How the Videogame Industry Shot Itself In the Joystick--and Why the Wii Has Stopped the Bleeding

[Erik Aston]

The problem with comparing the emerging games market to the music and movie markets is that in terms of being a vibrant industry, both artistically and commercially, its the old, dying games market which is more comparable to the music and movie industries.

Music and movies have been run into the ground by fat cat studios who don't understand their own industries. Though they may have been artists in the past, now they simply control the means of distribution. They blindly stifle art in favor of formula. And they are stagnant saleswise and artistically.

Just like last gen. There were a few massive artistic and commercial breakthroughs like Grand Theft Auto or the Sims, but if you actually check the sales charts, you'll see the next biggest breakthrough franchises were the likes of Need for Speed and Medal of Honor--certainly comparable to Michael Bay flicks. Activision countered with Spiderman and Tony Hawk. Madden, FIFA, Tom Clancy all grew more and more bloated. For God's sake, look at what was driving that "growing revenue before the Wii." Here's your market full of Scorseses, folks:

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=PS2&publisher=&sort=Total

Entertainment industries often go through great artistic periods and great commercial periods at the same time. For example movies at the end of the Great Depression, and in music with the emergence of Rock'n'Roll.

Certainly movies like Snow White and Gone with the Wind or artists like Elvis Presley and James Brown showed artistic breakthrough, along with rising to unholy heights of popularity and destroying the establishment that existed before them.

Even though fanboys mock them, massively popular, industry-changing games like Nintendogs, Brain Age and Wii Sports are already also considered massive artistic breakthroughs. Look at the awards Wii Sports won. Listen to people who know what they're talking about break down the impecable game design theory implemented in Nintendogs.

But have Nintendo created their Gone with the Wind yet? That movie came out in 1939. It sold around 200 million tickets in America. The population of America was around 130 million. And it is still considered one of the greatest--and best--movies of all time.

Whatever the comparable accomplishment within gaming is, THAT is what Nintendo wants to create. And if they follow their current path, they cannot be withheld from it. Wait. And. Watch.