Where is our beloved gaming industry headed?

On 02/22/2013 at 10:21 PM by ActivisionStoleMy360

This is a question i've been asking for a few years now. With 1up wrapping up, it brings this question back to the forefront of my mind. Where is the gaming industry going? While 1up is more personal for me, so many gaming studio's have either been acquired or closed over the years, and its getting to the point where I can count the number of publishers on a single hand. This doesn't look good for our beloved hobby going forward.

We observe a lot of things happening in the game industry, we observe where game consoles are going, the types of games coming out, and the lack of new IP's it leaves a lot to the imagination as to whether we will end up seeing only Activision, EA and a few titles published by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. The Japanese companies are obviously going to continue, sadly we won't end up seeing as many of them as we would like here in the State or Europe just based on their business model and that they won;t sell as well here.

So, there is the obvious next question....what do we do? What has to change? I'd say the first thing that has to change would be the business model. EA and Activision focus on the short term goals of their company and completely forego the long term potential, as we have seen, and as I have watched their stock prices plummet like a nerds chances at dating the homecoming queen (ya i went there :p ). Publically traded videogame companies is like an oxymoron, and these folks don't get that. While the hardware companies have that luxury because they can use their many different divisions to make up for any short term losses, EA and Activision don't have that luxury! We saw just how well "trendy cool" facebook did when they went public, and how much better they likely looked and performed as a private company. Small development studio's with less rules in terms of how capital flows and works will always be able to create on their time tables, quality games! They can take however long the development cycle takes and tend to create a unique community following! My hope is to see companies like EA and Activision start to stumble, and sell off some of their properties to the actual developers again, or small groups of developers so we start to see more diversity in gaming again.

Some good examples of companies in their golden era prior to being bought are Bioware and Blizzard, companies that were highly successful and produced products so far beyond gamers expectations prior to being purchased by EA and Activision (respectively). My hopes are for the futures, places like Pixlbit create small communities of people that will always be skeptical of their larger, stranger cousins (IGN).

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/22/2013 at 10:25 PM

I find solace in the indie scene, of sites and developers. the indie scene is so vibrant now it's actually insane, and a lot of smaller, great games are being made. sure, the AAA games will alway take less risks, but smaller franchises, with digital distribution will make out okay.

Michael117

02/22/2013 at 10:30 PM

I personally think the future of gaming is as bright as ever. The industry isn't going anywhere, and certainly the art of game design isn't going anywhere. Things are always in a state of flux and it's only the empires involved that are being shifted around. Some live, some die, many just change with times and evolve. One company dies and 5 more are birthed in its wake.

Nowadays it's easier than ever to become educated in game design, it's easier to get your hands on free tools and engines, on free information and knowledge. PC gaming is on the rise again when just a few years ago people thought it was dead. More and more people are finding out that game design is an art you can actually persue with passion and make a living off of. I'm a budding designer and I have all the hope in the world, I can't be cynical about the future. I want to be realistic and keep my head on my shoulders, but at the same time I need my imagiation and ambition in the clouds. For the first time in a long time, homebrew developers are making a comeback and are able to be a part of this art again. Indies are finding new ways and opportunities to get games to people. It's the wild west in a good way. There's lots of opportunity, pathways, choices to make, and games to create.

The golden age of gaming hasn't even been seen yet, despite what most retro gamers will tell you lol. I love retro games and retro gamers though so I'm not knocking them.

ActivisionStoleMy360

02/22/2013 at 10:38 PM

I guess I look at this in terms of the larger producers. My background is business as is my masters degree :p so I spend a lot of time watching the industry because this industry means so much to me.

I don't think we are in the golden age right now, we were, and we can usher in a new one! It will take time and a restructuring of the gaming business industry for sure! However I think the potential is still there...it will take time.

02/23/2013 at 12:04 AM

That's awesome you have a masters in business, I will be coming to you for business questions sir lol. I've never had a strong understanding of business or economics so I just like to hear people talk about it so I can hopefully absorb a little bit. I can agree with your sentiments. We have seen some really golden times in gaming, and in the past generation things have become very tumultuous. But we can make a new era of great games and creativity. It has to be made and I want to take a part in that, it's a reason I'm so enthusiastic and positive about the future.

I want to see games challenge people again like they did to me when I was a kid. My games challenged me cognitively, emotionally, and intellectually in ways that school, the government, and society never had the courage to or creative to. I want to give back to the world of games through the games I'm going to make.

There have been many difficult stories to swallow and a lot of sad news, but we can get through this and come out much stronger.

02/22/2013 at 10:34 PM

I guess I look at the innovation through the 90's! We saw insane things come out of literally a whole field of developers and independant publishers. Games were made to challenge the mind, and stun the heart with some of the greatest stories ever told! They took us on adventures we'd never been on and had us talking about various easter eggs we'd found that made reference to the ultimate geek culture that surrounded us.

I guess today, the focus is more on numbers and less on creativity, we see a dive into the lowest common denominator, and that just shouldn't be! I believe creativity is within everyone, and we just need to reach out to spark that curiosity in society again.

BrokenH

02/22/2013 at 11:46 PM

I feel a tad discouraged so it's difficult to articulate how I feel when I'm so tired. (Being jaded does that)

However, I think there's a lot of hope when it comes to the indie scene. I also hope companies such as Atlus and CD Projekt Red become more active.

When THQ got taken apart I was really bummed. (I wanted to see a few more Darksiders games)

02/23/2013 at 02:37 PM

Thats the real kicker, pulling companies together to make them work! Having the people with the knowledge to generate capital, the vision to understand their consumers and the business sense to pull it all together..we had that years ago, unfortunately those people that came next just wanted the money and none of the work...

Justin Matkowski Staff Alumnus

02/24/2013 at 06:56 PM

I 100% agree with your 90's analogy - I mean look at the games produced during that timeframe! It's almost mind-boggling how many amazing titles came out in that decade. And for as many titles that are now chasing "emotionally immersion", the ideology that the gaming industry has to chase hollywood's tail is nonsense. One of my most emotional moments in any game was in Chrono Trigger when Robo's former companion robots turned on him, and he couldn't understand why. That was a tear-inducing moment, made all the more poignant by the endearing art style of the game.

The Kirby Franchise is such a big part of my gaming history because of how innovative it is and fearless it can be. An uneducated gamer may see them as "kiddie games", but Kirby's Dream Course and Canvas Curse are two of my favorite titles ever, and boast a metric-shit ton more creativity than 90% of what the Suit and Tie bean-counters at major publishers are peddling nowadays.

I think an imperative to this industry is to get people into positions of power that understand & embrace what makes this medium so special, not off the rack MBA's who can't see beyond a spreadsheet.

jgusw

02/24/2013 at 08:07 PM

Makes sense to me.

Thumbs UP, man.

PixlBit