The politics of the videogame Industry - Gotmadskillzson's Blog

Gotmadskillzson's Blog

The politics of the videogame Industry

Posted on November 7, 2010 at 06:14 PM.

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People like to say in a capitalist society, anybody can be anything, if you put your mind to it, you can do it. However that is really not the case in the videogame industry. Well I should clarify and say it isn't the case in the CONSOLE videogame industry.

Videogame industry is a lot like politics in a way. You have your machines who been in the business for years and then you have your grass roots people. Like it or not, more often then not, the companies that have been in the game the longest dominate.

Really don't matter if your idea is great or not. Going to list some prime examples:

1. EA MMA
2. All Pro 2K8
3. Backbreaker
4. Medal of Honor
5. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
6. Tropico 3
7. Supreme Commander 2
8. Battlefield Bad Company 2

All those games are stellar, however, you can go to the online mode of any of those games and you won't see a lot of people playing it. Why ? Because they aren't the kings of the genre. People buy games based off of what's popular and the household name, not necessarily which is better.

1. EA MMA - Great game, killer online features, however it isn't UFC, so therefore UFC 2010 gets are the online players despite all the flaws that existed in that game.

2. All Pro 2k8 & Backbreaker - Both games do things way better then Madden. However most people grew up playing Madden. I have been playing Madden ever since I was 8 or 9. Madden is the machine, their games sell regardless off of name recognition.

3. Medal of Honor, BFBC2 & Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - All 3 are stellar FPS that is closes to the real thing that you can ever fine on consoles. You look at the online community for them and it is very weak.

If it isn't Call of Duty, too many people don't want to play it. Kind of ironic really how people like to compare every military FPS to the Call of Duty series, when in reality that series is nothing close to the real life thing. But nowadays people like their Kill to death ratios, perks, kill streaks.

4. Tropico 3 and Supreme Commander 2 - When it comes to RTS games these really are the best you going to find for consoles. Even though this genre is very thin on consoles. However both got over looked. People are use to playing Command & Conquer and Halo Wars. IMO Halo Wars shouldn't even be called a RTS game. But you know throw the word Halo in front of anything and people will buy it by the dozen.

Now not that I am nitpicking, I just thought I would address the questions I have heard when people say some company should come along and do this or do that. For the console market that is very hard to do for an up and coming developer. Believe it or not, one of the 1st things the average consumer do is look to see who made the game.

If it isn't a developer they have heard before, chances are they will not buy it. If it isn't a series like Madden, Call of Duty, Halo, etc, chances are they will not buy it. And nowadays if your game don't have a huge online community, chances are you won't be green lighted to do a sequel. Same thing with sales, you got to have a certain number of sales in the 1st month in order to get green lighted for a sequel.

Prime example of that is Alpha Protocal. It was a good game, not the best, not the worse, I say it was on the same level of enjoyment as the last Splinter Cell game. However Alpha Protocal didn't sell well, so despite all the good qualities that game had, it won't get a sequel.

With PC gaming, developers really don't have this problem. PC gaming market is VAST and DIVERSE. That being said, no one series or developer really dominates a genre to the point that no other smaller developer can't get into.

Take Arma 2, hands down the best military game EVER made. They are light years ahead of everybody else in that genre. BUT, you still have dozens of other miltary games on the PC and most of them sell pretty well, making a good profit. Why ? Because of the vastness and diverseness of the PC gaming market.

About 1 out of 4 households have a PC of some kind. And damn near everybody who has access to a PC plays a PC game of kind. Whether it is Pogo, Farmville, Second Life, WOW or Fallout. From the young to the 70s, you have a PC gamer of some kind.

Comments

# 1 stlstudios189 @ Nov 8

It's the sad side of business. Just because you make the better product the product that is marketed better wins 9 out of 10 times. Making your game the namebrand is critical. People are tight on money and pick the name they know because it is safe.