It used to be in game purchases simply made the game easier to play. In Kingdom Rush, I could simply cheat my way through difficult stages by purchasing health potions or other forms of deus ex machina. I could always reasonably finish the game myself but since spending time replaying stages was a commodity I didn’t want to spend, I made the plunge to buy some items to speed things up.

Recently, a coworker of mine was encouraging me to join him in Clash of Clans. He said the game was free so it’s not much of a commitment on my part and besides, I was always wondering why he had to go on his tablet in hotel lobbies and airport lounges to keep up with the game. Having been a fan of games like Settlers or Caesar, I thought a city building game with some military units would be fun on a tablet until I actually tried it. Now I realize it’s not so much a convenience factor as it is a veiled ongoing subscription cost you must constantly pay to continue with the game. The worst is the concept of a shield to protect your buildings, essentially your progress in the game, from other players. In our hyper-connected 24/7 world these days, there are a lot of people so this amounts to paying for a save game function. And yes, you have an alternative to paying, you can slowly (very slowly) generate it within the game’s mechanics. To get around this cash grab, my coworker suggested I join his online friends where he splits sentry duty a few hours a day to protect him and his allies. A few hours a day? Is this work or entertainment I wondered.

I first became truly annoyed by this in the now defunct Ultima Forever. A game that had top notch production values, and an ever expanding set of dungeons and locations to explore I was thoroughly confused as to how Electronic Arts would let Mythic publish a game like this for free until of course I realize there was a catch. Like a lot of RPGs, the game has a concept where your equipment breaks down. To repair your equipment, you needed keys and the keys were distributed sparingly throughout the dungeons. Of course, your equipment would only break down whilst in a dungeon but if you didn’t want to be bothered by this, you can buy some keys. Keys could also be collected for conversion into bigger and better items but what use are they to you if they shatter during the course of gameplay. I had been playing Ultima Forever since a few days after launch and you could tell the game was being tweaked here and there to ensure you have just the right incentive to play the game without being too frustrated.

Sadly, this has now extended to sports games as well. I don’t expect to get a copy of FIFA or Madden for free on iOS. Before purchasing, though, it’d be nice to play half a soccer or football game to try it out. But now it’s free. One day I fully expect to there will be a prompt to purchase something because I wanted to chip a ball over a keeper or do an onside kick.

I ended up politely declining the offer to participate in my coworker’s game of Clash of Clans. They must be making quite a bit of money as they are able to afford advertisements during weekend sports games. In the end, I’ll go back to my $19.99 purchase of XCOM Enemy Within. At least if I fail and let the aliens overrun planet Earth, I know it’s not because I didn’t shell out an incremental cost of $3.99 for a new SkyRanger so I can actually go on a ground mission.

Console gaming was introduced initially to a young audience. A whole generation of elementary school students grew up with the likes of Mario, Sonic and saved countless quarters on games like Street Fighter. When the preorders stop and the big box stores open up, which demographic will stand in a queue waiting to get their hands on a Playstation 4 or Xbox One? Most likely, it’s the same people who were salivating over a Playstation 2 or Xbox. Having recently been at a wedding with children ranging from early teens to toddlers, most of them were infatuated with their iPods, Galaxies, iPhones or iPads playing their Angry Birds or whatever new game is in vogue. The touch interface is so intuitive even babies seem capable of being entertained by them. Twenty years ago, children would moan, cry, nag and wail for their parents to spend hundreds of dollars on a SNES – will they do it come this autumn? Or for the same price as an Xbox One, those same children can get the latest iPad. Forget the children, which is more palatable to the parents?

The uproar about purchasing used games from retail stores is further illustration of how the paradigm of the target console gaming audience is one of an older one. The kids mentioned above never visit a retail store to get the latest games. They purchase from the Apple or Android store or some other application market place. They never use physical media because their devices don’t even support it. Everything is downloaded. What is the best game today could be discarded with the next five dollar download tomorrow. There are no time immemorial shrines of plastic boxes in their bedrooms. Games can be rented for a time or games can be handed out for free with in game purchases driving publisher sales. Where do retail stores and second hand media come into play for this generation of gamers? It doesn’t. Simply look at what’s happening with music and video media in the physical space. HMV is not where kids are hanging out anymore.

This is not to say the next generation of video gaming is dead. Far from it, a new generation of consoles may spark some original ideas and ways to engage gamers. The Kinect single handedly gave the Xbox 360 its second legs on life and validated the approach from the Wii, although Nintendo appears to have gone another way with the Wii U. However, if the industry continues to keep churning out bigger and faster consoles with endless sequels and reboots for games, it may find itself facing an ever shrinking demographic. Then it would really be no different than automobile companies who have run out of ideas churning out yet another version of the Camaro, GTO, Mustang hoping to pine on the nostalgia of an older generation.

And of course with the release of Madden come the release of other games – a Call of Duty, some form of Halo, a competitor to Call of Duty (last year Battlefield, this year Medal of Honor), some racing game, some Resident Evil title – it sure is getting predictable these days.

Going away from predictability, the Wii U is coming out and you would assume Nintendo would be making a massive marketing push for their new console. As of now, I’ve yet to see it though. Of course, I’m still rather confused as to the premise of the console with its tablet sized game controller but then I was confused at the launch of the original Wii what motion gaming was all about. What baffles me is the screen which is tethered wirelessly to a console accepting optical media. You can apparently use it in lieu of a television but you still have to be in the vicinity of the console so what’s the difference between that and an iPad or Android tablet. Hopefully a fifteen second advertisement will explain everything.