Gaming's Future Looks Uncertain, Says Epic Boss

[Vault101]

Does anyone else think of Charlie Sheen when he says "Winning?"

In all honesty, I can sort of agree with this. While I think that the dollar apps on smartphones do help push innovation, it doesn't bring into question why anyone would spend a fat $60 on a game that could be good or bad, when you can make the same investment 60 times, and have a better chance of finding better games, plus have more to do.

I like what THQ is doing with the $40 game w/ strong DLC releases, meaning that the game is cheaper for consumers, and those who take the risk and enjoy it can get more with their money, while those who take the risk but don't like it still save some money.

And the console's future is up for grabs, because now we have Kinect and Move along w/ the Wii, where can we go from there? I doubt we'll have a fruit controller anytime soon, and innovation in graphics and other things are kind of maxed out, the biggest thing is creating the best games, which is hard to find from a lot of companies trying to guarantee profit and shunning certain elements of a game to make it "safe"

Hopefully we have more sequels like Portal 2, I'm sorry to sound like a fanboy but the game was fantastic, and lived up, at least to me, the hype. How often do we get to find a game that you can say the same about the sequel? Dragon Age 2, Bioshock 2, a lot of games that get overhyped fail, it's nice to see some companies are innovating, and you can argue that Homefront innovated by moving the game into the slight future and making it KOREA instead of Russia that attacks the US. Baby steps

first of all any fool with more than two braincells will at least do a little reasearch into a game, even if that means skimming over a reveiw, combine that with your own veiw of what you like/dislike then you have a pretty good Idea if youll like the game or not

and thats even if your paying new realease price for it (because I image youre probably only going to do that if A. somthign seems interesting and gets rave reviews B. from a franchise you know and trust)

oh and you do realise the a casul game and a AAA game are a COMPLETLEY different experence and market, casual games are essentialy fun time wasters, theres no depth (and I got sick of my wii pretty fast)

(Incoming rant)I mean could youre compare angry birds to bioshock? or Assins creed? no one is going to abandon the AAA experience for friggen....farmville the very sugestion complet;ey boggles the mind....I would imagine a gamer doesnt play just to kill time but to have fun and hopefully a rich experience

I still dont belive DA2 is as bad as everyone is making it out to be (I shall have to play) Bioshock 2 wasnt bad at all, unessicary but do oyu honestly belive it could top the "omg wow!" factor of the first? nahh

anyway this $40 agme with DLC sounds terrible, I do not have access to DLC and I like the Idea when I get a game its a complete package

I get the Idea behined it and I supose it makes sense however its unfair to people like me

........................oh wait I forgot..I dont exist hahaha! silly me

anyway if its going to start anywhere I bet it will be with devs and publishers...mabye going casual/micro transaction is a more apealing option with the huge cost of makign games, but trust me it has NOTHING to do with the consumer

 

[Pat8u]

if the traditional triple AAA games go away someone will ressurect them and people will be like These Phone games suck compared to that game that just came out that costed $100 and everyone will ditch the phones and come back Gaming has a bright future and if the industry does leave consoles doesen't mean you shouldn't I mean after Im out of highschool and uni I will be programming for consoles no matter if no one does anymore

 

[Vault101]

Ooh! Subtle mind games! How pleasant.

"Ya'll better stop bitching about how much you spend on games now, ya hear? Iffin you aren't careful, we'll just up an go away now. How about that?

.

hahaha brilliant!

as I just said (twice...sory) mabye it wil become more apealing for developers and publishers to go down...well nto just the casual route but mabe screwing around with the "DLC" and "Micro-transaction route"

dammit when I buy a game I want the whole thing

 

[mxfox408]

All I ever hear Epic do is ***** and complain how hard things are. Never have i heard a game company ***** and about how hard things are as much as epic does. All the better devolopers do is push through and do it anyway. Epic gakes always makes excuses as to they wont do something because its to hard. Lazy developer is what it seems. They said gow2 wont ever be developed for the pc due to pirating. Really, pirating? that hasnt stopped other devlopers. Second excuse, we wont release infinte blade on android because thier store is too fragmented and they have to many different devices that cannot support it...really? Alot of the new android phones are more powerful than the iphone. It seems they look for any excuse not to do something that presents a challange.

 

[Kroxile]

$60 games are a joke and a ripoff anyway. I mean, I'll get one if it comes with goodies and extras such as a preorder but normally.. hell no.

I realize the cost for making the things has only gone up up and up but am I the only one who remembers $40 for brand new games last gen? That was the cheapest they'd ever been.

I can still remember shelling out $83 (tax included) for Chrono Trigger on release day.

 

[Carlston]

Man, gaming is dying, hero movies are dying...


You know what is DEAD?

Creative games, games that are longer than 6-10 hours of game play. Games with fresh scripts, games with more fun factor, exploration and flat out STORY have all died to graphics and corridor linear adventures.

But hey, long as you make it pretty and clone God of Wars game play... you game companies will spit out garbage, make hint guides (to make sure we mindless players finish the game in 2 days with all unlockables so we can BUY a new game!) till your blue in the face.

Millions to develop a game? Really? Do we need to see Solid Snakee's zits form in real time?
Do we need to see individual hairs flowing in the wind on someones head? Really? No... we don't.

How bout you make a "fun" game again? That's a start...

 

[CheckD3]

Does anyone else think of Charlie Sheen when he says "Winning?"

Other things I also said

first of all any fool with more than two braincells will at least do a little reasearch into a game, even if that means skimming over a reveiw, combine that with your own veiw of what you like/dislike then you have a pretty good Idea if youll like the game or not

and thats even if your paying new realease price for it (because I image youre probably only going to do that if A. somthign seems interesting and gets rave reviews B. from a franchise you know and trust)

oh and you do realise the a casul game and a AAA game are a COMPLETLEY different experence and market, casual games are essentialy fun time wasters, theres no depth (and I got sick of my wii pretty fast)

(Incoming rant)I mean could youre compare angry birds to bioshock? or Assins creed? no one is going to abandon the AAA experience for friggen....farmville the very sugestion complet;ey boggles the mind....I would imagine a gamer doesnt play just to kill time but to have fun and hopefully a rich experience

I still dont belive DA2 is as bad as everyone is making it out to be (I shall have to play) Bioshock 2 wasnt bad at all, unessicary but do oyu honestly belive it could top the "omg wow!" factor of the first? nahh

anyway this $40 agme with DLC sounds terrible, I do not have access to DLC and I like the Idea when I get a game its a complete package

I get the Idea behined it and I supose it makes sense however its unfair to people like me

........................oh wait I forgot..I dont exist hahaha! silly me

anyway if its going to start anywhere I bet it will be with devs and publishers...mabye going casual/micro transaction is a more apealing option with the huge cost of makign games, but trust me it has NOTHING to do with the consumer

Yes, but all the research in the world won't tell you if a game is good, and because reviews and critiques are personal, you could hear 20 reviews that praise a game and still find it crap, the same that 20 horrible reviews about a game won't change the fact that you could personally find a game the best ever. And you could also learn something about yourself through a new experience, and also a previous era of tastes or a polished revision on something you once didn't like but done right find fantastic

Yes, they are different, but that doesn't change the fact that just because the experiences are different mean that a casual game will be less of a game or a time of enjoyment than a AAA game will be.

It sounds like you're insulting the casual gaming industry, and while it changes gaming's face, it's not necessarily bad. I've come to the conclusion that casual games are 1 aspect of gaming stretched out and polished (usually) to give enjoyment, and while it doesn't push the "games are art" argument at all, you can't deny that casual gaming hasn't had a good impact on the industry and also brought gaming to many people.

I never said that Bioshock 2 or DA2 were BAD games, I said that they didn't live up to the hype that were given to them. And nowadays you have many games that do the same. Very rarely do you have a game surpass a strong opening game, because the original reaction to a game that had no expectations is extremely hard to get when people have something under the same franchise tag and can hold it up to it's original. There isn't enough innovation done to keep ideas fresh. This is why I praised Portal 2, because amazingly, I found it as fun as I hoped. The story was stronger, the characters well thought out and executed, and the puzzles as fun and challenging as I had come to expect. However it's rare to find games that can do this.

And yes, those who don't have access to DLC are a bit SoL, but nowadays there are fewer and fewer people in your situation. PS3 has built-in wi-fi and a free acct, and X360s now have built-in wi-fi, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can still download and buy things the XBLM w/ a silver account. Again, I may be wrong, but even still, if you had to get Gold, I'm sure many people could find use for it to buy games that can be played offline, and play games online. Access to internet on the consoles has grown significantly, and not to sound like a jerk, but they don't care about you because they're not looking back at people who can't afford these upgrades, but are focusing on those who can, the same way that a person with a GC, Xbox (original), NES, PS2 (I believe they're discontinued games on it, correct me if I'm wrong) and older systems have no love from companies while new gens get all the love.

 

[mxfox408]

Well bioware still makes decent games, mass effect anyone. They even are not as lazy as epic and devlops them on three different platforms using epics technology.

 

[Mallefunction]

Honestly, I don't think that consoles are dead like EC and this Epic Boss seems to think. Personally, I hate playing with no controller and handhelds have always been a bother for me when it comes to a quality gaming experience. I feel like I can't be as immersed in a game when I'm sitting at a nosy bus-stop, trying to make out the tiny figures on a 3 inch screen.

But everyone else got to the nut of the matter, casual gamers are not interested in buying $60 games in the first place. They were never the market so it's not like social and casual games are 'cornering' the game market, they have different customers entirely.

 

[DustyDrB]

In Capps' opinion, "dollar apps" were potentially very harmful to the industry, saying that 99-cent games on smart phones made it much more difficult to convince consumers that a $60 game was value for money.

Or, maybe, it's the 5-hour long, no replayability, dumbed down, homogenized games that are making it difficult to convince consumers that a $60 game was value for money.

Cut down on your budgets, step back on the ultra-detailed graphics for games that don't really need them, and make something interesting.

And add some color to your games. Epic makes games with wonderful graphics but horrendous art styles.

But, yeah, I completely agree with you.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Well, if "traditional" gaming does die, I'm done being a gamer. I like sitting down and playing on my TV, not looking at a tiny screen in my hand and pushing it over and over--unless it's a product made just for gaming.

 

[Zakarath]

Hey, want to be more competitive? LOWER YOUR FUCKING PRICES. And I bet that at cheaper prices, sales will increase, so it won't even cost them that much.

 

[McGuinty1]

Seems to me that Mr. Capps should stop QQ'ing about uncertainty surrounding the future of "AAA gaming" (read: his high 6- or low 7-figure salary), and maybe go do something positive to change things. He may as well change his first name to Andy, go crawl inside a bottle and ignore his wife and family if all he's going to do is piss and moan. What is he looking for, sympathy? Isn't the ubiquity of his company's own UE3 a painfully obvious symptom of the disease that's killing big-budget gaming in the first place, namely monotony?

 

[nodanaonlyzuul]

I don't really buy into the doom and gloom bit the industry keeps harping on about. The consumers that they are talking about were not the ones buying the full price retail games in the first place. Stop questioning the wrong demographic for your product.

This. THIS. Everyone says this! Why don't they understand that?

 

[punipunipyo]

here is my take on the "power portable gaming device" vs traditional gaming devices (pc, PS(insert your favorite number), Xbox(insert your favorite LARGE number, Wii(how ever many "wii" after it; Iheard the next one it's going to be called "wii^2"; "Wii-Wii" orz...):

Yes you can stream high end games, yes you have portability, yes you can "alt-tab" out faster, yes the casual market is nice, but when it comes to playing, I'd still prefer big screen(HD), loud sound, playing with "inner circles of friends, enjoy game with longer story line (I don't watch soap/drama/sires on tv, instead, I play RPGs/long story games, they usually are not "cheap" when it comes to excitement, and games never pops ads(i hope this will remain), and you can stop/pause any time!

over all... I enjoy games like I enjoy movies, books, shows, music, anime, food... etc. Just because many are doing it, and it's "cheap", don't mean I am going to settle for "almost as good". I want my guns/blazing be known across the street, and I want to see the action IN MY FACE, and not my face to the little screen.

In terms of money value... I think industries SHOULD consider changing their selling strategies, think, people are poor now, but games are as expensive as EVER! (however, I DID paied for HL2 for $70some when it came out... how did they convince me to do that... I know not...). I think the gaming industries' "fear" for pirates, had led to the downfall of it's marketing, It literally breath life to F2P games' market style (which I've always hate, because they market their games like drug dealers; because I had argument with my mother once about video games NOT like drug... now... I couldn't win that debate anymore...), and casual games! think, if you are poor and had to choose between BUYING a $60 game, or "download the $60 game and just pay $1-19 for the ones that you HAD to pay to play" (yes you got it, the ONLY reason why apps are so successful it's simply because pirates/people can't get them for FREE easy yet, and BECAUSE they are so cheap, there IS NO NEED TO PIRATE!... so are most of the online/client based games... what the AAAs need to do is not only deliver a MORE "DELUXE" experiences, perhaps give the buyers things that DL-apps couldn't offer, like posters/toys(no, really, I mean like for DoW games, actually get a table top piece! perhaps make it like a surprise in the box kind of thing!~like one of 10 different types!)/extra contents like what game stop gave to pre orders (use their tactics against them!)/FOR GOD SAKES MAKE YOUR BOX WORTH KEEPING! collecting game boxes used to be such a nice thing, no they are no different than the stupid DVDs you buy, and cover arts sux/ugly as hell!

Think, if i went to the shop, and bought a $30 game, with experience/entertainment that no dl-apps can offer, with nice box, collectible item, other extra content(throw in bonus music/vid cd?), nice manual book, that's like half an art book... you've already/pretty much killed the "pawn" market right there (remember, good box, but PAPER/music cd WRAP for dvd game!!! making a "used" game look COMPLETE GIMP!) and once you DROP the sell price, there will be no need to pirate a game, I know it's hard, but think, 100 people, 10 people buys $60 game, 50 people download, and 30 people buy used, and 20 people watch ending on u-tube, or pla at friend's; $600 sold, but if you sell for $30, and making "pawned" game a shit buy, 50 people buys, 20 people DL (prabably buy later if it's good, and if they want the in box "stuff", 10 people "pawned" (probably regret later) , and 20 watched (and prabably will want one copy later for themselves too), already $1500 sold and more to come! thik REAL HARD....

 

[Vakz]

Only me who clicked the link to this article for the single reason of "Epic Boss"?

 

[neolithic]

Can't help but notice that just below this thread is one about a teacher cancelling class due to a "traditional" video game release... just saying.

 

[RatRace123]

I doubt that AAA story heavy games will ever disappear in favor of the casual market, if only because the fans of those games would throw the hugest shit fit ever.
There'll always be a market for big blockbuster games, the casual wave is a lot larger and a lot more profitable, but plenty of people still want to make huge, complex worlds populated with interesting characters and a good story.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'm amused by the number of people who latched onto a single point made in the article and fail to consider it with respect to the larger point that was made. That point, incidentally, is that the rules that once unquestionably governed the Gaming industry are in the process of changing. One of those rules is that games in a certain space are expected to sell for a single dollar. This revision of rules means that more decisions than usual will have to be made without knowing all of the pertinent details.

Never once was it asserted that the industry is doomed and he even closes with a hopeful note pointing out that it was, in fact, an exciting time.

 

[Vohn_exel]

In Capps' opinion, "dollar apps" were potentially very harmful to the industry, saying that 99-cent games on smart phones made it much more difficult to convince consumers that a $60 game was value for money.

Or, maybe, it's the 5-hour long, no replayability, dumbed down, homogenized games that are making it difficult to convince consumers that a $60 game was value for money.

Cut down on your budgets, step back on the ultra-detailed graphics for games that don't really need them, and make something interesting.

This. I remember when I used to play games for weeks on end. Not just because they might be kind of challenging, but because the game took that long to complete. And not only that, but it was entertaining as well. Heck, half the time, after I beat it, I'd turn on the unlocked cheats and go beat it again.

Edit: And I should say that if Minecraft has proven anything, it's that you don't need fancy graphics or complicated gameplay to make a sucessful game.