Angry Birds Dev Foresees Doom for Consoles

[Okysho]

If there's one thing I learned from taking part in the casual development world (Gamesalad thanks to Extra Credits) It's that iOS developers no NOTHING about video games. Their knowledge doesn't extend any further than 1992. I swear this is true!

I was on one of the "unofficial" GS chatrooms and was talking with a fairly well known developer within the community and someone else new. I brought up that someone should make an iOS game like portal (not a portal clone, but a game with one major freedom gameplay aspect that the game revolves around) and I KID YOU NOT this respected, well-known GS developer said "What's portal?" while the other no-named newbie said "That would be awesome!"

Even casual gamers know what portal is! Portal represents an important milestone in the gaming timeline! Just like everyone remembers Super Mario World! (if you could even call it that, it didn't do that much that was new)

[rant]

This is why consoles will never fail. People who get into iOS development know NOTHING about making REAL video games beyond their little flash-game gimmicks. That's all these have app games have been. Cheap flash games like this have been nothing new. Especially cannon games like Angry birds! (remember kitten cannon? Popular in my area) Which is probably the cheapest of the cheap in terms of making a one hit! Maybe it's the ease of the app store which has made these games so popular, but newgrounds has been just as popular for at least ten years prior and they consist of the same games, or better! so fuck off Rovio!

In the same chat I asked how anyone was supposed to compete with the inexplicable popularity of the generic Cannon flash game. Mr. "What's Portal?" told me that someone had already aced them with a game called "tiny wings" I didn't download it myself, but I checked out some gameplay footage and you know what I saw? SONIC THE FREAKING HEDGEHOG!!! With less gravity. This is why the casual games market has and always will be a joke! This is also why I refuse to pay for any of their crap, cuz I can play better stuff online for free. Now we have the flash companies like kongregate making games extreme "line rider" (remember when this came out? Another wildfire internet game) and Line runner clones (search this one on newgrounds) for the iOS market!

Rovio is out of line and has no place to say consoles are doomed. They will always have support because casual games all around have been done, and done better by other people. Their greasy finger swipes can't replace a controller in your hands and could NEVER have the same kind of immersion as a REAL GAME can give.

[/rant]

 

[Falseprophet]

Vesterbacka is far from the first new medium success story who prophesies imminent doom for his elder predecessors, and he won't be the last.

But to find a broader point in his diatribe: I think it's true that there are a lot of niche gamer markets who have been increasingly left out in the cold with each successive console generation. Because of their ballooning huge budgets, present-day AAA titles have to appeal to the broadest possible audiences to be profitable, and some niche genres and gameplay styles are tossed to the curb as a result. Mobile gaming might be the canary in the coal mine that convinces console game publishers there's a market for mid-range games: something made by a team of dozens for less than $1 million that might be able to recoup with sales to niche audiences as opposed to a $15 million+ AAA title developed by hundreds that has to sell 2 million copies just to break even.

Saying mobile gaming will bring about the death of consoles is the same as saying e-media (i.e. ebook readers) will bring about the death of books (and libraries). It's not going to happen any time soon, if at all.

Let me speak on behalf of the librarian profession when I say we're all hoping you're right.

 

[burn e]

"a person could throw him or herself into Angry Birds just as much as he or she might with Call of Duty, Gears of War, or any other "hardcore" title."

Either this guy suffered recent head trauma, or he's really just doesn't understand why people play his game.

lol

 

[Darkauthor81]

Saying mobile gaming will bring about the death of consoles is the same as saying e-media (i.e. ebook readers) will bring about the death of books (and libraries). It's not going to happen any time soon, if at all.

Actually a Boarders book store near me just closed down in my city citing that a combination of the economy and e-books had killed their sales numbers.

 

[Evil Tim]

Let me speak on behalf of the librarian profession when I say we're all hoping you're right.

Well, people have been forecasting the Library of Congress' collection would be declared obsolete and replaced with a giant computer for about the last 60 years now.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Radio didn't kill newspapers. TV didn't kill radio. Cinema didn't kill theater etc. Do I need to continue? Bottom line is, there is room for everyone. And using phones as gaming devices makes phones pretty much just another multipurpose system.

 

[Vault Citizen]

The argument that mobile gaming will replace hanheld console gaming is quiestionable enough but to say that casual gaming will make consoles obsolate is stupid. Sure angry birds is fun but there are a lot of people who want more depth to their gaming experiences.

 

[ASan83]

I've never understood how anyone can say "(X Platform) will become obsolete because of (Y Whatever)", but then again, the gaming community is nothing if not a bastion of civility. Consoles have been going strong for nearly three decades now, and for many, their only outlet. Unless something drastic happens, I don't see that changing anytime soon. I think there's room on the market for all platforms of gaming.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I'll keep my console, and you can keep your little bird-throwing minigames, thank you very much.

 

[Phishfood]

Saying mobile gaming will bring about the death of consoles is the same as saying e-media (i.e. ebook readers) will bring about the death of books (and libraries). It's not going to happen any time soon, if at all.

Actually a Boarders book store near me just closed down in my city citing that a combination of the economy and e-books had killed their sales numbers.

Emphasis on the economy I suspect. Also, working in a school, I can tell you 50% of the kids here can't even SPELL "book" never mind read one. They are all too busy playing X-box Angry birds to read.

 

[mattaui]

Making statements like that, I have to wonder if Rovio even knows why they're successful, and they wouldn't be the first company to strike it rich and then bomb out because they totally failed to understand who their customers were. Console and PC gamers playing Angry Birds aren't what made them successful, just like those folks didn't make Farmville a hit. It was all the people who don't otherwise game, now dubbed the 'casual gaming' market, that racked up the huge numbers. Sure, people who were already gamers do dabble in the casual gaming market, but that's in addition to all the other games they already play. I've yet to meet someone who identifies as a gamer who disowned their PC or console in favor of being exclusively mobile.

Angry Birds and other mobile games are also on a platform that people have with them nearly constantly, and when boredom strikes or they decide to kill time at work, they'll fool around with it. The ubiquity of the device (first the iPhone, and now other platforms) is also crucial. I doubt many (though I'm sure there's someone) purchased an iPhone to play Angry Birds, but a whole lot of console owners purchased those consoles for specific games.

Casual gaming isn't going to kill dedicated gaming platforms, just like the sales of inexpensive, practical cars don't kill the sales of luxury automobiles. Sure, they're both cars and they both do a lot of the same things, but they're entirely different markets. If anything, some casual gamers will migrate into the dedicated gaming demographic.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

lol good luck rovio, u wont get very far.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I still remember when they offered Splinter Cell on a cell phone and how well that went.

These people strike me the same way that the farmville people do in the recent news article about how Farmville was becoming hardcore gaming. A lot of wishful thinking.

 

[Jumplion]

Are people forgetting that mobile devices should primarily be used AS GODDAMN MOBILE DEVICES? You know, things like PHONES?

I've never been a handled gamer, I hardly play my DS and I have a crappy flip up phone that I mainly use for calls and text messages. I'm content with it, I personally don't see a reason to be playing, I dunno, God of War on my phone. If other people want to play their mobile games, all the more power to them. I'll just stick with my consoles.

But I don't think that mobile gaming will ever overtake console/static gaming because they are inherently different and cater to different markets (usually). With mobiles/phones, you can't really have a deep, complex gaming experience when the whole purpose of the device is to quickly and instantaneously receive texts, send texts, receive calls, quickly hang up, in a hectic work environment, with something going on everywhichway someway or another, etc... I don't think he's in any real position to criticize console gaming when he has little to no experience with it. He caters to a completely different market.

With consoles/static devices, whatever pretentious name he gives them, you're at home, maybe with the TV on in the background, and you slide in a game and invest in it for a few hours at a time. Everything is slower at the home, depending on the circumstances of course. They're two different markets. This doesn't mean you can't have a long, sprawling epic game on the mobile or short, concise, simple games on the console, it's just that it's not exactly the best place to sell them at.

All that being said, I do worry about the consoles. I just don't know what's on the horizon for these things. With the previous generation you got that feeling that something more advanced was on the horizon. Now, it's like "what do we do now?" Consoles are becoming more than just "gaming devices", they're more "media devices" now. Every single gaming device out there, the PS3/360/Wii/PSP/DS/etc..., have a wide variety of non-gaming related features. That's fine, in fact it's great, but I do have to wonder what we'll be getting in the next generation.

 

[Xanthious]

I have to disagree with his assertion that mobile gaming will kill consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii. However, I do think that mobile gaming is going to impact the next generation of portable gaming in a pretty big way. As I said in a previous thread I think that portable systems will more and more get relegated to a niche market consisting hardcore gamers and children

 

[Sean Strife]

I wholeheartedly disagree with Vesterbacka. About the only time I play Angry Birds is if I'm just bullshitting around at work to kill time or if I don't have access to one of my MANY consoles or my PC. I echo the stance that just because mobile and casual gaming are getting popular doesn't mean that it's going to make consoles obsolete.

Somebody's drinking a little too much of their own Kool-Aid if you ask me.

 

[Blaster395]

Innovation? In social and mobile games? Seriously????
Angry birds is not even innovative. "Catapult stuff at building" is a game which has been made hundreds of times before Angry birds even came out.
Social games, lets see. Farmville is a ripoff of farm town, all social games are retextures and renaming of the same basic mechanics of Farmville, which is perform action, wait 8 hours, "collect" money, repeat.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I can see where he's coming from, but he's getting waaaay ahead of himself. Everything will be one media soon anyway, so this debate won't matter.

That's probably closer to reality.
I do see the consoles in danger right now: considering their performance this generation, I'm iffy on sticking with them in the next gen myself. I don't see the consoles being killed by mobile gaming but I do see them drowning in their own overcomplicatedness: trying to sell too much in the package but not being able to deliver on it.
The AAA makers also have to tone down the amount of capitol that goes into the investment of one title because gamers are finally starting to get tired of being ripped off.
It took a while but we're starting to see more people refusing to pay for unfinished games and overinflated fees.

 

[slipknot4]

Yeah... and the internet is only a trend. Whats next?

 

[StockJN]

I agree somewhat with him, I know I waste a lot of time on iphone games but, thats all they really are, time wasters. They'll never really take the place of consoles, not immersive enough