Death to the Games Industry
 

Fascinating article at the Escapist about why there is no creativity in the games industry and why it cannot support niche markets.

Technology and publishers are killing the market.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/8/3

And looking at the likes of Cyan and Detalion


So Is the article over the top depressing or is it an accurate reflection of the gaming industry. Part II coming soon

Five years ago it may have been over the top, but today it isn't. Today it is exactly what it happening. Too many developers have closed shop, too many programmers have lost jobs. Too many teams have been broken up for it to be otherwise. It's sad, but you have to have money to make money. The publishers have the money, so they get to say what goes and what doesn't.

I wish I knew how to reverse it. I wish I had the money to encourage some of the brilliance that lies in the indie field. It's sad to say, but this burgeoning industry may have to fail with cookie-cutter games before they see the light. I apologize for my cynicism, but there doesn't seem to be too much hope these days.

Lynsie

There is an excellent piece in the latest Develop that suggests there is a rise in the number of developers seeking and gaining independent financial backing. The beauty of this is that although these backers will want to be assured of a product being completed and on time, they won't interfere in the creative side of things the way that publishers often do.

My copy arrived yesterday, but I haven't read it yet. Their editor's a really on-the-ball chap who's after creativity and professionalism within the industry.

It's definetly the way forward I think. Independant funding and retaining their own IP's.

The problem will be getting them onto the retail floor as the big publishers have all the pull at the moment.

I think online distribution is probably the way to go. Get independant funding and cut out the publishers by offering it direct to the consumer. The companies would need t odo their own marketing etc though.

Lets hope that Bone is a HUGE success and can pave the way for similar developments.

This is one of the most comprehensive and complete articles on the business model I've seen. Sounds a lot like he expanded his great GDC rant for this piece.

And there's part two still to come.

He did, I knew I read that somewhere already :)

Mh, there have been lots of articles or blog entries and rants like this.

If I take a look at recent games (regardless of platform, or *cough* genre), it seems to be true. Mostly. To me gaming peaked around 1998/99 (Thief, Grim, Baldur's Gate, Half Life, Silent Hill.. ) - 1997 was a horrible, horrible year at least for PC gaming, with lots of cookie cutter C&C lookalikes from all over the world. So, while I don't think it's as bad at it was in, say, 1997 (:r), it could be better. And unless there will be alternative funding possibilites, I don't think it'll change much, because most of the big players don't seem to care about profits, they care about BIG profits and little else. Then again, who funded games like BG&E, Forbidden Siren or Killer7?

Why weren't you playing Fallout, the best game ever?

Oups. The sequel is an even better game. And this one was released in.... 1998. :D Then there's MDK, one of the most original games of 1997 (it wasn't that hard to be original in '97). :shifty:

Jedi Knight was released in 1997 as was Quake II, Curse of Monkey Island and Last Express, and Wing Commander Prophecy was OK.

Blade Runner, too. Shut up, sam :P

EDIT: And I almost forgot about Little Big Adventure 2! Seems like 1997 was in fact the best year in gaming :D

Okay! okay! okay! :D Still....


Sequel. (well, sort of). Good game, though!

Sequel. I was disappointed... maybe because I never bothered to try multiplayer. Although I loved axing zombies with a friend in the original Quake.

Sequel.

Se.... :D Heh, I have to get it. I'm currently replaying the original WC game. Wonderful. Filled with some pivotal moments in gaming history. It was like a Battlestar Galactica show, only interactive. And with kittens! Really, really angry kittens! From the moment you took off from the Tiger's Claw, you just knew you were in for something special. :)


Mh.

Part 2 of the article is now up

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/9/4

Even better than the first part. The idea of a proper, dedicated marketing and sales portal is superb. Any business and marketing gurus around?

:) You guys forgot Deus Ex. One of my most favourite games (of any genre) of all time. And of course Gabriel Knight 3.

BG&E got paid for by Ubisoft before they went 'cold and corporate'. I think once you, as a publisher, become very successful you instinctively get more conservative with your money, thus more shrewd about where to invest it.

It does make a lot of sense.

The difficult part is still going to be developers self-funding.

The idea of an independant games portal is a fabulous idea. Would be kinda like an online publisher.

Someone obviously would need to set this up first, but I do see it as the way the industry will probably head.

Just look at the rise of itunes and similar models for music, TV companies and movies are looking at providing online content.

As the broadband speeds increase and more and more people sign up to have it at home online downloading will become increasingly popular.

As the guy said the difficult part is making sure that your game is known and having a central point with expertise in online marketing. A website set up to deliver the goods and a reputation built up as the place to go to get these type of games would probably be very profitable. Just look at the casual game sites.

I heard a rumour that Amazon was looking to set up an itunes type music download shop. Something like an online amazon type shop for downloads would be cool.

Games would not require a 2 week shelf life and could be marketed and sold in the long term.

Anyone got a few million pounds to set up such a site i could make a killing. :D

Well, there are already many such portals for casual games and I believe some also sell... more commercial titles, if that's the right way to put it (I'd have to check, though). But having one such portal dedicated solely to distribution of more ambitious games would be great. We'll see how it turns out with Steam and Telltale Now.

Interesting article.

The games industry is so much more alike to the animation industry than the film industry, that why nobody ever draws parallel between them, I've no idea. Animation, good animation, costs a ton to make... there's a hell of a lot of craftwork for the teams of artists in an animated movie and a lot of money required to keep them happy, and it's not as if animated films are automatically accepted on release because of their medium. There's a huge risk element.

The latest Brit CG film, Valient failed at the box office. It was plagued with problems, one of them being a director who had never actually directed before... they were also working within a tight budget. Now budget isn't an indicator of quality, but professionalism is. Regardless of its $40mil budget, it could've been a cracker had it not been plagued by naivety from the beginning... I hear the production did not go smoothly at all, and the end result speaks for itself.

The media biz doesn't accept naivety and the games industry is part of it. It's also grown very quickly in recent years. A lot of developers are suffering because of this, but a good few have also been shooting themselves in the foot because their acumen with dealing with other business people and knowledge of that world is immature. I don't need to name names... I'm sure we all know of at least one brainless developer that's done so recently.

There's also some really questionable decisions by publishers in release dates, but I'll talk about that later. Atari are really culpable there, as are EA with their recent BF2 cock-up.

Television animation production is similar to a developer being tied into a publisher. An animation studio needs a financial backer and a distribution path, often from the same base - in the case of my sometime employer Telemagination, they're part of TV Loonland. There's a lot of pitching going on before a show finds backers, a lot of negotiation between the studio and possible financial inlets, and then there's convincing the broadcast networks that the show would be a viable sell. Often, at great cost, pilots are created and tested... a series is a big financial commitment.

Phew... I'd like to write more, but I'm losing my point and it's getting too late for this kind of banter!