The Industry Needs a Crash

[pankakes123]

Probably A LOT of people will disagree with me, and they may be right, but I believe another gaming industry crash is pretty much needed. Microsoft and Sony are barely even making video game consoles anymore, with the 360 and PS3 basically acting as set top boxes for most people, and Nintendo seems to want to follow in their footsteps. If the industry crashed, a lot of the major companies such as Microsoft, Sony, and EA, may be lost in the rubble. What are now indie studios may take over as the new big developers. SEGA could get back to making consoles. This may sound like a fool's paradise, but I think it is plausible. What do you guys think?

[dsheinem]

what a well reasoned and thought out argument.

[Sideroller]

I think this is what the communists thought would happen with capitalism. Seems pretty unlikely to happen. Plus I'm pretty sure Xbox is already working on another console, not to mention Sony's new handheld.

I'd LOVE to see Sega make a Dreamcast II.

[pankakes123]

what a well reasoned and thought out argument.

Of course I can not tell if this is sarcasm or not because it is the internet, but assuming it is sarcasm, don't be a jerk. In fact, I wan't even making an "argument", just me thinking out loud on the forums. Also, you can't possibly say that this topic won't spark the interest of a lot of Racketboy users, which is what forums are for after all.

[Yancakes]

This conversation comes up in almost every topic on the industry that we have, so honestly it's fair to give it its own topic. Lack of effort in the OP notwithstanding.

Regardless, it's both a nice thought and a scary thought.

The market is swelling up with shovelware, sequels and the like, but my concern is that instead of a proper market crash, video games will wind up where Hollywood is.

Which is a big pile of mediocrity, sequels, over-production, "talent" that is less talented and more eye candy (this has been the case with the female acting pool in Hollywood for ages- but as most of the older male actors slow down in their production, the younger male talent is going the way of looks over ability as well). Instead of a legitimate crash, we might just get stagnation and a slow rot.

That being said, the indie games industry is booming with creativity. It might simply be a matter of time before those developers come in to their own (assuming they don't all just get bought up by EA) and start to go head to head with larger companies.

Dreams of SEGA releasing a new console are just that, though: dreams. The company is flailing right now, after a huge loss last year they have stated that they're only focusing on their main properties now, which means more over-produced Sonic crap is all we're really likely to see out of them in the coming years.

On the other hand, a proper crash might come in the next few years. It really depends on how the new XBOX and the Wii-U fare. Every time there's a crash, the industry comes back a few years later after remarkable change.

The PC gaming industry also is virtually crash-proof, and that's where most of the new indie production houses are really showing off their stuff.

It's entirely possible that a crash at this point will simply consolidate console and PC gaming. Maybe tablet/cell phone games will finally get their chance to take over the industry (god I hope not).

[sabrage]

Found this pic of OP:

[dsheinem]

I wan't even making an "argument", just me thinking out loud on the forums.

The thread title is most certainly a claim, and you most certainly did not follow it up with defensible or well articulated support. Instead, you made spurious statements and generally offered a lot of nonsense. The topic itself may have merit, but you did nothing in your initial post to suggest as much.

[isiolia]

Well, as you said, people may disagree, and I'd be one.

The video game industry is a business, and businesses both need and want to make money to continue. Who is in a better position to survive a crash...the big companies, or the smaller developers that are already depending on each release to stay afloat? If there was a crash, why would investors give money to small companies to make a game or console?
What kind of companies would you get looking at an industry and saying "gosh, everyone is losing billions there and leaving the market, we gotta get in on that shit". Maybe Sega, considering their history of bad decisions...but their accounting department might be harder to convince now.

You might resent that MS and Sony have positioned their consoles as media hubs, but they're also the ones putting the platforms out there that allow for smaller releases. Practically everything out there is marketed as a multi-purpose device now. PCs have been since the start, and have had a great gaming culture around them for decades despite that.
Realistically, Sony, MS, Apple, Google, Valve, and so on are the ones putting in a ton of money and effort making platforms that the smaller developers can release games onto. About the only reason anyone even thinks about "indie" games outside of the PC/Mac world is because of XBL and PSN (or to a much lesser extent Wiiware).

'course, ignoring all that, you'd just end back up in the same place...eventually. The big companies were all small at one point. They got successful, and grew. The same thing would happen again.

[pankakes123]

I wan't even making an "argument", just me thinking out loud on the forums.

The thread title is most certainly a claim, and you most certainly did not follow it up with defensible or well articulated support. Instead, you made spurious statements and generally offered a lot of nonsense. The topic itself may have merit, but you did nothing in your initial post to suggest as much.

I now see why you are a Former Moderator. You're just a jerk. I don't see why your are going out of your way to criticize my post instead of contributing to this forum topic.

[Opa Opa]

dsh isn't being a jerk. He just wants a well-formed argument.

"The industry needs to crash." Quite a statement. Back it up with logical reasoning and explain why it needs to crash.

What are the pros and cons? A lot of people would lose jobs; what would happen to them? Et cetera.