Tags: | gaming | game industry | electronic arts | game development |
2007-11-03 14:36
Since When is the Video Game Industry so Huge?
I'll admit it - I've been "out" of video game playing for a few years now. I only find the time and the inclination to play games maybe once a month, and they rarely hold my interest for too long. This is a big switch from when I was a teenager, and one of my biggest recreational activities was playing PC games. Back then it seemed that the big game companies weren't all that big, and the small companies were microscopic - but even so, they were able to produce some very good products. It seems a lot has changed in the industry while I wasn't paying any attention. I read at CNN.com today that Electronic Arts (EA) is going to buy a rival company for an astounding $860 million. It appears that in the last few years, the gaming industry has matured exponentially. In my distant memory, EA was a successful game company, but rarely known outside of the video game niche. Today, CNN Money is reporting on their major purchase of a rival company, and predicting impact on EA's future stock price - gaming is now big business. The question is, does the new big business era weaken the quality of games? I am not really in a position to make any judgments, with my 5 year old gaming system I can't even run modern computer games, but I find myself speculating regardless. I think one of the things that made the gaming industry so great in the past was, almost anyone could write and release a game, and as long as it was good, people would pay attention. I guess the mega-sized corporations like EA are just the natural progression of a game company that does everything right - but when they are buying all of the talented competition, will the industry suffer? With the explosive popularity of powerful consoles, and game companies catering to console gamers more than they ever have in the past, I imagine the industry will continue to grow until it is just as big, if not bigger, than all the other entertainment industries. I predict the next ten years will be an interesting time for the gaming industry, and we'll see if there is still a place for the tiny start-ups, and home-brew games like Homeless Man.
- Kevin
Kevin (at) Upcsite (dot) Net
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Comments:
These mega publishers fund mega games with mega budgets. It is more like Hollywood in that unless your massive multi-million dollar game is a hit then it loses money. That is also why you see sequels like crazy, since these publishers don't want to risk massive amounts of money on something new or risky. I think that independent games are primed for somewhat of a boom. Also there are some beacons of light in the few developers who remain largely independent of the huge publishing houses, but they are few and far between these days. Also EA can shove a can up its ass.
Posted by: derf | 2007-11-03 22:39:55
I think EA Bought out a rival since, I don't think they really have their own line of successful games. All their sports games gets old every year due to the team line ups changing. Blizzard on the other hand is making major moola off of just a few titles released every few years. I'm not a big sports fan or a big sports game fan so that just might be my opinion.
There's still people who are able to make games, it just takes alot of expertise nowadays. Like Jonathan Mak, who created Everyday Shooter for the PS3 by himself.
Posted by: Mitch - Money News | 2007-11-04 24:21:36
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