The Pac-Man refract.
Posted: 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
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
<-- this will be me
