The DeanBeat: CES will explore new platforms and paths for gaming

I made my predictions last week about what will happen in games in 2015. But it’s going to be hard enough predicting what will happen next week. I’ll be attending the 2015 International CES next week in Las Vegas. The tech trade show is the biggest in the U.S., and it will draw more than 150,000 people to view more than 3,000 exhibitors across more than 2 million square feet of space. Among the exhibitors will be 637 companies with gaming products, according to Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the show. That’s up from 511 a year ago, an indicator of the healthy growth of the gaming sector, which analysts expect to generate $100 billion in revenues by 2017.

But many major game companies skip the show. Electronic Arts and Activision have no presence on the show floor. Microsoft dropped out a couple of years ago, so we won’t expect any news about the Xbox One game console or Windows gaming. While Sony’s Kaz Hirai gave a keynote last year, the company isn’t among the major speakers this year. And Nintendo isn’t part of the show either. Instead, the show is going to have a lot of news about tech for cars, smartwatches, smart homes, and the Internet of Things (or connecting just about every to the Internet). We’ll have a crack team of writers covering all of that news from start to finish.