Poll: Would you be ok with the Games Industry Crashing and not having AAA titles for 5-10 Years?

[boag]

I do agree it would be tragic from a human perspective because the amount of lives that would be screwed up is surprisingly high.

Yet at the same time I want it because during the times of extreme duress is when most of the best innovations come out.

If Atari, Magnavox and Mattel hadnt crumble at the same time, I seriously doubt the gaming industry would have developed beyond the expensive toy market.

If The console gaming industry hadnt crashed, the arcades would have never proliferated as they did and there would have been no SEGA, Konami or Tecmo.

I do not believe that the crash would hinder the job market for long though, most of the people just starting out, would either focus on creating their own companies and projects, if there is too much of a surplus in labor for this industry then that is also an issue that the crash might alleviate, because the surplus right now is not doing people any favors, specially if you can just fire a whole development team, knowing full well that there are enough people already slobbering at the chance to take their place.

But those examples of duress you gave were caused by natural shifts and happenings in the market. That sort of thing happens all the time when the demands of the market change. Kodak nearly went out of business because they were a bit late in catching onto the digital trend. But when they did finally go digital they made damn sure they kept up from then on. Good comes from those types of market peril because it's the market forcing the industry to catch up with its demands.

But what you are talking about here is an artificial change, fake peril. The reason such changes haven't happened in the games industry yet is because the market hasn't pushed the industry to that point. It is beginning to happen with digital distribution and gamer's increasing resentment for DRM, but these changes and frustrations haven't reached their climax yet. Without that true and honest do-or-die moment, nothing will change. No lessons will be learned. All forcing them to shut down would do is cause their CEOs to dip into their rainy day funds and vacation at some tropical destination for a few years, then come back and pick up right where they left off. They wouldn't roll with the changes that occurred in those last 10 years, they'd just throw their weight and money around until they're back where they were before.

The reason change hasn't occurred is because things haven't gotten bad enough for them to make them do it. We'll get there, just give it some time.

Im not sure where you get this artificial change idea from, what I am making is pondering a scenario, where the market does push for the crash of the Industry either because of over saturation, or consumer dissatisfaction forcing them to abandon the market in droves. Both which are natural occurrences. You cannot artificially initiate a market crash.

Lastly your final statements about CEOs dipping into rainy day funds is incredibly flawed, whenever a CEO fucks up royally he doesnt shift to another CEO job, at least not in the same Industry.

 

[boag]

its too big to crash...ever..

I heard the same thing about the real state industry before 2008.

Your comparing real estate...to video games, to the entertainment industry.

Come on.

OK, ill bite, why cant a comparison be made? please explain it to me.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

None of you would survive without them . That includes indie games,

In all seriousness though, do any of you actually think the game industry would crash now? Gaming is now the biggest in the entertainment industry in the world, at this point, its too big to crash...ever. Come on people let's be realistic here. AAA industries, indie developers, they will never go away, like it or not.

End of story.

I'd be fine. I have D&D, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh! to play. As well as older titles that I never got around to.

 

[Lilani]

Im not sure where you get this artificial change idea from, what I am making is pondering a scenario, where the market does push for the crash of the Industry either because of over saturation, or consumer dissatisfaction forcing them to abandon the market in droves. Both which are natural occurrences. You cannot artificially initiate a market crash.

Lastly your final statements about CEOs dipping into rainy day funds is incredibly flawed, whenever a CEO fucks up royally he doesnt shift to another CEO job, at least not in the same Industry.

Ah, looks like I misunderstood you then. You seemed to be so focused on the idea of the industry crashing and it being out specifically for 5-10 years that it made me feel like you wanted the big studios to just stop making games for that amount of time.

As we've both agreed, these "crashes" have to happen at a time the industry is ready and for the right reasons. However I don't really see a "crash" happening in the way you do. It's really impossible to compare the housing market crash to the games industry, as they are to completely different industries influenced by completely different market forces and under completely different circumstances. I think it's more apt to compare what's happening with the likes of Kodak and the transition to digital. The games market is slowly beginning to demand cheaper games which are more convenient to access with less of a presence of the gamemaker in their experience. In other words, cheaper games you don't have to waste hours trying to get at a store or unlock because of ridiculous access codes and DRM. Basically the types of services Steam has to offer.

You know how publishers have been making a big stink about used games lately? That is resistance to these new demands. Gamers are resorting more to used games because the industry isn't offering what they want. The publishers don't want to see the buying of used games as a change in the services they have to offer--just as Kodak wanted to see the digital revolution as a passing trend. Before that sink-or-swim moment, they resisted. They tried to tell the market its demands were wrong. But the customer is always right, and market always wins.

So sometime in the future these publishers are going to be faced with an option. As other publishers like Valve and Apple start coming out with more things like Steam and the app store, they will be forced to change in order to not be made totally obsolete.

And they won't just "stop" making games for 5-10 years, that's just kind of silly silly. AAA games will always be coming out from somebody. Who does it might change from time to time, but the industry is large and diverse enough now that it won't just "shut down" for a few years and only put out indie games. There are enough replacements lined up in the dugout to keep those AAA games coming out for a good while, even if the usual big-hitters bite the dust.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

None of you would survive without them . That includes indie games,

In all seriousness though, do any of you actually think the game industry would crash now? Gaming is now the biggest in the entertainment industry in the world, at this point, its too big to crash...ever. Come on people let's be realistic here. AAA industries, indie developers, they will never go away, like it or not.

End of story.

I'd be fine. I have D&D, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh! to play. As well as older titles that I never got around to.

Then I challenge you to a children's card game! You better be 29 or older, thats the age limit! XD

This 20-year-old would take you down. My dragon deck doesn't know what mercy is.

 

[Berenzen]

Each section of the industry has their own place. Without AAA funding, you wouldn't get great games like Fallout 3/New Vegas, Mass Effect, TES and other games like that. Chances are that most people have played and enjoyed a AAA game released in the last couple of years. However, you can expect that there won't be much innovation in the AAA game industry- at least not rapid innovation. Innovation in the AAA industry still happens- it's just very gradual.

On the other hand- indie games also have their own place, it's the location for rapid innovations and complete overhauls of genres, and other aspects. It's also a great place for AAA industries to look at to see what people like, and what genres are being enjoyed. The games are typically shorter, this is usually due to a lack of funding and time. Indie studios have little, if any, financial backing to them.

Both are beneficial to the industry, and losing one would cause large reverberations throughout the industry. So no, I don't think that I would be OK with the AAA industry disappearing.

 

[GoaThief]

AAA should mean a game of any graphical variety, that has 100 hours or more of quality gameplay.

What? That's like saying every AAA game should be the equivalent of a 1000-page novel or the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films played back to back in one sitting.

Absolutely preposterous suggestion, games tend to have a natural length and it would be best if publishers allowed developers to do what's best for the gaming experience instead of artificially shortening or extending the title to make the number crunchers happy. I, and many others have no problem paying £40 for a quality release that takes say 10 hours or less to complete the main campaign - Portal 2 would be a good example. More time does not always mean more enjoyment, although the reverse is also true.

Quality over quantity, as it is in every other form of media.

P.S. I voted no, as anyone with sense should.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'm kind of counting on it at this point. The AAA game industry has turned into such a crapfest. Most of the games suck and most of the ones that don't are just plain broken.
At this point (after seeing games go deeper into online passes, day one dlc and seeing consoles that either have crappy hardware or crappy support) I have no love left for Sony, MS, or any of the Big publishers; fuck-em.

I would welcome the crash, if only to level the playing field once again. Although I do not have concrete proof, I do believe that the evolution of gaming was spurred after the crash of the 70s allowed new companies to enter the field.

Thoughts?

Everything changed when the industry bounced back then.
It would be good to see game companies try and win consumers because they obviously take us for granted now.
We just need something as bad, broken, and insultingly pandering for the industry to invest into and for gamers to reject.
But that's the problem, there's very little gamers will reject. Most seem more willing to get ripped off and then make excuses for the morons who made/sold it.
Look at how well Gamestop does.

 

[spartandude]

i would actually welcome this crash tbh.

 

[Scrustle]

Nope. Although I agree the industry would be much improved if there was a level playing field and less monopolistic control from the biggest companies, but I like my high polished, expensive games. I mean expensive in that a lot of resources was put in to making them, not that they actually cost lots to buy. That I don't like. But either way I've gotten used to playing games with very high production values and although I love unique ideas I feel like if there were no AAA games for 5-10 years I would find it very hard to enjoy anything. But there are other ways of levelling the playing field and introducing new ideas. We are seeing the start of them now with things like the resurgence of the indie scene, and games like Portal showing that the first game in a series can be successful and gain attention while only being little more than a short experiment.

 

[KingHodor]

Sure. If that means niche gaming would return, bring it the fuck on !

I'd say niche gaming is bigger than ever right now, mostly thanks to digital distribution.

Yea ? Try telling that to a fan of traditonal crpgs.

Back in the day, those "traditional" RPGs weren't really "niche" though - they were actually the "mainstream" form of RPGs, a genre that itself wasn't exactly "niche" back then either, e.g. seeing as how many D&D-licensed titles SSI used to churn out.

 

[Vegosiux]

Would I be "okay with it"?

Depends. I'd be pretty said if there were no AAA quality games for a decade...but the way "AAA" is used to say "big budget", yes, I'd be OK with that. Bring in the indie cavalry!

 

[boag]

its too big to crash...ever..

I heard the same thing about the real state industry before 2008.

Your comparing real estate...to video games, to the entertainment industry.

Come on.

OK, ill bite, why cant a comparison be made? please explain it to me.

Because Real Estate is not apart of the entertainment industry? At all.

In fact, let me answer your question again with another question, when was the last time the music industry or the movie industry crashed?

Its a trick question, but I believe you and I know the answer to that one.

What, you mean the 1920s crash of the Film Industry?
You got me on the Music industry though, the 2005 slump wasnt a crash.

I particularly like how you addressed the question with the "Its not the same" logic. And you are right, its not the same, the Real Estate Industry has been a part of socio econimics the since the days of feudalism, and it has had its up downs ever since man begun charging taxes to other people.

To think than an industry that is so engrained with the social evolution of man could crash was indeed rebuffed as an insane account, but lo and behold it happened, just like It happened to Videogames in the 1970s, which I stated in the thread at the very beginning, and dont kid yourself thinking that they werent doing big business back then. In terms of economical parallels, the money they were making back then is comparable the money that is being made today.


So Ill ask again and I hope you take more time to think and research your response, Why cant the comparison be made?

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Conflicted. Yes I am tired of the same old bullshit getting churned out over and over and would love to see the big publishers fall. Especially as they have an annoying habit of buying good studios and running them into the ground.
However games are fighting to evolve and become more accepted and I would hate to see that go down the drain and have to start from scratch on that again.

However ultimately I do think a industry crash would be a good thing. Most of the games with great storylines, decent atmosphere, interesting characters and interesting gameplay are coming from smaller developers these days while the big names just recycle the same old bullshit and spend ludicrous amounts of money just trying to make it pretty.
Most of the games I look forward to now are from small teams or are from Europe.

Then again, with digital distribution and shit like Kickstarter maybe a full on crash is not needed. We can just evolve past needing greedy, controlling publishers.