Lunchtime Discussion: Browser Gaming

I have a habit in pretty much always keeping my browser open. No matter what else I’m doing I’ll normally have have a dozen or two tabs open with… well anything from web comics to development blogs to Flash games. Sure Flash games may not have bloom lighting or any of that new fangled console gaming stuff, but most of them are second in addictive quality only to PopCap games.

Of course Flash games in and of themselves can be pretty impressive, and with the rise of smaller downloadable games on consoles, Flash games have begun to act as a test bed to see if there’s any interest in a game’s concept. However, to some extent, simple Flash games have now become old hat. The future seems to be a mix of gaming on social sites such as Facebook and more fully fledged games such as Quake Live.

So where do you see browser gaming going? Do you not see them as ‘real’ games or are they just as significant as full console releases? Does Quake Live show the potential of bigger games taking place inside your browser?