oh good, I see a lot of people here have already got their rose colored glasses on about the last generation, so many fond posts about the doom of gaming and how everything has become profit motive and the new consoles can never quite capture the lightning in a bottle greatness that was their predecessors.
Oh wait, I'm sorry I misclicked and was reading threads from the switchover to the 360, PS3 generation, with its red rings, microsoft buyouts, and "$599 U.S. Dollars!". Good times, Good times.
Ah, I also remember people predicting the death of PC gaming around that time a lot, also the lamentation of the decline of Sega, the Dreamcast, and the increasing irrelevance of Japanese games in the Western market. So much doom and gloom, if anything, its almost comforting to see that hasn't really changed in all these years, what would video games be without someone around to ask us if they've peaked every couple years and to lament the inevitable doom of *insert company, console, or genre here*. With how often I've seen these threads since I started surfing the internet in the early 90's, you'd think gaming never had a peak, apparently gaming's just been going downhill since the invention of Pong. I do kind of miss the doomsaying around the death of arcades and how consoles would ruin gaming for computer nerds and arcade jockeys, that was a special kind of nostalgia for my old ass.
So what kind of peak are we talking about? Can't be financial since there's more money in gaming now than at any previous point in history. The new consoles, despite how useless they are according to the Escapist forums, are breaking pretty much every previous sales record in video games history. Seems the average consumer doesn't quite grasp the terrible deficiencies this console generation apparently has. PC gaming has never been more profitable than it is today, and never in a state with so much choice and vibrancy in its games. The mobile market is still chugging along with solid profits for Nintendos eternal cycle of gameboys, and an absurdly profitable mobile games market in smart phones.
Indie wise, it has never been easier to find a massive array of games and genres that never would have gotten funding, or been able to exist during the PS2/xbox or ps3/360 era. Fucking point and click adventure games have somehow managed to crawl out of the grave, and the PS4 is getting a remake of motherfucking Grim Fandango, that's not something we would have ever seen early last gen.
Even the AAA scene is still seeing innovation and the birth of successful series and reboots. And trust me, the franchise whoring wasn't much better in previous gens, it was usually people aping Nintendo more with mascots and platformers, or chasing street fighter's tail with 9000 fighting game rip-offs. Nowadays its shooter, shooters, and more shooters, but that too may change in the future, even the 400 pound gorilla that is CoD is starting to see its decline in sales figures, and who knows what will replace it in the end.
Now, that's not to say everything in gaming is all peaches and cream, this generation certainly has its downsides and unique problems. The absolute mess that is the free-to-play/microtransaction situation, and the shilling of DLC has made getting all the content in a game either frustrating or expensive. The AAA industry is generally bloated to a massive degree, but that kind of thing has happened in the past and has lead to corporate die offs before, its not really a zero sum game here. The new consoles are also at the edge of a cliff, with high speed internet and multimedia centers so completely ubiquitous we may very well see a fundamental shift in the nature of console after the One/PS4 generation, so depending on how tech develops, we may see a major shakeup in the console industry within the next decade, for good or for ill.
People have been talking about the "peak" of video games ever since I started gaming, things change, and when people don't like those changes, they reassure themselves by talking about how those things they don't like will surely be the decline of *insert anything here*, and how all their beliefs and views will inevitably be vindicated. That doesn't mean that there's nowhere to go but up, but to talk of gaming like it only has a single peak is far too narrow a vision to ever truly apply to the reality of a complex multi-billion dollar global industry.
Gaming is not some lonely mountain surrounded by plains stretching into eternity, with only a single ascent and descent. Gaming is a mountain range with peaks of many sizes reaching to incredible heights or precipitous lulls. It is not even a single chain of mountains, all lined up in single-file. While one aspect of gaming may descend, another will ascend beside it, creating a diverse system of experience where one facet rides high whilst another struggles in a deep valley. That metaphorical mountain range stretches out to the unseen horizon, maybe one day the horizon will reveal the end of our mountaineering adventures, and lead us into an eternal plain with nary a hope for the ascent of another thrilling peak, but you'll be hard pressed to convince me that fate is here now. Because now, right at this moment, all I see in front of me are mountains stretching out into the sky.
