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

[Atmos Duality]

It's shocking how little I care for most AAA titles, the last one I enjoyed being Deus Ex: Human Revolution...and that was one break for a VERY long streak of mediocre to bad AAA games.

Then again, this isn't all that surprising to me: The publishers have established an oligopoly of sorts on gaming, where the very best sellers are incredibly stagnant and very derivative of their own franchise (it's always galled me that The Elder Scrolls has been backpedaling in terms of complexity since Morrowind..what? I was supposed to talk about Call of Duty here? Hey, I refer to that franchise as CoD4.X for a reason).

But stagnant gaming sorts itself out over time, and as long as people are enjoying themselves, I shouldn't judge them...as painful as the hype can become at times.

...But then there's the Big Publishers, who seem to be going out of their way to find new ways of de-valuing their own titles by pissing their customers off.
-Ineffective DRM...
-Price-gouging schemes...Day 1 DLC...on-disc DLC you have to pay for...
-Shell-games with consumers rights and the rise of unilateral EULAs...
-Grind where it's not necessary or wanted...(for service-based games)

This is what they offer now: A digital shackle with a legal key, in a "Take it or leave it" deal. Either you play by their rules or you don't play at all: No room for negotiation. No refunds.
So, if they don't want to negotiate, that only leaves Scorched Earth as the remaining option for the consumer: Walking away from their business entirely. It's the only thing they will understand (or perhaps not...maybe they'll just blame piracy instead).

So no, I cannot pity the AAA publishers if their market crashes, and they fall. They brought this on themselves.
I can only sit here with a lyre, and watch as they crumble and burn.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Call of Duty is dying.

lol. What? No matter your opinion on the game... CoD is dying? That's a joke. MW3 had record sales, beating out all games that year (in sales, quality isn't something I am going to debate) and beat out previous games, Blops and Mw2 in sales.

So if that means it's dying, then BF3 is dead.

Yet the public opinion of it is despised. It's one of the most hated series, and this time around die hard fans started noticing they same copy and paste formula (me included). It already gets backlash before the series are even released. The studios are being torn apart. Sure, it beats out sales every single year, but it doesn't take an idiot to see the inevitable downfall of the series is close at hand.

Remember Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero games? The same thing happened.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

I wouldn't mind an industry reboot. The developers are getting greedy and far less willing to take creative risks. IMO, the industry has been artistically stagnating since 2004-ish, ironic since revenue has gone through the roof since then..perhaps it isn't so ironic on second thought.

 

[xPixelatedx]

A gaming crash!? Oh my, that sounds just awful, I mean gaming today is sooo awesome! Oh wait...

*Some of the biggest companies 'like Microsoft' bought out almost all the smaller ones who once made fantastic games, then destroyed them. (byebye Rare)

*The main theme of this last generation was Macheesmo fantasy fulfillment. That is the most boring and pandering kind of entertainment there is.

*Mobile gaming being one of the last landscapes where imagination can flourish is pretty pathetic.

*Companies punishing paying customers with DRM rather then fighting pirates with it; In effect causing exactly what they don't want to happen by encouraging people NOT to purchase the game legitimately.

*DLC becoming as infectious as it has. Wouldn't be a problem, except it's not actually DLC anymore, it's a hostage situation with finished game content.

*Gamestop buying out and dismantling other 'better' game exchange companies

*Gaming companies coming dangerously close to having the balls to remove physical copies all together; making it impossible to sell your games/trade them/rent them. The success of Steam has only strengthened the possibility of this coming one day.

*Potentially great games getting canned before they can even be made because publishers won't green-light the projects, unless you show them something pandering like a Gears/Halo/COD clone.

*Region locking is still somehow an issue today..? Even though the PS3 has basically shown forgoing this won't bring forth the apocalypse.

*Everything is now politics. When you think of 'Playstation' today, what comes to mind? Anonymous and Sony waring with each other, hackers attacking Sony for taking away Linux support, Bad PR with Sony execs talking down to costumers and calling them cheapskates for not being able to afford an $800 PS3 on launch day. ...Yeah, I kind of like the good old days when someone said 'Playsation' and the only thing that came to mind was Crash Bandicoot. Maybe I am old fashioned that way.

*Extremely shoddy merchandise. I can live with accessories breaking or just being crap, I expect that from their party manufacturers.. but most if not all the first part accessories I have gotten for my Xbox 360 have been the worst garbage I have ever purchased in the electronics section. The Xbox 360 itself is at the top of that list. Everyone I know who had one had it die within the first year of purchase... I have never seen this kind of incompetence before...!?

*Gimmicks have gotten out of control, and I blame Nintendo for this one. I can handle a little motion control gaming, but now that things like the Kinect exist I am pretty much done. 0 Feedback is the most unpleasant experience one can have with gaming, save for something that actually delivers pain when you fail.

*XBL: after meeting the new audience that Microsoft pulled in with Halo and such (via playing games with them online), I can safely say the term 'gamer' today is more a derogatory term then it ever was when people only thought "nerds" did it.

*The ignorance displayed by many of the new people to gaming. They seem to think 'modding' is a bad word, and people who mod are bad people who are trying to ruin games. They seem to be confusing hackers with the people who make maps and stuff. When it was made public people were making their own maps for Halo 3 just to have some fun with friends, the fans of halo raged and ranted about how despicable these people were for having the nerve to show creativity and dishonor the works of Bungie. I ... I don't... hdsfsdfgahdf....


So yeah, if it means saving the body from infection I'd gladly amputate this rotting foot. The gaming industry should crash, and let all that crap I mentioned go with it. Then history can be allowed to repeat itself and we can get something better for our troubles.

 

[mrdude2010]

Yes. Let's start from the beginning and get some actual innovation. It's not like CoD would actually change at all in the missing 5 years anyway.

 

[Pebblig]

Hell yes! I could easily keep myself occupied with some of the class indie games that are out there.

 

[Grimh]

I'm hoping for an evolution rather than a revolution. If that makes any sense.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes in a way but to be honest the AAA games just need a kick up the arse and realise that they can't continue like this unless they want to pander to people that aren't real gamers and only people that play video games.

Now I am not saying you can't be a gamer and play CoD/FiFa/Madden but you have to admit they are no longer aimed at "proper" gamers.

By proper I mean a gamer who takes time to go on internet sites about games and plays more than a couple of genres and has been or at least intends to play games for years and doesn't just buy 1 or 2 games a year. That in my opinion is a proper gamer. Everyone has genres that they don't play but they have at least tried them. For me that is limited to intense resource management games(eg Dwarf Fortress) as well as serious sports and racing games(eg I won't touch Fifa but I'll play the Mario versions).

 

[illas]

It has gotten to a point where the AAA title is boring.

It has fallen into a predictable cycle of making games based more on charts than on ingenuity or creative talent.

As a result, I'm finding independent titles so much more fun than any AAA titles. It's not based on any "arthouse" mentality. I'm talking specifically about games like SPAZ where they are simple ideas to grasp and something people CLEARLY enjoy. But because they are so glued to the demographics charts, AAA gaming companies never grasped that this is what people might want.

The AAA industry is broken, and the cracks are getting bigger every day. Add to that overreacting to things like used games, it is quite clear that it needs a good kick in the ass before they'll ever realize what is wrong.

For me, this.

I would add that companies like Valve do seem aware of public desires though, given their propensity for turning popular mods into big-budget games and committing significant time to left-field gems like Portal.

 

[Korten12]

Wouldn't a crash be really bad? I mea looking at it than just more then the video game industry, it could harm the econemy really badly if it crashed.

 

[Lunar Templar]

i for one would welcome it, especially if it mean for, least a little while we can get good customer service back, and get the greed fuck wits out

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

sir, i have enough games, that i wouldn't even notice a crash of the AAA market should i dive back into, and commit to beating my collection.

besides, there's a lot wrong with the industry, bitching about used games, the DLC ripoffs, whining about losing what amounts to pocket change while they rake in record setting profits, and the continued abuse of paying customers under the veil of 'fighting piracy', which is the biggest thing to me.

something needs to change, and I'm thinking a major crash would do it, even if, admittedly its rather unlikely

 

[thelonewolf266]

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Snip

Are you kidding me?
Of course it would have a major effect the gaming industry is massive it ranges from the companies developing the games to the people selling video game branded t-shirts or the disk manufacturers hell one of the main reasons Blu-ray became so popular was because Sony backed it with the PS3.This site's success also depends mainly on the popularity of video gaming.With the state the economy is in now it doesn't take much to damage it further.Plus the main point I was making was that quite a lot of people are very happy with the quality of games that are being produced right now.

 

[Hyper-space]

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

Ummm....no.

Niche gaming has returned, its called the indie market. People won't flock to space-sims or isometric turn-based RPGS just because they cannot buy the latest triple-A title.

Umm, no. Waiting years on end for an actual decent indie title that eventually turns to vaporware is not my idea of traditional CRPGS 'returning'.

...And? Your point being?

Do you expect CRPGS to return just because Activision cannot make more call of duty games? Do you expect them to return if EA should sink to the bottom of the motherfucking ocean?

The reason why this-and-that genre's popularity vanes is because of time, people change and want different things. Cabarets (for an example) used to be popular. Now? not so much.

Niche genres have been given an avenue for them to grow and continue, which is the best that they can hope for. The games industry crashing won't put an end to some grand conspiracy that kept CPRGs or Space-sims from returning.

 

[DarkRyter]

No, because thousands of people would lose their jobs.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I like AAA games shockingly, so no I wouldnt like to see my favourite hobby crash and burn. Not to mention I cant see a crash ever happening again, or at least not on such a huge scale. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendos are now the top dogs, and if one of them falls then people will turn to the other two.

Also as long as Nintendo is around the industry is probably safe. I dont like their games but damn it if they arent the best thing that ever happened to gaming.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Not really. I spend most of my time on the triple A games. I prefer the indie things but they don't last as long.

 

[boag]

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Are you kidding me?
Of course it would have a major effect the gaming industry is massive it ranges from the companies developing the games to the people selling video game branded t-shirts or the disk manufacturers hell one of the main reasons Blu-ray became so popular was because Sony backed it with the PS3.This site's success also depends mainly on the popularity of video gaming.With the state the economy is in now it doesn't take much to damage it further.Plus the main point I was making was that quite a lot of people are very happy with the quality of games that are being produced right now.

Dont take a Tangent, if you arent going to address my comment and then spit back in my face with a facetious remark.

I clearly asked, "Would you please elaborate in what aspects of the world economy would be severely affected by a video game crash".

Also, while its true that the PS3 helped push the Advent of the BD as the media choice of DVD, it was part only a part of the Sony Strategy to cement it as the leader. A very smart and sound strategy. Yet in most cases the PS3 owes its continued existence to the Push Sony was doing for BD development and third party support, not the other way around.

Lastly, I accept your opinion on why you wouldnt want a crash to happen, you are happy with the state of the industry right now, thats valid opinion, im not going to judge you on that.

What I wanted, was for you to expand on the very important point, you made about the global markets in general suffering from a collapse of the Video Game industry.

 

[boag]

I like AAA games shockingly, so no I wouldnt like to see my favourite hobby crash and burn. Not to mention I cant see a crash ever happening again, or at least not on such a huge scale. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendos are now the top dogs, and if one of them falls then people will turn to the other two.

Also as long as Nintendo is around the industry is probably safe. I dont like their games but damn it if they arent the best thing that ever happened to gaming.

I dont believe it would crash and burn for long, like you correctly stated, if one of these companies decided to get out of the business, the other 2 would pick up the slack immediately, and if not them, some other company would rise to fill the void.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Lemme just think about the current AAA games coming up...

Oh, I can't seem to think of any.

 

[J Tyran]

Well those "market researchers" are wrong.

How else do we get tired CoD clone after CoD clone?

Activision really achieved something epic convincing over 8 million people into buying a game they didn't want then.