Games Industry Off Its Game

A Washington Post article explores the problems facing the games industry in this year of console generation turnover and lackluster PC game sales. From the article: "There are other potential problems. The new-generation consoles look best when plugged into high-definition TV sets -- and it is not clear how many people will buy a new television just for the latest version of the Madden football game. And the cost of the new gaming systems continues to rise. Perhaps no question haunts the industry more at the moment than the mystery of when Sony's PlayStation 3 will come out and how much it will cost."

Re:White Flag

[hattig]

Damn you! I wanted the first Revolution post :(

But yes, Revolution - doesn't require HDTV, will be cheaper, will try to bring new gameplay systems to the ... sofa. It certainly bypasses the problems in the article.

XBox360 and PS3 are great for the (admittedly large number of) people with a HDTV and who are happy to connect the console to that HDTV (younger men, mainly). Of course games will still look good on a normal TV, especially if the extra power not being used on HD rendering is used to improve anti-aliasing instead.

Ass Backwards

[G_Biloba]

This statement has it all wrong: "The new-generation consoles look best when plugged into high-definition TV sets -- and it is not clear how many people will buy a new television just for the latest version of the Madden football game." HD TV owners (like myself) will only buy HD capable content. So, it is about reaching the current market with the most disposible income and least amount of impulse control (like myself).

Re:Madden on the 360

[Golias]

and it is not clear how many people will buy a new television just for the latest version of the Madden football game.

From all accounts, the new Madden game sucks.

But it is just possible that one or two people might buy a new TV for some other reason, like... oh, I don't know... watching television, perhaps? Those people will probably want a console that looks good on their new set.

DOA4 is almost enough to make me want a 360 for my HD system... almost. A couple more good games, and I'll seriously consider it. Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see what Sony comes up with.

Ten Years?!?

[kbonapart]

From the article:

"Sony President Ken Kutaragi has said that he expects the device to be "expensive." While game consoles have typically enjoyed a five-year lifespan, Sony has said it is shooting for 10 years this time out."

Are they kidding? They expect it to last ten years, fine, but are they trying to say that they will keep making new games for this platform? I remember the Super Nintendo, and that system rocked, yo. Pilot Wings, F-Zero, Final Fantasy VI were all gems, and had replay value. But after a while, new games stopped appearing, and I was seeing everyone purchase N64s, and playing Goldeneye with all thier friends. And all I had to offer was Mario Kart for thier multiplayer cravings.

Then the Playstation hit the scene, and my SNES got placed on the closet shelf of Eternity. When Microsoft comes out with the Xbox 720, will Sony stick with thier three year old platform? When Nintendo offers thier newest platform that jacks directly into your cyber-brain, with Sony continue to hock Silent Hill 12?

Game Platforms are supposed to have a longer life span then computers by definition. All they are are game systems. They don't do spreadsheets, they don't balance your taxes, they don't have hard drives...

Oh, wait, they do now. Well, strike that...start over...

With Game Platforms becoming more like home computers, thier Start-To-Trash date will grow shorter and shorter. Ten years is a pipe dream. It's 2006. Let's see, ten years ago...

Yeah, I think I'm going to go boot up my old 486 and log into World of Warcraft. I'll let you know how it goes in a week when the program finally loads.

To sum up, a ten year old gaming platform would be like still playing Final Fatasy Mystic Quest, and saying how graphicly stunning it is. Not Gonna Happen.

Re:White Flag

[MBCook]

I saw a great post somewhere about how Sony was going it fight the Revolution, and it could be very intersting if it is true. It said that Sony has been working on a similar controller setup (copied after it was announced) along with the EyeToy. The plan would be to release PS2 games that used it. Because there is so much expiriance out there with the PS2 development would be cheap. They can get the price of the little slimline PS2s down to about $100 (which will undercut the Revolution price, whatever it is) and the system is already in however many million homes. They think that by doing this they could expand the life of the system 2 years or so by grabbing casual gamers, and maybe sell 50 million additional systems (I'm guessing world wide) with this plan.

Pure speculation, but very interesting.

On a side note, I saw that the Revolution development kits cost $2000 which is just a fraction of what most kits (PS2, etc) cost, especially the cost of "Next Gen" systems (PS3, XBox 360). They say this would reduce the financial risk of trying to make a game for the revolution (which makes sense). I just wish they'd open it up (somehow) so end users could program it (I'd LOVE to do that, even if it must be done in a locked-down-sandbox with an interpreted language). They could sell the best user created programs on their online service.

Re:Two Main Reasons

[SlayerDave]

The five years of decline shows no sign of ever recovering.

Maybe not to previous levels, but see:

Painkiller
Far Cry
Doom 3
Half-Life 2
Rome: Total War
Age of Empires 3
F.E.A.R.

And those are just the games I've purchased in the last 18 months. I'm not really worried about the PC games industry. It was due for a little downsizing, and it happened. There are essentially 3 game types that just play better on the PC: FPS, RTS, and MMORPG. (There used to also be flight sims, but that genre seems to have atrophied). I just can't see any of those genres working as well on consoles as on PC.

Let's also not forget that the installed base of PCs is in the 500 million range worldwide and growing. That's quite a potential market.

Re:White Flag

[rAiNsT0rm]

"I just wish they'd open it up (somehow) so end users could program it (I'd LOVE to do that, even if it must be done in a locked-down-sandbox with an interpreted language). They could sell the best user created programs on their online service."

They will, I guarantee it. I have been personally told *twice* by Nintendo reps. that open development truly means even single person, 1st time game developers. Now, most likely this will be a scaled down dev kit but it will be there.

What I'd like to see is a cool free tile based 2D dev kit opened up for it, that would be my ultimate wet dream for a console. A steady stream of new and innovative 2D games.

Re:One simple reason why nobody's buying games...

[Avatar8]

I completely agree.

UO kept me from buying a new game each month for 7.5 years. Now WoW has kept me from buying anything for 1.5 years. Long term commitment to a game "system" (engine, patches, add-ons, new engine, etc.) will likely be the new trend.

Personally, I don't understand the attraction of game consoles. Sure I had my Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super NES, Sega Genesis... but when I saw the trend that a new console was going to come out each year, from three different companies and the games would not be backward compatible?!?!!?!? Heck, no, I wouldn't be sinking my money into that industry. Instead I sink it into a single MMO, and I consider it my entertainment budget.

What can a console do that a PC can't do? I have yet to be able to see the difference in graphics or hear the difference in sound. I have much more control with a keyboard and mouse than any directional pad/joystick and eight buttons can give. With an emulator I can dumb my computer down to any console.