The Game Developers Conference had an interesting addition this year. Near the end of the conference some hand picked game industry veterans got a chance to talk/rant/yell/whisper/spit whatever was on their mind about the game industry and what is right and wrong. I found it very interesting that what they said was close to a lot of stuff that we have talked about here on gametruth.

The first big thing is something that has not come up as a whole topic but something I have considered many times in the past. A big problem with the game industry is that games are very expensive to make and then they sit on the shelves for 3 months and poof they are gone to the bargain bin. The problem is that there are not enough outlets with which game makers can sell their products. Movies have the big screen, pay-per-view, premium channel, rental, DVD/VHS, and then normal TV. Games are distributed by store, rental, or online. Considering the cost of games at this time, these methods are just not cutting it. In the future I bet we will see a growth in direct download games as well as free trials and other services that allow gamers to try games or play them for a limited amount of time.

Next is the problem of stagnation in game storytelling. This is something we have discussed here on gametruth a few times. These industry veterans basically stated that franchises and sequels are choking the market. Yep they are. Developers are not willing to take these enormous risks with unknown games anymore. The cost to produce games is so high that it is significantly easier to produce the next Madden game than any game from scratch. In order for the game industry to survive the cost per game need to decrease and also creativity and not frachise and graphics will need to dominate.

It is always interesting to listen to people who have been the industry for while as they have seen how fast it has changed and know how unstable it is. However, it was disconcerting that these veterans and heavy hitters were so angry about the state of the industry. With incoming ads and storefronts being added to games to milk more money out of their big names, (that is for another time) will big named developers just turn to churning out pretty games with a suffix that is in roman numerals or the current year instead of games that are creative and new? I wish I had a crystal ball.

-Mark (28-Mar-2005)

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