Most people agree that today's netbooks are not build for gaming.  The latest ‘big’ laptops come with dedicated graphics chips that help them produce decent  frame rates and amazing graphics in the latest and most demanding games.  Even the cheapest and most basic notebooks have enough power to play slightly older titles at a decent frame rate.  However, the same can't be said for netbooks. Any 3D game that requires relatively demanding graphics – even titles that are a two or three years old – run so slowly as to be unplayable and some titles just don't work at all. And all netbooks lack CD-ROM/DVD drives and many have limited storage capacities.

Yet, some analysts predict that the nature of netbooks might pust games onto servers.

A recent report on iStockAnalyst.com reads: “Netbooks will almost certainly become the most popular PCs. And PC gaming is already far bigger than all console gaming put together. So netbooks are headed towards being one of the most important gaming machines on earth. And this has a significant impact on the future of gaming.

“Netbooks have reduced storage and processing capabilities. They cannot store and run big and complex games internally. They make up for this by having brilliant connectivity. So they are the perfect tool for playing online games such as MMOs and the contents of all the casual gaming portals. They are going to have an immense effect on pushing gaming onto servers. Boxed retail games are not what netbooks are about.

“This is another arrow in the back of high street game retail. And another major factor into making gaming an online industry. So it will help force social networking and gaming closer together. Portals like Steam need to evolve to become more server based but they are agile enough to do so. It will not be a revolution, more like speeded up evolution.”