BBC Ponders Another Games Industry Crash Options

[Xbox-Scene]

BBC Ponders Another Games Industry Crash Posted by XanTium | April 16 20:21 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From news.bbc.co.uk: [QUOTE] Yes, gamers are snapping up the new generation of games consoles -- Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's Playstation 3 [PS3], but at huge cost to the industry. Hardware makers are losing hundreds of dollars on every console sold, and games publishers face an "increasingly difficult environment, as rising development costs and small user bases [mean] that return on investment in next generation games development is unlikely to be achieved before 2008," according to media analysts Screen Digest. More importantly, though, the video games publishers are facing a revolution of their business model. "Development times, team sizes and complexity have been exacerbated by increasingly demanding next generation games," says Ed Barton at Screen Digest. He predicts that "only a tiny proportion of next generation titles are likely to achieve profitability in the near future". As it turns out, software piracy can be good for you. "We have extremely strong brands [in Asia] thanks to the pirates; they have created millions of consumers - not customers," says Mr Florin (executive vice president at EA). The internet allows EA to tap into this market and make some money after all. The Korean gamers are spending serious money on accessories and customisations of the online game. "We now have to learn the business of running an online community," says Mr Florin. [/QUOTE] Full Story: news.bbc.co.uk

[throwingks]

The Wii turns a profit on each console sold. Xbox360 is going to be in decent shape. The PS3 is in trouble, but the PS2 is making a lot of profit right now.

I respectfully disagree with this article.

[zero129]

The Wii turns a profit on each console sold. Xbox360 is going to be in decent shape. The PS3 is in trouble, but the PS2 is making a lot of profit right now.

I respectfully disagree with this article.

And i agree with you .

[epsilon72]

While throwingks does have a good point, to me it seems that we may see the death of the video game industry as we once knew it - meaning rather than releasing games that are truly innovative/creative/artistic, the industry will give way to the "casual" mass market, only producing highly profitable (because of rising costs), flashy, shallow games that don't have a single semblance of artistry to them.

Eventually though, videogames could go "out of style" (remember when gaming wasn't cool? that's what I'm referring to), and with that the market would lose its main constituency and fold over on itself.

^While that may not happen, I'm afraid that eventually some of us "old gamers" will look at the market one day and say "what is this crap?? I'm not paying for this anymore..."

IMO the entire gaming industry has been going downhill since mid-generation 5. There have been some bright spots here and there, but gaming sure isn't what it used to be.

This post has been edited by epsilon72: Apr 17 2007, 03:17 AM

[luther349]

i guess thats why wow has 8.5 mil activ players lol. console gaming as we knoe it is going to probly go out of style lets be honest thers so many fps titles out there now its just a sad joke. its the same thing over and over again pople are getting tired off eg someone makes a good fps then 10 sad attempts to clone it come out. the 360 suffers from this to however they relised that and do have alot of good stuf coming out.

[The Zep Man]

It's nice to see that they interview the Sequel Producer (Electronic Arts) for this article. I think they are partly correct. There is almost no innovation in games anymore these days. Instead, publishers (like EA) force developers to bring out sequels to their once successful games. Most of the time, these sequels are released too early and are therefore full of bugs and glitches. Sometimes, the developers add stuff in the game which gives the publishers (not the developers) more money. The adware in Battlefield 2142 is a good example. The game market will not suddenly 'crash', however. As long as the crowd buys these sequels, that is (and they will...).

I say the game market will restore to another Golden Age once Duke Nukem Forever comes out.

[Master Pwnerer]

And i agree with you .

I'm guessing the author of this article is some video game-hating asshole that just wants to stir up trouble in the game industry.

[Giga_Death]

it's all sequels, clones and franchises. As long as the games are good though i don't really care.

[jdsony]

Well deny it as much as you like he is probably right. It may seem absurd but don't expect everyone to stop playing games altogether just the majority which are NOT hardcore gamers. Once the majority stops playing the industry could crash. I would say we are at least two years away from that though.

I'm noticing more and more that even the blockbuster titles earning high scores from reviewers are really shallow. Gears of War is a good example. It's a solid game but it is extremely shallow. Move from room to room killing bad guys while ducked behind some rubbish. The controls are really simplistic in a way that you feel frustrated. It plays almost like those old shooting games on rails although a bit more interactive. 'Lesser' games such as Lost Planet are actually much more fun. Maybe nothing ground breaking or original but it manages to give you a feeling of discovery like games of old and it doesn't confine you with controls or gameplay that shouts "Look at me, I'm just a game". The environments and graphics in Gears of War are great but they could have been so much better if the game was more about exploration and tension and less focused on killing an endless onslaught of enemies. Games need to be balanced not predictable. Maybe I'm just getting bored of straight all out action games. Metal Slug still rocks though.

[mike96sc2]

Forget the push for newer and prettier things, I just want good games. Hell, they could resell me a good chunk of the Sega Saturn back catalog with no improvements to the games, I just want the original feeling. Put Nights, Clockwork Knight, and Bug! all on a disc, sell it for $30 and I'd be happy. I don't need there it be something pretty or whatever, how many great games never got sequels, seriously? How come we haven't seen Battletoads in a decade? We get Xbox Live arcade's ports of 80's games pretty consistently, but there's a lot of great titles that just disappear. WipeOut was great, Battletoads as I said before, D (the original), Road Rash, Rock & Roll Racing, Fighting Vipers, Clay Fighter, lots of great stuff came out for the 3DO that most people wouldn't know, how about a proper release of Thrill Kill? It's nowhere near as bad as what most games are today, so put it out there and cash in off the hype.

You don't have to agree with my choice of games but if you're a developer and you own the rights to these games, why not port them and clean up the bugs, make a compilation to sell in store or push them as arcade downloads. If we would see more classic franchises coming back and not trying to change what made them great (hear that Sonic) I'd be right quick to purchase them all over again.

Today this market seems to be so focused on graphics or new physics or immersion or whatever else is the new deal instead of going with "if the game is fun people will buy it".

Gears of War is nice, but I'd love to play through some of those lost classics any day of the week.

[mva5580]

Console gaming has pretty much hit the wall and continue to go down in terms of game quality and innovation. Technology has now gotten to the point where everyone is obsessed with graphics and everything else is secondary. As long as it looks cool, the great majority of gamers that aren't adults won't care about anything else.

PC Gaming is created with the hardcore fan in mind who EXPECTS innovation and things that make you think. Console gaming is created for mass market lemmings that will buy anything that looks cool and has a funny commercial behind it.

[mat7h3w]

The gaming industry continues to grow and grow, but I have to admit I do see some valid points in that article. I've only recently acquired an Xbox 360, so I've yet to really test it out that much yet, but I can remember a number of instances where I was left feeling dissatisfied as a consumer with the Xbox 1. Sure, there were a number of fun games released for it, but most of them had no replay value. You play them and beat them once or twice and they just sit on a shelf in the case. It's really sad to me, since I can remember any number of 8-bit games from Nintendo on the old NES that I had killer replay value. I don't know if the industry will ever "crash" but I can see gaming as we know it changing. The sad thing is, as much as I like my 360, if Nintendo were to release a system that looked maybe like the original NES only slimmer, including original gamepads and zapper gun, that had a hard drive inside and included their complete American game library for that system, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I'd also probably play it more often than my original Xbox and 360 put together. I know a number of gamers that would do the same. It would probably sell more units than the Wii, 360, and PS3 put together. Sadly, such a system is just a dream though since Nintendo is still trying to milk money from those games over the Wii.

[mike96sc2]

PC Gaming is created with the hardcore fan in mind who EXPECTS innovation and things that make you think. Console gaming is created for mass market lemmings that will buy anything that looks cool and has a funny commercial behind it.

I disagree, if innovation means buying a new PC every time a new Doom or Quake or Half-Life comes out then count me out of that innovation.