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Forums - Gaming - Cliff Bleszinski: Industry turmoil worst since '80s crash

theRepublic on 26 February 2013
richardhutnik said:
theRepublic said:
richardhutnik said:

What happened in the 1980s is the consoles dried up, and people went elsewhere, like onto home computers.  On a personal level you could see a perpetual 1983, but not as bad.  What you do have is some titles do breakthrough and people do well.  But it will keep renewing, as indie guys see the success a few have and jump into the ring.  The thing is that the start-up capital can dry up, but there is still Kickstarter and also the likes of self-funding.  The mobile industry is really cheap to make stuff.  All you need is the dev environment.

What happened in the '80s is that there where enough bad games that it killed interest in consoles.  For the most part, people did not go elsewhere.  People do not need to game.  There are books, TV, movies, and all sorts of other entertainment.  The dedicated did go elsewhere.

It parallels what we see in the mobile space with so many bad games.  It is giving even the big boys trouble.  Zynga just closed some studios.  It is possible for the mobile well to be posioned.  If people want to play games, they have plenty of choices other than the mobile market.

Do you believe that videogames are so entrenched in western culture that people see them as normal here, and not subject to the same 1980s think it is a fad?  I do.  I believe because of this, that you aren't going to see them risk dying off like what happened in the 1980s.  But, there is very serious concern of contraction.  Thing now is that people can still  play older stuff, if need be.  IP still hold something, even if there is a major shakedown.  I do think AAA level stuff is at risk, outside of a few franchises.  

I will also disagree with people not needing games, and other things.  People do like to play, and believe games are a viable part.  Games are actually one of the oldest forms of play out there really.  People want to be mentally engaged and games and puzzles do that.

I will also add though that tabletop gaming is growing as far as an interest spot goes.  People can do board and cardgames.  Mind you, it doesn't necessarily mean lots of money but they are there.

I've been talking about mobile only.  I said that people have plenty of options other than mobile gaming.



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