no, but it'll be doing better once it gets over this 'FPS' phase it's been in for what feels like forever
Poll: Is the gaming industry deterioating?
- Thread starter Fox242
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Hardly. In fact the gaming industry is on a rise. Yes we have a lot of clones of CoD and the fact that CoD hardly changes year to year but this past year saw some of the highest sales ever. I'm not a fan of CoD but I won't deny that it is a major factor for bringing in many people into gaming. I mean it made over a billion dollars faster than any other video game ever, I exclude movies from this because there is a basic fifty dollar difference between them. Skyrim sold 3.5 million in 48 hours, one of the fastest selling games of the year. 10 million retail copies of it have been shipped out and over 5 million copies have been bought or activated on Steam. The Xbox had its best selling year ever and the 3ds, well of to a slow start, has sold well. 4.5 million copies of angry birds have been sold over the Christmas season, yes iPhone games are still games just different forms than console. So gaming is on the up and up even with 12 year olds swearing on CoD.
It is getting better. I don't know why people get so upset that not every game sells as well as Call of Duty when it is so clearly an anomaly in terms of sales. A game selling very well is more like 2 million or more (and even less for smaller budget games). Twenty-five million is not the baseline for a good selling game. It's a freak number resulting from a perfect storm for a game, and isn't something most companies see as an achievable goal.
There are plenty of great games being released, and a number of them have done quite well for themselves. They span nearly every genre and every platform. Gaming is getting better.
There are plenty of great games being released, and a number of them have done quite well for themselves. They span nearly every genre and every platform. Gaming is getting better.
Nope, what with technology always advancing, we're gaining the tools to create bigger and better games with more detail, content and immersion.
If we're talking the distant future, then you could start talking about virtual reality stuff, which will totally blow our minds.
If we're talking the distant future, then you could start talking about virtual reality stuff, which will totally blow our minds.
Not at all. More games, better games, more money flowing into the industry, more of every genre no matter how small the niche, more available at pretty much every price range, etc. I can't really see that much at all to complain about on the development side of things (the player side, however, makes me want to jump off a cliff several times a day). I mean, there are so many great games coming out these days that even if you only focused on a single genre and didn't play much else you'd still be hard pressed to play all of the notable titles in a year.
"Major" games are in a poor situation. The fact that high budgets are becoming the standard for many videogames is problematic. High budgets require high revenue. A mandate for very high revenue will suppress creativity in this industry.
If a new franchise can even get green-lighted with a large budget, it will probably be a military fps. New games with unorthodox styles are already becoming rare. We already have good games like Okami causing the end of studios. In the future these games will never even make it to the market.
If a new franchise can even get green-lighted with a large budget, it will probably be a military fps. New games with unorthodox styles are already becoming rare. We already have good games like Okami causing the end of studios. In the future these games will never even make it to the market.
But those games came before the rise of paradoxically hyper realistic cartoon shooters like CoD and while Sotc and Okami is a lot better games in that period had tons of variety in itself. We don't have that anymore. Save for maybe rpg's which not everyone is interested in the aaa market has become entirely shooter with multiplayer, we are pumping out like 2 genres out of the tons of already established and we aren't experimenting with others.Daystar Clarion said:
Remember when every FPS was set in World War 2?him over there said:
Now we barely see any WW2 shooters.
Trust me, modern military shooters will pass, just like they did.
No, the industry as a whole isn't deteriorating. Or at very least, not to any degree that can't be blamed on the crap economy or on some of the bigger companies resting on their laurels.
Thank you for trying to lift my spirits, and I really hope that you're right. Also I've been thinking of getting into pc gaming (even though I know nothing about pc's)because of the aaa scene and how big budgets require big revenues means little experimenting or progress. The non united platform of pc's means that games that aren't top tier in graphics or length can still find a home from all parts of the spectrum. On consoles you have $60 aaa and $10 mini download games. Why aren't there games that meet like gamecube or ps2 standards for like $25-30 dollars. Consoles are pushing out a lot of options.Daystar Clarion said:
I don't know. New games are coming out all the time and it seems like an awful lot of them are shit, but if you take the time to think about it, you realize this has always been the case, and also applies to books, movies, etc. But we usually only remember the good ones.
That said, I feel like it's becoming harder for me to find games I enjoy. The titles that get all the hype consistently underwhelm and disappoint me, yet I'll find out about a game that's been out for months without me hearing much of anything about it, and it ends up being a lot of fun. I actually have to look for good games now, but they are there when I do. I think this has more to do with how games are marketed than anything else.
That said, I feel like it's becoming harder for me to find games I enjoy. The titles that get all the hype consistently underwhelm and disappoint me, yet I'll find out about a game that's been out for months without me hearing much of anything about it, and it ends up being a lot of fun. I actually have to look for good games now, but they are there when I do. I think this has more to do with how games are marketed than anything else.
If you have the money, then do it. You just have so many more options on a PC, you'll never run out of games to enjoy, especially if you're willing to try older games. You don't even need to get a really expensive PC, just a reasonably fast desktop computer. A lot of the games that require an expensive PC to run also come out on consoles, but a lot of high-quality games that don't require a fancy PC aren't available on any other platform. There's also mods, which let you enjoy your games in ways that would never be possible on a console. Plus, if you do decide later on that you want to run those graphically-demanding games on your PC, it's not a huge deal to upgrade it as long as you have a good processor.him over there said:
Thanks for the encouragement but my main problem is I have no real knowledge of the workings or requirements of pcs. I doubt I'd be able to work my way around a lot of things. I would love to get in on it however. What you're saying about marketing and searching makes sense but isn't it kind of a bad sign that it's the mediocre games that get all the attention; and not for being mediocre.ComradeJim270 said:
That's... that's it?ToastiestZombie said:
Don't get me wrong, those are good games. A couple of them are great. But comparing them to the best that movies and books have to offer just seems like a bad joke.
Once again, those are good games. (Can't speak for Okami, haven't played it.) But the notion that they are the best we can come up with is just a tad depressing.Daystar Clarion said:
Well, that's some consolation.
...
Uh huh.lRookiel said:
Considering that ME2 is a personal favourite and ME3 is the game I am most looking forward to right now, I'd say you're talking to the wrong person.
Most here will say no, but I don't see it any other way. "Progress" is being measured by sales, and as such, shittier and shittier games are being made to appease the masses instead of the gamers that dedicated themselves to gaming in decades past.
i wouldn't neccessarily say deteriorating, but there is a 'tumour' of sorts embedded deep within the industry, one that is oft overlooked or rationalised away, and that is the fact that the software is one of the few areas where shipping an incomplete or defective product is considered an acceptable practice
we've seen it recently with skyrim, fallout new vegas, and SOTS II, where a broken product is released with the hope of patches to fix it later on down the line, i know what some are going to say in defence of this, that its the nature of the medium, etc etc. but you know what it isn't acceptable, it certainly isn't across other industries, could you image if Toyota pulled this kind of nonsense on a regular basis with the excuse of 'making brake or acccelerator pedals that work is difficult.' and i'm fairly certain that most nations have some form of statutory warranty where a company is required by law to make their products to a standard and give a full refund if said product is not fit for purpose, so why do we let this go on?
we've seen it recently with skyrim, fallout new vegas, and SOTS II, where a broken product is released with the hope of patches to fix it later on down the line, i know what some are going to say in defence of this, that its the nature of the medium, etc etc. but you know what it isn't acceptable, it certainly isn't across other industries, could you image if Toyota pulled this kind of nonsense on a regular basis with the excuse of 'making brake or acccelerator pedals that work is difficult.' and i'm fairly certain that most nations have some form of statutory warranty where a company is required by law to make their products to a standard and give a full refund if said product is not fit for purpose, so why do we let this go on?
No it is not deteriorating but it isn't doing itself any favours. Regardless of what some people think, believe or want to see consoles are becoming more and more like actual PCs which is not a good thing. As if you wanted a PC you would already be gaming on one. Consoles have basically brought many of the cons of PC gaming to itself without many of the pros.
The mainstream is just something you have to live with.
The mainstream is just something you have to live with.