Game Companies are Morons.

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Monday, August 31, 2026 15:48
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Idiots.

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/video-game-industry-dying-1755
30304.html

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E3 is usually the videogame industry's big party of the year — a chance to celebrate its strengths and showcase the titles it expects to drive sales forward for the rest of the year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3But as the game makers gather for this year's event, a cloud hangs over the soiree. Retail sales are down 27 percent compared to this time in 2011. Mobile devices are stealing the spotlight from traditional consoles. And naysayers are openly questioning the long-term viability of the console industry.

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Or, yanno, the problem *COULD* be something else...

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Microsoft will showcase "Halo 4" at this year's show — the beginning of a new trilogy for its most popular franchise — while Sony will showcase "PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale," a "Super Smash Bros"-like game featuring some of the best-known characters exclusive to the platform.

Third-party publishers are also hoping to take advantage of the large installed base of systems to showcase some of their biggest franchises. Ubisoft will center its focus on action games "Assassin's Creed III" and "Far Cry 3." Electronic Arts will showcase a new "Medal of Honor" game and graphical wunderkind "Crysis 3."

Most investors will be focused on Activision Blizzard, though. The company will give its first in-depth look at "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" at the show (likely at the start of Microsoft's press conference), which has already exceeded the early pre-order levels of its predecessors, thanks in part to its near-future setting.

Activision will also show off the next installment in its "Skylanders" series, which combines real-world toys with a videogame and was one of the 2011 holiday period's biggest surprise hits. (Collectors are paying up to $1,200 for rare figurines from the game on eBay.)

The biggest title on tap for next year, however, won't be at this year's E3 — and its publisher likely won't discuss it. "Grand Theft Auto V" is the game that could end "Call of Duty's" reign as the industry's top seller, but developer Rockstar Games traditionally shuns E3.

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Sequelitis
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shovelware

Maybe, just maybe, a little innovation is in order, instead of milking to complete and total destruction whilst death-marching programmers, a'la Electronic Arts, hmmm?

-Frem

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I used to play Final Fantasy games, but after FFX became so linear (though it DID have a good story), and they came out with an MMORPG, I kind of stopped.

However, I'm often guilty of buying derivative games just for the nostalgia factor (see Zelda and Diablo). And I'm not fully immune to MMORPGs, though I knew from the beginning that they were a bad idea.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Or, yanno, the problem *COULD* be something else...

Maybe, just maybe, a little innovation is in order, instead of milking to complete and total destruction whilst death-marching programmers, a'la Electronic Arts, hmmm?

-Frem

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I see this complaint from people related to movies, as well. Problem is - there's not much logic to it. People, when it comes to entertainment, don't tend to want to try the new. There are non-sequel games all the time, same as movies. Some are even rather innovative. And they almost always flop - because the consumers don't want to risk their money on something untried - and so they buy what is familliar. And that being the case, it leaves the companies with little incentive to be original.

Don't get me wrong - Im not saying its okay for them to be derivitive over and over - just that the customers (as a group) are just as guilty, if not moreso. You can complain about Halo 4 - but Id bet you almost anything that it sells several magnitudes more than any original property released next year (and very likely more than several of them combined).

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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South Park: The Stick of Truth got some coverage at E3 along with all the sequel games. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty stoked for that.


What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.

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I see this complaint from people related to movies, as well. Problem is - there's not much logic to it. People, when it comes to entertainment, don't tend to want to try the new.

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Why not ?

Okay, think what one will, but since I buy a lot of games and anime from second-third line retailers and they often offer bundle deals, many times to fill out an order I will take a chance on some unknown show or game, throw it in to bulk out the order and snag the extra discount...
And you know what ?
While the occasional shelf-filler does slip through, and most fall into the passable category, cause Sturgeons Law really does apply to prettymuch everything....

A very disproprtionate number of those give-it-a-shot games and shows ARE THE BEST ONES I OWN.
That's actually how I find a lot of these rare, underappreciated gems.
Of course, sure I see your point about the average consumer gobbling up the shovelware just cause the name on it, the same way you could stamp a brand name on a pile of dried cow poop and get money for it, but that only works for so long before even the dumbest customer base starts catching wise.
And it has the potentional to really massively offend your customer base too - I note how the article seems to work its way AROUND mentioning that Electronic Arts is the most hated company in america, as if they had no impact on their game sales, eh ?

Anyhows, there's folks who makes games to make money, which is where shovelware comes from, and there's folks who make GAMES - Rockstar is kinda okay about this, although on the decline, Blue-Byte (now ubi-soft) used to be, but fell to the mythical siren song of game breaking DRM and greed, and Interplay even on their worst day was a cut above because of it, hell so was Activision WAY back when.
And wow, wouldn't ya know it, those who made GAMES out of love for the notion, the medium, often made more money than those with explicit profit margins, funny how that works, innit ?
Maybe, just maybe, cause they understand what gamers WANT, hmm ?

Mind, I am not really disagreein with you, just pointing out that there's always a market for the innovative, for the awesome, even if it's not just-stamp-the-logo-on-it safe margin shovelware.
HEY GAME COMPANIES - HERE I AM, FISTFULL OF MONEY IN HAND, AND NOTHING TO SPEND IT ON!
There's a very exploitable market (albiet a niche, though a well-payin one) which most companies have blinded themselves to by getting so distant from their market mentally - Wargaming.net has made some good chunk of cash off me with World of Tanks because it totally appeals to me, whereas other MMO/FPS games have not.

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South Park: The Stick of Truth got some coverage at E3 along with all the sequel games. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty stoked for that.

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I'd be a little more stoked about the chair leg of truth, myself.



Man, a Transmetropolitan tie-in game would just be so damn awesome, and the modern GTA engine could so do it, I think...

-Frem

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From mid-2002 to late 2007(?), I probably spent half my waking time
in EverQuest. If other games were better, I did not care, 'cause of the
huge learning curve. I stuck with what I knew.

Last March, I went back to EQ. End of April, Sony Online Entertainment
got hacked, compromising players' private info & credit cards. We
couldn't play while Sony "investigated" this. The News was unflattering
to Sony management, hinting that they never even tried to protect our
data.
In any case, I decided to not trust Sony evermore.

Later, I spent several days checking out EVE. Hated it.

Last night, I looked quite a while for What to play now, focused on
play at home alone stuff. Player recommended are Dragon Age Origins
& Baldur's Gate 2. Both of those are tooo grim for me now, and all
the screen shots are Dark! I like to go to the deserts, grasslands,
scattered forests, and play in the Sunlight!!

I've gotten soft and should play something suitable for kids under 13.

So ... back to shopping the MMPOGs. WoW is the one most often recom-
mended by other players.

Help Me, Please!!

=========================
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. ~Charles R Swindoll

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Hello,

You might like Wow. It is bright and mostly light-hearted and easy to learn.

I am a sucker for character customization and the game didn't allow the sort of customization I enjoy.

I played Champions online, which is now free I believe. I found the customization much better there, but I don't know if you like superhero games.

I am looking forward to The Secret World to be released in July. But it will likely be too dark and adult themed for your enjoyment.

Frem and I played World of Tanks, but I suspect you want to do more than hunt and kill tanks.

--Anthony



Note to Self:
Raptor - women who want to control their reproductive processes are sluts.
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.
Never forget what these men are.
“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz

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