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- Apr 21, 2005
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- 36
Eight CoD games in eight years. Now I know a lot of people like to hate on the CoD series, but today I'd like to use 'em as an example. The Call of Duty series epitomises an extreme of the state of the industry itself. Let's take a look.
Fact. It costs money to make a game.
Fact. Games are therefore called on to turn a profit large enough to cover the loss of creating the game in the first place.
Fact. If there's any reasonable doubt a game will not make that kind of money, chances are it won't be financed.
Now usually, I wouldn't mind this. It keeps the bad games on your iphone and facebook page where they belong, and ensures the good games have enough money to live up to their potential. Problem is, however, that due to recent circumstances (I accidentally the global economy), companies will no longer shell out on a game unless they're guaranteed a success. The logic behind it is quite simple. This game's made money before, it'll make money again. The risk of investing in a less tried-and-true one is outweighed by the fact it'll only make just as much, perhaps less money then a series like CoD that's been steadily raking in the dough without a single major change to gameplay, engine, or graphics in eight titles. And it's accurate too. Those companies such as From Software that still market niche games pull in considerably less then the ones just carbon-copying their last game, slapping a new campaign and coverart on, and re-selling it.
But imho, this is killing the gaming industry itself, and while I'm no psychologist, there's probably some serious mental changes going on between kids of the 90's who played less accessible, more difficult titles, and kid's of today with their regenerating health and the-answer-to-this-puzzle-is-in-plain-sight-in-the-same-room-as-the-puzzle (I'm looking at you, rotating pillar puzzles in Skyrim. But that claw puzzle was a stroke of genius. Way to use the 3D item view in an immersive and innovative way. I freakin' love you Bethesda.)
Just look at sales over the last couple decades. Again, I'm no more market researcher then I am psychologist, but I can guarantee you'll see a predictable trend: The number of new games that become series following their release has seen dramatic decline compared to sequels of existing series. Last E3 was pretty much all sequels, all the time. We've gotten to the point we're putting edgy cool addendums on the names instead of numbers to hide the fact we're up to Halo 6. (Coming soon: Call of honour ultimate limited edition this time its personal!)
So, in summary, the longer this goes on the less original ideas are made into games, the more repetition we see in them, and the less innovation over previous titles in series. Doesn't strike me as a particularly promising path: eventually people are gonna start losing interest in games, there's gonna be even less companies prepared to shell out for less games, and the whole industry's gonna suffer.
Discussion/opinions kaygo. Not really promoting nor defending these ideas, just wanted to get a measure of what others thought on the topic. Let's keep it civil too, guys. Nobody's flaming your favourite series, and you're not obligated to defend them from any perceived injustice.
Fact. It costs money to make a game.
Fact. Games are therefore called on to turn a profit large enough to cover the loss of creating the game in the first place.
Fact. If there's any reasonable doubt a game will not make that kind of money, chances are it won't be financed.
Now usually, I wouldn't mind this. It keeps the bad games on your iphone and facebook page where they belong, and ensures the good games have enough money to live up to their potential. Problem is, however, that due to recent circumstances (I accidentally the global economy), companies will no longer shell out on a game unless they're guaranteed a success. The logic behind it is quite simple. This game's made money before, it'll make money again. The risk of investing in a less tried-and-true one is outweighed by the fact it'll only make just as much, perhaps less money then a series like CoD that's been steadily raking in the dough without a single major change to gameplay, engine, or graphics in eight titles. And it's accurate too. Those companies such as From Software that still market niche games pull in considerably less then the ones just carbon-copying their last game, slapping a new campaign and coverart on, and re-selling it.
But imho, this is killing the gaming industry itself, and while I'm no psychologist, there's probably some serious mental changes going on between kids of the 90's who played less accessible, more difficult titles, and kid's of today with their regenerating health and the-answer-to-this-puzzle-is-in-plain-sight-in-the-same-room-as-the-puzzle (I'm looking at you, rotating pillar puzzles in Skyrim. But that claw puzzle was a stroke of genius. Way to use the 3D item view in an immersive and innovative way. I freakin' love you Bethesda.)
Just look at sales over the last couple decades. Again, I'm no more market researcher then I am psychologist, but I can guarantee you'll see a predictable trend: The number of new games that become series following their release has seen dramatic decline compared to sequels of existing series. Last E3 was pretty much all sequels, all the time. We've gotten to the point we're putting edgy cool addendums on the names instead of numbers to hide the fact we're up to Halo 6. (Coming soon: Call of honour ultimate limited edition this time its personal!)
So, in summary, the longer this goes on the less original ideas are made into games, the more repetition we see in them, and the less innovation over previous titles in series. Doesn't strike me as a particularly promising path: eventually people are gonna start losing interest in games, there's gonna be even less companies prepared to shell out for less games, and the whole industry's gonna suffer.
Discussion/opinions kaygo. Not really promoting nor defending these ideas, just wanted to get a measure of what others thought on the topic. Let's keep it civil too, guys. Nobody's flaming your favourite series, and you're not obligated to defend them from any perceived injustice.
Spoiler
