Poll: What's really hurting the Game industry?

[UnknownGunslinger]

Just want to see what the opinions are, it seems Developer are pretty conflicted as to what exactly is supposedly hurting their market and stealing all their hypothetical earnings!
I'd say in-original games and inflated prices in a down economy is what hurts their profits but hey that's just my view
It seem most think they're entitled to far more than what they're getting for their product like <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112949-Heavy-Rain-Dev-Says-Pre-Owned-Sales-Cost-it-Millions>Quantic Dream's co-founder.

Made me think about what is really hurting the Game Industry if anything?
Could it all be just the paranoia of a few Developers and their inflated sense of self entitlement?

 

[FPSMadPaul]

Piracy, definitely. At least people are paying to keep the gaming industry going with pre-owned sales.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Other:


Trying to cater to too many different irrelavant consumer bases all at the same time. Gaming companies shouldn't want to be the next movies or books, gaming should be itself, if people like it then great, if they don't then they can have another hobby. The hunt to get a piece of the other kid's pie is hurting our medium.

 

[FalloutJack]

I would say that it is a combination of the entries listed, plus the Unpleasable Fanbase and a proviso on the Piracy option which states "It's not the piracy that is the problem, but how game industries respond to it.".

 

[orangeban]

"It's not the piracy that is the problem, but how game industries respond to it.".

Isn't that just DRM?

I voted DRM because it annoys me personally. Also I say it borders on breaking consumer rights (or at least my definition of consumer rights which is that I should own the things that I buy. Within reason.)

 

[Pyramid Head]

Other. No one is taking the time to make good games because with how slow development is with todays graphics that would be a time frame of roughly eighteen years. One of the biggest problems with the gaming industry is that development tools just aren't up to par with the technology. Some AAA game people might claim otherwise, but they're the ones who contribute to the problem and frankly they can fuck off. Especially EA and Bethesda who actively damage the industry by either publishing games before the glitches were fixed or marketing scams that constantly put us in the controversy hot seat.
Of course that doesn't explain why handheld games suck balls. Why Nintendo is so deathly afraid of publishing something with depth and is so obsessed with stupid gimmicks is a mystery i'm nowhere near to the bottom of.

 

[Kotaro]

Definitely DRM and inflated prices for AAA titles.

 

[UnknownGunslinger]

Other:


Trying to cater to too many different irrelavant consumer bases all at the same time. Gaming companies shouldn't want to be the next movies or books, gaming should be itself, if people like it then great, if they don't then they can have another hobby. The hunt to get a piece of the other kid's pie is hurting our medium.

I don't exactly agree, since when is diversity a bad thing?
I don't think that games that cater to new consumer bases such as Farmvile, Bejeweled, Wii Sports or whatever is new right now is exactly hurting Skyrim, the new Batman or World of Warcraft!
The diversifying and proliferation of games is down the line a good thing I reckon, or at least not hurting mainstream gaming.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Me.
I'm punching it.
stop hitting yourself stop hitting yourself!

That and zombie guinea pigs (the lack of may i add)
I want to see an AAA title all about zombie guinea pigs.

 

[FalloutJack]

"It's not the piracy that is the problem, but how game industries respond to it.".

Isn't that just DRM?

I voted DRM because it annoys me personally. Also I say it borders on breaking consumer rights (or at least my definition of consumer rights which is that I should own the things that I buy. Within reason.)

Not just DRM. The everything. The bricked 3DSs, the cut content from Rage (against piracy AND used game selling, that one), and even just the perception of it. Companies will throw money out the window that they could've used on other things, instead of wasting it on measures that won't even work. I couldn't just blah with DRM, because that's just part of the problem. I don't even pirate anything, but I see the control-freakiness as a troublesome issue. I will not buy Nintendo because of the bricking.

 

[Shadu]

I would say that it's the price. Inflated price really sort of leads to the rest. Higher prices leads to more piracy which leads to stronger attempts with DRM. And on the occassion that someone won't pirate but still wants to buy, they will probably go for the lower priced used game.

I know I don't buy as many games as I used to simply because I can't afford it. I don't pirate, so DRM doesn't concern me. As bad as it sounds, I will typically either wait for a sale, or buy a used game when I do buy because it is cheaper, so I can afford more.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Other:


Trying to cater to too many different irrelavant consumer bases all at the same time. Gaming companies shouldn't want to be the next movies or books, gaming should be itself, if people like it then great, if they don't then they can have another hobby. The hunt to get a piece of the other kid's pie is hurting our medium.

I don't exactly agree, since when is diversity a bad thing?
I don't think that games that cater to new consumer bases such as Farmvile, Bejeweled, Wii Sports or whatever is new right now is exactly hurting Skyrim, the new Batman or World of Warcraft!
The diversifying and proliferation of games is down the line a good thing I reckon, or at least not hurting mainstream gaming.

Oh but it is, the whole plague that is trophies and achievements, the whole inter-connected nature, everything needing to have online in some form, these are all unnecessary things.


But beyond even that aspect, you can be diverse without sacrificing complexity and depth. There has always been simple and easy to play videogames, they were the ones made for kids aged between 3-7. I don't think packaging that in a box more appealing to a 40-yo housewife is a good step forward for our medium and definitely not the proper aim for the industry, despite the financial incentives it creates.

 

[SoulChaserJ]

Where's the option for: "It's us(the consumer) hurting gaming"?

Here's my take on the situation. Game Publishers are shooting the game devs in the foot. I mean honestly "meet this dead line or else" or "push this copy/paste game every year" and finally "market this mature rated game towards kids" is more or less destroying everything good about the industry. The industry as a whole is taking shortcuts mandated by the publishers(or poor development cycles) and releasing more half cocked games, copy/paste titles, and mature games for kids than they ever have.

The Escapist has posted so much material on the aforementioned issues that someone would need to be blind not to see how all of them contribute to a downward trend that has no signs of being pulled out of. My generation grew up with gaming, and gaming with us. So why shouldn't we be marketed to? Why shouldn't we expect a fully cooked game(I'm looking at you Dead Island)? Why should we stand for cookie cutter COD/Madden/Fifa/Whatever games every year? My generation is mostly paying for this either directly or indirectly(for our children). The indie market thanks to services like Steam is on the uptake and honestly a good indie title is worth a lot more to me than several AAA titles.

So truly in the who's to blame game, it's really us as long as we(the entire gaming community) keep paying for the DRM, the cookie cutter games, the "you are the beta tester" games, etc...

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

We are! The gamers. I bought El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron today, I was swiftly told that I was wasting my money and should wait for it to lower in price, as I was with Deus Ex, due to the fact that it isn't online.

I got told that because it wasn't an online multiplayer game, it wasn't worth buying for full price, not by a staff member but by a member of the public for that matter.

I know not everyone thinks this way but a fair amount of people do. That worries me so much as it's generally recognised that a lot of the biggest multiplayer games tend to recycle things year after year, escpecially a certain game related to fish that will charge ten pounds more than any other retail game this year which shall remain unnamed.

I brought up 3 single player, completely offline games, El Shaddai, Deus Ex and Skryim and was told that all 3 would be a waste of money due to the fact that they will fall in price eventually.

I think that what is hurting the game industry is a mixture of second hand sales and consumer habits and tastes. Games that should make money don't, games that push boundaries don't get bought and while games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Skyrim will undoubtedly earn money, nowhere near as much as a couple of first person shooters or remakes this year.

In my eyes, that is what is hurting the gaming industry.

 

[Aircross]

Niche games becoming mainstream (dumbed down).

 

[TheComedown]

Piracy, definitely. At least people are paying to keep the gaming industry going with pre-owned sales.

Except for the fact that none of the money from pre-owned sales makes it back to the developers or publishers.

Yeah piracy is bad, but the reaction to it is worse, the hefty majority of DRM only harms the people who actually purchase the game, as opposed to punishing those in the wrong.

Pre-owned sales are actually another problem, simply the fact that the publishers and developers are losing out on something they made. I personally think that the project 10 dollar type plans are a good idea, it helps get the funds back to publishers and developers and nicely highlights how freaking stupid the markups are on pre-owned sales are. When you buy pre-owned, then have to fork out that extra 10 bucks for the MP or whatever it is, it would have been just as cheap, to buy the game new.

 

[lord.jeff]

Other:


Trying to cater to too many different irrelavant consumer bases all at the same time. Gaming companies shouldn't want to be the next movies or books, gaming should be itself, if people like it then great, if they don't then they can have another hobby. The hunt to get a piece of the other kid's pie is hurting our medium.

I don't exactly agree, since when is diversity a bad thing?
I don't think that games that cater to new consumer bases such as Farmvile, Bejeweled, Wii Sports or whatever is new right now is exactly hurting Skyrim, the new Batman or World of Warcraft!
The diversifying and proliferation of games is down the line a good thing I reckon, or at least not hurting mainstream gaming.

Oh but it is, the whole plague that is trophies and achievements, the whole inter-connected nature, everything needing to have online in some form, these are all unnecessary things.


But beyond even that aspect, you can be diverse without sacrificing complexity and depth. There has always been simple and easy to play videogames, they were the ones made for kids aged between 3-7. I don't think packaging that in a box more appealing to a 40-yo housewife is a good step forward for our medium and definitely not the proper aim for the industry, despite the financial incentives it creates.

Why are achievements so bad? Outside of that Batman, Skyrim have no online. And how is Farmville effecting Batman they're done by different developers?

 

[vrbtny]

I think it's publishers.

EA and Ubisoft mainly, But Activision-Blizzard aren't helping much either. EA due to their flogging of yearly sports games which suck, and Ubisoft due to their crippling use of DRM and rights.

Activision-Blizzard because.... well, COD.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Last time I checked the industry was doing fine. Most of your reasons seem to be "what's annoying the average game consumer". In which case you should have included the option for "everything", since the average game consumer has proven time and time again to be a cauldron of whines.

 

[esperandote]

Piracy and bussines practices like publishers keeping IP rights from the developers.

Not fucking used sales.

Edit: The lack of a universal console where consumers aren' constrained to a game manufacturer and where it can be fair competition (and don't say PC).