Video games are still a relatively young medium. Many of the most iconic characters weren’t created that long ago. But what about a century from now? Which ones will remain?
Image: Nintendo
A thread on 2ch, Japan’s most popular bulletin board, covered those same questions. The answers probably won’t be a surprise, but here are some, but not all, of the more serious mentions: Mario, Tetris, Gundam, Street Fighter and Pokemon. I’d add Zelda, Madden and FIFA to the list.
One commenter wrote that Final Fantasy would probably be on FF19 then, which was probably a joke – but one that might not be too far from the truth.
Heh.
There were other predictions that are hard to tell if they were made jokingly, such as The Legendary Starfy and Shenmue. (Sorry Shenmue fans!)
A hundred years from now seems like a long time, but Space Invaders will turn 40 years this year. Donkey Kong came out in 1981. Gaming’s biggest characters will inevitably still star in 22nd century games, just as certain tabletop games continue to stand the test of time.
What about you? What games and characters do you think will still be around one hundred years from now?
Comments
7 responses to “The Game Franchises That Will Exist 100 Years Into The Future”
I hate to say it, but you have to add COD to that list. Unless someone can knock it off, or Avti-Bliz goes down in a ball of fire or something, I think COD will still be around. Along with WOW, which will be up to its 55th expansion, at a size of a mere 4 teraflops.
I’d expect that at some point during the next century, one of the offshoots will become more popular, they’ll drop the COD moniker, and it will become ancient history after a couple of decades. The spirit may live on, but it just doesn’t have a strong enough central concept that ties to its name like Mario, Tetris, or even something like Mickey Mouse does.
I also reckon that FIFA will be gone within a century, because at some point that organisation is surely going to collapse, and one with a new name will emerge.
Half Life 3 might be out by then.
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Wolfenstein – killing Nazis never gets old
I don’t think Street Fighter will last a century. Capcom aren’t nimble enough to survive that long. They will get bought up within the next decade and absorbed.
I also don’t think COD games have generational appeal, as they are kinda aesthetically generic and will fall into the vacuum of time due to lack of identity.
WoW will be forgotten about by then, and hopefully there will be a means to inoculate children so they don’t grow into MMORPG playing slobs.
Of course it was a joke. Squeenix will only just be finishing the last pieces of content for FFXV at that point.