Seventh Generation: The Years of Stagnation

[MrMatthews]

The gaming industry has taken a nose dive. I wouldnt be surprised in this volatile economic setting if we see a new "Video Game Crash of 2009" because of the horrendous and mostly boring titles brought out. I mean I saw a video on the web (which I can't freakin remember what the hell its called and its bothing the hell out of me but anyway) where one of these analysts say that video games are getting so expensive to produce that you have to choose between if you want to spend your budget on graphics, storyline, or fun / replayable factor

That's a valid point, but I doubt we'll see another crash like in the 80's. For one thing, things were a lot different then. Atari had a lot of very poor business practices that simply aren't in place today.

And whether or not the majority of today's games are "boring," the fact is that quality games are still being produced, and people are buying them regardless.

I agree with what you said about development costs, though. They can only go so high before a profit is impossible, which will no doubt start some kind of domino effect.

But even if some people crash and burn, there will always be a couple others that will turn a work the failure of others to their advantage.

[NeoVamp]

Imagine if they all decided to just stay on the xbox360/ps3/wii for 10 years,
hell nobody would have to buy new consoles and they could really learn how
to make the games look excellent without having to rely on better cpu/gpu's all the time.

Remember Donkey Kong Country? hell that game looked unreal on the Snes at the time,
but they did it!

same with the Genesis, i recently purchased Jurassic Park The Lost World from ebay,
and daaaaaaaaamn thats some nice color use, same with Ristar and other games from that time.

dear vg companies, stop focusing on the latest tech and bring out good games.

imagine if they just stopped making new consoles, and we'd get classic games like Megaman 9 via download,
and new games in the store.

then in 10 years we'll just make the "next gen" leap and it will amaze us,
because right now we're just going like.. oh yeah.. looks like ps2.. but.. sharper.. oh yeah amazing really

[Elusive]

Imagine if they all decided to just stay on the xbox360/ps3/wii for 10 years,
hell nobody would have to buy new consoles and they could really learn how
to make the games look excellent without having to rely on better cpu/gpu's all the time.

Remember Donkey Kong Country? hell that game looked unreal on the Snes at the time,
but they did it!

same with the Genesis, i recently purchased Jurassic Park The Lost World from ebay,
and daaaaaaaaamn thats some nice color use, same with Ristar and other games from that time.

dear vg companies, stop focusing on the latest tech and bring out good games.

imagine if they just stopped making new consoles, and we'd get classic games like Megaman 9 via download,
and new games in the store.

then in 10 years we'll just make the "next gen" leap and it will amaze us,
because right now we're just going like.. oh yeah.. looks like ps2.. but.. sharper.. oh yeah amazing really

That's not really a fair comparison. Mega Drive games got bigger and bigger as the console aged - I think Ristar is almost four times the MEGA POWER of Sonic the Hedgehog, for example. It doesn't alter the capability of the machine, of course (besides games like Virtua Racing and Star Fox on the Super NES), but bigger, cheaper ROM space = more games.

Funnily enough, some modern retail games can interact with downloadable additional content (think how Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts for the 360 interacts with the original Banjo-Kazooie XBLA downloadable game, for example). So we're only just now revisiting the idea that you can expand and increase the possibility of a game beyond that on the disc, which I think is brilliant. Entirely new storyline for GTA IV this year!

[NeoVamp]

That's not really a fair comparison. Mega Drive games got bigger and bigger as the console aged

No thats not what i meant, i meant to say to the longer a console lives the more programmers get familiar with it,
thus resulting in better looking games that also play better.

every damn console generation you hear the same crap "its difficult to program for, its architecture is different, we don't like how this works" etc etc.

but if they for once stop focusing on the future and try to get everything out of a console..

I don't know about the rest of you but i would have prefered some more
Donkey Kong Country like games instead of those crappy N64 launch games.

Same with the 32X, it was so new that the first thing we got was crappy launch shit,
imagine what could have been done had they actually bothered to develop for it.

but oh nooooo can't have that now can we, lets just jump ship to a faster console
so "current fps game" runs in a higher res.

Ted! is that game ready yet? we're about to jump ship to the PS4 and we gotta get this game out of the door!

Ted : but I'm still working on it! ;_;

hurry up Ted, we don't wanna be the last company developing for a dead console, think of what people would say!

[MrMatthews]

That's exactly what they're thinking, I bet. The majority of current-gen gamers are dying to get their hands on the next console, and everyone is racing to give it to them.

That, and quite possibly a belief that not having new hardware on the market on a regular basis will lead to another crash, perhaps?

Bottom line: the stereotypical modern gamer is a moron.

In my eyes, at least.

I can't help but envision every one of them as that idiot that Tanegashima posted a while back. That "PS Triple" guy.

[TheEdge]

Times of London reports that the PlayStation maker will unveil "sacred-cow-slaying" changes after this week's Las Vegas electronics convention.

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show is just around the corner, with proceedings kicking off with Wednesday evening's keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The following morning, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer will take the stage to announce his plans for the coming year--plans that, according to the Times of London, may be drastic indeed.



Citing "company sources," the Times says that "sweeping" and "sacred-cow-slaying" changes may be in the offing at Sony. Specifically, the venerable British newspaper says that Stringer will likely expand on the 16,000 job cuts that the company announced in December, and may announce changes that heavily impact its Japanese operations as well.
Indeed, sources close to the Welsh-born CEO, the first Westerner to head Tokyo-based Sony, say that he has been clashing with the company's "entrenched management" in Japan since he took over the company in 2005. One of the first casualties of that internecine battle was Ken Kutaragi, the so-called "Father of the PlayStation."
In late 2006, the company announced that the often-outspoken head of Sony Computer Entertainment would be replaced by Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. Though the move was portrayed as voluntary, later reports pointed to Stringer's clashes with an "uncommunicative" Kutaragi as a factor, as were the multibillion-dollar losses incurred in launching the PlayStation 3. Kutaragi would leave the company entirely seven months later.
The Times report does not mention SCE or the PlayStation brand, despite recent reports that Sony may break even on PS3 production costs this year. GameSpot will have more on Sony and Stringer's keynote from CES 2009 later this week.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6202693...dlines;title;1

Further vindication, A company can't lose 2 billion without throwing some people overboard.

[MrMatthews]

If Sony drops out of the console business, will that signify the end of days?

Nope. Nintendo and Microsoft will be there to bathe in the spoils. They might even come up on some previously PS exclusives, as well!

I hope this happens!

[TheEdge]

Sony must fall so humanity can be free.

I never cared too much for Microsoft either.

[MrMatthews]

Same here. I resented the PS2 and the XBox for being so excruciatingly trendy.

[TheEdge]

I hated them because they had no arcade / video game roots to them. They were just monopolies who just wanted the peice of the pie at the expense of quality.

[MrMatthews]

Same for Sony? I think if it weren't for Nintendo, they wouldn't be in the game business at all.

[TheEdge]

Why is that?

[MrMatthews]

Sony had worked with Nintendo during the SNES years (I think Sony made the sound chip???).

From that relationship, they worked together to create a CD add-on for the SNES called the "Play Station."

After Nintendo bailed on Sony and went with Philips, Sony took the logical step: they released the Playstation themselves.

[TheEdge]

Ohhhh

Thats interesting. Well I guess Nintendo burning people left and right finally created a monster.

[chrisbid]

If Sony drops out of the console business, will that signify the end of days?

Nope. Nintendo and Microsoft will be there to bathe in the spoils. They might even come up on some previously PS exclusives, as well!

I hope this happens!

the playstation brand is too valuable to be dropped completely