There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the impending death of games as we know them. Murmurings about how the big 3 year projects will die a terrible death as we give way to the surge of new games and ideas via online stores like the app store, and even talk and hard evidence of
Facebook as a gaming platform.
Now I welcome new gaming ideas and innovations as much as the next game designer/raving fan boy, but do people really think that these will be the downfall of massive AAA titles? I'm not so sure.
Just the other night I was having a good catch up chat with an old friend who has been in the games industry for a
loooooong time, and we both agreed that there is certainly change in the air, I think most of us know this. In the next couple of years we're 100% certain that gaming's business model will see some massive changes mainly down to the previously mentioned digital distribution and new digital platforms, but another big factor is how much easier and cheaper it is to produce games again.
We're seeing the welcome return of the bedroom developer with fun little five minute games, 2D sprites and
highscores! and do you know what? I like it. But the point I was getting to was that the death of multi million pound epics, your
GTA's, Halo's and Call of Duties of this world, for me simply isn't going to happen. And I'll tell you why...
For years we have been striving for movie style production values, games that put us right in the thick of the action, where we relive the Normandy landings or the heist scene in Heat, and finally we are starting to get there. Yes it costs a monumental amount of cash to produce these games, but have you seen how much money they rake in! Modern Warfare 2 pulled in a phenomenal $550 million in it's first five days on sale, the best five day launch of ANY entertainment product ever, that includes books and movies. I have no idea what the sales figures are like now, but you can guarantee it's just as astonishing as the first week sales.
Now this simply isn't going to wither away and die, especially when the games being produced are arguably getting better and better and better. This sort of income is clearly the lifeblood of most major publishers and developers and they wont just stop producing these games as A) that would be madness and B) the public so ravenously lap up these great games, and whilst this is the case someone will provide them.
Now what awesome little games like
Doodlejump, Pocket God and
geoDefense bring to the table is pure gameplay and the ability to have your five minutes of fun, switch off and think nothing more of it until the next time you want a quick blast. Which is great and some would argue is what true gameplay is all about. But clearly these games cant replace the epic scenarios we see in some modern games today.
My take on this new wave of gaming innovation is that it will live alongside the more established and typical production methods. You only have to look to companies like EA to see proof of this, yes they have the clout to dip their fingers in many pies but they also have a board to please. So whilst EA are still developing their big hitting IP's further they are also developing mobile and social networking games as seen with their recent acquisition of Playfish.
For me what it boils down to is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a gamer, you can take your massive games and plough hours upon hours into them, but fantastically gaming seems to have rediscovered it's form and we can also play contemporary games like it's 1989.
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