Robstein (199) on 12/30/2006 4:43 PM · Permalink · Report

I personally think that he industry still has some fairly big issues, like a problem with turning out crappy licensed games or forcing sequels down our throats, but I also think that they've been doing a few more things right. Mostly by finding a way to bring in new demographics.

I don't think there are really many new problems with anything, but since more people are playing video games, they're selling a lot more. I can only imagine what the numbers might be if the Wii really takes off.

Jae Rune (1) on 12/30/2006 6:02 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

People love to complain. What's helping the industry right now is that more people than ever have consoles, because the older gen consoles are still good by today's standards and their games are dirt cheap. I own a Dreamcast and I still get oohs and aahs when I throw in games like Skies of Arcadia and DOA2: Hardcore. Most people have XBox and PS2, because the game selection is ridiculously huge, the machines are still cheap (and mostly in-production from what I gather) and the games cost between $15 and $20 for the vast majority of the titles.

Hardcore gamers have upgraded already. Everyone else still plays with what works. Why fix what ain't broke? And spend more money doing it? There are already reports that PS2 is expected to outstrip PS3 in sales in '07. Is it any surprise? I plan on buying one myself. Because I have 10 games I like, and that's enough for me to justify buying a console. And I think I'm closer to more of the mainstream in that thought process.

Luis Silva (13443) on 12/30/2006 7:10 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start flipkin wrote--]Every year people complain about what it wrong with the games industry and each year more games are sold and more people become gamers. Is the industry really broken? Or do people just like to complain? [/Q --end flipkin wrote--]

That's the "rose tinted specs" effect. There are a lot of sub-par titles on modern consoles? If we look at the entire output of the NES (still considered by many the best console ever) beyond the Zeldas and the Marios, the vast majority of games are very bad, even for the time they were released. The same happens with every other console. For instance, looking at everyone's favourite scapegoat, EA, it's not like their games are terrible. They just have more often than not incredibly bland, average, gameplay and almost insulting to the capacity of the company. The only reason why they are considered "bad" is because the really bad games rarely reach the frontpages of review sites, and most stores won't even carry them.

If modern bad/average games are compared to best games of previous generations, of course everything will seem wrong and the industry is in the road to destruction. But if we compare an average game in 1986 to an average game in 2006, things will look a lot less bleak. Games will become a lot more expensive to produce, but at the same time the market has never been so large.

Indra was here (20755) on 1/2/2007 6:46 PM · Permalink · Report

Of course someone will complain, even babies complain when their born! Its part of our human nature.

Spesifically, it depends on who's complaining. As each person has different priorities, different interests and so on, the ability to fulfill all those demands are of course impossible.

Thus, the supplier of the product only then aims to fulfill the majority of the market, by [a] fulfilling demands of past successes (aka similar or clone games) or [b] creating a new trend in the market.

The numbers should show themselves (unless certain "marketing techniques" are used by the publishers to disguise the original sales numbers...) that in quantity more people are becoming gamers. In quality? Well, that's subjective opinion isn't it...

When it comes to industry, its quantity over quality. Quality is only required to support quantity. Not the other way around.