's sci-fi sequel, but plenty has changed, too. Read more!
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Namco Working On Tekken 6 Online Patch
Good.
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Is This The First Teaser For Kane & Lynch 2?
Do I look like I read German?
|
|
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The End of N-Gage
Special interview with the world's leading N-Gage enthusiast inside!
|
|
|
No Doubt Gets Cobain'd, Files Lawsuit Over Band Hero
Band "bitterly disappointed," Activision "believes it is within its legal rights."
|
|
|
Go Watch Captain N (Actually, Go Watch Pole Position)
New cartoon site launches with plenty of awful third-tier cartoons for on-demand viewing.
|
|
|
Netflix PS3 Discs Start Shipping
Watch your e-mail boxes... and then I guess watch your mailboxes, too.
|
|
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Garrus Returns! And Other Secrets About Mass Effect 2
Some familiar faces are back in BioWare's sci-fi sequel, but plenty has changed, too. Read more!
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Namco Working On Tekken 6 Online Patch
Good.
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Dragon Age: Origins PS3 | X360 | PC - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition PS3 | X360 | PC - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Band Hero X360 | PS2 | WII | PS3 | DS - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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LEGO Rock Band WII | PS3 | X360 | DS - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier PSP | PS2 - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 PS3 | X360 - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Shattered Horizon PC - Nov. 4, 2009 |
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Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron PSP | DS - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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C.O.P. The Recruit DS - Nov. 3, 2009 |
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Star Trek: D-A-C PC - Nov. 6, 2009 |
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on Jan. 7, 2009
But Fatal1ty? Come on