Editor's Note: State of the Industry

[Russ Pitts]

State of the Industry

The videogame industry is utterly screwed, and it's all your fault - but don't feel too bad about that, because that's how it should be.

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[IndianaJonny]

Fantastic! Am really looking forward to delving into this week's edition.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Gonna go buy me a Zeebo then.

 

[Owlslayer]

Wow. That's.... quite bad indeed, i guess. Also, I had some minor problems understanding if parts of the text were written sarcastically, or just angrily...but then again, English isn't my base language, so i might have just misinterpreted it.
"Developers are now being forced into contracts stating they will not get paid if their "meta-average" does not hit a certain percentage point."
Aw, come on. This cannot be right. Or was this a joke? Cause if this is true, it's just plain retarded. And really depressing.

 

[Sunder845]

This article is so angry I'm not sure if it's sattire or not. Great read either way.

 

[Proteus214]

Probably the main reason why I do not want to work in the mainstream industry at the moment. It's too damn volatile on every level right now. For now I would rather just work in the software industry in a non-games job with better job security, better pay, and better benefits than to work in a studio that may or may not get shut down because the game didn't do so well.

At the end of the day I can still come home to work on my own personal development as I please. Sure it's slow and I don't have access to much in terms of personnel or tools, but the simple truth remains: I love what I do and I can easily support myself as I do it.

 

[matrix3509]

I gotta agree with you there Russ. Gamers today (yes, all gamers) are a bunch of entitled twatdonkeys (this includes me).

 

[Falconsgyre]

It'd be interesting to compare this to the state of movies today. How are game companies any worse off than movie studios? Don't they have to deal with most of these same demands?

 

[Hive Mind]

Yeah, all the amazing video games on my shelf and a never before imagined network available for indie developers to create and distribute their creative works with incredible ease sure is fucked.

/sarcasm

 

[Vault101]

oooooh kay.....

so is this serious or satire? I guess a little of both

not exactally pleasant eather way

 

[bdcjacko]

I'm sorry that it is my fault the game industry is fucked. I'll be better.

 

[beema]

This is my favorite Editor's Note ever.

I <3 you Russ

can't wait to read this week's articles!

 

[Aggieknight]

While I agree with most of your sentiments, Russ, I'm saddened to hear you knock on Gamestop and used games. I expect to read publishers whining about First Sale Doctrine, but am surprised coming from you guys.

The fact that I can turn around and sell my game (or loan it to a friend) should be incentive to publishers to make games with replayability. First Sale has been a fact of business in the US for more than 100 years now and a cornerstone of consumers' rights. What would be the results if customers could not resell, trade or loan their games? Think about it.

I like Steam, but I will never pay full price for a game there simply because I have no such rights.

Edit - to be clear, I can't remember the last time I sold a game, but am constantly trading them with my friends and loaning them out.

 

[de5gravity]

I'm also not sure if this is supposed to be taken seriously, as a satire, or both maybe. I do hope you're not saying we should stop having fun for the sake of trying new things. Even tho I really could not dislike games like COD or Battlefield more, if so many people are having fun with it, I don't see why I should stop them from playing it. They like those type of games, I like story based games, with character development, good writing and all that jazz. To each his own I guess (well I like both really, but I'll take a good story over anything any day).

Like there are good books and recycled ones, same for movies, I'm pretty sure the gaming industry can go on with a mix of creativity and (eco friendly) recycling.

 

[Sabinfrost]

There are definitely issues with the current business model of the gaming industry, I won't repeat them as you pretty much summed them up.

What I will say is that developers are trying to make brilliant games, and part of that is making games the public likes. Most people do not want hundreds of Vangers, totally unique but completely in-accessible. The gaming industry learnt that lesson, good or bad, back in the 90s.

If anything the increasing focus around DLC is giving developers that want to be quirky like Double Fine a chance to make money while doing exactly what they want.

Indie gaming is thriving, even as commercial games are being mass produced with 100 staff doing what 10 used to just to get all those added features in that the reviewers will love. At the same time the patch crutch and publishers pushing release dates is undermining that expense.

But hey, a few bad examples don't make a rule. Look at Blizzard, since when have they cared about release dates....

Video game industry meet Record industry. The comparison is so obvious from a business sense it is hardly worth mentioning. It's worth nothing though that for every Ke$ha, there are 1,000 indie/metal bands who are doing it for the love of music, not to make a huge profit. Sure, they'd like to eat and try get their name out there but so would I in there position.

You cannot tell me that the 80,000 registered bands with recorded material on Metal Archives are an irrelevant figure next to EMI's latest cash cow.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Russ pitts that was fucking hardcore.

good read.

 

[Aureliano]

I'll say what I said back when Jim wrote an article like this: the industry can suck it. If the only way the video game industry survives is by my paying hundreds of dollars a month buying crap I don't like and never expected to like, then the industry can crash and burn for all I care.

In all likelihood it would herald a new golden age of independent developers and a whole new reason to spend more money on good, interesting and innovative games (with lower graphical standards, sure, but probably more fun).