Introduction

In the past decade, the video games industry has undergone rapid growth. In only a few short years, traditional game playing demographics have undergone vast transformations, and video games have evolved from a hobby for kids and geeks into one of the world's largest forms of entertainment. As a result, a lot more money has been injected into the industry, and games developers now have access to vastly increased funds to make and publish games with. Gaming technology has rapidly advanced, hardware and software is becoming ever increasingly sophisticated and many within the industry have proclaimed that its mainstreaming has helped bring video games to glorious new heights. Nonetheless there is a growing opinion held by numerous people, among which include game players, developers and games specific media, that remains sceptical in regard to just how much games have 'evolved' since their commercial boom in the mid to late 90s.

It is the opinion of many associated with the video games industry and culture that the video games industry is largely in a state of stagnation. It has been argued that while gaming technology has rapidly advanced in the past few years, the progression of games as a result of this has been primarily aesthetic. Many believe that "gameplay" - a concept used to describe how entertaining, fun or endearing a game is to experience and play - has not really evolved at all from the days of the 8 and 16-bit consoles, and in many ways has taken a step backwards from these times. This has been widely attributed to the fact that because so much money stands to be made or lost on the success or failure of games in the mainstream market, there has been a growing tendency for developers, pressured by publishing houses, to rehash old gaming concepts when developing new titles. This can be attributed to the notion that games based on past successful formulas pose less of a risk of financial failure in the mainstream market than games that experiment with new, innovative and original concepts.

Not all hope is lost for creativity however, as a number of recent games on the new 128-bit generation of consoles have shown. While the majority of games for these machines can still be seen to adhere to the same basic generic development concepts as games on consoles before them, a few developers have started to stand out from the crowd and innovate, creating a number of unique gaming experiences in the process, that will hopefully begin a new trend towards creativity and innovation in games. Before going into further detail though, it is important to look at exactly how games, in a few short years, made the transition from the niche to mainstream market.