The video games business is broken (or is it?)

Interesting article on Gamesbiz Daily (by way of Slashdot) that argues that ‘The video games business is broken.’ The line of the argument is:

We all know this a year of change in the video game market place. The future of the industry is very much at a crossroads with the big 3 [Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft] bringing out their new platforms and many questions remain unanswered.

He covers a lot of familiar territory for those in the business: rising costs, declining creativity and pricing. One of the most interesting points is his reference to the growth of social networks and their impact on games.

Today games are competing for timeshare almost more than dollars. If your key demo is 15-34 there is a lot more choice of activity where they can spend time and money. Last year there were only 10 million people on MySpace, this year it’s 100 million. If you don’t think this is competing for the same entertainment time as a game then you’re fooling yourself. If you think of “games as media” you get a new perspective on what’s important for the product and ultimately the franchise. The key words of successful game products (like World of Warcraft) and new platforms (like Xbox 360) are community, participation and engagement.

I ran a computer games company for ten years before selling it in 2000 to become a writer. This subject is close to home for me and I wrote about it last year for a British business magazine.

That article, published in Director and available online in PDF format, addresses many of the same issues.

During the editing process, we cut an entire section about a plucky little independent games developer in the UK. I include it here in full because the story needs to be heard and it’s relevent to this debate.

The age of the plucky start-up isn’t quite dead. Introversion consists of just four directors and a handful of employees including the MD’s father who does all the group’s manufacturing and fulfilment in his living room.

Their second game, Darwinia, has received critical plaudits, including a score of 7 out of 10 in Edge. This is quite an accolade because the magazine has a reputation for very high standards. “It’s luminous and dazzling,” says the editor. “What I love about the Darwinia project is that it is a marriage of creativity and level-headed pragmatism.” The graphics are minimalist rather than naturalistic and the gameplay echoes classic 80s arcade games.

“Publishers and developers think you can design a game on paper and run it like an engineering project,” says Mark Morris, the company’s MD. “Sometimes you won’t know what’s going to make a great game until the last minute.”

The article ends with:

Peter Molyneux, once the role model for heroic startups, now champions structure, size and sequels. A high score means playing by new rules.

Since writing this article, he has sold the company to Microsoft. In this case, actions really do speak louder than words.

If you like this article, please share it!

• 

Related posts:

1. Video games and writing
2. The pre-history of computer games
3. Microsoft to allow anyone to create games for Xbox 360
4. Is the UK games industry doomed?
5. Unanswerable questions by email and computer games