The Videogame Industry is Broken 232
GameDaily is running an interesting opinion piece running down the ways in which the gaming industry is just broken. The author cites soaring costs, huge risks, a reduction in creativity, and a stagnation in market growth as just some of the signs of this crisis. From the article: "The next-gen systems require publishers to place very large bets with each title. This will mean decreased risk taking and just regurgitated sequels of big brand franchises. How many publishers will take risks with multiplatform original IP? This is clearly not good news for the consumer as innovation has driven our industry from the beginning. The irony is that the amazing tools, capabilities and quality of the new systems may very well doom what is most important, which is the game itself. Reconciling what a creative team wants and what the executive suite needs in terms of profits will be a growing challenge for many companies."
May not be so gloomy afterall (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe the new creativity might start showing through that?
Cheers,
Ian
What are the odds (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, I find it odd how many video games based on movies are coming out at the sacrifice of both gameplay and plot in order to cash in on the franchise. You'd think they'd have learned from the E.T. video game, but apparently the better graphics have changed that? Why must a book usually be made into a movie before a video game is based on it?
As with everything else that's popular (Score:5, Interesting)
What I find facinating is how companies change the way they do things when they get popular. They forget what made them popular in the first place. My company is a prime example. We we extremely successful and thus bought by a huge company. The first thing they did is change the way we did things... not realizing that the reason they bought us in the first place is that we were already doing things right. Very strange indeed.
As for the video game industry, I see a trend of going back to the basics with respects to gameplay. All this push to make super realistic movie like games is just not working yet.
http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]The specs (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:May not be so gloomy afterall (Score:3, Interesting)
Most games making extensive use of either one looked more like tech demos to me (mostly I looked at eyetoy). The rest of the time, they used the technology very sparingly, relying on more traditional control scemes. In fact, most of the "eyetoy" functionality in games is reserved for scanning your face into the game you're playing, not some innovative gameplay feature. The only "true" game that makes use of eyetoy is Antigrav, the rest are either collections of minigames or minigames in traditional games. I expect similar from Wii -- sure Wii's Wario Ware will be fun, but I'm not expecting much more than Tech demos for the first year or two.
the more things change... (Score:1, Interesting)
http://pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html [pointlesswasteoftime.com]
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/manifes
food for thought...and nutritious food at that.
VR is getting closer.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Graphics cards are faster, stronger and more powerful than ever. Some years ago when Virtual Reality
where introduced - it lagged BIG time, it was however revolutionary - all the rage...and only
the worlds hottest shopping-malls got it back then, but it quickly died because the games where simple
and very boring except for the virtual reality immersion.
The technology for virtual reality just wasn't there yet, but behold...we're THERE NOW!
Just take a look at your own pc's gfx cards with their 1680 x 1050 resolution for your widescreen that
you can't see the pixels on more (from a meters distance) anyway... imagine two of these cards
and two seriously high-res mini OLED displays in your glasses and we're in business.
Virtual reality online gaming also needed the bandwith - and it's only recently we've
gotten this.
The technology is dirt cheap too! Mobile cell phones already come with high-res Oled displays
and you could create higher-res oled displays fit for "VR-Glasses" already...heck...they even
exist today in 800 x 600...even higher if I'm not entirely mistaken. And they're NOT expensive.
So get cracking! Take a chance - make the VR games right now!
Indie developers CAN set up EA the bomb... (Score:4, Interesting)
Blame the video card industry instead (Score:2, Interesting)
My take on the situation is rather obvious. Video cards are getting seriously powerful and realism in games is only a decade away or so. Yes, it's obviously a stunning experience to play the most visually appealing games but that's only a couple of hours of excitement and it goes away, quickly. I still play StarCraft, despite the fact that it looks like crap and only supports 256 colors. Fact is, it has the playability. It has the story and it does have the addictive features. If such game was released today but with perhaps a higher resolution and more colors, without improving much beyond that, it would require far less resources and obviously less personell. It could still be a hit and I doubt anyone in here can prove me wrong on that point. Point is, to create a super pixelated game with the latest and best stuff, you need more developers but that will only add little to the last hours, days, weeks and (hopefully) months you're spending.
There is a solution, however. Games have become more complex and it is almost impossible to create a game that would generate some interest with the work of only a handful of people. Nowadays that number is more likely 30-50, sometimes even twice, three times or even four times as much. Therefore, the only way of making a game more profitable and less risky would be to slash the amount of developers who are working on a game title. This could be done if developers started exchanging technology and graphics. A lot of code and graphics can be reused in many other games and altered only a little without risking repetitiveness. Think about it: great-looking grass is always grass and a wooden crate is always a wooden crate. Just change the colors of it, add different shapes. We don't need artists to redo all that stuff over and over again. Instead, recycle what's still good and create games that last (read: story, playability and addictiveness).
And the funny thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Consoles are harder, but even then, it happens. See Marble Blast Ultra for the X-box 360. Marble Blast is just a little "roll the ball through mazes" 3D game for the PC/Mac from Garage Games (another site you can get multiple indy games off of). However it is enough fun that MS decided it would make a good game for X-box Arcade and thus we now have Marble Blast Ultra.
Are people becomming mega-millionaires off of this? No, but then I don't think that's the only measure of success. I think if you can make a game that people like to play, and make money doing it, you've succeded. Apparantly that can be done indy, despite the current game market.
Re:VR is getting closer.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Artificial business models won't fly. (Score:2, Interesting)
As long as companies insist to create artificial business plans they will suffer the consequences. Game consoles are sold below cost just so they can start making money on the games. Therefore you need to be authorised to develop for the particular console and of course only those with deep pockets get the chance to do so.
At the same time console makers build in restrictions to stop small third party developers from creating content since it won't benefit the console maker. Effectively killing the number of titles that can be made available.
At this very point in time, the console maker who is price conscious and sensible about their console will be able to sell it at or above cost is going to be the winner. Simply because they can afford to leave the platform open to third party developers and thus create a very lively user community around it.
Typically this means simpler technology, lower development cost and easier access for new developers. Yeah I know, it sounds like Nintendo Wii doesn't it! Can't wait to start lauging.
One way to kill the Hollywood mindset (Score:2, Interesting)
Mods and Cheats need to be built in to console games.
The difficult thing, is to convince financiers wanting to 'own' a franchise, that this is the healthiest way to continue.
One way they might be convinced, is in merely rereleasing previous game in a new souped up, more flexible and editable engine. A bit less investment on their part. Unfortunately, this is too much like just pumping out sequels, and remakes, could be considered worse.
My typical game purchasing pattern: Buy new console; read of a few interesting games that never are released, suffer the lack in variety as the same safe blockbuster titles are regurgitated.