Why is the video games industry going down?

[QUOTE="Shame-usBlackley"]Well, yeah, I mean, the PS2 posted....Archangel3371

That's true. It used to be that we had a "winner takes all" market, but when Sony screwed up by overpricing the PS3, it allowed Nintendo to sell snake oil and Microsoft to (at least at the time) poise themselves as the hardcore alternative. The result is a fractured market where no one really "won," at least not in the classical sense.

lol at the doom and gloom in this thread. Sales are down because 7 years after the gen started, consoles still cost $300. 7 years after the last gen started, PS2 was selling for $129 and the GC was $99.

The main reason why the sales are down is because it's been 7 years since this gen started. it's time for us to move on. Sadly Sony and MS took a beating this gen, Sony lost almost $6 billion. MS has been profitable since late 2008, and now that they are finally making money, they are reluctant to do any major price drops. Pachter said MS is making $100 off each console sold. Sony is also finally making money on the PS3, and they are also reluctant to do any major price drops. And of course, reluctant to come out with a new console and lose money on that as well.

Both Sony and MS gaming divisions have been profitable for a few years now. The only reason why MS is losing money is due to R&D costs of the next Xbox. Companies tend to post their biggest losses in the leadup to the next gen launch. It's not abnormal.

I don't know if it's already been said, but it's worth noting that games last a very long time now. I'm not a big COD fan, but people play those game online for hours on end, and end up being so into it that they don't go out and buy game after game. This has recently happened to me with three games: Skyrim, NFS: Hot Pursuit, and Mass Effect 3. I got these games and other than already having Skyrim since its midnight release, the only games I've bought this year are NFS: HP and ME3. Sure, there are other games I'll eventually get, but these games have very good replayability and have kept me hooked (especially Skyrim, which I just started getting back to again).

In turn, by time these games are done with, other games will naturally be cheaper.

So is gaming really going downhill, or are games just getting to the point where they're becoming immersive/addictive to the point where they can last for a very long time, and don't encourage gamers to get game after game, searching for a memorable one?

100 bucks here in aus. lol

Too many offerings, too much that people feel like they should play and not enough time.

Gaming fatigue basically.

My purchases have gone way down, because I realize I don't have time to play everything I possibly want.

I spend more time with each game, ignore new titles.

In the past I would have bought everything and built up a backlog.

Now I stick with the same games for months.

Too many big-budget $60 games from stale, worn-out franchises that are all annual installments or sequels that bring nothing new to the table except for the latest strategies in DLC exploitation and milkage of consumers' wallets. Meanwhile there is a slew of fun, budget-priced, downloadable indie games, many of which offer more fun and demonstrate more creativity than the tired big-budget blockbusters have in years.

I think that the main reason why there has been a decline in game sales, is the fact that the production cost has skyrocketed. So the publishers have no other option than to play it save and milk their IPs. Because of that I've already lost total interest in many franchises: Assassins Creed, Halo, Battlefield, God of War, Modern Warfare (to name a few).

Hastur

Because games are getting more expensive and less original. It's really hard to justify $60 for the next NHL game which is pretty much just a roster update. And it's hard to justify yet another military FPS.

There's just no variety any more. We need something nw to get people excited again.

Too many big-budget $60 games from stale, worn-out franchises that are all annual installments or sequels that bring nothing new to the table except for the latest strategies in DLC exploitation and milkage of consumers' wallets. Meanwhile there is a slew of fun, budget-priced, downloadable indie games, many of which offer more fun and demonstrate more creativity than the tired big-budget blockbusters have in years.

1oh1nine1

It also doesn't help that developers are basically encouraging buyers to hold off on Day One purchasing due to all the release date DLC nonsense. As a consumer, it makes zero sense to buy a game at release anymore; not when you can buy the Game of the Year edition with all the goodies for the same amount or less a short time down the line. Which is fine, but then developers and publishers wonder why people aren't lining up to buy games at release... Can you say "tone deaf"?

It's no secret that in the past few years, sales have been sliding lower and lower. Why do you guys think sales haven't been able to recover? I'm not going to say any reasons why I think so, yet. Sound off!RealKilla_789

Has nothing to do with anything within the video game industry itself, sales in every industry are down. There will be slumps and there will be crests.

I don't think it's because of a 'recession' because there seems to be plenty of people with money to burn if it's for something they really want. Look at the Retake ME3 charity and cupcake sillyness. More and more gamers are starting to realize that these devs and pubs are screwing consumers with disppointments, false advertising, shady DLC practices, no new IP's, just sequels and rehashes, improper QA teams who allow buggy releases, excuses for sympathy about gaming budgets with beating around the bush answers to fans from both devs, devs neve sticking to a loyal fan base always by dumbing down games to compete with COD / BF multiplayer crap and gamers simply not getting what they paid for.

I wouldn't know, to me there isn't much difference from a few years ago...

Is $60 really that much of a killer for people? I mean, last generation was only $10 cheaper. Do people really say, "man games are $10 more now, I better be careful of what I buy!"?

[QUOTE="punkpunker"]due to the industry's reliance of dlc from the game development and with the 60 bucks you're paying, expect true gamers searching games with longer replay value to keep them invested in a game.GeoffZak

This pretty much.

$60 is asking for TOO much for a new game. And then they think they can charge us even MORE dlc? They're out of their minds.

Whose fault is this? Half of it is the developers and publishers fault for being greedy. The other half is fault of the massive amounts of gamers who willingly open their wallets and let developers and publishers suck them dry, in return these gamers are given half-assed DLC and half-assed games with campaigns that last only 8 hours.

Why are people willing to let developers get away with this? $60 for a game that lasts you a week or 2 is a HUGE rip off! It's becoming the norm because those are the kind of games that have become the most sucessful. (Gears of War, Halo, Resistance and Uncharted.)

Another reason the gaming industry sucks today is because of the obesession most gamers have with online multiplayer. That's why developers don't put enough effort into making a quality single-player campaign. Because they know people only care about the multiplayer. Usually, online multiplayer isn't even fun, it's just about making yourself look good with numbers such as KDR and win to loss ratio.

There's so much I hate about the gaming industry today that I could rant on for a while. But I'll stop myself here.

^True. I feel that it's not worth buying a $60 game when 6 months or a year later the game comes out with all DLC & other things. Do I enjoy online multiplayer mode? Yes, I do. But when it gets too serious & players take cheap shots for you're not on their level, its just not worth playing that mode these days. I wish it was 50/50 split down the middle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YfGFuApCbI&feature=plcp&context=C4e556fcVDvjVQa1PpcFPSMh85dkizeB8HxjbV1J-L7ustEeInBp8=

because call of duty has largely stagnated the industry, other game developers see the success call of duty has and follow them as an example, thus most games are similar if not complete copies of eachother with different faces.
Another reason is greedy and stupid business moves on gaming companies behalf, instead of treating customers as customers most attempt to lash shackles onto every buyer and force terms of agreement onto them.

I think the appeal for games have become narrower with each passing year. By that i mean i think gamers themselves are becoming really narrow minded. The industry is trying to keep up with this.

At this point development cost are too much for people to be so narrow minded, or to have such a huge emphasis on buying used rather than waiting for games to come down in price. There are usually only a few games every year that are true successes & usually its the mainstream shooter garbage with huge mutiplayer communities.

Games that would have sold before are all the sudden ignored because of Call Of Duty, & the likes, games are ignored based on their review scores, or ignored based on whether they are multiplayer or not, or ignored because gamers just wont play anything else besides the same typical shooter stuff.

In the end if the game industry collapses..... its the consumers that drive the industry, for that reason i would blame the consumers. The consumer is in ruining the industry.

We are selfish?

[QUOTE="GeoffZak"]

[QUOTE="punkpunker"]due to the industry's reliance of dlc from the game development and with the 60 bucks you're paying, expect true gamers searching games with longer replay value to keep them invested in a game.CarnageHeart

This pretty much.

$60 is asking for TOO much for a new game. And then they think they can charge us even MORE dlc? They're out of their minds.

Whose fault is this? Half of it is the developers and publishers fault for being greedy. The other half is fault of the massive amounts of gamers who willingly open their wallets and let developers and publishers suck them dry, in return these gamers are given half-assed DLC and half-assed games with campaigns that last only 8 hours.

Why are people willing to let developers get away with this? $60 for a game that lasts you a week or 2 is a HUGE rip off! It's becoming the norm because those are the kind of games that have become the most sucessful. (Gears of War, Halo, Resistance and Uncharted.)

Another reason the gaming industry sucks today is because of the obesession most gamers have with online multiplayer. That's why developers don't put enough effort into making a quality single-player campaign. Because they know people only care about the multiplayer. Usually, online multiplayer isn't even fun, it's just about making yourself look good with numbers such as KDR and win to loss ratio.

There's so much I hate about the gaming industry today that I could rant on for a while. But I'll stop myself here.

[QUOTE="CarnageHeart"][QUOTE="GeoffZak"]

This pretty much.

$60 is asking for TOO much for a new game. And then they think they can charge us even MORE dlc? They're out of their minds.

Whose fault is this? Half of it is the developers and publishers fault for being greedy. The other half is fault of the massive amounts of gamers who willingly open their wallets and let developers and publishers suck them dry, in return these gamers are given half-assed DLC and half-assed games with campaigns that last only 8 hours.

Why are people willing to let developers get away with this? $60 for a game that lasts you a week or 2 is a HUGE rip off! It's becoming the norm because those are the kind of games that have become the most sucessful. (Gears of War, Halo, Resistance and Uncharted.)

Another reason the gaming industry sucks today is because of the obesession most gamers have with online multiplayer. That's why developers don't put enough effort into making a quality single-player campaign. Because they know people only care about the multiplayer. Usually, online multiplayer isn't even fun, it's just about making yourself look good with numbers such as KDR and win to loss ratio.

There's so much I hate about the gaming industry today that I could rant on for a while. But I'll stop myself here.

Elann2008

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Not liking that piece of crap Tales games doesn't mean not liking jrpgs. I'm been a fan of jrpgs since the original Phantasy Star and I've fine with current gen era (released after the X360) games Valkyria Chronicles, Demon's Souls, Persona 3 and 4, Disgaea 4, Tactics Ogre, FF12 and even FF13 (imperfect, but the battle system is a work of art).

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