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Five Reasons Why The Video Game Industry May Crash Soon
“And I peered into the great canyon, and saw death, the plug pulled, the lights go dim, the digital world now a barren wasteland. “
Could this really happen? The collapse of a billion dollar industry? It certainly happened before in 1983. History may soon repeat itself. Here are 5 warning signs:
1. Deals, Deals Deals -
Bargains galore, 2009 has been a great year for gaming shopping as retail stores have offered amazing bargains on recent releases.
For example, Sam’s clubs have been slashing PS3 games price by as much as 80-90%. Fallout 3 for $18 bucks. Mirror’s Edge for $8. Heck I even snagged a new copy of Overlord for $4 bucks.
Target ran an awesome clearance offering titles like Tomb Raider and Ratchet and Clank PS3 for $15 bucks. Toys R Us regularly gives out gift cards. Best Buy ran a $10 dollar gaming sale that got cleaned out in hours from hoarders. Gamestop has regularly been offering B2G1F sales. With so many frequent deals, it would just be pure stupidity to buy a game on release day for full price.
But all these great deals signal a troubling reality. Stores ain’t selling. They can’t get rid of the stock at full price. Bad sales at the store level eventually go back to less revenue for the publisher causing the publisher to go out of biz or merge.
2. Delays, Delays, Delays
There is panic in the streets, boys. A lot of 2009 titles pulled out of the holiday rush out of competition fear. Singularity admits it. No one wants to go up against the juggernaut called Call of Duty. This means a lot more concern about profit, less risks. Games are being pushed back to polish them up and meet their maximum potential. While this is a good thing for gamers, if the industry dies soon, we may never get to see those great games.
3. Recession ain’t getting better
Microsoft reported earnings of 66% less than a year ago. Nintendo also 60% less. Less people are buying games. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. There are more signs indicating that the recession is just going to get worse than better next year which could give the industry a virtual heart attack.
4. Me Too E3 Mentality
I didn’t find E3 2009 to be impressive. I found it to be pathetic. M$ and Sony are apparently in desperation mode by copycatting the Wii motion form of gaming. They want you to believe that this is the next evolution in gaming. But gamers by definition are lazy coach planters. Who wants to get up and wave their arms, jump around to play a freaking FPS? Controllers work just fine. Camera based games have been tried before, and they flop. And we get this crap instead of new hardware for the next 5 years? Good grief, the industry does need a rebirth.
5. Fast Shift to DLC
If publishers have their way, all future games will be DLC. Production costs eliminated. Then charge more and more for add ons. You can bet your bottom dollar that EA is planning this with BF 1943. The game is a success with no costs for producing discs or manuals. Now, they will probably release more and more $10 map packs, and by the end, you have paid $100 bucks for a game that had the same number of maps in BF 1942.
They don’t mind screwing the gamer anymore to trim the fat. Profit is all that matters.
“And I peered into the great canyon, and saw death, the plug pulled, the lights go dim, the digital world now a barren wasteland. “
Could this really happen? The collapse of a billion dollar industry? It certainly happened before in 1983. History may soon repeat itself. Here are 5 warning signs:
1. Deals, Deals Deals -
Bargains galore, 2009 has been a great year for gaming shopping as retail stores have offered amazing bargains on recent releases.
For example, Sam’s clubs have been slashing PS3 games price by as much as 80-90%. Fallout 3 for $18 bucks. Mirror’s Edge for $8. Heck I even snagged a new copy of Overlord for $4 bucks.
Target ran an awesome clearance offering titles like Tomb Raider and Ratchet and Clank PS3 for $15 bucks. Toys R Us regularly gives out gift cards. Best Buy ran a $10 dollar gaming sale that got cleaned out in hours from hoarders. Gamestop has regularly been offering B2G1F sales. With so many frequent deals, it would just be pure stupidity to buy a game on release day for full price.
But all these great deals signal a troubling reality. Stores ain’t selling. They can’t get rid of the stock at full price. Bad sales at the store level eventually go back to less revenue for the publisher causing the publisher to go out of biz or merge.
2. Delays, Delays, Delays
There is panic in the streets, boys. A lot of 2009 titles pulled out of the holiday rush out of competition fear. Singularity admits it. No one wants to go up against the juggernaut called Call of Duty. This means a lot more concern about profit, less risks. Games are being pushed back to polish them up and meet their maximum potential. While this is a good thing for gamers, if the industry dies soon, we may never get to see those great games.
3. Recession ain’t getting better
Microsoft reported earnings of 66% less than a year ago. Nintendo also 60% less. Less people are buying games. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. There are more signs indicating that the recession is just going to get worse than better next year which could give the industry a virtual heart attack.
4. Me Too E3 Mentality
I didn’t find E3 2009 to be impressive. I found it to be pathetic. M$ and Sony are apparently in desperation mode by copycatting the Wii motion form of gaming. They want you to believe that this is the next evolution in gaming. But gamers by definition are lazy coach planters. Who wants to get up and wave their arms, jump around to play a freaking FPS? Controllers work just fine. Camera based games have been tried before, and they flop. And we get this crap instead of new hardware for the next 5 years? Good grief, the industry does need a rebirth.
5. Fast Shift to DLC
If publishers have their way, all future games will be DLC. Production costs eliminated. Then charge more and more for add ons. You can bet your bottom dollar that EA is planning this with BF 1943. The game is a success with no costs for producing discs or manuals. Now, they will probably release more and more $10 map packs, and by the end, you have paid $100 bucks for a game that had the same number of maps in BF 1942.
They don’t mind screwing the gamer anymore to trim the fat. Profit is all that matters.