Those 60 dollar video games were supposed to go the way of the Atari, thanks to the popularity of free mobile games. Candy Crush was supposed to eat Call of Duty's lunch. And who wants to spend more than 300 dollars for a next generation console in this economy? If that's been the theme for the gaming world for the last few years, then somebody forget to tell the industry's biggest names. A host of new games will be heading consumer's way between now and the holiday shopping season, which industry analysts say make up 40 percent of annual sales. GPB's Bradley George and Renay San Miguel talk about the holiday outlook for the industry, and some new twists that could tempt the video game fan in your household. The holidays have come early for gaming fans, thanks to this week's release of a couple of hotly-anticipated titles. What if anything can we read into how the holidays will go for the industry? Apparently, wandering around in a post-apocalyptic America is still loads of fun, and Lara Croft still has her mojo. We're talking about Fallout 4 and the Rise of the Tomb Raider games, which both game out Tuesday, and which have both received good reviews. They represent just the opening salvo in a very important fourth quarter for the industry. The latest consoles - Xbox One, Playstation 4 and the Wii U - all made their debuts in the past two years, so now it's all about the software. The money spent on marketing is also what catches my eye for these games; sometimes they're as entertaining and clever as the programming you're watching. Fallout 4 commercials featured the 1950s hit The Wanderer by Dion. There were also midnight gaming store openings to sell Fallout 4, which has been a retail tactic since the early Halo games of the 1990s. There's also the new Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 coming out, and that franchise is always a juggernaut. We've got a new Assassin's Creed too. It appears that shoot-em-up games that are really for older players are still very popular. And they always will be since these new consoles play up superior graphics and the ability to play gamers all around the world in multiplayer scenarios. That's where games like Call of Duty really shine. But the hotly anticipated family friendly titles are those that could really boost industry revenue, because they now come with real-life toys attached with them. The Skylanders franchise is the most lucrative example of this; you put in the disc but also plug in a portal to your console and put a toy figure on the portal, and it becomes a character in the game. Skylanders has become a billion-dollar name in the industry with this, and its newest version, Skylanders SuperChargers, now adds toy vehicles to the mix. The other thing I've noticed is all the games that are based on hit movies and other existing properties. And with the first Star Wars movie in a long time next month, I'm guessing those will be popular choices. Absolutely. Electronic Arts previewed its new Star Wars Battlefront game for just five days in October; some 9 million people played the beta. Nobody messes with Disney when it comes to synchronizing all its intellectual property; the new Disney Infiinity 3.0 portal game is adding Star Wars characters from the Force Awakens movie coming out in December, as well as characters from Pixar's Inside Out. And Lego Dimensions is that iconic brickmaker's version of this strategy; it came out in September and you can play as characters from a lot of different movies and TV shows, including Dr. Who and the Back to the Future gang. People - kids and adults - like playing in familiar environment and with popular, best-loved characters. It seems like nobody wants to be left out of the gaming sweepstakes, including two of the biggest tech names in the industry, Amazon and Apple. I was in Seattle covering Amazon's release of its then-new Fire TV, and I'd heard that the company was hiring gaming developers like crazy because it really wanted to make a dent with streaming games for this device. They now sell a gaming version of Fire TV, but so far there haven't been any real breakout titles from Amazon with its games. But the new Apple TV may change that; it provides ways to play the Skylanders Supercharger game, and also features some popular versions of casual games like the Rayman series and Geometry Wars. Apple is serious about apps and games for the Apple TV, but right now it doesn't really offer an Apple made controller; you have to use the Siri Remote that comes with it if you don't want to spend extra bucks for a third-party controller. But keep in mind: it was all those games on the App Store playable on iPhones and iPads that brought mobile gaming into the spotlight. Renay San Miguel is GPB's Science and Technology correspondent. He also hosts the Future Perfect podcast. Follow Renay on Twitter for the latest science and tech news from Georgia and beyond.

Tags: Sci-Tech Now Georgia