Is it just me, or are most video game companies stupid?

[Terminator02]

Yes Guild, but let me bring up a valid point, that may contrast and bring a valid argument to your position.

The problem I see, is that now that companies know people will pay huge amounts for stuff, they'll want to charge even more. There is a limit to how much they can charge before stuff becomes affordable. Guess what happens when these games become too expensive to afford at the rate they are making them. Yes, It certainly wont keep growing if that happens to ever be the case.

As for Genre's, I have my own opinions.

Personally, I hate the CoD series. Not because it's a typical FPS, but because of the lack of parental guidance and the lack of age limit's for on-line play. I dont want my ears to literally get R3APed by some 5 year old who thinks he's so awesome because he can talk shit over a microphone. Kinda the same for Halo in this case.

Perhaps the same could be said of all Online Games.

I've played some JRPG's which I think just plain sucked, others I have loved to pieces. Same with WRPG's. Hell even plat-formers share this fate with me as well.

I also believe that the Gaming Industry is not putting enough effort into making original games, and not those shitware ones either or one's that rely entirely off of gimmicks, or have crap storylines.

So yes, as I stated before, you are right about the market expanding. However, charging more for every new game that comes out, to the point eventually where nobody will be able to afford them, will actually cause it to shrink back to where it was before, or at least this is my belief on the matter. None of you have to agree or disagree with it necessarily.

The way they get more money out of people is DLC, online passes, and those season passes where people pay an upfront fee to get all of the DLC at a discount. This way they're getting more money out of their hardcore fans without the number on the box going up.

Games are already incredibly expensive, much more so than movies or TV, it's $60 a pop if you're getting everything new. These high price tags are what lead to more sequels and less new IPs. When people go to buy a game, they're far more likely to buy a game that is a sequel to something they liked already than they are to just try something new. With sequels companies have a far more predictable outcome, and the industry can't really afford to make many new AAA game IPs because the consumers don't want to take that risk. This is why I think the whole Free 2 Play model will be the future, obviously more so on the PC first, because the consoles will want to keep their current models.

And if a 5 year old comes on, mute him, it's not that hard.

 

[Nimbus]

Yes, but let me put it this way.

Should I even have to go through the process of muting someone like that. Shouldn't their parents have the common sense to not buy these games for them in the first place, or restrict their online access....OH WAIT!? WHAT WAS I KIDDING! OF COURSE THEY DONT!

But the point is, I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS, HOWEVER INSIGNIFICANTLY SHORT IT MAY BE, OF MUTING SOMEONE JUST BECAUSE THEY CANT KEEP THEMSELVES IN CONTROL! I know a 5 year old is going to be excited, but age does not excuse someone from being out of control.

Seriously, where the fuck are these kids parents!?

Risk is a part of business. By not taking it and using existing IP's over and over again, you risk the existing ones going stale eventually. This is what has been happening with the CoD series, and I cannot understand why people cannot grasp this. This also could be said of the Street Fighter series, look at what Capcom has done lately. Neglected the Megaman franchise (MML3 has nothing to do with this btw, we haven't had a Megaman game in ages that hasn't been a remake or a rerelease), Fired that very series creator, and for what....so they can Milk the fuck out of their dying cash cow called Street Fighter....how worthless.

I can understand the economy playing a factor, but at some point you just have to look past that and come up with something new. CoD will not exist forever, Pokemon will die eventually, Mario might even cease at some point. You must have something to fall back on or take it's place, and people will expect it to be greater than it.

DLC cant save this industry forever either, most people I've met are getting fed up with having to pay more for content after they've paid 60$ or more for the base game. I didn't at all understand this at first, but now I actually see what they mean. We always get some version later on that has all that DLC, and is half or lower in price. It's insulting to say the least, to pay 60$ and have a "Lol-Everything" version come out 4 months later...honestly... I can understand how this works out for both parties on PC games, but for console games, it just kills it.

On the subject of DRM, It is an absolute sin! It should have never existed in this world to begin with, let alone become a thought in someone's mind. What has it done to prevent piracy, absolutely **** squat! What has it done though, punish the paying customers!

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

Video game developers: It won't sell well in the US. We won't sell it there.
Years later, they sell it in the US.
Video game developers: It sold well. See? We told you it'd sell well.
Days later.
Video game developers: It's not selling well. See? We told you it wouldn't.

 

[Nimbus]

Video game developers: It won't sell well in the US. We won't sell it there.
Years later, they sell it in the US.
Video game developers: It sold well. See? We told you it'd sell well.
Days later.
Video game developers: It's not selling well. See? We told you it wouldn't.

This too.

Lack of communication. Guaranteed to kill anything before it can get it's wings spread and off the ground.

 

[Rydian]

Games are selling more than ever, despite higher game prices, higher console prices, and a so-called "tough economy".

Whatever these guys are doing, they're goddamn geniuses.

People buy the games because they want the games, and without a flow of (customer-wanted) games modern game systems would collapse. See how many people are considering the DS dead now that it's release schedule's crumbling and opt to buy a different system instead...

I think the fact that they're able to make gaming more "mainstream" and make it grow at such a rate while increasing prices proves my point exactly.

They're assholes in our eyes but they're making the money at the end of the day.

The big companies are getting money via licensing fees for letting the games be on their system (or use their engine, or blah blah blah). For that, the number of games is often what matters, so some companies are notorious for letting any-damned-body develop a game for the system as long as they pay their fees when due and follow some content rules (depending on the company).

 

[Oveneise]

The problem with games nowadays is the ridiculous amount of DRM companies put on them. I know a lot of friends pirated Spore because of the atrocious AP that came with it (SecuROM, if I can remember.) And quite recently, many people were upset about the one Resident Evil Mercenaries game for the 3ds, and how you couldn't delete high scores (which I personally think is really, really stupid.) I haven't tried it yet, but one of my friends bought Battlefield 3, and while he says "Game is amazing. Epic win", he says he "HATES ORIGIN!!!" and wished he could use Steam instead. Well, whatever. If companies acted like you bought the game instead of thinking you are renting the game from them, I think gaming today would be in a better place.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

The problem with games nowadays is the ridiculous amount of DRM companies put on them. I know a lot of friends pirated Spore because of the atrocious AP that came with it (SecuROM, if I can remember.) And quite recently, many people were upset about the one Resident Evil Mercenaries game for the 3ds, and how you couldn't delete high scores (which I personally think is really, really stupid.) I haven't tried it yet, but one of my friends bought Battlefield 3, and while he says "Game is amazing. Epic win", he says he "HATES ORIGIN!!!" and wished he could use Steam instead. Well, whatever. If companies acted like you bought the game instead of thinking you are renting the game from them, I think gaming today would be in a better place.

As long as anti-piracy doesn't hinder the gameplay of a legally bought game, no one should complain. When you pirate games, you realize what you're doing is illegal. You also realize that you're getting the game for free and that anti-piracy is something you live with. Most of the time it gets cracked with no issues, other times it doesn't. I'm not saying DRM is good, it's atrocious, it's the exact opposite of good anti-piracy (since it hinders gameplay of a legal game copy) but if you buy the game and don't notice a single thing about anti-piracy, then it should be fine.

 

[Rydian]

As long as anti-piracy doesn't hinder the gameplay of a legally bought game, no one should complain.

AP from certain companies stopped being benign years ago, unfortunately. Now you have AP that disables your CD/DVD burner, requires you to be online for an offline single-player game, installs virtual device drivers that are known to crash/BSOD windows, and then there's that whole sony/BMG rootkit scandal on their audio CDs, and more.

 

[Zetta_x]

How do you think I read this topic?

Brilliant

 

[Hells Malice]

As long as anti-piracy doesn't hinder the gameplay of a legally bought game, no one should complain.

AP from certain companies stopped being benign years ago, unfortunately. Now you have AP that disables your CD/DVD burner, requires you to be online for an offline single-player game, installs virtual device drivers that are known to crash/BSOD windows, and then there's that whole sony/BMG rootkit scandal on their audio CDs, and more.

I went to play Might and Magic 6 when my internet was out, only to find out all profile data is fucking kept online. Not a byte of it is on your computer.
What a piece of shit system. But of course, Ubisoft published it so...fuck them once again.

 

[Thesolcity]

Its not just you.

 

[godreborn]

personally, I think the quality of games has diminished so much that few games even warrant a purchase. part of the problem is that development companies have become so corporate that few developers can truly be creative. I would gladly buy games if they weren't so half-assed. and, because so much of a game's budget is devoted to graphics, many games suffer from all show and no substance (ie: the final fantasy series along with a lot of other leading franchises). u know there's something wrong when the creator (Final Fantasy's Hironobu Sakaguchi) and main composer (Final Fantasy's Nobuo Uematsu) say the series has become trash. I don't believe the game industry will last much longer at its current rate since I know many gamers, including myself, r tired of the bs.

 

[Qtis]

I went to play Might and Magic 6 when my internet was out, only to find out all profile data is fucking kept online. Not a byte of it is on your computer.
What a piece of shit system. But of course, Ubisoft published it so...fuck them once again.

You do mean Heroes of Might and Magic 6 and not Might and Magic 6? Might & Magic VI was released when the internet wasn't even widely available like it is nowadays.. Also it was still made and owned by 3DO and not Ubisoft

But as said before by many, the problem is mainly the type of security used to make the game (un)playable. That is the reason why I for example use No-cd cracks or other similar alternatives even after having bought a game.. People can say that games have turned to shit (OH GAWD COD SUX!?"), but that isn't completely true. If you look back at older games, the system has been the same also for many games before. Some series evolve around a working concept (CoD, BF, etc), some evolve around a good story (Layton, Ace Attorney, possibly even Skyrim et al), some just evolve into something completely different while keeping the old name (FF, Warcraft into WoW, etc). It's all about what devs and publishers think are important. Also keeping the game the same without any kind of change (be it gameplay or the whole system (CoD and FF for examples)), you'll end up killing the whole system. Look what happened to Guitar Hero (too many games without really anything new).

But what I don't understand is why console games are still more expensive than PC games. On release, pretty much every console game is 10-20$ more regardless of the original price for the PC. Also add the price of DLC and you have a game which ends up costing quite a bit for the "whole" experience. Also the best thing is companies like Rockstar: "We won't release games as GOTY or Complete." *ding* RDR GOTY, GTA IV Complete *ding*. Some people ended up buying the DLC full price since they thought it wasn't going to be available in the end. Now they're quite pissed off..

I'll probably edit this sometime later and add more, but I'll have to work at the lab for a while..


-Qtis

ps. The problem isn't as simple as some may think. Fixed costs may lead to keeping game prices higher even though variable costs are smaller (ie making the DVD/Bluray of the games is cheap, but if only a few are made, the cost per product is high)..

 

[Hells Malice]

Yeah HoMaM6. I'm used to just saying Might and Magic because they rearranged the name for no reason into Might and Magic Heroes VI. I always forget to put "heroes".

 

[Saken]

I think it's also the gamers that are stupid.
The top games aren't even that good. They are over rated and gamers buy them because of that recognition.
By recognition, I'm referring to the current young generation who want everything, including to be "cool".

Face it, the majority of games that are big are because of the kids that praise them so highly. I think it's lucky on Infinity Ward's part that the kids chose that "CoD" and "Battlefield" were the most cool. Because, in fact, nearly every other FPS game(about 90% of the current western game market) is just the same as these 2 games, with a few minor differences.

Which comes back to why companies are stupid. Just because the latest craze is FPS games, it doesn't mean they can't think of anything innovative and new, to try and knock out their competitors.
As i stated, it's a craze, and it WILL die eventually when a new dominating genre comes into play, ie. when the kids decide that "CoD" is for babies and that the new game is "Game X".
When the genre of Game X becomes the most popular, i just hope the companies don't sell out again and try to imitate that genre, changing one or two features.

I only care because these gaming companies could be working on actual good games, that could potentially topple their competitors.
It's a shame though, because the companies that actually try to do what i said usually get no recognition.
So then, who is at fault in the end?

I'll leave that to you to decide.