Gaming's future 'on the network'

The gaming luminaries span the games industry

The future of the games industry lies with the internet and content delivered from central servers, a panel of game luminaries has predicted.

"Everything is moving towards the network," said Neil Young, general manager of EA Los Angeles.

Phil Harrison, Sony's head of worldwide studios, said: "Public utility computing is absolutely the future of the games industry."

The panel was assembled by developer Dave Perry to discuss industry issues.

The panel included online gaming pioneer Raph Koster, Fable creator Peter Molyneux and Dungeon Siege creator Chris Taylor.

"A huge game changer for our industry is for there not to be a requirement for there to be a machine in the home," said Mr Young.

"[Instead] the game is playing as an instance on a Google server farm in Oregon, for it to be rendered, sent down the pipe and shown on a television that you paid an extra five or 10 dollars to your cable company to guarantee you had good enough bandwidth for gaming.

"That to me seems inevitable."

Flash is pointing the way to the future more so than the current generations of hardware Raph Koster

Mr Koster added: "The games will be playing off the same back end, and will be serving different heads of the game on different devices."

Mr Harrison pointed out there would always be an issue with delivering gaming content to players from servers due to the "speed of light".

Data sent over fibre optic networks is subject to the limitations of the speed of light, which means interactivity between the server and gamer will never have a latency below 70 milliseconds.

That could impact the kinds of experiences it was possible to offer people in the future because data could not move back and forth fast enough.

In the short term, Mr Young, said different devices, from consoles to the web and PCs, would co-exist in the home.

"For content creators your canvas just got bigger," he said.

Raph Koster, who was the lead designer on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, said the console industry was already being beaten by the web.

"Overall if you look at audience reach, quantity of games made and for that matter, although its difficult to measure, creativity, the web is kicking the console industry's ass in a major way."

He said Flash was the next big platform.

Are the days of the console numbered?

"It's pointing the way to the future more so than the current generations of hardware precisely because it is well on its way to becoming completely ubiquitous."

He said advances in the graphic possibilities of Flash in the coming year would further challenge the console business.

But he admitted that no-one was making money from Flash games at the moment.

Mr Harrison, who oversees the software line-up for the PlayStation 3, said: "In our proprietary view of a platform, it is a combination of technology, business model and consumer experience.

"The web, with Flash, is missing the business model aspect and consistency of consumer experience.

"Once it has figured it out then what you [Raph Koster] have said will become absolutely true."

Spears is barred from seeing sons

Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline did not attend the hearing

Pop star Britney Spears has failed in a court bid to regain visitation rights to her two children.

A spokesman for Los Angeles Superior Court confirmed that no change had been made to an existing order denying Ms Spears visits to her sons.

The pop star was banned from monitored visits last month after refusing to hand the children back, resulting in a stand-off with police at her house.

Ms Spears was taken to hospital in an ambulance following the incident.

She spent another six days in a psychiatric unit earlier this month.

Paparazzi presence

The singer's ex-husband Kevin Federline was awarded primary custody of two-year-old Sean Preston and Jayden James, aged one, in October.

At Tuesday's hearing, the singer's lawyer Anne Kiley was denied a request for an order to gag other lawyers in the case from discussing it with the media.

She had argued that the coverage was "emotionally and physically" a strain on the star, and requested that times of hearings could not be disclosed to the press.

Mr Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, said the two children were not being put at risk and that Ms Spears was more concerned about the constant presence of paparazzi.

Mr Kaplan addressed reporters outside the court

He added that he hoped there would no longer be "pre-leaking of information to favoured media outlets as to where they [Ms Spears and companions] are going and how they will get there."

Mr Kaplan was referring to the development that the singer's father James has taken charge of her affairs by order of the courts.

Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, who has been presiding over the lengthy child custody dispute, granted Ms Spears' request to replace Ms Kiley with another lawyer.

Outside the hearing, Mr Kaplan told reporters that Mr Federline would like his former wife to see their children.

"Both sides want to see the day that visitation can resume. It's a question of working out the details of how that can happen," he said.

"Mr. Federline looks forward to his children having their mom in their life."