Poll: CNN: Console Gaming is Dying

[Frezzato]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/console-gaming-dead/index.html

It's amazing how much of the CNN article gets wrong about gaming:

"...Gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket."


I don't know about anyone else, but waiting for any of my consoles to power up is not going to make me want to give up and go play Angry Birds on my iPhone instead. Thanks, but I'm willing to wait for Uncharted or Halo to load.

"You would think that XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade), PSN (PlayStation Network), and the rise of 'free to play' would have opened a door to smaller games that can take more risks creatively, but right now they're just cut-down versions of box-product games, or retreads of games I played on the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)".

That ridiculous statement completely ignores the fact that there is an entire ecosystem of excellent indie games out there (Super Meat Boy, Braid, Limbo, etc.) that are making their developers plenty of money on all platforms except maybe the Wii. There's plenty of original PSN/Live games out there that I've bought.

"This partly explains why Nintendo, after five years of phenomenal Wii growth, is slumping. Industry experts say they're not in a position to meet the demands of most new social gamers."

No offense to Wii owners (myself included), but I think the main issue with the Wii is that the vast majority early adopters just weren't hardcore gamers. I own a Wii, but I also have a 360, PS3, and a few "antique" consoles, and I'm willing to bet that my fellow Escapists are the same way. The few people I know who own just the Wii bought less than 5 games for it.

Not trying to start a flame war here. I'm just amazed at the horribly misinformed Blake Snow at CNN.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Which is why 60$ games exist.

...???

Adjusting for inflation, video games have only ever gotten cheaper. Even without it...Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, Majora's Mask, and most other AAA N64 games were all $70~ on release and I distinctly remember Turok being $80~. Even as far back as the SNES, Chrono Trigger sent me back a pretty $60.

That's the reason you have ridiculous situations like where Dead Space 3 would have to sell more copies than the other two games in the series combined just to break even. Part of it is that they're putting too much money into graphics and voice actors, but the rest of it is that games are outstandingly cheap, considering it's probably the only form of media that has gotten cheaper while production values went up as time went on.

I have no idea why people are suddenly complaining about the price of games so much. A brand new AAA title will cost me about as much as a tank of gas. It's practically nothing.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Which is why 60$ games exist.

...???

Adjusting when inflation, video games have only ever gotten cheaper. Even without it...Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, Majora's Mask, and most other AAA N64 games were all $70~ on release and I distinctly remember Turok being $80~. Even as far back as the SNES, Chrono Trigger sent me back a pretty $60.

That's the reason you have ridiculous situations like where Dead Space 3 would have to sell more copies than the other two games in the series combined just to break even. Part of it is that they're putting too much money into graphics and voice actors, but the rest of it is that games are outstandingly cheap, considering it's probably the only form of media that has gotten cheaper while production values went up as time went on.

I have no idea why people are suddenly complaining about the price of games so much. A brand new AAA title will cost me about as much as a tank of gas.

On the PC, 60$ only happens on large AAA games. PC games were always cheaper yet they suddenly popped up into 60$ mark when the developers complain about not having enough money to break even.

People tend to see that quite easily.

I didn't really become a PC Gamer until quite recently, so I can't really speak for the price of PC games in the way back when. How much did Doom cost on release? I had it, but I don't remember what I paid for it.

 

[Vault101]

[quote/]"...Gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket."[/quote]
yeah because angry birds is an expereince as rich and engaging as Mass Effect or Assasins Creed...actually no...its not

WHY THE FUCK IS THAT SO HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND!!???

a whole niche/market doesnt disapear...this is incredibly stupid...I'm not saying that there arent probelms (as Ultratwinkie pointed out...not sure I completly agree though) but if "core" games go it wont be because weve all decided we'd rather play angry birds

 

[Terminate421]

[quote/]"...Gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket."

yeah because angry birds is an expereince as rich and engaging as Mass Effect or Assasins Creed...actually no...its not

WHY THE FUCK IS THAT SO HARD FOR SOME PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND!!???

a whole niche/market doesnt disapear...this is incredibly stupid...I'm not saying that there arent probelms (as Ultratwinkie pointed out...not sure I completly agree though) but if "core" games go it wont be because weve all decided we'd rather play angry birds[/quote]

It's CNN. There is your reason.

Anywho, they are wrong. Notice how Halo 4 is selling phenomenally

 

[The Madman]

I didn't really become a PC Gamer until quite recently, so I can't really speak for the price of PC games in the way back when. How much did Doom cost on release? I had it, but I don't remember what I paid for it.

The original DOOM was a shareware game... wow, that's a term not used very often anymore. It's been absolutely ages so I might be wrong, but as I recall unlocking the full version was something in the 20 dollar range.

Boxed PC games have traditionally been around 40-50 dollars with a couple exceptions in the 60+ range. Generally speaking however PC gaming has always been cheaper (In terms of buying games) than console gaming.

 

[Do4600]

They aren't seeing this clearly. Angry birds and Assassin's Creed III aren't competing for business. Just because browser and cellphone games are something like 95% of "video games" played doesn't mean that the niche for large budget video games is disappearing, it means that every asshole with a cellphone plays bejeweled in line at the post office. They're totally different markets.

 

[krazykidd]

Just take out voice acting and "cinematic EVERYTHING " and we are good to go .

Also, since when is CNN a valid source of gaming news?

 

[Kopikatsu]

Ever notice its always the BIG AAA games that ask for 60-80$? Never middle games which make profit even as low as 25 bucks?

...You're asking why the games with the largest production costs BY FAR cost more than games that don't even have a fiftieth of a AAA budget?

Did Hotline Miami make a ton of money while being priced at $10? Almost certainly. Did Hotline Miami cost at least 1/6th of what AAA games did to develop? Hell no.

Which, as mentioned, is part of the problem. Production values are too high on some AAA games to even make a profit at charging $60 anymore, like Dead Space 3. Carl on Duty: Black Cops 2 can get away with it because it will break every sales record known to man and then some (if it hasn't already).

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Its dying because its getting expensive. Microsoft, and Sony pass the costs of production down on developers and THEN consumers. Couple that with higher complexity tech and you get a perfect storm.

Which is why 60$ games and high dev costs exist. Consoles have become big business and far too big to be successful.

Adjusting when inflation, video games have only ever gotten cheaper.

On the PC, 60$ only happens on large AAA games.

Um. Kopikatsu was referring to your comment about Sony and Microsoft allowing costs to trickle down to the consumer, which, in your opinion, is why games are "expensive" at $60. Not sure why your response involves the PC since that is unrelated... unless you are blaming consoles for PC game prices (which is bull shit).

Kopikatsu is correct. Games are cheaper then they ever have been.
I used to pay $99 in Canada for the newest installments of Final Fantasy on the SNES. Most games hovered between $70 and $100. Hell, N64 games were as high as $120!

With games being a stable $60 in Canada for many years, adjusting for inflation, games are cheaper now than they have ever been. Not sure what you're on about.

If PC game prices have risen, maybe it's due to the fact that they were too low (to make a profit) to begin with? But that's another thread...

OP:
Yes, casual games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja will TOTALLY replace full blown console games... I mean, that TOTALLY makes complete sense. My attention span is only about 3 seconds, so I can't wait for a game to load. Heck I can't wait for this sentence to end... too late. I'm bored already.

Okay. I'm going to play some Angry Birds then post about all the cool shit in the game on the gaming forums. No, that'd be too time consuming. Ooh, something shiny! [/sarcasm]

Note: I don't even own a fucking cell phone, tablet/ Ipad or whatever the fuck the kids are using to play these shitty little bite sized time wasters. I myself would rather use my PS3, Wii, PS2, PS1, SNES, PSP, DS, PC and Gameboy Advanced to play much larger, meatier, tastier, more satisfying time wasters.

PC gamers pay more because developers use the PC as padding to ensure maximum market penetration. Since console gamers will pay 60$, whats stopping PC gamers from doing the same? Ever notice its always the BIG AAA games that ask for 60-80$? Never middle games which make profit even as low as 25 bucks?

If you can't make profit on steam, no one can help you.

Also its worth noting that even with inflation, pay hasn't grown all that much in America. In fact, all the jobs that are being added since the recession is low paying jobs.

"games are cheaper" means nothing if payroll is not growing with inflation.

To a market where very good games cost 10-50$, in a post-steam world, 60$ is practically extortion. Especially since those 60$ games are mere 13 hour campaigns at best.

To PC gamers, the differences are jarring.

Thank you for this post. I see that "adjusted for inflation, games are cheaper hurr durr" thing all the time around here, and it really gets annoying. Especially because the old games people list as being expensive are not only cartridge games, which had a huge premium on the unit price over disc based games thanks to manufacturing costs, but usually special cartridge based games that had either larger than usual ROM chips (think SNES RPGs) or special onboard processors (like the Super FX chip). Not to mention, the market was much smaller back in those days, so they didn't have the economy of scale going like we do today. In other words, those games had a darned good reason to cost as much as they did, while modern games really don't.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Ever notice its always the BIG AAA games that ask for 60-80$? Never middle games which make profit even as low as 25 bucks?

...You're asking why the games with the largest production costs BY FAR cost more than games that don't even have a fiftieth of a AAA budget?

Did Hotline Miami make a ton of money while being priced at $10? Almost certainly. Did Hotline Miami cost at least 1/6th of what AAA games did to develop? Hell no.

Which, as mentioned, is part of the problem. Production value are too high on some AAA games to even make a profit at charging $60 anymore, like Dead Space 3. Carl on Duty: Black Cops 2 can get away with it because it will break every sales record known to man and then some (if it hasn't already).

False. If you want to see huge budgets in entertainment, go look at what it costs to make a blockbuster movie. AAA games tend to cost about $50 million to make. Blockbuster movies start at around $100 million. Yet they make their profit back charging no more than $20 (the cost of a DVD; movie tickets are much cheaper) a pop. The publishers are just using that excuse to hose us.