I don't get all the Razer hate.. they make cheap headsets, but their mice and mouse pads have served me well. The newest Imperator model is a fantastic mouse.
@SteelCurtainX Agreed.. and these guys have the Road Rash rights? Road Rash 64 is right up there with Goldeneye, Starfox, and Turok as my favorite N64 games of all time..
@sargentpsgamer @tushwacker fair enough on the price end.. you're right.. they don't need to make them out of better materials.. but why colorful, glossy plastic? You can make a cheap plastic thing at least look like an adult could wear it.. I mean most headsets and mice and keyboards look professional enough.. why not console peripherals?
What I don't understand is why they make gaming peripherals look like they were made by Fisher Price.. Make it stainless steel with black buttons or something.. It's the same reason why I never wanted to get into Rock Band.. You shouldn't feel embarrassed when you're using a product..
@McGregor @tushwacker True, but Acura sets their prices high enough that they are well off at the end of the year due to their initial sales alone. They aren't cutting it close. Before the economy down-turned, gaming companies were still having to close fairly often. However, vehicle companies didn't have troubles since the 80's and most of them didn't face closure in this recession either. Why is that? Because cars and phones are now pretty much necessities. People will find a way to have a phone and a car even when they don't have much expendable income. However, games are purely entertainment.. Therefore, they operate on a much more slippery slope. If it gets to the point where the gaming companies feel like their margins are too thin, the only option other than trying to thin out the used market is to raise initial prices. I certainly don't want initial sales to go up, but that might have to happen.
@Valindor2 @tushwacker BMW doesn't have nearly as many competitors as a gaming developer does. Also, the profit margin of BMW is not nearly as thin as a developer's. I'm not trying to argue that developers should get percentages of used game sales.. however, it completely makes sense for a developer to try to stop or limit the used game market. We may not like it as consumers, but it's a business move. This makes them business people, not 'greedy'.
I don't think it's fair to call developers greedy just because they want to get paid for the sale of their product. You can't compare the gaming market to something with more guaranteed sales (like the car market, for example). Yes, BMW only makes money on their initial vehicle sale, not the subsequent private sales. However, BMW doesn't have nearly as tight of profit margins as companies in the highly competitive entertainment market do. I do feel for companies like Gamestop/EB Games that make a decent amount of their income off of the used gaming market, but I also feel for development companies that see a single retail version of their game get enjoyed by 2 or 3 people when they only got paid once.
People seem to like to hold gaming companies to different standards than the rest of the business market, which simply doesn't make sense. The words 'greedy' get thrown around a lot, but most of the time it's the accuser that's being greedy because they want to be entertained for less money. If people want gaming companies to take chances with unique ideas for games instead of churning out the safe investments (COD clones), then they need to have some flexibility in their cash flow. This is business in a capitalist society. You are obligated to both your stockholders and employees to make business moves that best serve their interests.
Nonsense... Graphics can definitely be an appeal, but they are not the only selling point for games. Games like Borderlands and Borderlands 2 are not photo-realistic games, but they sell well simply because the gameplay is both unique and fun.
Also, I find that cinema-scenes are completely overrated compared to in-game graphics. If studios would save all the money they pump into pre-rendered videos, and just use that to develop better looking gameplay, I think that would be a wiser investment.
Third, the handheld market is gaining steam right now for three reasons: 1) it's relatively new technology so it's kind of a novelty right now, 2) the games are dirt cheap which appeals to people during the recession, and 3) the consoles are so outdated that the phone games look almost as good as some console games. -> as soon as the next generation of consoles get launched, and the first gameplay videos get released showing how amazing graphics can look without a whole ton of tweaking on the development side of things, the sooner people will see console gaming return as the most popular gaming source. The reason it costs so much right now for games to look good is because developers have to spend tons of man-hours trying to milk every last drop of power out of the ancient technology found in the xbox360 and PS3. From the sound of things, the newer consoles are going to be easier to develop for, which should also cut down on costs. So, realistically, the 'middle-ground' devs just need to hold on for a year or so and they should be fine. Also, assuming the U.S. economy gets rolling again, people should be able to free up some expendable income to throw at retail games instead of just phone/F2P games.
One other idea I'll throw out there is that the real reason why so many companies are closing is because the market has gotten so incredibly flooded. If you only have x amount of money being spent on video games, and there are hundreds of gaming companies competing for a chunk of that x amount, then you want to have as many games in the market as possible at any given time. If we trim off a few development companies, then the emphasis from a competition point of view will get put back on making a quality game instead of pumping out a new product every six months. And as far as F2P and Phone games go, that market is getting flooded at a record pace. So while it is making money for devs right now, it won't take long until mobile developers are having to close down too - the more options there are, the more picky the consumer gets to become.
In short, don't overreact. Things always change - companies always die and other rise up to take their place. To say that in 2 years we are only going to have the choice between F2P/phone games and about 10 AAA games is absurd.
@MoronGotMyName @tushwacker ya, I'm serious.. it's a poor investment.. I could see someone throwing $5.00 at a good idea that might wind up being a good game.. throwing $50.00 at a simply a concept is just wasting your money..
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