To wrap up the 2007 Year in Games, and forecast trends for 2008, we sat down with one of the industry’s biggest authorities, Joseph Olin, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He’s been with the AIAS since 2004, and worked with video games and consumer products for 25 years. We asked him about the biggest developments in gaming this year, and some of the things we’ll see in the next 12 months. Here are Five Questions with Joseph Olin:

1) What’s your main observation about the video game world in 2007?

2007 has turned into a record year for the video game and interactive entertainment industry, both from the perspective of hardware adoption and certainly from the quality of game experiences.

For the first time in about four years the number one selling game of the year will not be a John Madden football title. I don’t know that that’s huge news but it does certainly point to a shift in terms of who plays games, why they play, and what they like.

Obviously for a generation of adults and their children, Rock-n-Roll music is here to stay. Whether I want to be Joey Ramone, or my teenage son is trying to emulate someone from a band that I’ve never heard of before called 3 Inches of Blood.

The success of Guitar Hero and the initial strong sales of Rock Band are interesting. I think everyone at one point harbored the fantasy of being onstage in a rock band. And you don’t need to know how to play the guitar to play those games, which makes them easy.

In contrast to that, some of the more engaging gaming experiences this year – Call of Duty 4 comes to mind – are for serious game players. You can’t just pick that up and casually walk your way through it and have a great experience.

But almost anyone can pick up Guitar Hero and Rock Band and have a great time.

The advent of the connected console, and the ability to expand your repertoire, and spend a few dollars to get the David Bowie library or songs by The Police, those are great things.

2) Music and Games: When did you know it was going to be such a perfect match?

I think when Harmonix and Red Octane came together to create the original Guitar Hero (2005), at least for me as a hardcore Baby Boomer who played in bands throughout high school and college, that was a godsend. I mean, where has this been all my life?

And I think that was just the general reaction, and I think for a lot of people who were somewhat critical of the initial acquisition of Red Octane by Activision, they look sort of silly now.

Guitar Hero has pretty much been a top-selling game since it was launched.

I think a lot of people who make and design games were musicians, and as they were learning their craft, the language of code and the language of music are very comparable. Both are math-based, and they’re very expressive if you learn how to work within them. So it was only a matter of time before someone put two and two together.

3) The mobile games market is expected to be one of the major areas of growth in the next couple of years, more than doubling in size. What are your observations about that space?

The problem with metrics and looking at the mobile space is that there are so many different ways to count, that to me the predictions about the market’s size become irrelevant. The interesting dynamic is that even in America you have about 200 million handsets. That’s a big number. On a global scale, you’re looking at billions.

So the fact that culturally we play games, if it’s electronic and has a screen, at some level I expect to have some form of entertainment on my handset.

The real challenge is the type of entertainment, the type of consumer, and the place. And I think that connectivity between console and phone, or PC and phone is coming, and I think you may see more games that take advantage. I think that will start to hearken to the next generation of interactive entertainment.

The business model of how games are distributed is country-by-country, and here in the States, the four major carriers have certain business practices that make it difficult for game makers to be able to bring different ideas to the marketplace.

4) Has social media changed the definition of games, or how games are made?

Because video games are so endemic to popular culture for the last two generations, game experiences that were once solely relegated to a dedicated game console or PC are now just found in every aspect of life.

It shows how culture has changed. For those who make games, the question is: How do you continue to evolve, change, and look for different ways to engage an audience?

We have yet to see the best games to be made, is how I look at it. And that’s exciting. The social aspect means that you can allow people to interact in different ways, and find different forms of enjoyment.

Games are played between people. Technology allows us to interact in real time with our opponents. It’s much more enjoyable when I can chat with you and play against you.

Within MMORPG’s, the mix of people helps define your enjoyment of the game. It’s at the root of the game’s success.

5) Now that games are no longer just for kids, thanks to the Wii, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, is there a change, culturally speaking, in the way we view games? There doesn’t seem to be as much of a sense that games are simply fast food for the brain.

As a former musician, I think it’s great to see people making music a larger part of their lives.

And I think for games in general, there’s been interesting things happening culturally. You know, I’m significantly older than most gamers, and will probably continue to play until…actually, I can’t imagine a reason not to play!

Games are reaching more people in greater numbers. I mean last Thanksgiving, the Wii was being played by more adults than kids, because, for one reason, they couldn’t believe how simple it is. They were able to enjoy it.

But one of the biggest stories recently, no doubt, is the lack of the Wii on shelves, as Nintendo struggles to meet demand.

If Nintendo could make more they would.

At this point I think the fact that if you don’t have a game console in your house, or you haven’t for 10+ years, if you suddenly think about what’s going on with games, and you actually make the step of going to a retailer…well, once you cross the threshold of going to a store, the game is on. If what you want isn’t there, but you want a game console for your family this Christmas, you may buy something else.

And I think that all three game consoles offer great experiences. Truly.

I tell friends: You pick and choose. Partially you base it on the age of your children, and partially on yourself! To me it’s always about the game you want to play, not the hardware you want to play on.

Bonus: What’s one game you’ve seen recently that blew you away, and you expect to make noise in 2008?

I don’t really like singling out individual products, but a game by Harmonix, Phase, is one of the most innovative things I’ve touched in a long time. It’s Rock Band for your iPod. Spend $5 and download Phase. It reads the info in your ID3 tag, and sonically figures it out. It shows great promise…it’s a way to enjoy your music, on your device, and it puts a smile on your face.