PC Gaming Industry Slowing?

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:50 am

As you can see from the last news post another game joins the what is becoming a long list of cancelled or delayed games. Black 9 was recently cancelled along with Ultima X this year and the Y-Project late last year. Combine this with several high profile games such as Dungeon Siege II and Republic Commando delayed until next year.

Is this going to be a continuing trend in games? Are we possibly seeing a start of slow times ahead for PC Games? I mean I knew that games couldn't come out as mush as they did a few years ago but the fact we are starting to look at only one or two good FPS games coming out in a year is very disturbing. I really would like everyone's thought on this. Head on over to the forums and tell me what you think!

Guest

In my opinion the reason for the slow down is simple. Gamers have simply gotten tired of playing WW2 games or Counter-Strike clones. They want something with original gameplay and this of course means development teams can't just spew out hundreds of similar games a year, they actually have to think about what they're doing and come up with original ideas, and this of course takes time.

Another reason is that gamers are becoming more and more 'shallow' when it comes to games. So often I've heard people say "Oh I'm not playing that, the graphics are crap." This means that developers have to spend a lot longer on the eye candy for their games, which makes development periods a lot longer. This is probably yet another reason why the quality of gameplay is deteriorating. Developers are far more interested in showing gamers a few cool looking screenshots so they'll buy the game. Very few seem to care anymore whether their games are fun to play.

Anyway, that’s my little rant about the state of the modern games industry.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:12 pm

Fib,

Some very cool points there.

Guest

I think it's proof that the beancounters have taken over the games-industry.
No one dares to try anything that's too new or risky (such as yet another MMORPG) anymore.

It's not that new ... it's just becoming more visible every year.

Then again ... the gamers/consumers themselves have proven over and over again that they don't want new games either.
They just want the same garbage in better looking packages for less money.

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 9:58 am

I don't necessarily think it is re-hashed junk that they want. I just think that some ideas such as Duke Nuken, Doom and other game could be redone with new Tech and still be cool. I do very much agree I am completely sick of WW2 and Vietnam based games. Time to move on. Please!

Guest

hmm ... they don't want rehashed garbage ?
Let me know when Half-life 2 or Doom 3 is released and people start screaming that they're too different from the 'classic' versions.

It happened when UT2003 was released ... pretty much all the fanboys were screaming that there were too many changes.

Hell ... even Valve is working on CS:Source (CS with minimal improvements except the fact that it uses the new Source-engine) in addition to a completely new CS 2.

Guest

You have to ask yourself how open to new games the average CS player is though. There's a reason it's the most popular multiplayer online game in the world. It's quite simply because a lot of CS players simply refuse to contemplate playing other games. Occasionally they may stray and play another mod but it is unlikely they'll play something that hasn't been released or isn’t affiliated with Valve.

There's a whole culture (if you can call it that) of people on the Internet who seem to think you have to play CS to be '1337'.

Of course that's a very skewed view of CS'ers but I've found it does usually apply to the majority of them. If you're a CS player and reading this on an Unreal site them obviously you're in the minority.

As for the whole argument about DOOM3, HL2 and the UT series I think you'll find that although a lot of people are excited about the games, what more people are concerned about are the engines. New engines is what keeps these franchises alive simply because new engines means new opportunities for the modding community. It's gotten to the point with these games that whenever new media is released you might see a handful of comments like "Wow, that looks cool I can't wait to play!” whereas the majority of comments you'll see will go along the lines of "Wow that looks cool, I can't wait to make a map/model/mod for that!".

Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2004 8:36 pm

I agree with what you said of about 'Fanboys' bitching. I think that the bitchy ones are the minority but the ones who like change don't voice their opinions as mush as the others.

I am 110% for pushing the technology envelope. There are several generations of gamers that only know decent graphics and millions of colors. I remeber the days of blocky sprites and green and white monitors playing Lord of Conquest on my Commodore 64. Not to mention all of the Pac Man clones for the Vic-20.

I think we are at a crossroads for video games. We finally have hardware out there that can support near life-like games but there is no way your average gamer can afford them. Combine that with the big gamble that is creating a video game and you can see why investors are nervous.

Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:01 am

I have few ideas of what might be going on:

- Theres very interesting thing - internet/multyplayer games bring much more attention and LONG TIME comunity interest, even stupid ones can bring much more money and fans then some single player games.

Logycal hehe people who play online keep their interest and then when improoved version comes out, or just patches or bonuspacks, competitions etc... they have support for years. and not like fading out interest on single player games... [check planet hl, planet duke lol, theres like no much activity comparing to ut, im ean realy muh interesting news, mostly about same things].
Not talking of mod support, its much better, comunity is enormus Smile

EM lot of people got tired or dont like internet games - how meny of them do we realy need? Smile

q3? ut? hehe cs maybe enother few. BUT not ALL Smile

- Lot of games focus on consoles? em dont have any of those.

- the long times that games take to come out is cause they focus on next tech and on other hand they want lot of people to buy them but not everyone has such new pc's so they wait when more people have thise hardware, and when it get cheeper i donno. plus it just takes time to make this games Smile

each time more and more time.

-games suffer from same thing as ourdays music and movies, if you didnt notice - they can't come up with realy good and talanted ideas, more like remakes of old stuff with new technology.

Ourday technology is no longer challanging to. more like race to WHO MAKES COOLER graphics. so you end up with good looking kaka Smile

.

I would buy even very old engine games if they had good ocntent rather then super new engines with nothing good to offer.

But theres no chance they will do this, sicne they know that new technology is what attracts people, so they do it more and more advanced and that what sells Smile

Even taking old game and keep the gameplay and just make it on new tech engine and with all visualy posible stuff, but keep the mood and the gameplay, it would work better then what we get.

-now i found most of today games not fun, they think to much about techy things, like complicated functionality, some sofisticated features and all. They usualy not very fun and you find yourself fighting with the system Smile

.
Plus they get to much into techy things, like good example - unreal2, i mean they made most of the archtecture in 3dmax, everything is custom work which is good for art, it looks great and all, they thought of cool concepts, very prffecioan art and all. But what with the atmosphere - theres nothing that brought me the old mood or any mood. I mean the big mistake that they think that people only care about the concepts. like srarj or other stuff. but i dont care if there will be entierly new creatures but the old mood- the old game was more then half fantasy like, and with some mistirious sci-fi. and the way you played was an adventure - something happened and you had to "make your way" trough the world to survive.

WHat they bring us here - combat mission game with detached missions when you are attacking and not surviving, nothing remained out of the fantasy-scifi feel or adventure Sad

Its just one example and ofcourse its a metter of teste, but its like this with everything.

We no longer get curious to see whats next, no exitment, we are not impressed [after seing 10000 screenshots and preview movies theres no surprising us, we got used to it all]...

-Talking of visuals - i dont think that GTA3 has very exiting graphics Smile

it reminds me more of old 3d games that first got the hardware rendering But this game has great gameplay, and very good mood, i mean i feel this world is realistic withought super higth details and bump mapping Smile

and its a successful game.

-talking of making money - they do it now ONLY to make money. well thats the feeling i get , buy our games buy our movies then we'll talk.

What happens is theres one thing that make them sell more but it ruins out fun, trust me on that:

Preview media [screenshots, footage]. it plays big role on buying our interest in the project but then when to much media is shown w like saw the whole thing so we dont have the curiosity when playing, and i think curiosity to see whats next is one of the strongest motivators to keep playing the game.

So people now come to the store [me Smile

] and see very impressive boxes and games that look testy but theres nothing behind it, theres nothing behind it, you play it for 5 minutes and feel like its empty. And its not cheep to!!! so you end up not willing to buy it, or just being afraid to buy this or that game, unless you got realy well brainwashed with comercials on some websites Smile

reviews previews and stuff...

But not everything is so hopless, i feel that few of the games will fix that, they just need some time cause they want everyone to buy them.
Like me, i wont buy some games that i realy want to buy just cause i dont have the right hardware Sad

now for some upcoming games, but dont get me wrong, they will rock but just for experiment: we axpect alot HL2, doom3, em q4? i donno. So how can we test how good they are - think if HL2 would not be sequel to hl2, but just some game that has no connection to old hl, would it be good as game.
or d3 - ....

SO if the answer is yes then we'r not doomed, but if some people sudenly loose their point in them, like "realy, the name is the only reason to buy it cause i want to see how they did it this time".

Me personly - i bought few games just for the engines, [gues which Very Happy

] not for the content. Do they care why i bought it? they got their money. Smile

We need more of this projects that made with huge intusiasm, people who started with low budget and made imposible things, beyound their money and technology and time and art Smile

[well maybe low budget is not good idea but i mean that when talanted people get to much money they start doing crap Very Happy

, probably cause they sudenly can fulfill all their dreams and just ideas easely. good ideas need process of pain and suffer Very Happy

]

Guest

hehe forgot to tell that this megehuge post is by me Very Happy

[Ivan T] as usual