Is the Videogame Industry about to collapse?

V

Verd1234

Look, Ma! Two Heads!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9joAb4XMaUs[/youtube]

This video got me thinking about this and I was wondering what some of you all might be thinking...

He is right about what happened to the Comic Industry. It kept trying to appeal all "mature and shit" to the older fans in such a way that newer fans weren't able to get into Comics and thus the Comics industry collapsed and declined with only a dwindling fanbase to support it...

Honestly, very very few kids nowadays would bother even cracking open a comic anymore let alone reading it...

Perhaps the Videogame industry is approaching this situation... Microsoft, Sony and the Third Parties are mainly appealing to the older fanbase which mainly consists of teenagers and 20-year olds....

These guys are going to be less into games as they get older leaving only a dwindling fanbase as we go on...

I think the only safeguard against this situation is Nintendo with the Wii and their approach to casuals...

I mean, little kids are gonna see Mario and like him and stuff but will the kids like Master Chief nearly as much? And does Sony even have a mascot anymore?

I doubt Sony and Microsoft care because they have other things to support them than videgames but Nintendo cares alot and the third parties should also care...

I remember the president of Nintendo(Iwata) said something like this when he was disccussing the Wii Vitality Sensor...

So Yes, I agree with the video...
 
The videogame industry might collapse, but not due to a decline in appealing to the younger gamers. There are actually a ton of games that are aimed at a younger audience (games like Trine, or all of the Popcap games), but they don't get a lot of coverage for a number of different reasons. That doesn't mean they aren't there, they are.

The videogame industry does have a lot of significant problems with its economic model, though.
 
The videogame industry does have a lot of significant problems with its economic model, though.
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Are you refering to how Sony and Microsoft sell their systems for lower than the price that they cost for a loss? And hoping to make the money back later through game sales?

Or are you refering to escalating costs of game development?

In either case, I sorta agree...
 
younger generation left out?

besides he's talking about consoles, not video games in general.

get a pc, you fucking noob. i'd welcome the death of the console market, perhaps it would stop stupidifying the rest of the game industry. ;)
 
SuAside said:
younger generation left out?

besides he's talking about consoles, not video games in general.

get a pc, you fucking noob. i'd welcome the death of the console market, perhaps it would stop stupidifying the rest of the game industry. ;)
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Amen.
 
So I watched the video a second time before it all sunk in.

This guy doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. Is he really going to try and say that mature games don't appeal to little kids? Really? He's really going to go there? Little kids LOVE mature games. The more violence, the better. Grand theft auto, gears of war, resident evil. All of these are violent as fuck, and have a huge following of kids.

The only obstacle the industry has for violent games are the repressed parents (which are on a decline), and the jack thompsons of the world (who will most likely just off themselves, since the world would be a much happier place with them dead).

Five minutes on any XBL game should be enough to convince even the most hardened skeptic that there isn't a shortage of vocal 8-12 year olds playing MA17 games.


Gaming is on the rise, and will continue to be. The only thing we've got to worry about (as older gamers) is the dumbing down of everything.
 
Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude said:
So I watched the video a second time before it all sunk in.

This guy doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. Is he really going to try and say that mature games don't appeal to little kids? Really? He's really going to go there? Little kids LOVE mature games. The more violence, the better. Grand theft auto, gears of war, resident evil. All of these are violent as fuck, and have a huge following of kids.

The only obstacle the industry has for violent games are the repressed parents (which are on a decline), and the jack thompsons of the world (who will most likely just off themselves, since the world would be a much happier place with them dead).

Five minutes on any XBL game should be enough to convince even the most hardened skeptic that there isn't a shortage of vocal 8-12 year olds playing MA17 games.


Gaming is on the rise, and will continue to be. The only thing we've got to worry about (as older gamers) is the dumbing down of everything.
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Interesting analysis.... I hope you are right...

Just curious but what would you say about the Comics Industry? Do you think that may happen to games? What do you have to say about the similarities between comics and gaming?
 
From what I heard, the main problem with comic industry was that they have moved from newspaper stores to specialised comic book stores, which made it less accessible to potential new customers.
 
Verd1234 said:
Just curious but what would you say about the Comics Industry? Do you think that may happen to games? What do you have to say about the similarities between comics and gaming?
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Well, comics to video games is a pretty weak comparison in the first place imo.

Comics have always been a niche market (even 40 years ago), more comparable to trading card games than gaming. Gaming is far more mainstream than comics ever were. Hell, the Wii alone shows that you can get everyone from 5 year old sally to grampa gaming and loving it.
 
Mainstream gaming is what scares me the most. There are not enough titles to suit the vast variety of gamers, so we get "Killer-aps" which water everything down into "Which shooter has best MP?" Which game can I kill hookers and drive in a Ferrari? Which game will keep grandpa form having a stroke?
 
Let's not forget that one of the major reasons comics went to shit was because of their stupidity.

Things like attempting to manufacture collector's crazes with variant covers (variants that have as many issues as the regular cover).

Crossovers that destroy canon and piss off loyal fans.

Letting old fans with crazy ideas write for comics.

All that jazz.
 
Grand Theft Auto 2++ were more along the line of "Violence is fuckin' funny" then mature . . . Along with Blood and Duke Nukem 3D, and a good few others.

I was more a console kid, though. Playing Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, Diablo, those sorts of games, at 10 or 11 years old.

"From what I heard, the main problem with comic industry was that they have moved from newspaper stores to specialised comic book stores, which made it less accessible to potential new customers."
Not only that, but they spammed special editions and reprints of older series, essentially killing comic book collecting in the 80s and 90s. (My father use to buy at those specialized stores in Toronto. He had upwards of 4000, last I counted them, before I sold them). Couldn't even get $400, as all were reprints. Not that there weren't some good reads; Shadow Hawk (some form of cyborg-homeless dude in the first copy), Spawn, Lobo (to a lesser extent), the origenal Punisher, The Maxx . . . There were just so many rehashes of, say, the Uncanny X-Men, Spider Man, or Sgt. something-or-other.

It was like day-time soap operas. The same shity story over and over. Just there to get you to buy into it.

In terms of a decreasing market for mature (18-25 year old targets), yes that market is shirnking. At least in the west, as the average age of the population increases. Places like India, however . . . Heh. Huge population of >25 (in the billions).

But, if G.I. Joe, Fallout 3, Terminator 3, .etc are to judge . . . Why, the entire entertainment industry (excluding prostitution) is heading the way of comics.
 
Gotta hand it to Nintendo though, they know how to sell stuff. And yes, having a mascot means you'll do super well and have a long lasting and prosperous company, yeah, isn't that right Sega?

But Nintendo's marketing toward the whole family is nothing new, its been that way since the very beginning (er, Famicom, meaning Family Computer), not just a bunch of teens to young adults. Yeah, true, you probably won't see grandmother playing a NES but hey, whatever.

And who is this guy? Thinking that people under 17 don't like, don't want mature games? Come on, kids 12 and up are the ones wanting to play those games. So he chose 17 and up because that's the Mature rating? Oh but its an M rating, the kiddies can't buy them. Ha! If that's the logic, then you never been to a Gamestop, or other retailer, full of a bunch of 10 year olds and their stupid parent.

And comics were never as big as an industry as video games. Comics just happen.
 
Verd1234 said:
Perhaps the Videogame industry is approaching this situation... Microsoft, Sony and the Third Parties are mainly appealing to the older fanbase which mainly consists of teenagers and 20-year olds....
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Pretty much all action games that are being released on consoles now are simplified to a point where a person with severe mental disabilities might easily get the hang of it. And seing as how these games are made into gimmicky, ultra fast pace action orgies it would be hard to believe that 7 year olds might be discouraged to play games because of that.....
 
generalissimofurioso said:
Crossovers that destroy canon and piss off loyal fans.
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From what I have gathered these were never considered canon even by the creators?
 
I don't know much about today's game industry, but I suspect shoddy and unqualified management. I'm reminded of the tao of programming whenever I think of today's gaming problems.


A manager went to the master programmer and showed him the requirements document for a new application. The manager asked the master: ``How long will it take to design this system if I assign five programmers to it?''

``It will take one year,'' said the master promptly.

``But we need this system immediately or even sooner! How long will it take if I assign ten programmers to it?''

The master programmer frowned. ``In that case, it will take two years.''

``And what if I assign a hundred programmers to it?''

The master programmer shrugged. ``Then the design will never be completed,'' he said.
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Why are programmers non-productive?
Because their time is wasted in meetings.

Why are programmers rebellious?
Because the management interferes too much.

Why are the programmers resigning one by one?
Because they are burnt out.

Having worked for poor management, they no longer value their jobs.
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A manager was about to be fired, but a programmer who worked for him invented a new program that became popular and sold well. As a result, the manager retained his job.

The manager tried to give the programmer a bonus, but the programmer refused it, saying, ``I wrote the program because I thought it was an interesting concept, and thus I expect no reward.''

The manager upon hearing this remarked, ``This programmer, though he holds a position of small esteem, understands well the proper duty of an employee. Let us promote him to the exalted position of management consultant!''
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Dragula said:
From what I have gathered these were never considered canon even by the creators?
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Final Crisis is plenty canonical.

52 is canonical.

Countdown is canonical (As a matter of fact, DC's EIC says Countdown was 52 done right).

One More Day is Canonical.

Civil War (which I liked, but was ruined by the writers who didn't) is Canonical.

The list goes on!
 
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