The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is not the first organisation that springs to mind when you think about the future of video games.
IEEE has a stated mission to ‘advance technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity’. It turns out that they see games as a pretty big part of that mission.
If you head over to the IEEE website you’ll find a multitude of papers that explore the potential for games, and examine how they will become an increasingly important element of our daily lives.
One report predicts that gaming will be integrated into more than 85 percent of daily tasks by 2020. I just hope this doesn’t mean that when I’m running for a bus the words ‘Reduce Distance to Target’ will flash before my eyes.
As well as looking to the future IEEE has also created a rather nifty interactive Historic Gaming Timeline. The timeline starts way back in 1972 with the Magnavox Odyssey and comes bang up-to-date with the most recent Xbox One and PS4 generation.
It’s a console focused piece, so although the Apple Pippin gets an entry there’s unfortunately no sign of the humble GameBoy or any mobile platforms.
However, it’s packed with little nuggets of information and some cool, nostalgia-inducing videos. It’s well worth cracking open a Mountain Dew and exploring for 20 minutes.
Visit the IEEE Historic Gaming Timeline.
