BioWare's joint-CEO, Greg Zeschuk, recently took part in a panel at Microsoft's Meltdown conference for game developers. The panel focused on "The Next Round--Predictions and Thoughts" and discussed the future of game development. Interestingly enough, Gabe Newell (Valve CEO - Half-Life 2) is quoted almost exclusively throughout the article, and no quote whatsoever from Zeschuk, even though BioWare is currently working on their own online content distribution system for Neverwinter Nights. Still, here's something amusing & relevant:

Game industry journalist Geoff Keighley moderated the panel, which yielded some interesting conclusions. First, more realism will drive budgets higher and force companies to focus on quality to drive sales; second, companies will likely find ways to monetize online gaming; third, online distribution is inevitable; and finally, the ninjas of Wal-Mart are out to do great bodily harm.

Well, that last one was just speculation by Valve cofounder Gabe Newell, who joked that every time he talked about Wal-Mart in public, he had a feeling the company was going to send corporate ninjas to silence him. Newell made this remark during a discussion of brick-and-mortar retailers' opposition to online game distribution, and though he was joking, his comment keenly illustrated just how much influence Wal-Mart exercises over the game industry. According to Lee Jacobsen, senior VP of business development at Midway, Wal-Mart sells 27 percent of the console software in the US--it's understandable that publishers want to stay on the company's good side.

You can read the rest here (http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6103779.html).