Following part one of its "Video Games Are Dead" feature, Digital Trends' Players Only show has released part two, which (we believe) accurately portrays the gaming industry at a crossroads. The title is a bit sensational, because video games of course are anything but dead, but they and the business are evolving.
In part one, Lorne Lanning of Oddworld Inhabitants predicted that retail games in five years would be like "trying to find vinyl" in the music space. Developers are speaking up about the video game industry desperately needing to reform its business model. In part two, the discussion continues, and it's evident that reform is already taking place, whether mega retailers want to accept it or not. Digital distribution, casual gaming, social gaming networks, free-to-play, micro-transactions, iPhone... all these elements have opened up the industry and created new opportunities.
In the meantime, however, the traditional business continues to be hampered by greedy suits, says Gas Powered Games founder Chris Taylor. As filmmaker Gore Verbinski said at a D.I.C.E. Summit a couple years ago, it's a familiar battle: auteurs vs. suits. “We have too many people who have a love of money in our industry; we need more people who have a love of art and a love of creating games,” said Taylor. “I'd like to see us grow over the next 10 years, and I'd like to see us come back to art and come back to great game creation where the lead designer's creative vision has more weight than it does today.”
“If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the industry it would just be to make it easier to allow for more innovation. Let's unleash the creativity that exists in this business but is suppressed by so may of the inherent processes of our business,” added Steve Meretsky, VP of Game Design at Playdom.
The good news is that as the industry moves forward, the auteurs may gain more power. “I think that's where the industry is headed... smaller teams, more indie. They may not get the recognition of some of the bigger games like a Halo or GTA, but they're still great games, they keep their teams together, they make money and do well for themselves,” noted Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Designer on Bethesda's Fallout 3.
Check out the full video here.
2 Comments
August 18, 2009
Every creative industry is about money and to think the games industry can move above this is to be living in a utopian dream. While I don't disagree with the comments above they need to be put into the context of how other creative industries work. The film and music industry have the exact same suits looking at only the money and dictate which artist get record contracts, they come under the same fire for lack of creativity and for playing it safe. But these industries have vibrant indie scenes to keep the fresh and creative talents coming through, so if you want to get the freshest and most creative talents you follow the indie scene more than the major scene.
Thankfully with the continued growth of digital distribution through Apples AppStore, XBLA, PSN and Steam there's now a place for talented indies to get there work out to the masses and give these devs a platform to grow and develop further in the future. This model still isn't perfect but we are still a industry finding it's feet in the world and an integral part of finding ones feet is to maintain a healthy balance.
Auteur theory is horrible flawed at best when used in film and this is even less relevant in video games. I don't know if you used the term auteur out of context but you can never truly have an auteur in video games, that is unless you let a single man write the story and script, design, create sound and art assets, program and test all on his own without any help from anyone else.
August 18, 2009
A lot of what you say is true Jim. Corporate bureaucracy hinders creativity.
It's not Utopian to look at the successful, sustainable and creative business models, mostly digital distribution. We can see musicians making a great living by establishing their own record labels or doing the distribution on their own via online models. That's where independent game studios will have the best ROI, via online distribution. The larger and more successful studios are the role models for smaller independent studios to follow. We can see the successful pipelines and affordable technologies they're using and emulate the technical side in order to extrapolate the creative side.
Game engines are quite ridiculously expensive, so it would be nice if more studios were able to afford these. Instead of having to worry about licenses it would be nice to just worry about story and interactive presentation.
Maybe we can see some non-profit game studios developing? Non-profit you'd think that the goal were not only the creativity but also the substance and impact of the game. It would probably work in the field of casual games. But I'd like to see a casual game with the quality of impact that GTA has.
Independent and casual game studios present a unique opportunity in this crossroads of game models.