To recoup this, the costs of big-title games will go up... and by the time the cost of the console plus the game is taken into account, that 16-24 year old market will be completely priced out. Which means one of two things will happen - a tremendous increase in piracy, or a tremendous decrease in sales.Ladies and gentlemen of the industry, I present to you that we are at an inflection point.
Things are changing, and currently those of you that work for publishers and manufacturers are not keeping up. Maybe it's because it's hard to change. Maybe it's because everyone wants the next blockbuster title. Or maybe it's because nobody is recognizing the huge market shift.Gaming at its core is not about the blockbuster titles. Sure, we all want to see a few released each year...but each of these will cater to one or maybe two segments of a very splintered market.
For instance, I personally haven't played an FPS in years that I've enjoyed, except for Half-Life 2 and Bioshock. Both of those games are story-driven and broken into sensible bites, and if they were presented in another format than FPS I probably would still have enjoyed them. On the other hand, my friend Richard (who works in the tech industry) doesn't really get RTS or RPG games. The same is also true for platforms - he doesn't even own a Nintendo DS, while mine is with me almost all the time.
I strongly encourage all of you in the industry to look hard at the next generation of consoles, PCs and mobile phones and start saying "What if..." about more than just the graphics. What if games were smaller again? What if you could develop them faster and at a lower price point? What if you focused on episodic content and gameplay innovations? What if you could get content delivered right to my doorstep the minute I feel like playing it? What if you could get it so I can take it with me on my iPhone, DS, or PSP Go?I'd like to close this letter with the future that I propose through these questions. It's a future where I can power up my console, my desktop PC, my HTPC, or my mobile phone and be presented with options.
It's a future where games take 3-6 months to develop instead of 18-24 months, where development costs are lessened and lead times reduced so much that you can release lots of games to target all of the different distinct splinters of the market. These games will be priced low enough that they hit my impulsive side and encourage me to take a chance on them.
They needn't be casual in nature, but paced so a casual gamer can enjoy them and released episodically to hook me in. If at all possible, they'll relate my PSP to my PS3 or my DS to my Wii, making me feel value in my purchase of a cohesive unit. And if you're really slick, they'll even relate my DS to my PS3 to my PC.It worked in the 80's, when the market was such that only adults afforded the systems that could play games. And more recently, it's worked for Nintendo with the Virtual Console.
Want something more modern? It worked wonders on PSN with the release of Wipeout HD, and on Steam with Portal. It's time to start listening to your market, particularly those of you that are independent publishers. Every one of you is losing more and more money each fiscal year despite skyrocketing revenues. Gaming is growing because gamers are growing up. It's time to come along for the ride.
Modifié par mr_nameless, 24 mars 2011 - 11:36 .
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