Industry Malaise
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
I recently finished playing Dear Esther.
My god, what a game. It doesn’t take very long to beat, and I’m sure it’ll bore most of the people who try it, but it blew me away. It still has me thinking about it, trying to unravel it. It’s one of only a handful of games I’ve played in recent years which actually feels like it’s pushing the envelope of what’s considered a “game,” and not since Myst have I found myself wanting more of a game just because I’m enraptured with its environment.
It’s not a PS3 game. It’s a PC game. And it cost me pennies, compared to a AAA console title.
Which got me to thinking: why am I so bored with most video games today?
Here’s a confession I’ve debated sharing: this console generation largely bored me, and I tuned out when it started. Whereas I’d been an avid video gamer my entire life up to that point, I just couldn’t get enthusiastic about the most recent generation. Yeah, sure, I bought all three consoles, but it felt more like an obligation than something to look forward to.
Maybe I was just experiencing console fatigue. Maybe I was at a point in my life, after thirty-plus years, where games needed to take a backseat due to my real-world workload. Except that I kept going back and replaying old PS2 and PS1 games, and — aside from Wii Sports — couldn’t really find much that was interesting or exciting to me about the current generation.
Very little, outside of thatgamecompany, feels unique right now; the industry decided to rush into photorealism and shooters, and all the protagonists seem to blend together. Ironically, I ended up using my Wii to download Virtual Console games from my youth, whereas my XBox 360 collected dust.
And the PS3? Well, for me, it’s not really a PlayStation so much as a HomeStation. I’m one of those people who uses it predominantly to play Home. Hence this publication’s name.
Are there exceptions? Sure. Journey is a game-changer. Dragon Age: Origins is the best RPG I’ve played since Knights of the Old Republic. Valkyria Chronicles managed to create something truly unique as an S-RPG. But so many games within their respective genres just feel tired. This console generation, like so many of the games upon it, feels like the sequel that just milked the formula a little too far.
Judging by the recent fiscal losses in the game industry overall, I may not be alone in this sentiment. And right now everyone’s trying to figure out why the industry’s in decline. Has the current hardware been around too long? Are there too many sequels and not enough original IPs? Has everyone simply decided to do something as heretical as read books instead?
Honestly, I don’t think it’s the hardware. My first gaming machine was an Apple ][e, which held a dominant market share for nearly fifteen years. Hardware isn’t the issue. The issue, aside from an economic collapse across much of the world, is software — specifically, its availability and modern lack of innovation.
Here’s what I mean. Thanks to the internet, I can download a variety of emulators for my PC and play pretty much any classic game I want to, for little to no cost. My generation has an emotional attachment to these games, and the economic barrier to entry is virtually nil. Couple that with the availability of cheap mobile gaming that’s used to pass the time, and it’s very hard to create an absolute must-have game that’s worth sixty (or more) dollars at launch. Until such time as the cloud really does kill off game resales, there isn’t much need for me to forego waiting six to nine months to pick up the same game at a fraction of the price. Unlike the old days, the internet has provided a variety of cheap gaming which keeps the consumer from growing bored. Is there any doubt that Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja are this generation’s Tetris?
This, to me, is what makes Home so brilliant: it’s a game world you get to live inside. Although what’s been delivered is a fraction of Home’s true potential as a Sony PlayStation world of wonders, it’s still more interesting than most of the banal yawnfest the rest of the industry is offering. And this most recent shift towards freemium gaming is simply a supply-side economics shift based on the glut of content available thanks to the internet.
Graphics aren’t everything.
There are always consumers who will be driven by graphics. And, for them, console wars are heavenly — because they push the boundaries ever further towards photorealism. The question is at what point graphics fail to be a sufficiently motivating factor for enough people, which is what the Wii proved with the current console generation. Although it seems like heresy to suggest that AAA disc games shouldn’t continue to push the envelope in terms of graphical capability, ask yourself this: with Moore’s Law being what it is and the next console generation approaching, would you prefer a further layer of graphical immersion, or would you prefer that money put into developing longer games with more content that made you feel like the sixty bucks you paid for the game wasn’t a rip-off?
Personally, what I’m hoping for — and I think it’ll emerge after freemium runs its course — is a game console that offers an immersive game world unto itself, already built in, with the ability to act as a platform for freemium gaming. I’m talking major, major development money thrown at it. Basically, a vastly scaled-up version of Home, combining various gaming experiences with the incredible feeling of being inside a dynamic and growing game world. This, to me, is much more exciting than the idea of another round of first-person shooters in which I play a grizzled mercenary with a dramatic squint and a monosyllabic first name, or a spiky-haired teenager out to save the kingdom and be rewarded with a softcore anime scene.
For now, though, I have to admit…today’s video game scene, with some rare notable exceptions, looks rather dull compared to years (and decades) past. And the cry for a new console generation is little more than a misguided cry for something — anything — different. Virtual reality is that difference; Sony got here first with Home, but let’s see who harnesses it properly in the years to come.
August 11th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 5 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
LinkedIn
Twitter
I totally agree with you Norse. I have found very few games that can keep my interest in recent years. There are a few exceptions like Skyrim and RDR of course but many of the others just don’t catch my attention like FF7 or even Suikoden did in the old days.
If the other gaming console formats all take up the gauntlet and create an array of places like Home in the near future, I can see a console war for who comes up with the best ideas first. Sony has a huge head start here with Home, but if the others chime in to this idea, they have the advantage of seeing what has worked and not worked for Home and building on that. This ought to keep Sony on their toes trying to keep up and surpass them like they always have. Should be an interesting decade ahead if this occurs.
I remember, back in early ’90s, when with a roommate we used to rate games in “fun per bytes” In these time memory was much more limited, both RAM and HDD. The game that won em all was Uncharted Waters. Originally sold on two 720Kb 3.5″ floppy. I’ll probably play it again if I had it. Graphics were in 16 colors and there wasnt much “action” shown. But that game was immersive.
I never really gave much importance to graphic quality on a game. Or other “pushing the envelope” characteristics. Give me a smooth, bug free game and i’m a happy camper.
I’m not a fan of shooters and the last thing I want after a hard days work is getting my bottom kick by a 14 yo lol So now when I look at rows of online FPS in a store I feel left out.
As always. Good Article. I recommend it with a wake up cup of coffee.
The PSN has released some really good games in the past 6 months.
Journey and RenegadesOps,(of which I thought was a really fun game.) I bought RenegadeOps as I thought the cell graphics were really good. I tend to buy old classics by default. The PSN has offered quite a few remakes in HD of these older games.
Maybe the economy is forcing some developers to sell themselves short. Push a product before it’s time.
As a side note I left PC gaming because of the very things this article speaks of. I enjoy many aspects of the PS3 because it covered so many bases. I got tired of chasing hardware, and sometimes the drivers for it.
The PS3 covered most everything for years to come, that a PC would have you running down to the nearest electronic store for. On top of buying the game it’s self.
I am happy wit the money vested in my PS3. So far as some of the games released in Home. I think it would be very cool if some of the arcade cabinets had better ties with those older IP’s.
Granted we got Namco Museum, what stopped us from being able to see our friends playing those games in our spaces? Seeing our friends play the games we love in a place like Home would add to the immersion.
I don’t know about legal hurtles like that one, but “IF” I ever had the opportunity to work on one part of building something to add to the experience that Home is, building on both parts of the game, like Cutthroats is doing. Where player gets to play or player gets to observe his or her friends playing.
Watching your friends play helps atleast from an immersive perspective, you to remain just that way. Immersed. Looking forward to what Cutthroats has coming!
Wow…. I haven’t ever written a comment this long.
The first thought that popped into my head after I finished Red Dead redemption was, I want more of this. I thought about that, what do I want? Playing through the same game again, which I’ve done quite a few times now, isn’t the same. But I don’t want to pull myself away from that world. Then I thought, DLC? what will they provide, more missions, and more tasks to check off a list in the same environment, and no that’s not really what I want. It occurred to me, what I’d really like from these games, that have a specific beginning and a definitive end, is a continuous experience. I don’t want a Red Dead 2 (well 3 since Redemption was a sequel to revolver but so different i don’t count it as the same franchise) What i would like is one game that keeps expanding, like many MMOs or Home does. A full expansion of the game that introduces new environments, new characters, and new stories, that either Ads on to the first game or plays as a stand alone game. A continuous flow of the game that expands, rather than a sequel put those resources into expanding the world you created in the first place. The biggest hurdle i see there, is that anyone sees a $60 DLC they are likely to go ballistic, but have you ever added up the LBP add ons, or fallouts? That’s about what you are paying when you get them all, if not more.
But then you get GotY Editions, which cost little and include most DLCs Bon. However, I have been impressed with the styles and ideas of some Bethesda packs. Which reminds me, Rocksteady did us a good turn with the Bat Cave for Home, more of that please. I wouldn’t go as far to say this gen has been so terrible Norse, there have been some stellar gaming moments for me; Twilight Princess, the AC series, Skyrim, UC, RDR, L.A Noir or Journey but to name just a few! I know it’s hard to ignore these gems in the sea of brown that the industry seems to be drowning in which is why your end-point; a growing Home (or virtual gaming environment) would be great. I always try to see Home as that but that side of it is just so, tame.
Burbie’s idea of arcades on the pier is still very high on my wish list, but the whole function of it needs a re-vamp. They should be giving us dirty code from Indy devs to try out on arcades within Home, give gamers a really raw gaming scene, make Home the ONLY place that you can have access to free-to-play, not-yet-released, still-in-development games. Yes they might be full of bugs, and might be of a “lesser rank” compared to the AAA games we play, but how great would it be to walk in to a virtual place knowing you can beta test new ideas?
Home has so much potential in it, yet seems to be stuck on selling shoes or pet tigers. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that particularly, but it could be utilised in much better ways than it currently is.