Is the future of gaming HTML5?

Earlier this week TechCrunch reported that Disney had picked up the HTML5 gaming engine company, Rocket Pack. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it's clear that Disney believes in the future of this company, given that it's going to be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

Before I formed an opinion I figured I'd give the company's games some playtime, especially since my company has dabbled in HTML5 gaming.

So, I launch the site, click on the game link, then I'm forced to login to Facebook. After that I'm treated to the game play. Unfortunately, I wasn't blown away, but I can see how others would like this style of game play. See below for a screenshot.

With the above in mind, though, I have to say that our own experience in HTML5 game development went a bit further, not to mention that Google's What Is The Internet? e-book has impressive page turns, and its own PacMan is fully interactive, and playable, and undistinguishable from a client-based game.

Is the future HTML5 gaming? I wouldn't say that it's going to replace the native apps anytime soon, but as HTML5 advances, and Flash exports to HTML5 with relative ease, I think we'll start to see some serious competition coming from web-based game developers. Also, the really nice part about this is the promise to write it once, and have it run everywhere. I say 'the promise", since we continue to hold out hope that one day we'll find a solution that really does deliver on that promise.