| KungKras said: http://gametheoryonline.com/2010/07/28/video-games-industry-gaming-business/ "Their biggest immediate worry: Surviving the complete and utter transformation of a business that once was dominated by packaged goods to a new paradigm ruled by downloadable, online, social, community-driven and service-based offerings." "The industry is really being turned inside out.” Maybe so, but as you’ll see in the above video, it’s also one poised to elevate new captains of industry, and potentially leave even the field’s most iconic firms capsized in its wake. Consider it a simple reminder – rather than focus on random fancies such as motion controls and 3D special effects, perhaps we’d all do well to remember that behind the scenes in 2010, there’s a much larger game at stake." This is why Nintendo wasn't mentioned. The maker of the video is part of the industry mindset that malstrom critisizes. |
I remember his reaction on Gamasutra article regarding casual games on PC. Both worth reading.
Gamasutra: The price of download games has dropped in the past year from an average of $20 to $7 per game. That’s a 65% drop in price, meaning developers need to sell 2.5 more per game to make as much as before. The demand for casual download games is growing, but at a much slower rate to offset the drop in price (my guess is 10 – 15% yearly growth)...
I’m not saying it’s possible to get the average price back to $20 per game. There are too many cheap and free games online, on Facebook and the iPhone (that’s a reason why we are covering them more). But, $7 does not work. A desk for $1,000 made by craftsmen is higher in quality than a $200 desk you buy at Walmart made of particle wood. It’s the same with download games.
Malstrom: When an entertainment is in trouble, be it a TV show to a movie to a video game, the problem is almost always the content. Content! Content! Content!..
So you want to make a cell phone game. Fine. But consider the customer doesn’t have nearly as much competition on in an entertainment standpoint where he carries his cell phone. The poor husband whose wife drags him around while she does shopping will love his cell phone games not because of the games, themselves, but because they are more entertaining than watching his wife spend his money on clothes she doesn’t need. When the husband gets home, does he continue to play the cell phone games? No! He flops down on the couch and turns on the football game. He only plays cell phone games when he is cornered outside with no other options.
Consider the DS and its rise. You knew something special was going on when people were playing their DS in their homes despite all the other options of entertainment they could be doing. People were playing their DS systems in front of their Wii and Xbox 360s and would admit at the time it felt funny doing so. “I am at home. Shouldn’t I be playing my home console?” But the games on the DS, at the time, were so compelling that he didn’t care.
