As the mainstream industry moves onto pastures new, what does the future hold for the shadowy genre known as the immersive simulation?
Since 2011, PC gaming has been blessed with an incredible second wave of high-concept, high-budget immersive sims. Starting with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the last few years have seen two Deus Ex games, two Dishonored games, a new Thief game, and Prey, which for all intents and purposes is a spiritual successor to System Shock. All of these games embrace the ideals that made Deus Ex, Thief, and System Shock so striking in the ’90s—emergent play, player agency and complex level design—reforged with new aesthetics and exploring different ideas and themes.
It’s been a wonderful ride, but that second wave is now coming to an end. Square Enix has shelved Deus Ex for the foreseeable future, and the less-than-stellar sales of both Dishonored 2 and Prey means the future of Bethesda’s immersive sims is currently uncertain. We shouldn’t be too sad—it’s remarkable that these games were made in the first place— but it does leave us with the question of what the future holds for the immersive sim.
The short answer is the future is hugely exciting. For the longer answer, we need to go back to where the immersive sim began.
IMMERSIVE ORIGINS
“I’ve been in the industry long enough that you see these trends come and go, certain genres become hot for a few years, and then they tend to fade and something else pops up,” explains Paul Neurath, founder of OtherSide Entertainment and creative director of UnderworldAscendant. “I think any of these genres has potential to be quite popular and quite successful. Certainly, fantasy RPGs have been around since the start of gaming, and I think will be around for quite a lot longer.”
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