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| Financial Crisis; Games in general. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 31 2009, 04:59 PM (217 Views) | |
| Lord DragonFlame | Jan 31 2009, 04:59 PM Post #1 |
Christmas is back again
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Okay, I am sure you all know about the financial crisis. Well it's apparently reached Game Industry. So, to say, people's getting fired, game titles known to us all, may have a slight setback and may even extinguish. I haven't checked out any resent news about this information except the Norwegian newspaper. But to me, it looks like Microsoft will have about 5000 members fired. Playstation seem to go most unharmed out from this. Then again, other companies including SEGA, is cutting resources. Let alone say a few titles may, or who has been planned may be cancelled. So with all game enthusiastic around here. So , debate literally. And if anyone would find news about this. Well you know what to do right. |
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Neo Metallix
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Jan 31 2009, 05:09 PM Post #2 |
~Doomsday Overlord~
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I don't think it's much of a big deal. Everyone is hurting and it'll eventually straighten out. Cutting jobs doesn't mean less games, it just means they're slimming down to compensate for the economy. |
   Puncture the Porcupine, my fancharacter! | |
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| Lady BlizShadow | Jan 31 2009, 05:36 PM Post #3 |
I still can't use this.
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I frankly think this financial crisis is actually the least of the gaming industry's problems. It's their existing models that are just downright terrible. Over the past few generations, the major focus has been on pushing graphical and technological prowess and it's becoming expensive to make a blockbuster game. And the more expensive the production is, obviously the more that the return has to be in order to make profit. And in a fledgling industry that doesn't have nearly the same sized consumer base as the movie and music industry, nearly every major release is make or break. Studios have closed on the failure of one game alone; Free Radical being a recent example. As a result of this conundrum, games are madly expensive considering their lasting value and are less risky in their production. New IPs and fresh trends are becoming more and more of a rarity-- After all, why make something that is considerably fresher than FPS # 13648 if you're not a million percent sure that it can guarantee enough of a return to make a decent profit? We all know plenty of games that are outside of the box yet had mediocre sales-- Valkyria Chronicles, Mirror's Edge, Nuts and Bolts, etc. None of this helps that we have such market saturation either. There's four major consoles within the race this gen; six if you're counting the handhelds and seven if you count the iPhone as a handheld xP. Each contender must obviously separate themselves from the competition in order to gain an install base and a promise return of revenue, and compounded with the aforementioned budgeting system, our purchasing power isn't really that good in the first place. I've personally gone from a household that could afford every system in the race easily to one where it took us over two years to even acquire a PS3; forget having a Wii (although that's due to lack of supply). Overall, I see the industry as bloated and thus more and more lifeless. As time has gone on, games have been slowly and steadily losing my interest because I just don't like the current trends which tend to border on the spectrum ends of "super casual" or "super realistic". It would probably help if these technological leaps were geared not towards being able to render twenty trillion polygons in a single model, but to streamline the production process so the price of everything can be lowered to a more reasonable rate and it will be easier and more efficient for developers to stretch their creative legs. In short, the way the industry has been governing itself by shoveling excessive amounts of money into the things that don't matter in the long run and market saturation have been a few of the major crutches of the industry, not the economic crisis. Edited by BlizShadow, Jan 31 2009, 05:47 PM.
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Neo Metallix
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Jan 31 2009, 05:40 PM Post #4 |
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~Doomsday Overlord~
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That has always been the case though... Give me one gen where consoles didn't push for better graphics. I think it's more of a problem about learning how to efficiently create a graphical powerhouse than making graphics better is. |
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Puncture the Porcupine, my fancharacter! | |
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| Lady BlizShadow | Jan 31 2009, 05:44 PM Post #5 |
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I still can't use this.
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You have to know that technological limitations and better markets made games extremely less expensive to produce back then, right? A huge graphical leap was probably a lot more affordable. And that was my whole point, Metallix-- No one is spending the money to cater to the efficiency of programming, but rather excessive graphical detail whether we need it or they can afford it. Edited by BlizShadow, Jan 31 2009, 05:45 PM.
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Because staff made me do it. =P Art Topic ~ Drawing Tutorial ~ The Seven Chaos Forum | |
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| Nail Strafer | Jan 31 2009, 05:47 PM Post #6 |
Flying Battery Act 2
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You know, I've always wondered what's going to happen when we finally achieve photorealism. We're getting very close now. It's not like there's anything beyond that. Maybe then developers will finally have other things to focus on when we reach that point. |
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Neo Metallix
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Jan 31 2009, 06:08 PM Post #7 |
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~Doomsday Overlord~
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I don't see what you're saying about better markets, the market was small back in the old days with less gamers out there... Technology will keep moving forward whether anyone likes it or not and I really doubt games will get so expensive that everything will just crumble. We'll just have to see how things go next gen in terms of expenses. Also Free Radical was a fairly small studio. Not only that, I like how more powerful systems can bring new gameplay elements not seen in previous consoles. Edited by Neo Metallix, Jan 31 2009, 06:18 PM.
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Puncture the Porcupine, my fancharacter! | |
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| Lady BlizShadow | Jan 31 2009, 06:34 PM Post #8 |
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I still can't use this.
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Better markets = people can actually afford stuff, money is flowing, etc. It is simply much harder to afford current gen consoles and games now. That's all I mean. And I'm not saying that games will get too expensive for a sustainable industry (although prices of games and consoles will more than likely rise if habits continue). But again, trying to deliver something that is ludicrously expensive to produce and then suffering the consequences when not enough people buy your product to make a profit is a direct result of how expensive it was to make it in the first place. Lower your production costs by finding ways to pump out awesome visuals and gameplay with the need for less power. Even Sonic Team figured this out with the Hedgehog Engine-- Unleashed looks great without actually doing anything to produce its visuals. It required less work to make than a game like Gears of War which probably has well over double the production costs of Unleashed. Therefore, Gears will need double the number of consumers and more to return a profit. This is simple cost-efficiency. |
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Because staff made me do it. =P Art Topic ~ Drawing Tutorial ~ The Seven Chaos Forum | |
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Neo Metallix
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Jan 31 2009, 06:42 PM Post #9 |
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~Doomsday Overlord~
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I see what you mean about the market, but that is just a new thing as of last year. I'd like to say things will get better, but unlikely... Especially with this bogus stimulus plan...  It didn't work the first time and it's not going to work this time, all it will do is make inflation go up HIGHER.Well in all fairness old games used to be more expensive. Not because of developing costs, but the medium they put it on. Plus with inflation now games back then, in reality, cost much more than just the numbers you see on them today. I don't think prices of consoles will rise though.... The reason PS3 was so expensive is it used brand new technology. When PS4 comes out Blu Ray will be relatively cheap and they're likely going to use a beefed up Cell processor so no need for R&D to design a new chip. 360 wasn't all that expensive either. Sure it was more than $299 but that's because of inflation. |
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