BioWare: Videogame Industry Releases "Too Many Games"

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I think I agree. There are a lot of games being released, and I think a lot of them are good.

It's Sturgeon's Law we have to think about here. If you take that 90% of everything is awful, and that ratio is always the same, when you scale up the amount of releases (taking into account everything from the AAA Christmas titles to the little Indie summer developments) then there's going to be a lot more crap.

The only problem I think is that it's getting easier to buy the crap without realising it's crap, somewhat (though not in the same context) as the videogame crash (which I just love hearing gamers talk about when I bet most 'hardcore' gamers today weren't even alive to witness the videogame crash.) Basically what with XBox Arcade featured titles, Steam allowing you to bulk buy for very little, and really bad top-end games getting marketed just as much as the actually decent ones, it appears that gamers will buy anything, when in fact it's just a case of clever marketing.

I'm not sure (because unlike some people I don't pretend to understand the video-game economy) whether it can support this amount of games for a long time. I think film making is as ever the place to look here, and I think gaming is trying to outstrip it in terms of developers, number of releases per-year, and I don't know if a media source can sustain that level of releases.

Not that it bothers me, I buy games pretty rarely nowadays, and I only buy games with an overall positive review taken from as many sites and magazines as I can find, so I only get the benefits of this video-game boom.

 

[Blind Sight]

One thing the industry should also try and avoid is the MASSIVE amount of releases very close to Christmas, last year there were so many titles coming out in the fourth quarter that a lot of consumers got shopper's fatigue. Seriously, I still haven't gotten all the titles I wanted last year. In 2011 it looks like March to May is going to be like this instead, not really sure that's a good thing.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I love it that we can complain that there are too many good games to play. What other industry can say that there are to many good *blank* to enjoy them all?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well, I'm not really an RPG enthusiast, so I think everything that happened to Mass Effect 2 improved it greatly... but I see where you're coming from.

And that's fine, I liked it enough to give it a single 100% run, as the story and world are fantastic, but I'm just worried that the RPG genre sliding is sliding towards full-on actions games...with deep worlds. People on the Escapist have told me that they consider Red Dead Redemption an RPG!

Still... you're angry at them about those JRPG and FF comments, aren't you? Yeah, those were pretty immature, but you should probably let those go. Just saying.

Well, I wouldn't be so mad if this wasn't such a big-name, respected developer. They should know better than to bait a forum war between JRPGs and WRPGs like that.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

And that's fine, I liked it enough to give it a single 100% run, as the story and world are fantastic, but I'm just worried that the RPG genre sliding is sliding towards full-on actions games...with deep worlds. People on the Escapist have told me that they consider Red Dead Redemption an RPG!

Wait... are you telling me RDR wasn't an RPG?

Well, I wouldn't be so mad if this wasn't such a big-name, respected developer. They should know better than to bait a forum war between JRPGs and WRPGs like that.

All of us screw up. You don't hate Obsidian for saying that New Vegas is glitchy because it's "lol, big". I hope.

Some just do it more than the others. I don't think BioWare is among those.

 

[dghjdgdjf]

I've been feeling this way for ages. And I'm a student so I actually have lots of freetime to play games. I'd say another problem with having so many great games on the market is money. I'm seriously thinking about buying a Nintendo DS for Golden Sun 3 alone. Problem is, I don't have the money for it right now...

Ah well...

 

[Fumbleumble]

If they'd said too many SHOOTERS are on th market I'd agree.. but some genres are too under represented.

RPG's for a start.. and I don't mean silly 'rpg lites' like bio's new direction.

 

[Ninjamedic]

Still... you're angry at them about those JRPG and FF comments, aren't you? Yeah, those were pretty immature, but you should probably let those go. Just saying.

I myself found the comments on FF13 Hypocritical, given ME2 being just a third person shooter.

OT: Maybe Bioware should actually release games during the summer or put more time into adding actual depth to their games. (ok maybe that was a little to aggressive)

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines

I would't bother with bloodlines unless you can find it for under $5. They focused on all the wrong gameplay aspects, and going back to Altair feels like a very large step back.

Really? Like what gameplay aspects, exactly?

I was actually rather excited for it, too...Was going to be the second game I got...

 

[Evilsanta]

I agree...Mostly because my wallet takes most of the hits.

And i rather have good titles released not so often then too see shitty games released all the time.

 

[teebeeohh]

this coming from the guy who runs a company that stole hundreds of hours of my life AND will release an MMO that might threaten my degree in engineering?

hypocrite

 

[Nurb]

Oh yea? Well we're still waiting on actual near-final gameplay footage for Old Republic, which you've been hyping up for 3 years, Bioware.

 

[unicron44]

Personally as someone who doesn't buy many games to begin with, I can somewhat agree.

3 FPS came out this fall with Reach, COD and MOH. If someone really likes FPS they could have easily just spent $180. Also AC: Brotherhood, Fable III, Gran Turismo 5, Kinect, Move, Force Unleashed II, and Fallout: NV have all come out within the last two months. Its good to have choices, but you don't have you buy every game.

 

[Baldr]

Well I may agree that the Holiday season is to heavily stacked. July through October is pretty much untouched for releases. I will never agree that to many good games is a bad thing. It pushes developers to make bigger and better games to compete.

 

[Buizel91]

I agree. If MW2 was released this year, it would probably have a much better Multiplayer and a longer campaign.

Same with most other games, Hell i would even say Halo Reach seems a little rushed, and that's my favourite game.

Its like all these developers are little kids which keep drinking a never ending supply of coke...

 

[Dyp100]

Ironic coming fro, Bioware, who are making 3, maybe 4 games right now.

 

[Woodsey]

All I want is Call of Duty over and done with so that games don't all flood into the exact same spot of the year, which is currently Spring 2011.

 

[4173]

What a terrible problem to have, too much good stuff. Clearly developers need to make more shitty games so they can be safely ignored.