Cliff Bleszinski: Industry turmoil worst since '80s crash

[theRepublic]

richardhutnik said:

theRepublic said:

richardhutnik said:

avais1993 said:
I seriously doubt that consoles are in any state of turmoil, yes people are downloading games on tablets/mobiles, but most of these games are FREE and for the casual market who want something to play whilst their on the train to work.

If anything its opening up casual gamers to games that might lead them to buy a console and experiance some true gaming, people will always look at consoles as the main "gaming machine", it doubt that's going to change anytime soon, and true, graphics are improving on tablets and are pretty good, but its just uncomfortable to play on i cant see them taking anything away from consoles anytime soon.

The landscape of the industry might be different, but the kings are the same, new technologies open up but until they become superior (without the associated cost of gaming pc's) then consoles will always be the industry standard.

Look at the profit margins and studios closing.  And the industry is DEMANDING that new consoles get releases, because they think that fixes things.  People can't see the future here.  How many more playing Wolverine but can only carry 2 weapon FPS titles do we need?  The growth is in the iPhone/iPad settings with much smaller costs.

I don't see a sustainable business model in the mobile gaming market until we see a massive contraction in the number of mobile developers.  There needs to be a mobile gaming "crash" for the good of that market.  The herd needs to be culled.

There is just not enough money to go around for everyone on those micro-transactions.

Thus the concerns that Cliff was talking about here.  Thing is that the barriers to entry are so low, developer studios keep popping up like weeds.  It will never really cull down.  When you have individuals who only have one place they can work, they won't move.  They have the dream of trying to make it, so they stick around.  I am speaking also about myself here.  For me, my job options are low pay tech support out of the house, with student loans under water, or trying to break into the game business.  Irregardless of how bad it is, I stick around.  And I keep cranking out content.  My area is tabletop games, but the ideas are the same.   Not everyone can be like Cliffy B and stay to the wayside.

Pretty much you see a version of the hell known as Second Life here.  No matter how much people lose money on it, they still stick in it, hoping to turn the table.

Thing about a crash though is that you will get things culled all over, but you end up with possibly people losing faith.  The funding to start capital dries up in the process, and everything contracts.  The whole movie-like experience you see people here crave will not be sustainable.

First, keep at it and I hope you break through with something awesome.  Now on with my point.

What you are describing is basically a never ending 1983 for the mobile industry.  Something is going to give eventually.  That will not last forever.  At some point the start-up capital is going to dry up.  The few strong companies will survive, and the rest will fade away.

You seem to be talking about the console side in your last sentence.  Ever increasing graphics is indeed not sustainable either.  At some point it will need to level off.  It seems as though companies don't realize that they are cutting their own margins by forcing ever more expensive technologies into their games.  I guess we will see how many realize it before they cut their own throat.