Cliff Bleszinski is at least semi-serious about his semi-retirement. The former Epic Games design director today is maintaining a presence in the industry--today he was named the keynote speaker for the 2013 East Coast Games Conference--but Bleszinski toldGamesIndustry International that now would be "the absolute worst time" for him to come back, and that he was waiting for the dust to settle a bit before making his next move.

"This business has not been in a state of transition like it is right now since the video game crash of the '80s," Bleszinski said. "I really think we're in a massive state of turmoil. I think Nintendo could possibly be faced with the situation of becoming a company that only makes software moving forward. I think Sony and Microsoft are about to come to major blows. But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now. I think we're ready to do digital download games all the time...I just want to see what happens. In regards to the industry, it's like the Super Smash Bros. of business right now, and I want to see if Peach or Mario wins."

If any of the console makers are to emerge victorious from that Super Smash Bros. melee, Bleszinski said they would need to embrace qualities from more open platforms like PCs and tablets while preserving the stability of a closed platform. Enabling developers to update their titles as needed was one such example.

"When Gears of War 2 launched and we found out that our netcode wasn't working right, it took us three months to get an update out," Bleszinski said. "By that time, the majority of users had moved on to the next game or had traded it in. If Microsoft and Sony are to do well in this next generation, they are going to need to reduce that time as much as possible, as well as continue to enable user-supported mods, independent games, and really just get rid of the wall that makes it incredibly hard to find those products, even if they're allowed on the console... All that red tape needs to be stripped away in order to create an ecosystem to allow for a product like Minecraft to actually happen on a console."

Part of that effort must enable and encourage a greater diversity in the offerings on consoles, Bleszinski said. Right now he suggested the console market is 80 percent $60 retail titles and 20 percent cheaper downloadable offerings, but it needs to embrace virtually all genres and all price points. That means $20 horror games, $40 shooters, $60 AAA blockbusters, free-to-play, and everything in between, all easy to find for the audience who would be most interested in them. (Microsoft has not announced its next-generation system yet, but Sony is positioning the PlayStation 4 as a developer-friendly machine open to alternative business models, and independent developers say Nintendo has made similar strides with the Wii U.)

While Bleszinski waits for winners to emerge from the current industry upheaval, his ECGC keynote will reflect more on the past.

"It's about what videogames mean to me," Bleszinski said of the address. "Ultimately, I want to take people on a journey through my 38 years of growing up playing games since the age of 6 when I first saw Space Invaders. And how throughout every major milestone of my life, video games have been there for me in a very positive way, and hopefully reminding people that this is a very wonderful medium. And to be frank, I'm kinda tired of it being challenged as some sort of demonic thing in pop culture."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-02-25-industry-turmoil-worst-since-80s-crash-says-bleszinski

I seriously cannot understand why people think Ninty will be reduced to 3rd party.

They have cash to survive and the 3DS looking to rake in $$ for the next couple years.

. "Right now he suggested the console market is 80 percent $60 retail titles and 20 percent cheaper downloadable offerings, but it needs to embrace virtually all genres and all price points. That means $20 horror games, $40 shooters, $60 AAA blockbusters, free-to-play, and everything in between, all easy to find for the audience who would be most interested in them."

I agree. A lot of games get a $60 price tag when they have no business being that expensive. I like Lollipop Chainsaw, not for $60 though. Its just not at that level of quality. Lollipop Chainsaw sold pretty good but possibly could have done even better at 40 or 30

EXACTLY! Look at Katamari Damacy. That game would have flopped but since it was $20 it ended up being a major franchise. I am tired of these $60 games which are worth $30-40 at the most. If they need to recoup costs then they should find better ways to develop.

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.

I forgot to mention to keep the PC model away from consoles please...pretty much what hes asking for. If the netcode was broke get a beeter QA team. Not MS's fault.

American*¨crash.

he is right, the industry is in the same state or worst than the 83 crash. It is just not noticeable as that time. Too many games, too many consoles, hardware not being profitable since day one, layoff everywhere even when publishers are making money. Things have to change and right now there is no space to fail for anyone.

3ds sales are very poor compared to ds. And the handheld market will continue to be eaten alive by phones/tablets. And nintendo can not stand alone as a home console maker. 

Dude Huge always has interesting views on the industry.