Why is nothing new happening with computer games and consoles
Hi my name is Matt and I've been into gaming now for about 34 years, i am just writing this blog about how i see games and the computing industry has changed over the last 30 years.
The reason for doing this is to see if there are like minded people out there who believe that computer games can't get any better without drastic measures being taken i.e. virtual gaming or something of the same elk ,
I understand that cloud based gaming is what will have install for the next gen of consoles and computers etc, but personally i don't know if just being able download games instead of buying them from a shop is the answer. I know fan boys of xbox and ps3 will bang on about the processor of the new machines or the new massive storage of memory, which is all great but i think that this is just an excuse to get a new machine out there on the market.
The graphics of the new machine can not get that much better nor can the games running speeds, or sound quality, so where do they go from here.
The problem the big company's have is they need to get new machines out every 5-6 years to stay in touch with there compete-tors and stay profitable, but as we seen with Sony they made at loss at first when they rushed the ps3 out charging a hefty fee to the customer to own a new machine, then we had all the firmware problems etc it all felt very rushed, I owned an Xbox 320 for a while and think that to seemed a little rushed, at the start but the thing with both machines was that they seemed almost identical in gaming terms with most the AAA games being the same. This is not the first time this has happened in the computer industry take computers for instance you either brought an apple mac or a windows pc, both pretty much the same but you could get everything easier for windows pc's than the mac in my opinion, now i know alot of computer enthusiasts will say they would never use windows, it's almost a sin to people who'd say if you don't use Linux you shouldn't own a pc, i know this because i have friends who are programmers etc, but back to my point, that is Sony v's Xbox, we are seeing the same mistakes with both company's, there almost trying to hard to impress everyone and in large not impressing anyone, with the trouble being neither company dare take the leap, to try something new, yes this may take a little longer than just banging out new hardware with bigger memory, faster processors etc.
Nintendo for instance are a massive company, big profits, but also big risk takers, the wii was a massive success, not because the graphics where hd or the processor very intelligent. No they made something different, and also compared to the other machines cheap, yes the wii was abit of a fad but it doesn't matter it sold shed loads made a lot of money, and it was fun for a short time.
The other big two companies copied the idea, bringing out kennect and psmove, yes ther ok yes they are both better than the wii, but and it's a big but it doesn't make the games we really want to play any better.
Put it this way when i first played Resident evil on the ps1, i had to play it till i had finnished it and it was quite difficult at the time, but it felt new the same as when tomb raider hit the shelves amazing and then final fantasy 7, probably the best game ever in a lot of peoples minds.
But now we get nothing like this so it doesn't matter how good the hardware gets its the games that will sell it. I know what people will say look at c.o.d. modern warfare, yes it's a great game but i like other people my age have played fps games on our pc's for years, yes the graphics are amazing and playing your mates in death match are great, but i was playing doom and half life many years ago which were the granddadys of fps, so to me it was nothing new.
I hope in my life time we see interactive games that really are interactive. I think the technology is not that far away, people my say i am fantasizing, but remember i saw the first games as the came out, pacman space invaders etc, then with the transition from speccys,commodores 64, to amigas, Atari st's, to megadrives, super famicoms, to playstaion 1s to 2s to present ps3's and xbox360's.
The fear is where to go from hear either play it safe get a couple of new machines out that are a little better than the present machines or re think the whole thing. Sony tried at the start to sell us the idea of playstaion 3 being everything you will ever need, blue ray player music machine etc but all though it does what it says on the tin. For most people my age watching a film in Hd is'nt going to change our life, like a video recorder did in 1981.
So back to my point, where does Sony or Microsoft go from here, i haven't put Nintendo into the mix because they will always corner the market in children's gaming, with wii and handhelds, yes Sony have brought the vista out but i have an ipad and an iphone why would i wont a vista, point is i wouldn't and most people think like me.
What Sony and Microsoft need now is some thinking way outside of the box, try to make the impossible happen, yes this will be expensive and yes it will be time consuming but the reward far out ways loss, i'm not saying pour everything in to something then hope for the best, i'm saying just try something new give it a go, because lets face it if we dream of something there is no reason we as humans cant achieve our goals, yes it may seem far fetched but if you can imagine when i first played frogger on my atari 2600 i could never have imagined the games we play on today. But as a youngster i did believe that games where always going to be the future as a lot of people my age did, and now the future is hear, but what now, we can't stop, we must break new boundaries, dream of the fantastical and make it reality not just bring out new versions of games that are already on the market. The big problem is profit margins, bottom line, as i own my own small business i know that bottom line is all that matters to a company being sustainable i.e. No profit no business,
but i have to think of improvement all the time or my business would become stale and inevitably fail.
Even the biggest company's fail, if they make the mistake of taking there customers for granted, thinking oh well that worked last year bang it out again this year make a shed load of cash short term then we will give them more of the same some freebies next year.
Trouble with this is gamers like myself are quite savvy and can see through this business model for what it is, i feel sorry for the people who design games who's ideas get overlooked by AAA titles with dead lines, from the company paying the wages. I truly believe that the computer games and hardware firms need to take a good look at there business model because the bubble is well and truly bursting at the moment, read any computer mag and there's a company in trouble or look at Game the retailer (bust) with lots of others about to follow suit.
I know people will say that buying games online has effected game which it has, but that is not the only reason, the main reason is people just haven't got the spare cash to spend on a game a week anymore, personally i think people would spend money on a game if it was fresh new worth having, not just buy play it for a week get bored play something else.
In conclusion to my point is that the big company's need to go back to basics, Bring out a game changing machine like the ps 1, bring out a game that rivals final fantasy 7 then and only then will the computer industry recover .
Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you would like to comment please feel free....
Many thanks Matt black
