Video games are not only one of the greatest forms of entertainment, but will in future, become a key part of a single system – That’s the opinion of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee.

Speaking to a BBC reporter at Activision’s impressive E3 event, the veteran comics publisher spoke very positively of video games.

“I love games, I’m no good at them myself, but I love to watch people play them and I love to watch people play the games.

And I think it’s one of the greatest methods of entertainment, and I think it’s only at the beginning now, it’s burgeoning, growing.

….There was a survey and it said the average age of game players now is mid 20s to mid 30s, it’s no longer just a kids thing and it’s a wonderful form of entertainment.

Because you’re seeing the story, but you’re participating in the story and what can be better than that?”

Stan Lee is certainly right about the growth of the games industry. It’s amazing to think how far it’s come in such a relatively short space of time – just compare how Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Nintendo Wii looks compared to the first ever Super Mario Bros, released on the NES just over 20 years ago!

And with new innovations in recent years like motion controllers – including PlayStation Move and Microsoft’s Kinect –  and 3D gaming, in addition to ever  more photo-realistic graphics, who knows where the games industry will be in another 20 years time! The big name Games Designers, Games Developers, and Games Artist and Animators of the future – who could very well be current Train2Game students – could be revealing absolutely mind blowing new innovations at E3 2030! (In case you’ve somehow managed to miss the key events from the current E3 2010, you can catch up with developments here)

When asked about the future of video games by BBC reporter Daniel Emery, Stan Lee only sees great things:

“I think they’ll get better and better. I think the whole of entertainment is coming together, sort of homogenising.

You’re going to have comic books, you’re going to have cartoons, movies, television, video games and music.

They’re all becoming one thing and you’ll be able to watch it on your little telephone screen when you’re travelling, then everybody’s going to want the biggest TV set, bigger than his neighbour.

It’s incredible. Everybody wants the biggest TV set and the smallest little thing to watch it on, but everything will be on one screen eventually, including video games and everything else.”

If Stan Lee’s predictions do come to pass, it’s entirely possible that Train2Game course graduates could be designing games that will be accessible to anyone through a single multi-purpose entertainment system.  Are the first steps towards this already happening? Possibly, with OnLive going live tomorrow (Thursday 17^th June) we could be seeing the future of gaming, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, smart phones such as the iPhone already provide people with multiple forms of entertainment – including games – in one place, and as we’ve discussed previously on the Train2Game blog, the iPhone could give a Train2Game student their big break.

The video games industry has a very bright future, and as a Train2Game graduate, you could very well be a part of it. Do you think you could end up developing games for a home entertainment hub? As usual let us know here on this blog, or on the Train2Game Forum.