Video games & the market today

[Haggis]

Thing is there's never really been that many good games for a console. I own most of the hardware, a Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, Gamecube, GBA etc. etc. and I'd say for most of them there's less than 20 titles that I'd consider to be quality games. With the PS2 I'd rate a few more games and could compile a top 40, but it's been out 8 years, so that's only 5 decent games a year on average.

[Alastor]

I don't know. I feel there's been lots of fun games out there. You can't find them now because today, these games are poor. But, I can think of lots of SNES, PSX and PS2 games that are fun. I can't say much about the Gameboy series as I never owned one. The N64 had quite a few, as well. I started to notice this trend sometime in 2005-2006 when I felt the PS2 was kind of lacking stuff, and when the Cube didn't have enough fun games...

That may be just a matter of opinion, but I feel that less games are offering fun gameplay, as it seems to focus more on graphics and story. Games change, no doubt, but ultimately, I feel far less developers are thinking about gameplay. The business plan is to sell the games. Preferably in huge numbers and with good reviews. So, graphics porn with a decent story and a gameplay formula that's tested, tried and works alright, will be a good bet for companies.

I think the market has changed in such a way that, gameplay isn't that seperated from the other aspects as they used to be. Speaking froma personal point of view, I think it's simply that I haven't grown accustomed to how games are today. Looking at it from a business perspective, I think we ned games that still last long, but we have less time to play and thus we need to reduce gameplay. Less difficulty, more opportunities to save, and compensate by enhancing other parts of a game (story, graphics or replay value, for instance).

[Tyrien]

The internet and blockbuster releases have ruined what the games market used to be. It's not about trying to make a great game or doing something different. It's about "box office" releases and ensuring you gain back the now massive development investment.

Gaming as a business has become an emulation of stock market battling and is now reflected as good and bad investments. It's really ruining gaming genres. Takes First Person Shooters for example in the west, it's a popular genre. In turn this tells developers if they make an FPS there's a greater chance people will buy it than something like an Action Adventure or RPG.

RPGs are another thing that have seemed to of died this generation.
The once prominent and loved genre by many single-player games has been ruined by the internet and the notion that every game must have multiplayer. On top of that there's no real successfully proven market for RPGs today on consoles. No company has made one in the past 3 years that has been a huge success. This tells developers that it's a risky investment.

Especially with games taking tens of millions of dollars to produce and 2 to 3 year development cycles (take Halo 3, it was announced in 2005. MGS 4 E3 2005.). To some this is even risking a game becoming vaporware, and just being a huge loss for a company. Very few development firms today have the bank to make a game and have it be a total failure and walk away like nothing happened. They just can't afford it.

On top of that the internet has in some ways hurt gaming more than it's helped. With reviews, trailers, and hype becoming the norm it leaves less room for developers to rely on the gamer's true, unbias opinion of a game, or rather their imagination. Once someone has seen a reivew of a game it's not uncommon for people to decide that's the game. To let someone speak for themselves if you will.

This also ties in with the price of games, and how reviews, and the internet hurt even more. It's a given that a game is $50~70 a pop. Most games $60. $60 is something most people would rather not toss away lightly and shrug off if they find it's a bad investment. This high price in games is due to the Movie theater-esque "box office release" money grab. There's excessive advertisement, supplying reviewers comfortably, and most of all the enormous development costs.

Eh... rant.

[Acidreptile]

To me the spirit itself is lost.The "Golden Age" of the games were from the 16 Bits era to the 32-64 Bits era.

Now it is not that cool anymore.The graphics are always evolving but the originality and the quality of all the games are definitely decreasing lately.

[Thunda]

let casual gamers play the pointless mmorpgs.

Let's play some incredible good games, that were made with heart and hard times.

sotc
ffxii
gtaiv

etc

[Tyrien]

Some consider MGS4 one of the last true "Hardcore" games to be released in the coming years.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Alastor

It may vary from region to region, but as a whole, I would say that the genres I mentioned dominate the market, because you have more games of those genres than sports games. And regardless, a loser playing an MMORPG is still a gamer. And you have to count them in as well. When I look at the region here, I see FPS and MMORPG's as being the most popular. World of Warcraft alone is played by over ten million people.

Here is the list of the top games sales for last week:

Pos Console Name Publisher Week Weekly Total
1 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Konami 1 502,427 502,427
2 Wii Sports Nintendo 82 112,403 12,137,689
3 Mario Kart Wii
Nintendo 7 79,480 2,339,434
4 Wii Play Nintendo 70 71,883 6,271,142
5 Ninja Gaiden 2
Microsoft 2 65,085 238,528
6 Dragonball Z: Burst Limit Atari 1 54,730 54,730
7 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
LucasArts 2 53,350 121,660
8 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
LucasArts 2 51,880 129,889
9 Grand Theft Auto IV Take 2 7 50,950 3,599,550
10 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures LucasArts 2 45,986 104,641
11 Wii Fit Nintendo 4 42,397 927,188
12 More Brain Training Nintendo 43 41,486 2,197,647
13 NASCAR 09 Electronic Arts 1 40,650 40,650
14 Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
LucasArts 2 40,322 121,741
15 Dragonball Z: Burst Limit Atari 1 39,305 39,305
16 Super Smash Bros Brawl Nintendo 14 38,338 3,713,253
17 New Super Mario Bros Nintendo 109 37,459 4,556,607
18 Mario Kart DS Nintendo 135 35,978 3,752,108
19 Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon 2: Time / Darkness Exploration Team Nintendo 8 34,765 815,412
20 Pokemon Diamond / Pearl Nintendo 60 33,780 5,104,525

Not a FPS or MMORPG among them. I am not saying they aren't popular, but I am saying they don't dominate the gaming market.

VGChartz.com | American Weekly Chart

Originally Posted by Alastor

You have a point though, Sports games are very popular as well. But they're not dominating the market, and they don't bring new innovations with each release. All they're doing is making them more and more realistic. I know sports games do more, but I'm just pointing this out out of a general perspective.

For sports games being more realistic is the only innovation fans want or need.

Originally Posted by Alastor

x08: My point was that there aren't enough of those games. Shadow of the Colossus and ICO are last-gen. I could mention several other innovative games, but the point is that, if you look at this generation of consoles (including the PC), the market could use a few more games that aren't too similar to another existing game.


Finally, I'd like to point out that original doesn't necessary mean good, and that plenty of the games out today are awesome.

LEGO Star Wars and now LEGO Indy ones are very innovative. Wii Fit very innovative. The Mario Kart steering wheel very innovative. GTA IV's story is very innovative.

I am just not sure what you are looking for.

Originally Posted by Tyrien

This also ties in with the price of games, and how reviews, and the internet hurt even more. It's a given that a game is $50~70 a pop. Most games $60. $60 is something most people would rather not toss away lightly and shrug off if they find it's a bad investment. This high price in games is due to the Movie theater-esque "box office release" money grab. There's excessive advertisement, supplying reviewers comfortably, and most of all the enormous development costs.

Games for the Atari 2600 cost 40 dollars, in the early 80s, and those were 8-bit games. I wish games were cheaper, too, but paying 10 dollars for a 90 minute movie or 60 dollars for a 60 hour game...it's really not so bad.

[vegna]

Well, with game development topping Hollywood movies cost, they don' want to assume great risks, only a handful of game directors might. However i don't agree that there is no innovation, there is game like mario galaxy, portals and others but you won't see them on the big consoles.

[Alastor]

MMM, it may be because plenty of games are also downloaded. Also, I'm talking about games in generals. I said that there are quite a few games out there that are still standing out. I'm just saying there's not enough of it out there.

Wii fit? Why didn't they think of this earlier? And more stuff? Wii is very innovative and has lots of potential, but it isn't really being used, it seemed. Not fully, anyway.

Also, last week's sales doesn't control a market that's been going for years.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Alastor

MMM, it may be because plenty of games are also downloaded. Also, I'm talking about games in generals. I said that there are quite a few games out there that are still standing out. I'm just saying there's not enough of it out there.

Wii fit? Why didn't they think of this earlier? And more stuff? Wii is very innovative and has lots of potential, but it isn't really being used, it seemed. Not fully, anyway.

Also, last week's sales doesn't control a market that's been going for years.

You say there is no innovation, and when I show there is you say "why didn't they think of this earlier"?

What is it that you are looking for?