LOL, I got carried away. I probably shouldn’t practice creative writing in public. 
Although it is more probable than not.
goat, I think you nailed it.
An example would be the recent use of Unity as a crime scene simulation tool ala CSI.
The future will be dominated by brands. I just tried out the Simpsons video game and it played just like Lego Batman and Robin which plays just like the Up! video game.
So there’s no “innovative gameplay”, but if you think about it, should I really care? I’ll be perfectly happy playing a generic FPS, RTS, RPG, Sim, Platformer, Side-scroller, Strategy or what have you as long as it stars my favorite characters. Though I still consider myself a hardcore gamer, I can play any type of game casually. On the other hand, any no-name setting must have pretty darn good gameplay if it attempts to hook me in. And if it’s good enough to be successful, you bet clones will be just around the corner.
I think the success of Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft are at least 50% attributed to the complete fictional worlds Blizzard has created. They just happen to be good game designers as well. But it will be recognizable brands (characters, environment, theme, etc.) which will be the primary mover of sales.
I didn’t hear of the crime simulation use and I have concerns that people believe a simulation as being more probable because it can be simulated. I hope, in the same way simulations will be used to show the impossible when correlated to evidence.
As far as brands go, we’ve all heard of reality tv, get ready for reality gaming where everybody gets their 15 minutes. Not that that’s necessarily bad, though I wouldn’t want to be the target in some games, game or not.
It’s the nature of the modern world to find way of producing things in larger quantity, with fewer people at lower cost. Even at the expense of individuality and often, quality.
How many people wear hand woven clothes anymore, instead of cloth made by the kilometer to the same pattern? Or go to the farm to get fresh food?
But there are still markets for these goods. Just like computer games. The mainstream isn’t going to pay top whack for things that were done a long time ago and can now be done by anyone (see lots of iPhone games). But if you provide something with the little extra, there’s always a niche there. We can see that today with retro games.
So I blame the industrial revolution. Or maybe the Romans. But definitely not Unity 2.6 
Wow. I am a new member here, and I was going to purchase the Indie version when I was shocked to learn that it is now free. Seriously, to all the folks working on Unity, you’re the best. I love Unity, and I do believe that I will purchase the Pro version when I get better at it. Seriously, a fantastic engine.
I started with Torque, in my university Games Programming II course. Being an indie…erm, welfare user, I have to admit I feel the contrary of the OP. It’s so great that a powerful, streamlined engine like Unity is now available to the masses! Even though I’m no artist (…nah, still don’t want to show evidence. Some of you have just eaten,) I’ve been able in my week of solid work with the engine been able to put some small prototypes together that, aside from the characters, look great!
Could Unity add [this feature] or [that feature]? Sure, I’d gladly welcome non-pro Glow usage. However, if I take the time to find the right artists, put some (gargantuan) work into art myself, and persevere, well, getting the $1000ish for the pro license isn’t such a far-off prospect.
My conclusion about this? Mission accomplished. Great job, Unity!
Because Unity is free it’s made me take a really good look at it. And I’m starting to like what I see!. So much so that I’m already starting to ponder ways of how to raise the cash for the Pro version. 
Without the free version I know I wouldn’t have given Unity the time.
I would love to see Unity Technologies adopt a similar license to the new Unreal Dev Kit. Although I’m not too sure on how the current Pro users would feel about that. I guess some would be upset, while others that are more confident of actually releasing a product wouldn’t mind as it means they won’t have to give up 25% of their profit.
The current Pro users were all in favour of Unity Indie becoming free so I do not see why they should be upset over anything.
Well if somebody had just bought the Pro version and then a few days later Unity Pro is made “free” but with a royalty based license then it could be a little annoying for the Pro user that isn’t confident that they’ll ever make a return on their $1500 investment.
Or some Pro users may have bought the engine purely for hobby reasons and have no intention of releasing a commercial product. Obviously the hobbyists would’ve preferred the royalty based option.
I suspect Epic isn’t expecting to make much of it’s profits from all those 25%'s any time soon.
Yes, finding a niche is key. Of course the only niche in my hometown is Walmart. LOL.
For example, imagine the scenario I mentioned earlier about using Unity to create training simulations or surveying applications. Now imagine if Unity had a FaceBook plugin or some other social networking framework plugin how easy it would be for universities to organize and train folk in different specialties compared to the rather boring and inconsistant way it is done now. It’s still not a real life visualization and walkthrough but it can get pretty good for the visualization part and that will only improve. This will definately improve comprehension and retension. I think at the high levels of sports and military training they already have such systems in place for alot of tasks. Actually I know they do because I interviewed for a job writing C++ for a firm that does helicopter simulators for the military about a 100 miles from here so I can imagine what’s going on at the power centers.
But imagine teaching kids Newton’s Laws via visual simulations that they could alter via UIs how much better they would comprehend the materials. Maybe the simulations could be placed into well know rhymes like Jack and Jill or whatnot.