I think video games of the future are going to sell based on the quality of their writing.
By "writing" in this context I mean a collection of words and images and player actions and interactions suited to the gaming environment which lead the player through a first-person interactive narrative. It's like reading a great work of literature, except instead of passively reading "Moby Dick" one assumes the role of Ishmael -- or more likely Captain Ahab.
An emphasis on good writing isn't necessarily a dead-end for "classic" genres like space sims. The old "genre" label will become irrelevant, or at least marginalized, superceded by the ambiance of the game world and substance of the characters and plot.
I think it's already starting to happen.
Turn-based strategy has been declared "dead", just like space sims, except that Alpha Centauri was as much about the cleverly subversive writing and quotes as it was about the genre mainstay explore / expand / build / conquer.
Grand Theft Auto is Elite on the ground, with clever writing and very clever AI masquerading as pimps, prostitutes, and various other unsavory underworld elements from the 80's drug culture. The game is a brilliant piece of work, and also happens to appeal to the youth market who find the underworld a source of fascination.
Surely when a good game-writer with a good story which happens to be set in space comes along and makes that game, people will flock to it just as they did to Grand Theft Auto? My ex-girlfriend used to watch a cartoon called "Cowboy Bebop" which had a GTA-in-space ambiance, but I don't know how popular the show was / is. (I never really liked it, but being and old-school space sim junkie I'd still pay to fly the ships.)
Space sims are as dead as the mystery novel ... when the right author comes along, so will the audience.
I was kinda hoping that might be I-War 3, but great works of literature can't be forced; the next great space sim can only happen on account of the right story -- maybe it'll take an actual sci-fi author like David Brin to bring it about.
Anyhow, I wish you guys the best of luck and thank you for making the I-War series.
