The Industry Needs a Crash

[sabrage]

Found this pic of o.pwuaioc:


There's nothing wrong or even altogether different about today's games industry compared to what we had 10-20 years ago.

[o.pwuaioc]

There's nothing wrong or even altogether different about today's games industry compared to what we had 10-20 years ago.

Hey, look, a hypothesis! It's a start. Now if only you would drop the pictures from your well-reasoned rebuttal (what is this, first grade? Do you really need pictures to illustrate your argument?) and add some reasons to back up your hypothesis, you'd actually be contributing something worthy!

[Hazerd]

Sign ups starting for the RACKET BOY DEBATE TEAM!!!

[Yancakes]

There's nothing wrong or even altogether different about today's games industry compared to what we had 10-20 years ago.

There's a huge difference in the culture around it, though. 10-20 years ago it was a niche market, now it's as big as Hollywood. The budgets involved in some games would bankrupt a small country.

[sabrage]

But in terms of the relative proportion of good:bad games (which is, I'm assuming, what the OP is complaining about) is pretty much unchanged. An industry crash wouldn't stop people from buying in bad taste, if 10,000 years of human history are anything to go by.

[isiolia]

There's nothing wrong or even altogether different about today's games industry compared to what we had 10-20 years ago.

There's a huge difference in the culture around it, though. 10-20 years ago it was a niche market, now it's as big as Hollywood. The budgets involved in some games would bankrupt a small country.

Budgets still aren't up there with films. Prior to SWTOR, the most expensive game budget I can recall offhand is GTA4, which was $100 million, with a few others rumored to reach that high. Some had a higher cost if you add in their advertising budget. Most of the other "most expensive" games are in the $40-60 million range, which wouldn't constitute an especially expensive movie. By contrast, you're well down past 50th most expensive movie ever before you hit $100 million - the most expensive listed on wikipedia was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, at $300 million.

SWTOR apparently has a $150-200 million budget, so that's really getting up there with the more expensive films, but it's by far the exception. Things have definitely come a long way since Wing Commander III's $4 million budget was noteworthy in '94 though, sure.

There was a pretty big culture around gaming even in the 80s, much less the 90s. It might be that things were seen as "kid's stuff" more, but that didn't prevent cartoon series, breakfast cereals, comics, movies, merchandise...
The average gamer age has increased, and in turn successful (console) game themes, buying power, and so on.

That said, I would tend to agree that there are probably a lot more secondary products and services that would be affected with a crash. More dedicated retail space, more specialty vendors, more developers, all that.

[Jrecee]

Budgets still aren't up there with films. Prior to SWTOR, the most expensive game budget I can recall offhand is GTA4, which was $100 million, with a few others rumored to reach that high. Some had a higher cost if you add in their advertising budget. Most of the other "most expensive" games are in the $40-60 million range, which wouldn't constitute an especially expensive movie. By contrast, you're well down past 50th most expensive movie ever before you hit $100 million - the most expensive listed on wikipedia was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, at $300 million.

SWTOR apparently has a $150-200 million budget, so that's really getting up there with the more expensive films, but it's by far the exception. Things have definitely come a long way since Wing Commander III's $4 million budget was noteworthy in '94 though, sure.

There was a pretty big culture around gaming even in the 80s, much less the 90s. It might be that things were seen as "kid's stuff" more, but that didn't prevent cartoon series, breakfast cereals, comics, movies, merchandise...
The average gamer age has increased, and in turn successful (console) game themes, buying power, and so on.

That said, I would tend to agree that there are probably a lot more secondary products and services that would be affected with a crash. More dedicated retail space, more specialty vendors, more developers, all that.

I think he's just suggesting that the industry is as big, not that the budgets are as big.

[Pulsar_t]

[Yancakes]

I think he's just suggesting that the industry is as big, not that the budgets are as big.

Budgets were on the top of my mind, but basically, yeah, I'm talking about the industry more than individual games.

Culturally, I'd say, video games have as much or more impact than movies do, simply based on the fact that when a game comes out the people who buy it play it every day for long periods of time instead of a movie which would typically be watched once or twice a year.

[Flake]

Culturally, I'd say, video games have as much or more impact than movies do, simply based on the fact that when a game comes out the people who buy it play it every day for long periods of time instead of a movie which would typically be watched once or twice a year.

I see this trend vanishing now that so much development is going the way of social gaming or mobile gaming. Too many games on too many platforms dilutes the cultural impact of pretty much everything except your Call of Duty's and random smash hits like Angry Birds.

Mean while, all movies share the same screens...