The Gaming Industry Needs To Die For It's Own Good.

[Silenttalker22]

Somebody needs a nap

 

[Arina Love]

games are awesome these days there is simply no need to rebuild. don't like DLC don't buy them. don't have money? get a job. My gaming life has never been so awesome like it is now.

 

[meepop]

Ok then. That's your opinion. My opinion (As well as others) is to quit complaining and deal with it. Honestly, stop living in the past and move on! Ten years ago will never come back, no matter how many times you call it. And how do you think the industry is going to die/be killed, if at all?

Forgive me if I sound like a troll, but what are you doing on a website whose main focus is all news gaming-related, and the most related stuff is current-gen games? It seems hypocritical to say that the industry "needs to die for its own good" if you play games made by the very people you're dissing.

 

[Something Amyss]

Look up. The industry is already circling the drain as we speak.

You know, it's funny. They rested on their "recession-proof" laurels for so long, I think a lot of people still believe games are invincible.

We've already seen it's not true. Of course, I'm not sure they're going down, but this is the direction the music industry was heading in before they pulled their heads out their own asses.

 

[Hobohodo]

I don't believe that it's any different than it was 10 years ago, people have ALWAYS, tried to sell us useless games, that we would waste our money on, simply due to it being business, it always will be, the only change is gaming has become a bigger industry, if anything, they're offering more with the introduction of multiplayer etc. Yes, sure they're looking for newer ways to take money, but I believe even back then they were doing the same thing.

 

[orangeban]

Frankly this sounds stupid. Music had it's period of ridiculous DRM, this is games turn. Games will grow out of it, they're enough of a media force that they literally can't die now. It'd be like movies dying. Nah, they'll just evolve.

 

[Atmos Duality]

The entire industry doesn't need to die, it just needs to establish some more common between consumer and publisher(by proxy, developer). Establish some more concrete rules of conduct between publisher and consumer instead of this "Lets see how far we can go before it hurts sales or destroys our reputation"-bullshit.

However, this isn't going to happen as long as the publishers keep acting like Crack Dealers, and the consumers continue TO RESPOND LIKE ADDICTS.

People ***** about how X publisher is fucking over the industry AND THEN THEY KEEP GIVING PUBLISHER X MONEY.

About Next-Gen consoles:
Sony and Microsoft are terrified of moving ahead with another console generation (while Nintendo ineptly plays catch-up) due to development and deployment costs alone (nevermind the sky-high price of quality titles to push said systems).

For the time being, we will continue to watch the stagnation of the market expand its influence. Perhaps to swallow and homogenize more potential genres, or to dig up yet more old/dead IP and try to make something out of it.
(I keep expecting fucking Tomba to get dragged out of his grave any year now)

yaaaaaah I'd argue against your points using sound logic and well thought out points, but...

But...

...you are stupid, now get the fuck over it; you cry baby

...Rather than use logic, you use an ad-hominem! A fallacy! Anti-logic! Hooray!

 

[Aircross]

My only gripe with DLC is when all the DLC has less content than the vanilla game but costs more.

You get a game for $20 and the entire DLC package costs $35 even though the DLC package may only include things like side quests and, ugh, cosmetics. *vomits*

Anyway, whenever you tag the word "industry" onto something like music and film, it's always going to be profit over art and the audience.

 

[Inkidu]

The title pretty much sums up my feelings on this matter but I will explain in detail.

Look at the gaming industry. It is a cesspool pure and simple. Look at everything that is currently wrong with it. Big publishers are all about getting as much of our money as they can while offering us less and less product and less and less control over the product they are selling us. Honest paying customers are treated like thieves and worse by the companies they support with their hard earned money. The bottom line is that the industry is far too polluted and corrupted to be saved at this point and must be destroyed (or close to it) before it can ever hope to be something remotely palatable again.

Go back ten years. You didn't have to worry about certain features of your game like multiplayer being held hostage from you for the sin of buying used title. You didn't have to worry about the number of times you dared to install a game you legally bought and paid for. You weren't required to play your games constantly tethered to the company that sold them to you. You didn't have to worry that you were only getting part of the game because the rest was being held back to be sold to you as DLC at a later point in time. In short you were treated like a proper customer and not some sheep to be fleeced as the publishers and developers saw fit.

The bottom line is that the tree that is the gaming industry is too far gone with rot and disease to be saved. If we ever hope to turn things around then the industry in it's current form needs to first die a horrible and violent death. Cancers to the industry like EA and Activision need to be gutted like a fish and the the scum that are in charge like Bobby Kotick and John Riccitiello need to be properly driven out of the gaming industry with torches and pitchforks if need be. Only after everything is blown away to Hell and back can gaming get back to it's roots where people who care about gaming are the ones making the decisions again because they will be the ones to rebuild.

Nah, It's fine. It's called change and it's inevitable. You've got to take the good with the bad or try to fight it. We all know how good the gaming community is with boycotting. Got to speak with your wallets people.

 

[lovestomooch]

It's all actually pretty simple.

1. If you have ever played a AAA game and enjoyed it, then your complaints regarding large publishers are moot. If you haven't ever played a AAA game or have never enjoyed one then why are you complaining, their actions are immaterial.

2. Saying the industry needs to die a terrible death because it is a cesspool is an absolute statement and only the Sith deal in absolutes. If this is what you truly believe then you either only ever play AAA games with lots of DLC attached and DRM or you don't and instead play lots of Indie games which you despise. Either way, the question emerges 'why do you play games?' Because it certainly doesn't seem that you enjoy them.
Also, using broad, sweeping statements is what FOX news does, not intelligent, bright individuals such as yourself (or you wouldn't have written the article in the first place).

3. The advent of the internet has bought us a great many things, it has however also bought us Piracy. In the late Nineties with slow internet speeds this wasn't a problem. Now, companies who produce AAA games (which your article seems to be targeting) have to protect sizeable investments as audiences want larger areas to explore, better graphics and stronger engines to run their games. It therefore becomes necessary to protect themselves from reduced returns with DRM. Yes, it's ugly and sometimes horrid, but you should at least understand why.

4. Finally, games are in their adolescence so people say. Teenagers are cesspools sometimes, but they all grow out of it. Ride it out to calm seas and sunshine. It nearly always gets better.

And if it doesn't, well then we'll take your advice and nuke the shit out of them!

 

[Regeaj]

There are some really good games out there like the Halo series and Resistance: Fall of Man along with it's sequels, there is also all the games by Valve (TF2, HL2, HL2 EP1, HL2 EP2, etc.) who cannot count to 3 (WHERE IS EPISODE 3), also Bethesda who made Fallout 3 and New Vegas and Oblivion and the soon to be released Skyrim, my main problems with the games are that the campaigns are to short and that corporations are focusing on Multiplayer, what I want is a nice and long campaign with good graphics (I think that it's mostly Valve and Bethesda who are preventing me from going insane due to lack of good campaign, I mean HL2 had awesome visuals and a good campaign, Oblivion and New Vegas were good, can't wait for Skyrim), if corporations focused more on the campaign then a lot of games would be better, also I think corporations should stop making us pay for DLC unless it's worth it, if the DLC adds very few things like 3 multiplayer maps or a bonus mission than it should be free, if the DLC is good, like a good length bonus campaign or a good amount of bonus missions than they could be worth paying for.

 

[Iron Mal]

The title pretty much sums up my feelings on this matter but I will explain in detail.

I feel that you're perhaps being a bit overdramatic but please do continue.

Look at the gaming industry. It is a cesspool pure and simple. Look at everything that is currently wrong with it. Big publishers are all about getting as much of our money as they can while offering us less and less product and less and less control over the product they are selling us. Honest paying customers are treated like thieves and worse by the companies they support with their hard earned money. The bottom line is that the industry is far too polluted and corrupted to be saved at this point and must be destroyed (or close to it) before it can ever hope to be something remotely palatable again.

You are aware that the major point behind a business is to make money, right? I'm sure that everyone involved in the games industry does love what they do (otherwise why would they work in the industry?) but at the same time they still need to make a profit somehow (game developers have families to feed too you know).

Destroying the industry wouldn't do anything to help us, we managed to survive the game crash of the 80's largely because gaming was still in it's infancy, there wasn't a whole lot that we had to rebuild afterwards so the actual cost and difficulty of doing so was relatively small (trying to do so now would be next to impossible).

While there have been a few stupid decisions and shadey actions commited by various gaming giants I wouldn't say this amounts to a full blown epidemic of corruption and pollution in the industry (just as it would be unfair to say that plane crashes mean that all airlines are dangerous and should be shut down).

Go back ten years. You didn't have to worry about certain features of your game like multiplayer being held hostage from you for the sin of buying used title. You didn't have to worry about the number of times you dared to install a game you legally bought and paid for. You weren't required to play your games constantly tethered to the company that sold them to you. You didn't have to worry that you were only getting part of the game because the rest was being held back to be sold to you as DLC at a later point in time. In short you were treated like a proper customer and not some sheep to be fleeced as the publishers and developers saw fit.

Go back ten years ago and we had vastly different circumstances and a different level of understanding of technology throughout society (not to mention a different cultural and soci-econimic climate), in short, things have changed and some of these new changes you may not like but at the same some of them may be nessercary (and those that aren't will no doubt be changed even further to something that is better, after all, the industry will naturally thrive when people enjoy the service they're given).

Also of note is how the industry was considerably smaller back then and with less intergration with the world at large. More detail and attention was given to us because there were less of us to give detail and attention to (picture looking after one kid compared to having to look after ten, you aren't going to be able to pay as much attention to each child the more of them you have).

The bottom line is that the tree that is the gaming industry is too far gone with rot and disease to be saved. If we ever hope to turn things around then the industry in it's current form needs to first die a horrible and violent death. Cancers to the industry like EA and Activision need to be gutted like a fish and the the scum that are in charge like Bobby Kotick and John Riccitiello need to be properly driven out of the gaming industry with torches and pitchforks if need be. Only after everything is blown away to Hell and back can gaming get back to it's roots where people who care about gaming are the ones making the decisions again because they will be the ones to rebuild.

While it's clear that you're very passionate about this I believe that you are somewhat misguided and don't really understand what the implications of your ideal rehash of the video game crash would be, in short, total abandomment of the video game industry (like I said before, right now we're too big to survive a total collapse like that, we have far too much to lose).

 

[andreas3K]

How would that help? Shouldn't we try to save the industry and guide it in the right direction? And how exactly are you planning to kill the industry?

Look up. The industry is already circling the drain as we speak.

No it isn't. It's still making money.

making money doesn't constitute health. There are many factors that constitute health. If you want I could bring the article where I outline all the factors. No one was able to refute it.

Yeah, it may not be healthy, but as long as it's making money, it ain't gonna die either. Go ahead and show me that article, I'm interested.

Here, I wrote this when I said Console gaming was dying and someone tried to call me out on it and tried to ask for evidence.

Spoiler: article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

Read up on it. Source? look around you. Consoles are fundamentally flawed in the idea. Sony, and the xbox are choking financially (basically they worked themselves into a corner). Look at how the generation of these consoles were lengthened due to high production costs of unleashing a new console. What does this mean? They need to adopt more PC ideas to increase longevity like selling upgrades, and other attachments. The high cost, and longer generation will spell out the death of consoles on the loss leader method of business. The death of consoles isn't by lack of players, its choking on costs. If selling consoles themselves can't make a profit they rely on games. On the developer's side however its absolute hell. Console tax, second hand market, and high development costs on top of that. If you want I can get the statistics to show the drop of the number of console games from the last generation to this one.

Here is the graph of games courtesy of Metacritic's game database.
Sixth Generation (1999-2006):
Ps2: 792 (out of 1609)
Xbox: 471 (out of 856)
Gamecube: 263 (out of 502)
Total Games: 2967.
Total games over 70%: 1526.

Seventh Generation (2005-present):
Ps3: 341 (out of 579)
Xbox 360: 479 (out of 924)
Wii: 242 (out of 649)
Total Games: 2152.
Total games over 70%: 1062.

See this graph? We are in year 6 of the console generation. The time frame for the last generation was 7 years, and yet the current generation is off by 856 games. Now you could say "higher complexity" of games, and that is the problem. You see when the Xbox and PS3 were first released they were sold at a loss, relying on console games to make up the difference. The Nintendo's wii however was the only console making a profit at that time. The reason? The Wii was cheaper to make, and has been known to be less advanced than its cousins. In short, the new tech doesn't fit into a small box like it used to. Standardization does not work anymore. The tech gets more complex, the cost becomes higher, and the profits decrease. You could say "oh but the console makes more money" but it isn't that way in the eyes of Activision, who makes 70% of their money from the PC, and portable PCs. Keep in mind this is the same "PC hating publisher" that was responsible for modern Warfare 2.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/148982/xbox_delivers_a_profit.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/01/forbes-nintendo-making-6-profit-on-every-wii-sold/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.203926-Kotick-Only-30-of-Activisions-Profits-Come-from-Consoles

Basically, the profits are being drained by many factors including manufacturing, tech level, mounting development costs, etc. Want a "source" on the mounting development costs too?

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ubisoft-development-costs-to-double-next-gen
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.52799-News-Report-Says-Rising-Development-Costs-A-Nightmare
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9823945-7.html?tag=mncol;title
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/04/more-wii-games-from-ea-thanks-to-low-development-costs/
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/4226/thq-studio-dev-costs-biggest-industry-issue

This isn't some prediction out of hate, it?s a prediction using the data available. It?s not due to the lack of players as there are plenty, but it?s the cost that goes into the consoles that are beginning to take their toll. Consoles are not sustainable in their current business model and if continued it will mean the death of the console entirely, especially now that the PC and the casual market (much like the wii) have shown to be very profitable with less risk. You have to remember businesses don't make games as a fun hobby, they make them to make money. If another method proves more profitable and safe, then businesses will change sides without a second thought. Businesses have no "brand loyalty" to a platform, nor do they stay in one sector for long. The dynamics of the economy doesn't stay still. It?s a cycle, businesses crowd in one newly found market until it?s no longer worth it and move on which causes an economic crash. Sure there will be businesses to pick up the slack due to the newfound vacancy of the market but it?s not the same as the clamoring before the economic crash.

Basically, console developers are boxed in and are fighting for the last remaining air before they suffocate. Even big companies are struggling against other companies for what little money is left to be made. Why do you think this generation lasts so long? Health relies on the future, not the present. If that was the case the housing market was healthy and the crash was a freak accident.

I see. That is some serious shit. I guess there might be a bit of a crash, then. Thanks for the info.

 

[DarksideFlame]

So you want us to kill the gaming industry now eh? While highly anticipated games like Skyrim, Star wars TOR, Batman: Arkham City, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Saints Row 3, Uncharted 3 and Serious Sam 3 have yet to to be released?

I think not

 

[Littaly]

You present a very blunt solution to a grossly simplified problem. Sure it's good for venting anger, but it's not really going to solve anything.

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

games die? no I could not take that I need games

to me games are getting better all the time

so I don't really understand what you mean

 

[PatrickXD]

Eh, I've been gaming for 14 years and Ive hardly noticed a lot of negative change in games if I'm honest. For every cookie cutter action shooter there always seems to be a super mega awesome game or two just around th corner. Sure, it's a damn shame that the people making the more detailed and dare I say best games that the industry have to offer aren't making the most money, but such is life.

 

[Terminate421]

Thanks for wanting to kill the industry I plan to work in.

Its just Consumers being idiots or Producer's being selfish.