AAA industry on the brink.

[RagingTiger]

Stop pre-ordering, wait to see what the game is like before buying it and none of these issues would exist, when you pre-order they already have your money so why would they put effort beyond marketing? Don't pre-order and the games sells on it's quality, forcing them to make a good game to get money from it. As for DLC, just stop buying it.

Some games have some game footage by YouTubers before launch so if you must pre-order at least do it for games that show you what you are getting and have positive feedback from the early reviews by trusted sources.

 

[Savryc]

Bloody hell, a few shit games and a dodgy practice or two and the drama queens come out of the wood work. There's not gonna be a crash, no matter how hard you wish the big meany AAA's will still attempt to sell you things, no Indies or Mobiles are coming to save you and whisk you off to gaming Valhalla.

 

[veloper]

Activision are doing great. So are WB games. EA Sports are making money and EA have some other healthy franchises too. Ubisoft are mostly just getting criticism from vocal gamers.

I don't see another big player falling over any time soon. THQ is the exception that did fall and most of their franchises were picked up by other companies very quickly.

It's mostly just developers that get bought by the big boys and sucked dry while new devs and studios spring up elsewhere.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Ah yes, one game was shit so the AAA market is doomed.

Mate, almost Every news story at the moment is about a broken game, or a season pass announced before the game is even released. Ass Creed is only one of many fucks up lately.

Gee, where do you get your news from? LamentationsOnGaming.com [http://technotip.org/wp-content/uploads/QandA/PageNotFound.jpg]?

Look, I understand getting worked up by bad news, but at least recognize that that negative news does not completely dominate the headlines. It just stands out more because, on the occasions that bad news does come around, it gets us angry, so we remember it better than the usual news that is just information or something that gets us mildly excited. Negative news, however, is not the norm.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Not to be overly dramatic, but there are some serious problems with the industry. They mostly revolve around two major issues: 1) The inconsistent quality of games and, 2) Presumptions of ever-increasing market expansion. So, we are due for what is called a "correction" of the market, but I don't necessarily think that this would be a crash that would "doom" anything. Ubisoft -in particular- is vulnerable, as several factors contribute to their weak foundation: Heavy investment in yearly and regular releases, meaning that they begin investing in new series installments long before profits from the current installment are received. They are traded on the Paris exchange, which is much more tepid and vulnerable than Frankfurt, London, or New York exchanges. From FY 2010-2012, before ACIII and Far Cry 3 did well, they were 90 million euros in debt, and while their games have sold well, investors are still shaky on the stock, likely because no major structural changes were made to correct the problems. Not to even mention the current problems with releases and the stock dive Ubi took at news of "Unity's" problems. Etc.

So, whole things have greatly expanded and diversified since the 1980s, we see some serious structural problems in the industry, its models, and the presumptions of companies operating in it. However, a full-scale crash is unlikely.

 

[Something Amyss]

Seriously, has the AAA industry ever been this bad?

This question has been asked every six months since about 1994.

AAA gaming is like PC gaming and console gaming. It's been dying for decades.

 

[Pr0]

Its not so much the AAA industry as it is a few large publishers reliance on serialization which is starting to fail.

CoD Ghosts/CoD AW - Activision: Both titles did not perform to expected profit margins.
Watch Dogs/AC:U -Ubisoft: Underperformed/Currently not meeting expected market performance.
Battlefield 4/Sims 4 - Electronic Arts: Massive under performance in both titles.

The issue isn't really indicative of industry crash potential though. But it is showing a rising trend in the rejection of serialized properties that do not meet or exceed their previous iterations potentials.

From an investment perspective this is good stuff to know, but as far as the "industry" goes, its not indicative of a crash in any way. Regardless of Ghosts or AW under-performing to expected margins, there were still millions of units of both sold. Just because a title doesn't make what you think it will make doesn't mean its still not made a profit.

Overall though I do not see an AAA industry on the brink of a crash, but I do see an AAA industry on the cusp of realizing that new ideas are going to have to be put forward to remain profitable in the future.

 

[Something Amyss]

[
DLC... Well back in the day we had this thing called shareware.. Wherein they would give you the first say 20% of the games content for free and then you pay for each of the following episodes. You could order the disks via mail order or download from BBS's or later from the websites. So again.. nothing new.

Or you'd buy the whole game again.

 

[Daft Ada]

It's a tough time for the industry. The really big franchises (GTA, FIFA, COD etc.) will survive for years, as they can still turn a profit. But the depth of games on offer will diminish as budgets keep soaring and the market doesn't increase enough to keep up with them. EA, Activision and Ubi should be ok, but this gen will test the bank balance of Capcom, Konami, Sega and a few other smaller publishers. After a few years, Indies will catch up, expand, and be able to afford to produce games with a bit more graphical depth (not just endless Metroidvania clones) and we'll have a really healthy industry with a big variety of game types again.

 

[CaitSeith]

The AAA industry will inevitable crash. But I don't think we're close to that day. People still buy enough AAA games to give profit to the publishers. They gamers still buy broken games, wait for patches or create patches themselves. There is even some people that accept the existence of game breaking glitches, day one server problems, DLC and microtransactions as inevitable part of normal gaming experience (I'm serious).

As long as people keep buying and paying enough for the games to be profitable, the AAA industry won't crash (no matter what other crap they come with).

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Remember the 83 crash?

Nope, too busy enjoying the fruits of the the Golden Age of British Bedroom Coders at the time.

The 83 Crash was both region (North America) and platform (console) specific, neither of which affected me (Aussie PC gamer).

 

[Inazuma1]

A better question is "Have the consumers ever been this stupid?"

And the answer is yes, because 1983 happened.

 

[Lightknight]

Seriously, has the AAA industry ever been this bad?

Actually, it has almost never been this good. Nostalgia is cute and all, but we've never really been getting so many great titles.

However, I'll admit that this year in particular has felt like a garbage throw-away year. COD of all things has been one of the better titles and that's usually auto-disqualified.

But overall, AAAs are higher quality and more numerous than we had when we were kids. Sure, we have crap like AC unity that just came out and Destiny was certainly a let down. But those are just the bumps in the road.

This year we've had:

Alien Isolation
Shadow of Mordor
Destiny (whether you think it's a full game or not, the lore is there, the mechanics are there, the graphics are there and the story is kinda there)
Mario Kart 8
Watch Dogs (it was fun and a lot of people liked it even if it's consider hip to dislike it)
Dark Souls 2
South Park Stick of Truth (Obsidian is AAA, right?)
Titanfall (solid game even if not amazing)
Multiple Telltale games.
MGS: Revengeance (wow, I thought people would hate this game)
Wolfenstein New Order

Not only that, but we've had solid support from the Indie development producing games that honestly blur the line between indie and AAA.

 

[savageoblivi0n]

oh, is it time for another of these threads? hold on let me get my appropriate attire...

Spoiler

serious answer: good god no, and reposting basically the same thread once a month won't make it so..

 

[Something Amyss]

oh, is it time for another of these threads? hold on let me get my appropriate attire...

Spoiler

You're wearing those boots with that coat?

Gaming isn't dead, but your fashion sense is!

>.>

Games are complex software with a huge audience. It's hardly surprising that users hit situations the developers didn't.

You know, your explanation works if PC is the only beast, but when your PS4 or Xbone version, where everyone's rocking the same hardware, the excuse of variations drops significantly.

And let's not forget that this sort of thing has been so prevalent lately in part because of console fiascos.

 

[savageoblivi0n]

oh, is it time for another of these threads? hold on let me get my appropriate attire...

Spoiler

You're wearing those boots with that coat?

Gaming isn't dead, but your fashion sense is!

>.>

I knew it...this was all a ploy to mock me for my choices in fashion labels!

You'll pay for this outrage...Pay I say!