I got a lot of video games for Christmas. I got Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy III, Harvest Moon DS, Street Fighter Alpha MAX, NHL '07, and Hot Shotz Golf. My cousin also got a whole bunch of games, and we got to talking about which ones we'll be playing after Final Fantasy XII. We both have stacks of video games we have not yet played. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them were gifts from last Christmas. Considering a single RPG can take about 80 hours to complete, I could literally not buy a video game for the next 12 months and still have new games to play! It's gotten so bad that now I really have to be very careful selecting which games to buy - lesson learned from having copies of Star Ocean, Suikoden IV and Dragon Quest 8 practically brand new and played for maybe 3 hours each! I walked into an EB Games this past week, and saw that two people were buying PS2s. Walked into a Wal*Mart and I saw a kid in the middle of asking the sales guy how much a PS2 was. In some places, the PS2 is actually outselling the current next-gen systems. Games are not like DVDs, where a movie lasts two hours and you can watch two or three a night. Video games usually cost much more money to buy, and you spend way more time with them than you do movies. I was wondering if you guys thought this is eventually going to start affecting the video game industry. The hard-core gamer will always be buying the newest games, but eventually, I think the casual consumer may stop buying games altogether, or just buying the old ones, which aren't really going to be making video game companies any money anyways. I wanted to get a Nintendo Wii for myself this Christmas, but after thinking about it, I asked myself, "why?". I've probably got close to two years worth of entertainment right beside my PS2, and I keep buying more. The video game industry has seen phenomonial growth for the past decade, and continues to keep growing as consumers demand more. But is it a bubble? Can any industry expect this rate of growth long-term? And if it does, and people keep buying massive amounts of games, and probably playing them for a few hours and not even finishing them, then it is as I suspected: Western society's sole purpose is to consume for the sake of consumption. Get as many DVDs as possible to fill your entertainment shelf, and now, add video games to the collection of things people "must have". Are we eventually going to see a video game implosion? Where people stop buying games because they have too much already?
People had damn well better keep buying new games. That's one main reason I think the Wii is going to do really well though, the concern nowadays isn't getting enough people to buy new games, it's getting the money to make them. A next gen game is not cheap, and with the Wii being simpler and easier to develop games for you will see a lot more variety and the ability to reduce prices if neccesary, whereas with ps3/xbox publishers need to get ever penny out of them they can.
Wha? The DS is an incredible success in both hardware and software, and while the psp is way behind, it's certainly not selling badly by any standard.
Retailers are complaining that there is very little demand for the PS3 and that it's just not selling very well. No, people will keep buying new games. Not everyone plays or only buys 80-hour long RPGs. A lot of games take 20 hours or less to complete. Some games have lots of replay value. I have a main RPG I play, then the rest of the games are action, adventure, FPS, sports, racing or party games. Can never get enough good action/adventure/3rd person games.
And the DS is the first handheld that refuses to be emulated successfully. (took em long enough) I don't know about the PSP but I doubt it's a coincidence that sales skyrocket when you can't get it dishonestly.
Another note for those who don't want to pay $10 a month for a good MMORPG: You do actually save money, IMO. The $10 a month adds up to $120 a year. If you SOLEY play that MMORPG, you will be saving money. I know I spend way more on other video games than I would if I stuck to that online game/addiction.
I play mostly an MMORPG, costs $15 a month. Well worth it. But I also play my consoles as well, buy maybe a new game or two every month.
The trick is not to be marketing's bitch and only buy the decent games, rather than every old piece of tat that gets pumped out. I own precisely three games for the X360 I bought back in November, and probably less than 12 for the original XBox. Yet they're all solid games that I don't mind playing again and again (and in the case of games like Morrowind and Oblivion, you can play them numerous different ways). Only just finished Marvel: Ultimate Alliance but I'm raring to go back and use different heroes (played with Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine and Thor throughout so far) and actually bother to complete all the comic book missions. Also missed a few of the quests.
I only buy games that truly interest me, so it isn't a lot. The next game I'm getting is WiiPlay, it comes with a controller and has a minigame similar to Duck Hunt.
The shooting is good, but the bubbles game is where it's really at. Laser hockey is pretty fun as well.
I'm using Ms Marvel, Spiderwoman, Invisible Woman and Storm, with sometimes Elektra taking up the slack. (Femme Fatale bonus!) I saved Jean Grey not too long ago, have done a lot of missions in Thor's realm, will be up against Galactus soon. So, when does Jean get unlocked??
She doesn't - neither does Nightcrawler. Both are NPCs only. No Hulk, either - Bruce Banner shows up but there's no discussion as to why he's not kicking the shit out of the AIM troopers on the Omega Base. And no Punisher. There were licencing issues, but I suppose the Hulk's moves would be fairly similar to Thing's but with Wolverine's rage, and the Punisher would be pretty much a cross between Nick Fury and Deadpool.
"Are we eventually going to see a video game implosion? Where people stop buying games because they have too much already?" uh, not a chance. As technology improves, we need more games that use it. I don't like to replay games once I'm done, so you better keep the RPG's coming. also, don't we have enough movies, or music, or porn? we're a consumer nation.
Look at Halo. There wasn't a huge amount of difference between 1 and 2 - better graphics, a few new guns and enemies and dual-wielding. I still find 1 more challenging than 2 on Legendary. Yet witness the anticipation for Halo 3, which apart from improved graphics is unlikely to add anything too substantial to the gameplay experience. Halo may not be the best example, since players tend to be into the storyline rather than the gameplay (I personally want Halo 3 more for seeing the resolution of the Chief's journey than killing X new enemies), but you get my point - people will buy stuff just because it's "new" rather than because it's substantially different to what they had before. Doom 3 and Quake 4 run on the same engine, FFS - it should be easy to download a mod for one to emulate the other, yet I bet many own both games.
I'm not quite sure what the point is, most games out there use the same engine. Whether it be Doom3, Unreal, Renderware etc it is extremely rare nowadays for an engine to be built solely for a single project, and most of the cost of development comes from the assets to be used in that engine.
Same engine? Hell, I've begun seeing the same textures and even models lately. I guess it makes sense. If you have a vast library of 3D models like a company like EA Games has, you can save a lot of money by putting the same buildings from Sim City into Command & Conquer, or in the case of Square-Enix, repeat the same monsters from FF11 in FF12.
Hey, if you can, get on the Cerberus server. That is where I play. We can go on missions together, etc.
I've got Lost Planet arriving today, haven't even started with MUA yet (enjoyed the old Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance on PS2 so thought I'd try this) Viva Pinata, Saints Row, Just Cause and Dead Rising to get through, and that's before Mass Effect (OMG!! How good is that looking?!?) and Bioshock come out. Crackdown is looking pretty spiffy too and with the added Halo 3 Beta in that (in limited quantites natch) that might persuade me to to get it. Bloody, Symphony of the Night coming to live too, which I will no doubt get, even though I have the original PS1 version (the rare art and music version) Have to fit an MMO into that, study and RL (notice how RL comes last? )
