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Is the video game industry going to implode?
Bang Bang Miss America
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Registered User regular
Apart from the success story of Assasins Creed, and Halo 3 doing well (why wouldn't it?) everything else about the industry this year to me, as a gamer, has been a total bomb.
The Wii is selling like hot cakes, though it hardly caters to veteran video gamers. Yes, there are some amazing games like Mario Galaxy, though the fact that games like Catz are selling over a half a million and Zack didn't even hit 40k really depresses me. This just shows that the awful games are going to keep on flooding in, and less and less companies are going to bother with original IPs.
Whilst the Wii is selling like mad, the PS3 whilst doing improving, has nothing on the wii. It has great games...but like Uncharted barely sold anything.......again, less and less companies are going to be willing to make original IPs.
On the xbox 360 side...Assasins Creed is great, though it is not stunning like Orange Box. Assasins Creed is selling amazingly, which I appauld Ubisoft for, though its kind of sad that Orange Box in comparison is barely selling at all and stores like Game have had to reduce the price to 25 pounds to get it off the shelves.
On the PC side......Crysis and Unreal Tournament bombed. So much money went in to these games, and both are great games, though sold nothing at all....due to the fact that people were far too involved in the AAA console games, these games needing monsters of PCs to run, and despite a unified banner for PC games, PC gaming is still confusing to the general public.
Plus, we still don't have video game figures. The world of movies has so many......okay, we all know Major Nelson, Peter Moore, Cliffy B. but do the general public? No. All they see is the publisher. Who hosted the Spike VGAs? Samuel Jackson. A movie star.
Plus theres all the things like 360s RRODing, the Gamespot issue and so much more. Despite so many amazing video games coming out this season, I really think that the video game industry is going to have a crash like it did yonder ago. Original IPs are barely selling, the general public still don't have a clue about video games and HDTVs, video games cost far too much to make, and video games cost far too much. Wonder why the pre-owned industry for video games is so high? Video games are awful prices. 40 quid for a game. Awful. There needs to be serious changes, and here I will list what I think needs to happen:
1. One video game console. DVDs do well because you can just buy any DVD player, and the DVD will work. Mario, Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo on one console would simply be astonishing. It would require so much effort from the big three (Ninty, Microsoft etc.) but the amount of revenue they would make would be sweet for them, and sweet for video gamers in the long term cause that would mean more games.
2. Video game costs reduced. Pac-man only cost 100,000 to make back in the day, whilst games now cost millions upon millions, and thats without advertising. I'd say 10 pounds per game would be a great price, and games would sell so much better that way. Also we need fair priced downloadable content. Paying money for episode 1 and shivering isles is fine with me but what the heck? Money for .jpg avatars and hats in Viva Pinata? NO.
3. More independant video game developers. Nearly all games that come out on the 360 etc. are made by huge powerhorse teams. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft need to embrace the independant video game developers and we need to see more indie games on consoles.
4. Stamp down on shovel ware. Nintendo seal of quality? My ass. Nintendo need to stomp down on the crap that games to their consoles, so companies will have to make good games if they want to be released.
5. Universal rating system for all games on all systems, all countries, and not just video games, I mean a TOTALLY universal rating system for all media. Movies, games etc. all of them. I find it so weird the american system for rating films (I live in UK) works. It's like such a huge jump between (I think it's called Teen) to R-rated, where as over here it goes, 12+, then 15+, then 18+. There needs to be a simple, fair rating system for all countries, all video games on all consoles, all movies, all DVDs and all CDs.
Sorry if I rambled on a bit. Happy New Years!
The Wii is selling like hot cakes, though it hardly caters to veteran video gamers. Yes, there are some amazing games like Mario Galaxy, though the fact that games like Catz are selling over a half a million and Zack didn't even hit 40k really depresses me. This just shows that the awful games are going to keep on flooding in, and less and less companies are going to bother with original IPs.
Whilst the Wii is selling like mad, the PS3 whilst doing improving, has nothing on the wii. It has great games...but like Uncharted barely sold anything.......again, less and less companies are going to be willing to make original IPs.
On the xbox 360 side...Assasins Creed is great, though it is not stunning like Orange Box. Assasins Creed is selling amazingly, which I appauld Ubisoft for, though its kind of sad that Orange Box in comparison is barely selling at all and stores like Game have had to reduce the price to 25 pounds to get it off the shelves.
On the PC side......Crysis and Unreal Tournament bombed. So much money went in to these games, and both are great games, though sold nothing at all....due to the fact that people were far too involved in the AAA console games, these games needing monsters of PCs to run, and despite a unified banner for PC games, PC gaming is still confusing to the general public.
Plus, we still don't have video game figures. The world of movies has so many......okay, we all know Major Nelson, Peter Moore, Cliffy B. but do the general public? No. All they see is the publisher. Who hosted the Spike VGAs? Samuel Jackson. A movie star.
Plus theres all the things like 360s RRODing, the Gamespot issue and so much more. Despite so many amazing video games coming out this season, I really think that the video game industry is going to have a crash like it did yonder ago. Original IPs are barely selling, the general public still don't have a clue about video games and HDTVs, video games cost far too much to make, and video games cost far too much. Wonder why the pre-owned industry for video games is so high? Video games are awful prices. 40 quid for a game. Awful. There needs to be serious changes, and here I will list what I think needs to happen:
1. One video game console. DVDs do well because you can just buy any DVD player, and the DVD will work. Mario, Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo on one console would simply be astonishing. It would require so much effort from the big three (Ninty, Microsoft etc.) but the amount of revenue they would make would be sweet for them, and sweet for video gamers in the long term cause that would mean more games.
2. Video game costs reduced. Pac-man only cost 100,000 to make back in the day, whilst games now cost millions upon millions, and thats without advertising. I'd say 10 pounds per game would be a great price, and games would sell so much better that way. Also we need fair priced downloadable content. Paying money for episode 1 and shivering isles is fine with me but what the heck? Money for .jpg avatars and hats in Viva Pinata? NO.
3. More independant video game developers. Nearly all games that come out on the 360 etc. are made by huge powerhorse teams. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft need to embrace the independant video game developers and we need to see more indie games on consoles.
4. Stamp down on shovel ware. Nintendo seal of quality? My ass. Nintendo need to stomp down on the crap that games to their consoles, so companies will have to make good games if they want to be released.
5. Universal rating system for all games on all systems, all countries, and not just video games, I mean a TOTALLY universal rating system for all media. Movies, games etc. all of them. I find it so weird the american system for rating films (I live in UK) works. It's like such a huge jump between (I think it's called Teen) to R-rated, where as over here it goes, 12+, then 15+, then 18+. There needs to be a simple, fair rating system for all countries, all video games on all consoles, all movies, all DVDs and all CDs.
Sorry if I rambled on a bit. Happy New Years!
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The crash I speak of is the crash in quality. As you said, quality, original IPs are selling like shit, while shovelware is moving like hotcakes. I don't really know who to blame, but I have to go with my wife shopping for DS games because she is the kind of person to buy a game like Catz.
I don't really know where else to go with this post because I've got to run, but be sure I will be back for a hearty discussion. Tomorrow.
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Sadly, I am headed off to a New Year's party so I can't dissect your little essay piece by piece. I'm sure someone else will.
Or better yet, maybe this thread should just be locked and killed. And instead, you should head to the wonderful video game sales thread, read all 50+ pages there, give it some thought, then try again (and preferably in that thread).
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What? Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Bioshock, etc. All original IPs, or at least they are spiritual successors to old awesome IPs. There will always be innovation and new IP, but they may not be your cup of tea.
Again, this could be a PS3 problem. Assassin's Creed has no problem selling a shit ton of copies, and Mass Effect broke 1 million copies world wide in less than a month.
I got the orange box for my PC, as did many of my friends. Also I don't think there was any major ad campaign for the Orange Box.
Crysis and UT3 both require monstrous PCs, especially Crysis, it will choke to death even the most expensive PC out there. They shoot themselves in the foot by making the requirement so high. You ever wonder why Blizzard games sold like hot cakes? Besides the fact that they are all fantastic games, it's because they can all be run on a piece of shit 4 year old budget PC. You are not going to get console level success with PC games because except for us nerds, nobody want to deal with all the hassle.
We do now, Jade Raymond.
Did you read the news a couple of weeks ago? More than 60% of Americans play video games, and the video game industry had surpassed the movie industry years ago. There is not going to be a crash.
No. You want a console monopoly, you can have it over my cold dead body.
Not going to happen. Halo 3 cost $30 million to make, at 10 pounds per game they will need to sell tens of millions of copies to make money.
How old are you by the way? Maybe you are not old enough to remember that back in the day, a single SNES game could cost more than $100.
This I agree with. But with big companies like EA buying everybody up, it's not going to happen.
Sure thing, maybe after you conquer the world and force everyone to go by a single standard. Other wise how will anybody make the the world's governments/companies agree to one single standard?
Just over the games I've bought this year, Crackdown? skate? BioShock? Forza? Mass Effect? There's others, but I'm too lazy to think.
Those games did not bomb. Not even slightly.
1. No competition can be a very bad thing, and I'll leave it at that.
2. Not sure how it's going in the UK, but in the US the price jump from $50 to $60 more or less matches inflation rates (and quite frankly it's surprising that new games were $50 for so long). And while it's true that games would sell more at a greatly reduced price, I'd be willing to bet quite a bit that cutting prices in half would not give an equal return (what I mean by that is a price cut in half would probably not double the demand for games in general, which could lead to less profit). Not to mention that with the costs of high profile games nowadays, it would be very difficult to break even if they sold at a budget price.
3. I don't own a 360, but there seems to be a fair amount of games by small developers available to purchase on Live Marketplace or whatever it's called, is there not? Steam is also good for indie developers.
4. I agree that shovelware is annoying, but it happens on all consoles (just look at how much crap the PS2 got, for instance). The Wii is just getting an abundance of shovelware because it's been selling like hotcakes. Just gotta grin and bear with it.
5. This is an entirely different beast compared to the rest of your points, so I think this would be better for a different thread.
2) Expecting blockbuster sales out of Zac & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, a game in a niche genre that had no marketing behind it and has a name and box art that screams shovelware is insane. It's not an indicator that the gaming industry is doomed, it's just an indicator that the higher ups in Capcom didn't have a lot of faith in it otherwise they would have given it the marketing push it needed to do better.
3) We have another thread going on right now that is debating whether or not 2007 was the strongest year in gaming history. Regardless of whether or not you agree, a year that could elicit those kinds of positive opinions out of people is unlikely to result in the gaming industry imploding.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Japan loves them together but not separately.
No. It's not going to happen.
Anyway, yeah, this guy needs to check his fucking figures. This may have been the best year for gaming, not the worst, sales and quality wise. We're not in danger of anything.
And as for personalities...Why? Why does it really matter? The only people who would really care are the hardcore like us, and we already know plenty of personalities. Shiggy, Reggie, Kaz Hirai, Peter Moore...
Nothing can save them.
As long as the writers stay on strike, the better video games gonna do
The only immediate danger I see for the video gaming industry right now is fallout from the collapse of the Wii bubble. I'm afraid that the casual gamers brought in by the Wii are going to tire of the novelty and move on to the next new thing in electronics, making video games in general seem unfashionable and outdated.
...right?
wait, you're serious?
Before I made my reply I thought for a long time if this guy was serious.
Now I'm afraid I misjudged him.
I think Activision is going to be the first company that feels the pain that this will cause. Now that they own Blizzard, I believe they will milk it for all it's worth and completely distill Blizzard's games due to frequent releases.
Don't believe me? Look what they did to the Call of Duty franchise. They two great games made by Infinity Ward that were a decent space apart. But then they wanted to milk it. They got greedy. They gave Call of Duty 3 to Treyarch, who really isn't good at anything. It was mediocre. But the execs at Activision are going to feel vindicated by the success of CoD4. It's already old news that CoD5 is going to Treyarch again for some god forsaken reason. AND it's going back to World War 2. The whole thing should be appalling to gamers. Maybe Treyarch will get to make StarCraft 3 and release it one year after 2.
I feel they have already taken the soul out of Guitar Hero, as anyone who has played GH3 and Rock Band can attest to.
While I don't think the industry is going to crash, I think there will definitely be repercussions for hardcore gamers in the years to come. Quality over quantity needs to become the industry standard.
Did you read the fucking press release from Blizzard? Blizzard specifically said this is NOT going to happen.
The Wii is the breaking records left and right in terms of hardware and software sales.
Bioshock, Uncharted, Mass Effect are in my top 5 games of 2007; all of which are new franchises. Couple these with amazing sequels in the worlds of Call of Duty, Forza, Mario, RE4 (Wii-remake), Metroid, Halo and dozens of others, its completely out of my comphrension when looking at facts that the levels of money, and thus success, are going to turn down any time soon.
I do not agree with any of your points.
You think that means jack shit? They are not going to come out and say "We're going to milk our franchises to the point where you'll be playing Starcraft 2009." Activision is in charge of Blizzard now.
No, no Activision is not in charge of Blizzard now.
That was pretty much my point. Harmonix was the soul of Guitar Hero. They took it with them to Rock Band. Then Activision gave GH3 to Neversoft, who as far as I know, has no previous music-game experience. They also added all those goofy ass bosses or whatever.
The same thing is applied to Call of Duty. Infinity Ward is the soul of Call of Duty. They know they expect, they know what the fans expect.
Activision could let any one of their mediocre development teams now make a game based on a Blizzard franchise. And then we'll have the same situation as CoD. Mediocre/Awful games in between awesome ones.
Are you that dense? Activision does not own Blizzard.
This is like the fourth post today that the OP take a shit on Nintendo. Although he does a good job of building Nintendo up whit how well its selling and lolsony, ultimately he bashes Nintendo.
Are the guys from the sony defense force bored or something today?
Uh, it's a valid complaint.
Have you seen the sheer amount of crappy low budget games for the Wii?
Not a pretty sight.
Ok, well here's a different way of putting it. Blizzard and Activision are one company now, but they are headed up by the CEO from Activision. Ta-da.
apparently you don't know what the fuck is up. Vivendi bought activision, activision did not buy blizzard.
I hate shovelware because I have to constantly remind people not to buy it. "Hey this game is only 20 bucks new! Sweet deal!" NOOO... However shovelware is a sign of a healthy system. Look at the PS1 and the PS2. Also by having more games you have more shelf space which means a lot to slightly less than educated people when picking out a video game system.
Vivendi acquired Activision, not the other way around.
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Yes, but Activision Blizzard, which is a division of Vivendi is headed up by the people who ran Activision, the same people who made the decisions regarding Tony Hawk, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. While I think those decisions are detrimental to the games they release, it has made them the largest publisher in the world. Which is what Vivendi wants. They want they head guys at Activision to make them the money they way they have been.
What are people doing now that interactive entertainment was ruined by sequels and clones? If the home market is destroyed, do arcades make a comeback?