The Games that Kill Development Studios

[Rob Williams]

Want a good laugh? Just think back to all of those published reports that laid out an imminent death for gaming as we knew it, either for game consoles or PCs. Of course, we all know that gaming is at its healthiest point right now (although, sales were down a bit in 2009), and there's a sheer number of titles to choose from. Just look at Modern Warfare 2, which recently broke through the $1B revenue barrier. Gaming is dead? Hah!

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You can read the rest of our news post here.

 

[On_Wisconsin]

LOL @ Majestic...I remember all the hype and attention it got

 

[Psi*]

statistics?

So this reports a 23 percent decrease in game sales. And the article, I think, has comments supporting the opinion around here ... but I don't quite remember.

It is very credible to me that there could be this much drop in sales. First, I don't think anything to creative has been developed as well as a severe lack of interest in making use of new technology.

Also, just how creative can you take 2D (on the screen) gaming? I think the "new" has worn off & nothing really inspiring will happen until 3D imaging is better developed or made lower cost in other other words.

Last, maybe this is just reflective of the means of collecting the data. Given online sales ability (aka steam), how do you know what is going on or not?

 

[Kougar]

Also, just how creative can you take 2D (on the screen) gaming? I think the "new" has worn off & nothing really inspiring will happen until 3D imaging is better developed or made lower cost in other other words.

That hasn't seemed to hurt consoles games very much, that's for sure.

I think it's safe to say overall game sales declined due to the economic events, but overall they haven't really gone anywhere. If anything casual games sales seem to still be going up.

 

[b1lk1]

PC gaming was dying in my eyes but then console gaming and new releases for consoles stagnated giving the PC gaming world the break it needed. Even right now, the game I am most addicted to is "TrackMania United Forever". This game does not exist outside the PC world and yet there are over 3.5 million registered online players. Gaming is not dying, it is just the fact that there are less new releases. I dare say taht 1/2 the current and impending releases are sequels or spin-offs.

 

[Rob Williams]

I am not too sure that gaming as a whole is beginning to die, because console releases are selling record numbers. Just take a look at New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which has sold over 10,000,000 copies, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has thus far produced over $1 billion worth of revenue. Gaming is far from dead. The PC gaming landscape is a bit different, though, and it worries me sometimes. When we hear of game records lately, it never has to do with the PC.

The other night, I looked at some of the upcoming releases for the PC that I'm looking forward to. These include Alien vs. Predator, Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2, Dragon Age (yeah, I know it's been out) and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. What do these five games have in common? All are available for the PC and the PS3 / Xbox 360. When that happens, it tends to mean that the games are little more than console ports. The games can indeed be developed to take advantage of the PC, but why take the time and effort to do it, when the biggest numbers are on the console?

Of the nine games being featured on the Steam homepage right now, seven of them are cross-platform, not exclusive to the PC. Ten years ago, you rarely saw a game that was available for the PC and console... today, it's overwhelming. Plus, it seems that most of the PC-exclusives today aren't commercial releases, but rather indie releases. Just pay attention to the Steam homepage; you'll see a new indie title pop up every couple of days.

I am hopeful the PC gaming situation will improve sooner than later though. After playing through Modern Warfare 2, which was nothing more than a cheap console port (despite the game being quite good graphically even so), it was a little depressing to realize that the state of PC gaming is a little iffy right now. We have incredible GPUs at our disposal, and it seems like the only way we can actually push them is by going multi-monitor or "3D".