The Pac-Man refract.

EvilMario · Post by **EvilMario** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:56 pm

Out of my constant boredem I find all too often on the IRC now, I decided a ramble on the video game forums was in order. At first, the topic of treatment of game company employees (especially QA, and even developers) would be a good topic, then I realized no one would care. Not that anyone will care about this, but hell.. why not.

The video game industry is healthy, and milking peope for all their cash like never before. In economic terms, it's amazing. With the development of this success though, comes big money. Companies grow, large companies become involved in the industry where they weren't interested before, and smaller startup companies are nonexistant. Hell, it's tough enough for established companies to stay in the game anymore.

One of the biggest issues I've found in recent years, especially this generation, is that competitors are being eliminated. Not by the usual means, but being bought out.

Most recently, EA is guilty of this. Of course, everyone hates EA.. so who cares. Anyways, to shorten the story if you're not aware, EA recently purchased NFLPA and all rights to produce games with the NFL tag on it. Although you may all hate Madden, it's still a huge blow to sports video games. And just an example of what's been going on.

Now without Visual Concepts (oh, bought out by Take2 recently I believe. hah.. I use to work for them too.. err.. anyways) to produce a title to go against Madden every year.. will EA even bother updating their rosters before they release a new game? I mean, come on. What's the motivation to spend a lot of money to develop semi-new engines.. or neat graphics anymore? It's not as if the video game football market has any other choice now.

A few offers like Microsoft's offer to buy-out Nintendo, and it's franchises.. along with Namco wanting to take over Sega (although Sega was quite a poplar choice by a lot of companies).. are just a few MAJOR buyouts that haven't gone through. It's usually much smaller right now.. but I believe it shows where the industry is headed in a few years.. and next generation.

I think few would argue that the Square-Enix merger was the largest, in maybe, ever. Sure, Microsoft buying Rare was exciting.. but.. wait, no it wasn't. Anyways, not many people realized Square-Enix also bought out the Ogre Battle license(ie; Quest) which gives them a strangle hold on the RPG market. Although I'm sure some of their work will still be quality (MAYBE), is this really what we want?

It's not a lie when people say competition is healthy. I believe most can see the decline in the quality of a lot of games, and maybe it's just the way the industry is moving in terms of being more "general entertainment" rather than gaming anymore.

At any rate, I suppose I'll add a poll to this to attract attention. Although I some how doubt most will read all that rhetorical rambling. Cheers.
---
EM

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:59 pm

I added my opinion ;)

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:07 pm

i dig old games.

from all accounts last year was very good but i wouldn't know because i only played one title made last year (sonic heroes, which was an abomination) so fortunately i'm no longer obligated to pass judgement <:D

Commodore · Post by **Commodore** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:26 pm

As for square-enix merger, maybe enix will kick square in the balls and make them make better games. Aw, well, that's all we can hope for.

freeware rocks.

Stak · Post by **Stak** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:33 am

More like Square kicked Enix in the balls and they still haven't really recovered

And as if that wasn't insult enough, Square-Enix took over GameArts and are now making Grandia 3

Grandia 2 was one of the best RPGs ever and if they fuck this one up, then I'll be really angry

<-- this will be me

FSFunky · Post by **FSFunky** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:06 am

Voted "It's just the evolution of the industry, there's nothing we can do about it".

I can't say that I like this change. But the problem is old games were made by enthousiasts with little to no budget, and we liked it because we didn't expect games to be really spectacular.

But now we expect our games to be at least as hair-raising as the average Hollywood blockbuster and as mind-numbing. So we have more and more uncreative people making big-ass games ( *cough* Halo 2 *cough*), well big as in "OMG XPLOSION", not in length.

It's because games went mainstream. Games went mainstream because of the Playstation. Goddammit, Sony you took the only thing us nerds truly had that was fun and ours and gave it to the jocks who used to give us wedgies.

Fuck you Sony, fuck you right in your soulless Japanese ass.

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:59 am

also the title of this topic is wrong

it's an affect if something is affected by something ("it was affected")

it's an effect if something has an effect on something ("there was an effect")

thank you

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:06 pm

also also yes funky, sony are terrible because they sell games, those bastards how dare they put profit over the near-holy experience US NERDS experience when we play a life-changing video game like contra

those darn casual gamers playing halo and gta! US NERDS NEED TO TAKE BACK WHAT'S OURS!!!!!!! it's not like the gaming industry is a business or anything

Post by **MadTom** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:14 pm

Zenith Nadir wrote:also the title of this topic is wrong

FSFunky · Post by **FSFunky** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:46 pm

Zenith Nadir wrote:also also yes funky, sony are terrible because they sell games, those bastards how dare they put profit over the near-holy experience US NERDS experience when we play a life-changing video game like contra

those darn casual gamers playing halo and gta! US NERDS NEED TO TAKE BACK WHAT'S OURS!!!!!!! it's not like the gaming industry is a business or anything

you know i was exaggerating, right

Stak · Post by **Stak** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:54 pm

Funky's anti-Sony post (which I actually kind of agree with, damn them) reminds me of something Satoru Iwata (one of Nintendo's big cheeses) said at GDC:

Satoru Iwata wrote:Think about this. Someday our games won’t look any better. What will we do then?

I think this shows that someone still knows what games are really about

Did I mention that I love Nintendo

Post by **MadTom** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:58 pm

Stak wrote:Did I mention that I love Nintendo

Sticky: guys stak loves nintendo
[ Goto page: 1 ... 79, 80, 81 ]

FSFunky · Post by **FSFunky** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:04 pm

Stak wrote:Funky's anti-Sony post (which I actually kind of agree with, damn them) reminds me of something Satoru Iwata (one of Nintendo's big cheeses) said at GDC:

Satoru Iwata wrote:Think about this. Someday our games won’t look any better. What will we do then?
I think this shows that someone still knows what games are really about

Did I mention that I love Nintendo

The same Iwata who thinks that controllers these days are "too complex" and is going for a "more simple user interface" for the Revolution?

Really, nintendo, my heart is with you, but you make it so hard to make me love you. :(

Stak · Post by **Stak** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:07 pm

Yeah, I'm really hoping Nintendo doesn't go insane with the Revolution

They did say it was backwards-compatible with the Gamecube, so it can't be too different

Post by **Zenith Nadir** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:36 pm

nintendo is for kids lol

z2

The Pac-Man refract.

State of the Video Game Industry

The Pac-Man refract.