End of the videogame industry?

[Ben_Larson]

Anyone seen this article on BBC regarding the state of the videogame industry? (Sorry if it's already been posted):

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3185663.stm

 

I have a feeling what's going to happen is that developers are indeed going to have to consolidate in the near future due to skyrocketing development costs.

 

That's probably going to mean fewer innovative designs in new games. As if the situation wasn't bad enough already...

 

...but that's just my opinion.

 

Ben

[joeybastard]

I think you're right. Less developers, less good games. It's not the end of the industry, it's just more reasons for me to never buy another modern console.

[liveinabin]

As long as people want to buy games, there'll be games. And there will always be a minority making the good, original stuff. It won't go. After all, without the 'risky' software, where do all the new franchises come from?

Look at the movie industry. The costs and development times are comparable, and we still see occasional good stuff.

[Godzilla]

if developers spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound, they would solve their own problem and heal the industry all at once.

[The Eidolon]

I look on it a bit like the movie industry. For the "big budget" releases

from major manufacturers, production costs will keep going up until

they start to squeeze profits, necessitating the search for a few big

hits to keep things going. But just as independent filmmakers still

manage to make entertaining films for a few million dollars or less, there

will still be a market for fun, quick creative games without necessarily

state of the art graphics.

 

The computer market is probably more open to low budget or shareware

type releases than the console market, but even on the console market

there is a demand for less expansive games. It's very hard to put all

those thousands of man-hours into a state of the art game and be sure

that the gameplay will be good enough for the game not to tank. In my

opinion, the "fun factor" doesn't correlate with graphics, complexity or

design resources very much, and that is what ultimately sells games.

 

--The Eidolon

[RCmodeler]

if developers spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound, they would solve their own problem and heal the industry all at once.

 

 

"If the CUSTOMERS spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound....."

 

You can't blame the developers. It's the customers' fault for being stupid enough to buy a game just because it looks pretty. When the customer learns to say, "I don't care how it looks...how does it play?" then gaming will it improve.

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears. Sad.

[liquid_sky]

 

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears. Sad.

 

just like everything else you say

[JagMX]

 

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears. Sad.

 

just like everything else you say

 

[JagMX]

if developers spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound, they would solve their own problem and heal the industry all at once.

 

 

"If the CUSTOMERS spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound....."

 

You can't blame the developers. It's the customers' fault for being stupid enough to buy a game just because it looks pretty. When the customer learns to say, "I don't care how it looks...how does it play?" then gaming will it improve.

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears. Sad.

 

 

the customers arent the ones making the game - its the industries - they make the plans - they do the sketches, they do the programing - they come up with the ideas - so how is it the customers fault?

[Evilbay]

 

You can't blame the developers.  It's the customers' fault for being stupid enough to buy a game just because it looks pretty.  When the customer learns to say, "I don't care how it looks...how does it play?" then gaming will it improve.

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears.  Sad.

 

 

WE ARE THE BORG! PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED!

[JB]

THE END IS NEAR! THE SECOND COMING OF BUSHNELL IS UPON US! REPENT ALL YE GRAPHICS WHORES!

[sku_u]

if developers spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound' date=' they would solve their own problem and heal the industry all at once.[/quote']

 

 

"If the CUSTOMERS spent more time focusing on GAMEPLAY instead of money on giant dev teams for graphics and sound....."

 

You can't blame the developers. It's the customers' fault for being stupid enough to buy a game just because it looks pretty. When the customer learns to say' date=' "I don't care how it looks...how does it play?" then gaming will it improve.

 

I often use that phrase, but most of the time it falls on the deaf ears. Sad.[/quote']

 

 

the customers arent the ones making the game - its the industries - they make the plans - they do the sketches, they do the programing - they come up with the ideas - so how is it the customers fault?

 

Why, it's their fault for not realizing that the only real gaming system is the PS2, of course!

[Brad2600]

How much longer before the return of Mecha-Bushnell?

 

Prepare to be assimilated by the new wave of Atari!

 

[StanJr]

so how is it the customers fault?[/color]

 

SIMPLE. Your dollar is your vote. If you don't BUY DOA Nude Beach volleyball 5, or Backyard Wrestling, or Grand Larceny For Fun and Profit, such moronic games will go away, and the better games will come to light. Unfortunately, the average consumer is predictable and easily trained and spoonfed.

[JagMX]

so how is it the customers fault?[/color]

 

SIMPLE. Your dollar is your vote. If you don't BUY DOA Nude Beach volleyball 5' date=' or Backyard Wrestling, or Grand Larceny For Fun and Profit, such moronic games will go away, and the better games will come to light. Unfortunately, the average consumer is predictable and easily trained and spoonfed. [/quote']

 

nice input as our dollar being our vote, but these compaines are putting out shit that they know the "sony" generation will pick up - but you gotta figure if more and more games dont sell, more and more compaines close up or get bought out by someone, go out of business and so on- and if they tried changing the games do you honestly think sales will go up? if most are stayin in business its because people are somehow still buying garbage

[JagMX]

heres a good xample - Nintendo - they keep puttin out games they want on the system and not really putting out games that most gamers who own the cube want - nor are they putting out much that other gamers want in order to buy a cube - You gotta give what the gamers want, not what you THINK they want - this is why nintendo hasnt been succeeding very well with the cube that led to price drops 'o plenty and free games here and now packed with this and prices on that are cut there etc... (ok nintendo fanboys...scream yell and flame away at me )

 

bottom line is, is that most long time gamers can realize that games today are mostly just graphix first and the overall quality of gameplay is last (and mostly forgotten it seems) so we take the bigger hit

But the gamers that grew up with the playstation as being their first console see everything today are top of the line, great, brilliant and so on, because well - when you start out with shit, you pretty much get used to it so you cant really see the difference - (sony fans wanna flame and yell at me now? )

[RCmodeler]

so how is it the customers fault?[/color]

 

SIMPLE. Your dollar is your vote. If you don't BUY DOA Nude Beach volleyball 5' date=' or Backyard Wrestling, or Grand Larceny For Fun and Profit, such moronic games will go away, and the better games will come to light. Unfortunately, the average consumer is predictable and easily trained and spoonfed. [/quote']

 

Yes, what Stan Jr said. It's the customers' fault for buying "oooh pretty" games instead of "not so pretty, but damn fun". Eternal Darkness & Skies of Arcadia may not look great, but I'd still choose them over the fantastic-looking DOA: XXX Volleyball. ED & SoA are just so much better GAMES.

 

Sadly, the customers are choosing the exact opposite (proof: sales charts). That's why gaming is going downhill and becoming shallow effects demos.

 

 

 

 

(ASIDE: As for the rest of you who think insulting other people is fun... GROW UP. If you don't like me, ignore me. You guys are destroying the threads with your childish name-calling and teasing. You guys have caused far more trouble in the last few days with your *disruptive and pointless insults* than I ever have.)

[+kisrael]

If I had to guess, I think a big part of the cost isn't the prettiness per say, but the creation of large worlds that require lots of art and music and character design and what not.

 

There was a Slashdot conversation on this article saying games are getting too long. A lot of people at /. disagreed, but it's an interesting point. Is there some middle ground between old school classic gameplay (which, honestly, I think is more or less a niche, despite my fondness for some of it) and modern giant worlds ala GTA:VC?

 

Part of an answer might be online gaming. You can get away with a lot less fresh content with action-based multiplayer. (RPGs and stuff still require tons of content). I can't imagine it would be that expensive to make a "Tokyo Wars"/"Battletanx" multiplayer game w/ online support, and in my biased opinion it'd make a mint...

[NovaXpress]

I mostly agree with the "consumer's fault" theory. The companies want to make money. End of story. Sports games sell so that's why you see a lot of them. Pretty horror/sci-fi games backed up by the standared print/TV marketing campaign always makes a nice dent in the sale charts, so it is considered safe for publishers. That's why we see too many of them. If REZ had sold 6 million copies we'd have seen a ripple in the industry as they begin to cosider that gameplay may just be an issue.

 

The companies have to take some blame because they won't take any chances. Playing it safe works for awhile, but after a few years the consumers will get tired of it and find new diversions. Sega could have pushed REZ with a huge ad campaign and grabbed more sales, more people to recommend the game to others. But from their perspective they could blow 30 million trying to sell a game which is revolutionary and therefore may not succeed. Better to blow that money on something proven to work every time. For now.

[MegaManFan]

One of the game sites had a damn good editorial about this. Their feature writer lambasted people for always buying sports games and sequels and overlooking the niche games that really do offer something innovative. He said now's the time to do it, because the Christmas onslaught is going to release more games than ever before, so if you want good original games put your money where your mouth is before they get blown off the shelf by Max Payne 2, Jak II, Anus Wars 2, etc.

[Major Havoc 2049]

so how is it the customers fault?[/color]

 

SIMPLE. Your dollar is your vote. If you don't BUY DOA Nude Beach volleyball 5' date=' or Backyard Wrestling, or Grand Larceny For Fun and Profit, such moronic games will go away, and the better games will come to light. Unfortunately, the average consumer is predictable and easily trained and spoonfed. [/quote']

 

Hey now! DOAX is cool and original, just because it has nice graphics and ohh my gosh, pretty girls, doesn't make it evil. DOAX falls into the fan service niche genre, not some licensed blockbuster rushed crap like the Matrix, Wolverine, Terminator, Xmen, etc games. Team Ninja put many hours into making DOAX a good game that the fans of the DOA series would enjoy. Team Ninja/Tecmo even delayed DOAX and missed the holiday season because they felt DOAX wasn't ready for release, something some of the bigger crap developers would never dream of doing. I suppose you automatically think that Ninja Gaiden will suck as well, because it has Ryu Hayabasu in it from the DOA universe and has pretty graphics. Damn you for blasting Team Ninja!

 

The Grand Theft Auto series is a fresh original idea as well. Just because a game is good and becomes popular, people shouldn't automatically lump it in with big licensed, cash in on the hype, rushed movie games.

 

"SIMPLE. Your dollar is your vote."

I totally agree with you here. It was a sad day when The Matrix video game sold over 2 million copies in less than a month. I was hoping that the Matrix video game would bomb and help put an end to the big blockbuster crap genre.

[StanJr]

Wasn't Dead or Alive a fighting game? What the hell does that have to do with nude volleyball?

 

Acutally I have HIGH HIGH hopes for Ninja Gaiden. I LOVE the NES trilogy, and am looking for more NG action in the same vein!

 

I'm just sick of eye candy, copy cat games that are so formulaic, lackluster in gameplay, and riddled with buzzwords or over marketed franchise licenses that they are virtually indistinguishable.

 

And how and why they keep selling is beyond me. Who keeps buying these things?

[RCmodeler]

Hey now!  DOA:X Volleyball is cool and original.....

 

DOA: XXX Volleyball is a game where you play volleyball so you get money... so you can buy smaller and smaller swimusits... to reveal more and more tits and ass (with the ultimate swimsuit (Venus) being nothing but a chain and a couple gems!). The whole point of the game is to reveal tits and ass.

 

Yeah, it's original alright, but is it a "good" game? Not for me.

 

 

 

And then there's the actual Dead or Alive fighting series (1,2,3). This fighter SUCKS from start to finish. So why does it sell so well? One reason and one reason only: Tits & Ass. In other words, customers are buying the games for the LOOKS rather than the fun/gameplay.

 

Sad.

 

Meanwhile more superior fighters like Virtua Fighter Evolution get ignored, because the characters wear too much clothing.

 

Sad.

[JB]

Hey now!  DOA:X Volleyball is cool and original.....

 

DOA: XXX Volleyball is a game where you play volleyball so you get money... so you can buy smaller and smaller swimusits... to reveal more and more tits and ass (with the ultimate swimsuit (Venus) being nothing but a chain and a couple gems!). The whole point of the game is to reveal tits and ass.

 

Yeah, it's original alright, but is it a "good" game? Not for me.

I've actually heard the argument that it's more a relationship sim than a volleyball game.

 

Which moves it from "Bump-mapping! *snicker* Ummm, yah, let's get something else" to "That might actually be interesting."

 

And then there's the actual Dead or Alive fighting series (1,2,3).  This fighter SUCKS from start to finish.  So why does it sell so well?  One reason and one reason only: Tits & Ass.  In other words, customers are buying the games for the LOOKS rather than the fun/gameplay.

I HOPE it's appeal isn't solely T&A, because I have a sister who likes DOA2.

[+kisrael]

The Grand Theft Auto series is a fresh original idea as well. Just because a game is good and becomes popular, people shouldn't automatically lump it in with big licensed, cash in on the hype, rushed movie games.

Yeah, I really think the genius of GTA3 is overlaying a scripted adventure on a world fun enough to just mess around in, the physics engine and all that. Few other games achieve anything like that.

 

"SIMPLE.   Your dollar is your vote."

I totally agree with you here.  It was a sad day when The Matrix video game sold over 2 million copies in less than a month.  I was hoping that the Matrix video game would bomb and help put an end to the big blockbuster crap genre.

'Course, I guess waiting for a game to be avialable used takes away your vote somewhat.

 

Matrix seemed liked it had potential, but it was just rushed too much.