Cliffy B Describes Games Industry's "State of Turmoil"

[Marshall Honorof]

Cliffy B Describes Games Industry's "State of Turmoil"

The man behind Gears of War encourages indie devs and timely updates.

Some people would take some time to rest on their laurels after creating the hit Gears of War trilogy, but Cliff Bleszinski, formerly of Epic Games, is not some people. In addition to thinking about starting his own studio [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121698-Cliff-Bleszinski-May-Open-His-Own-Studio], Cliffy B has taken a role as a keen outside observer of the modern games industry. According to Bleszinski, the industry has entered its most tumultuous state since the crash of the 1980s, and will exit the latest console generation in a very different state from which it entered.

"I really think we're in a massive state of turmoil," says Bleszinski. He goes on to list a number of predictions for major companies, from Nintendo to Apple. "I think Nintendo could possibly be faced with the situation of becoming a company that only makes software moving forward. I think Sony and Microsoft are about to come to major blows. But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now." While Bleszinski argues that this is an exciting time for the industry, the major players must be sensitive what gamers want. In addition to supplying more than just AAA $60 titles, he believes that Sony and Microsoft should make it easier for indie developers and user-created content to thrive. "All that red tape needs to be stripped away in order to create an ecosystem to allow for a product like Minecraft to actually happen on a console."

Another key issue for future consoles will be supplying fixes and patches for games as soon as possible. Bleszinski recounts the story of Gears of War 2, which had a number of multiplayer issues out of the starting gate. "It took us three months to get an update out," Bleszinski laments. "By that time, the majority of users had moved on to the next game or had traded it in. If Microsoft and Sony are to do well in this next generation, they are going to need to reduce that time as much as possible." He points out that PCs and tablets already do this well, so there is no reasons why consoles shouldn't offer similar functionality.

Apart from his commentary, Cliffy B wants to wait a while before jumping back into the industry. He claims that now would be "the absolute worst time" for such an endeavor, and will wait to see which way the wind is blowing before investing a lot of time, money, and effort in developing a business model that might be obsolete by time it gets off the ground. For more insight from Bleszinski, keep an eye out for his keynote speech at the East Coast Games Conference [http://www.ecgconf.com/] in Raleigh, North Carolina in late April.

Source: GamesIndustry International [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-02-25-industry-turmoil-worst-since-80s-crash-says-bleszinski]

Image: Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CliffyB.jpg]

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[Erttheking]

Not sure I agree on that.

Also inb4 all of the Cliffy B haters.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

cute, Clifford. It's funny how he makes these claims but doesn't really have anything to back it up. Honestly if another crash happens, more than likely Nintendo is the one company who's going to survive.

 

[RA92]

I'm rather keen on his next projects... my childhood was built up on Unreal Tournament and Jazz Jackrabbit. My bet is on it being a horror title.

And... does it feel like Cliffy has grown up a bit? He seems to have grown out of that irritating dudebro persona as of late.

 

[josemlopes]

Got to post this no matter what:

On topic though, I usually dont disagree with him but latelly he seems more interested in that social stuff that I dont think that its necessary for making a good game that people enjoy.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I think he made a few very good points. The CliffyB haters can cry all they want, he's been in the industry just about as long as most of us have been playing games in a hardcore manner.

Not sure about Nintendo becoming a software only company, but they are mimicking SEGA's former treatment of the 3rd Party quite a bit. Sony and Microsoft are in DEEP SHIT that's for sure. Microsoft especially.

The Xbox 360 is now in 3rd place for 7th gen and when you look at it, it has very little exclusives to its name. There used to be BioShock, Mass Effect, and a bunch of other 360 exclusives. Then they all got ported to the PS3 with equal or better sales. The only worthwhile 360 exclusives I can name are Fable 3 and the Halo games.

Sony's Vita is a commercial failure at the moment due to its high price, comically bad hardware features (i.e. the only handheld electronic device on the market with no internal memory), and only 2-4 games on it being worth buying. The PS3's run was an uphill battle for 2nd place with some pretty big mistakes.

I think he's right to wait a few years before getting back into gaming because with the mainstream console markets sales constantly getting lower and less reasons for people to spend $60 on the games that are coming out, it ain't looking good.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

cute, Clifford. It's funny how he makes these claims but doesn't really have anything to back it up. Honestly if another crash happens, more than likely Nintendo is the one company who's going to survive.

He does have stuff to back up what he says though.. Look at how low console gaming sales have been in the last few years. Look at all of the terrible practices this gen created. Massive day one patches, games being released in a horrible state (to such a point that people pretty much accept a broken Bethesda/Obsidian game every time), DLC and Season passes have made triple A games cost well above $60 and give out less game to play. The 7th generation of consoles is looking to be the overall worst in recent memory.

We saw Square Enix almost kill Final Fantasy. We saw the Wii sell on a gimmick that, in time, wasn't even used by its best games. We saw the PS3 copy the Wii with poor commercial results. We saw MS still think they have a reason to charge people for Xbox Gold accounts. I'd have to say, this is a pretty bad generation for gaming in recent memory. Thank god for all of the indie classics that came about. (And Just Cause 2)

Cliffy B doesn't need to back up his claims. Its kind of clear to see that, at least for the big 3, there's trouble going on. Nintendo slashing the price of their handheld by 33% within 6 months of launch is some troubling shit. Them also putting up their first losses ever spells trouble, and they haven't gotten out of that yet. The Playstation and the Xbox are both just parts of a major corporation, Nintendo's consoles aren't.

But to be fair, I think we'll see MS bow out of consoles before Nintendo or Sony. They spent so much money on timed exclusives and it really didn't matter. All of the 360 exclusives that got ported to the PS3 sold just as well or better on the PS3 (especially ALL the JRPGs that MS paid to have as exclusives). The timed DLC exclusives were just as bad and was rarely worth it. I think MS actually burned the most money this generation with the least effect. Look at the 360 now. What exclusive games does it have other than Halo, Gears, and Alan Wake?

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

cute, Clifford. It's funny how he makes these claims but doesn't really have anything to back it up. Honestly if another crash happens, more than likely Nintendo is the one company who's going to survive.

It was in an interview asking his opinion, not some Pachter industry analysis. He doesn't need to logs of trends and sources to express what he thinks.

And at the very least, he's right about the Minecraft bit. Something like that would never take off with all the controls, checks, and balances that exist on a console.

I'm not sure I agree with his Nintendo statement though. They're the masters of playing safe, and have made quite a bit of money doing so. They can survive for a bit with their hardware as is.

That said, I certainly wish Nintendo would go Software-only. I'd rather have pokemon or Zelda on my PC or smart phone, rather than shell out hundreds of dollars for a device I'll only use for Nintendo games.

If Nintendo went software only, a Pokemon MMO made by them would be viable. Think about that for a second. Let it sit in your brain.

 

[Chrono212]

I dunno man, I'm getting the same sort of vibes.

Looking at my Xbox, I just don't have the time or money to throw £40 at it every time I want a new experience. I get a lot more enjoyment out of using my midrange PC with free, indie titles.

In the last year I've spent more time on my phone and pc than my Xbox but also the endless "you must enjoy multiplayer!" message is really jarring for someone who just could not care less about what other people are doing or playing.

Which means that I'm paying that £40 for only half, or less, of the experience a game has to offer because I haven't bought into that other half.
Which is not the industries fault, but neither is it mine.
It's just a different point of view that the games industry (the AAA market that is) is starting to just ignore, or worse, with on disk DLC and season passes.

 

[Ishal]

cute, Clifford. It's funny how he makes these claims but doesn't really have anything to back it up. Honestly if another crash happens, more than likely Nintendo is the one company who's going to survive.

A sad truth, that.

Nostalgia gamers and a consumer base in Japan will keep the old war horse trotting along.

 

[Bvenged]

I actually see all of this happening, except Nintendo going full-software. I think Nintendo will stick to hardware and first-party software if it kills them, which it will.

 

[synobal]

This extended console generation has helped PC gaming soooo much. It's amazing what it has done for PC gaming. All the console makers were trying to save money by doing the extended generation but I think maybe they shot themselves in the foot for short term profits over long term gains. I really doubt it was intentional though. I doubt many people could of predicted just how much of an effect on the PC market that the extended console generation had.

 

[LGC Pominator]

Wow... some of the actual decent arguments I hear on these forums coming from CliffyB's own mouth? How does the escapist's general public react? I mean, most of the time discussion of the man comes up around these parts, he is being compared to Hitler or something...

Honestly I think he has made some very fair points, the PC market is certainly doing a lot better than it was, despite its most vocal community, and nintendo I can certainly see moving out of the hardware game if the WiiU continues in the direction it is spiralling, especially come the true 8thGen consoles.

As and when Cliff gets back in the development business, I will be very interested to see what he puts out.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Yes, yes, I know, PC is the ultimate gaming machine, nothing will ever compare to it, and consoles are all pieces of crap.

Looking at the main part of what he is saying though...I don't think he understands that console games are still selling really well. I mean, why would Nintendo go software-only when Skyward Sword, the most recent Zelda game, has sold 3 and a half million copies on a system that was on the verge of being replaced by the Wii U?

Speaking of the Wii U, the latest Mario game on it has sold 1.5 million copies. That may not sound like much, but the number of Wii U sales is, with a generous estimate, about 2 million consoles. That means nearly everybody who bought a Wii U also bought New Super Mario Bros. U. Why would Nintendo give that up?

As for saying that Sony and Microsoft should give up focus on AAA games and focus on indie devs, that is a nice sentiment, but the figures don't lie. Out of the 10 best selling games last year, 10 were sequels, and 7 or 8 of them were AAA games (not sure if Borderlands 2 is a AAA game). Indie games definitely sell, don't get me wrong. Notch and his pile of money can attest to that. But saying that there isn't as much of a future for AAA games is...not exactly accurate.

Oh, and Minecraft on a console? That totally already happened. In fact, Minecraft is one of the biggest sellers on the Xbox Live store. Microsoft has no problem with getting indie games on Xbox Live. In fact, they have an entire section of the store devoted to indie games.

 

[kajinking]

These are interesting points that Jim made in his video not too long ago. The industry is adapting practices that could very well turn off consumers and make their products toxic. I miss the old days when cheatcodes were actual codes and not "Super Awesome God-Mode and Giant Guns!" DLC and when if you bought a multiplayer game you knew if could last a few years since a new one wasn't on it's way next year (speaking of which how many people here are still playing MW3?).

All I can think of was a discussion I had in school one time when my teacher stated that the only way the oil industry would ever crash is when they priced themselves so high no one would buy from them and finally look towards other sources. That mobile game and electric car might not be that appealing now but when the price of gas/AAA games just keeps going up and up and you feel like your getting screwed over suddenly they look a lot better.