英语听力精选进阶版 6151（在线收听）

What’s the Next Big Thing? 09年哪个游戏会大红大紫？

2008 was a bumper year for videogame sales in the UK, with British consumers forking out more than ￡4bn (40bn yuan) on games and consoles.

Nintendo dominated the UK market, outstripping their competitors by creating a new market for their family-based gaming systems. Existing game franchises also performed well with titles such as GTA IV and Halo 3 smashing sales records on the days of their release.

So what does 2009 hold for the games industry?

Some of the most influential people in videogame production spoke to the BBC to give their predictions of where gaming might be heading over the next twelve months.

Will Wright, the creator of The Sims and Spore, predicts a merging of game worlds with reality. He can foresee a "mobile game that interacts with a GPS (global positioning system) so that where you physically play the game in the real world will have a direct effect on the game you are playing".

Paul Barnett, the creative director on Warhammer Online, said the industry would struggle to find a coherent identity, predicting "a continuing fight between games defining themselves as 'art', 'design' and 'entertainment'".

Some commentators believe that games played communally online by large numbers of people will become more like social-networking than game-playing.

Peter Ryan, the creator of the website which supports the Guitar Hero series of games, says, in the future, the online "community will be as critical to the overall experience of a game as the game itself".

So what do you think? What are your predictions for the future of videogames this year? If you would like to share your ideas with us, email us at [email protected]. The best ideas could be published on the bbcchina.com website.

GLOSSARY 词汇表

bumper year 丰收年

forking out 支付

consoles 操纵器

outstripping 超过，胜过

game franchises 游戏的多个版本

sales records 销售记录

influential 有影响力的

predictions 预测

merging 合并

foresee 预见，预知

mobile game 手机游戏

GPS 全球定位系统

physically 身体上的

creative director 创意总监

coherent identity 一致的身份

online 线上

social-networking 社交

critical 决定性的

overall experience 总的体验

published 发表