Article: What's Killing the Video Game Industry?

[Arius Dion]

Noname & BrainBox: thanks so much for the information. I can honestly say that this is one of the major reasons for me visiting and eventaully joining the site. I'm no industry insider, I don't know how to research sales numbers, but I am a gamer since the Atari 2600, and have witnessed the gaming industry grow, evlove, and seemingly stagnate.

I think sometimes common sense can go a long way, though many people seem to be bankrupt in this regard ;) In my own experience I remember when the 360 first came out, and I remember thinking "Well damn, how much nicer can graphics get at this point" I was one who was more than satisfied with the best graphic'd games offered last gen. Your RE4's your Metroid Primes, your God of wars, your Rogue Squadrons etc. I was actually considering passing this gen up all together, because I felt all we were getting was the same games we've been playing since the N64 days just with more polygon pushing power.

Bottomline is for me, I knew there was a problem when companies were merging last gen. "I was like uh oh its beginning" Furthermore, anyone who has taken a HS eco class knows the law of diminishing returns. When I read an article on here about Take2 talking about record revenue being made on the PS3, I was also alerted to the fact that this is all just theatrics, trying to quelle the fact that profits are shrinking and in many cases nonexistent. That is scary, especially when we keep seeing supposed "growth."

When a game can sell 1 million copies and still not be enough to recoup dev costs, we are on the threshold of disaster. It isn't my style to be all doom and gloom. But I try to see things as they are, and as I see it the HD business model is broken.

Consoles and PC's used to be two very distinctive sources of video game entertainment now they are near identical. PC gaming is seen as somewhat niche and if consoles continue down this path, so will they.