Are We About to Hit Another Gaming Depression?

PoSTedUP - 521 days 3 hours ago

"Will your next Playstation have you waiting two years before you play your first worthwhile game on it."

^ummm... most likely not cause that has never been an issue : P

ps3 is on its 2nd year. not 3rd....

MS's next console will not have the same hardware issues. i gaurentee it.

@ ReBurn- yea man that made me go cross eyed when i read it...lol

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Overr8ed - 521 days 3 hours ago

soon... not this gen though. I think that we are in a high point in gaming but soon once everyone rips off each other and shows no innovation then the gaming industry is going to show an another Depression

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Asurastrike - 521 days 3 hours ago

lol the PS3 has only been out a year and a half.

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patinahelix - 521 days 3 hours ago

Thank you guys for pointing out my horrid grammar. I've fixed what you have talked about. The Playstation being in it's 3rd was a typo, sorry.

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NewSchoolGamer - 521 days 3 hours ago

see a gaming depression anywhere in sight.

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1stKnighT - 521 days 3 hours ago

Are you kidding me? Thanks to games like Halo 3...gaming has hit a new level of entertainment. Games have now been making profits equal to box office movie hits.

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Gold3nStat3KID - 521 days 3 hours ago

AMERICA. Naahh just playing. The gameing industry is at VERY high point now, so I dont see any depression in sight. You cant compare the present moment and the past, especially in the gameing industy, because ALOT of technology has changed. Because in this day & age, more than the teens and young adults are starting to play games as graphics & A.I. are advanceing very fast. So no...dont see no depression whatsoever.

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name - 521 days 2 hours ago

I'm depressed that the single player portion of games have been getting repeatedly ignored lately. For a crapload of today's biggest games, the single player just serves as a tutorial for the online. Sometimes I actually want to be involved in some kind of story and not the same crappy recycled garbage I keep seeing. I know online gaming is where it's "at" right now, but I hate how you can have a craptacular single player, but still manage to pull a 9.5 if you have a fun multiplayer. But if you have a great single player, but no online you'd be lucky to pull a 9 in general.

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vlazed - 521 days 2 hours ago

Well I can see this happening a couple years down the road if innovation takes a back seat to profits. This generations production costs keep developers from taking risks and I could potentially see a backlash from gamers as games start all becoming very similar in nature.

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Voozi - 521 days 2 hours ago

Yea I was kinda hopping this wouldnt get approved when I saw it in the pending stages lol...since there's some fud in there...

Ok I'll start off on a positive note with the article, as an owner of a Wii, I do agree with the lack of actual games for it and it's larger library of shovel ware, right now my Wii library only consists of 5 games (6 if you count Wii Sports).

Now here's where I disagree about the PS3 and 360.

PS3: You say "most consider its library too small to justify such an expensive price." The only people I ever see bashing on the PS3 having "no games" which is what you're saying are usually fanboys of other consoles looking for something to bash. Maybe if we were still in early 2007 I would agree that the PS3 library was small/lacking.

But right now I own 16 PS3 games. 9 of them being exclusive. This year there will be 4-5 more exclusives I'll be adding to my PS3 library, 1 Multiplatform tittle, and possibly another 1-2 multi if I decide to get the PS3 version (Havent decided 360 or PS3 version yet)

So I feel that argument of the PS3 having a "small library of games" is too outdated now and there are more then enough games out right now to justify a PS3 purchase.

Now onto the 360...

360: "The Xbox 360 has a good selection of games, but powering it up is like playing the "Red Ring of Death" lottery." Only older consoles are more prone to getting the RROD in this stage. I mean I'm on my...3rd right now and it's been running like a champ. The newer 360's have some hardware revisions, smaller chips, heat reduction, etc to further prevent RROD's. If anything it's more of a mental fear at this point because unless your console is a 2005, 2006, and early 2007 model then you shouldnt have to worry in this stage.

Now to wrap things up, we're talking about a gaming depression here in your article. Maybe for Nintendo Wii there's one. But for PS3? No because there are quality exclusives coming out for it, both this year and next year. And what does price of a console have to do with quality of games? And for 360? No because there are quality exclusives coming out for it this year and I'm sure next year as well (haven't done much research in the 09 lineup for 360 so I cant comment on that). And so, slightly different then what I said with the PS3, what does the consoles reliability have to do with the quality of games? Because in the end both consoles have quality exclusives, and multiplatform developers are delivering quality games as well.

I suppose you must live under a rock to miss games such as...

Gears 2
Fable 2
Resistance 2
Little Big Planet
Starwars Force Unleashed
Fallout 3
Prince of Persia
Tales of Vesperia
The Last Remnant
Valkyria Chronicles
Star Ocean 4
God of War III
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII Versus

...and many more tittles coming out both this year and next year, and tittles that have already been released.

So I fail to see how you can think that we're going to be hitting another gaming depression with all these great games coming out for PS3 & 360. Here I'll even throw in some PC games

Starcraft II
Diablo III
Spore
Battlefield 3

Now as I said before, maybe for the Wii there's a slight "depression" of games, but that's really it for me at least since my Wii is starving for quality games.

tl;dr - PS3, 360 wont be hitting game depressions for a very long time, person's reasonings he wrote are very weak. Only one I can see happening is for the Wii (if you're a hardcore gamer)

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Highwayman - 521 days 2 hours ago

What the hell is up with all the fricken doom and gloom BS today?

Everywhere I turn some gloomy is going to happen.

"Oh, god we're running out of oil, were all going to DIE!!1!!"

It's everywhere. All you hear about is "America is set to fall."
Blah blah, I come to here to get away from all that BS.

Now the gaming industry is set?
It's doing really well, even though we're in a recession.

I guess I am tired of hearing about doom and gloom.

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angel604 - 521 days 2 hours ago

i dont think well see another newcomer in the gaming industry anytime soon, i dont think they can cause a little anarchy or disrupt the order of establishment

only one i could think of is apple..the igame or igame console

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Monty_The_Great - 521 days 2 hours ago

was making some good points, there is alot i disagree with. IMO i dont think that gaming is going to decline anytime soon, there are so many must own titles coming out within a year from now, that most people wont be able to get them all. as for the future of gaming, i think that nintendo has made it obvious that its motion controls, not six axis motion control, but like the wiimote. hopefully msft and sony will keep with good graphics and good ai, and not go the rode of nintendo, hopefully keeping with hardcore gamers.

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AclayPS3 - 521 days 2 hours ago

There isn't going to be a gaming depression when it comes to Sony because they have tons of 1st party studios, so it's not like Sony can't support itself sufficiently if there ever is a "Gaming Depression".

When it comes to the PS3, yes, there are less games, but people know that the PS3 is going to be around for a long time (10 years) because they've seen how Sony supported the PS1 and PS2 for so long, and the $399.99 price of the PS3 is easily justifiable even if there are less games right now because you will be getting a product that was built for the future and games will be coming out for the console for MANY years to come.

On the other hand, Microsoft has a LOT less 1st party studios and usually there are big gaps in times when Microsoft releases a game actually published by Microsoft Games or there are just very few games published by Microsoft Game Studios each year and basically that means that there are less Xbox 360 Exclusives, and the reason to buy a 360 shrinks because Microsoft relies on so many 3rd party games, and most of the same games come out on the PS3. Plus, almost like 80-90% of 360 games come out on the PC, and that makes a reason to own a 360 even get smaller.

But, I think that if developers don't start getting more innovative and starty trying out news things, the gaming industry might see a slow down. There are so many sequels of games coming out, but very few new IP's. If developers start coming out with more new IP's each year , I think that the gaming industry will be just fine.

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patinahelix - 521 days 2 hours ago

I did say it would be hyperbole to think that we would be getting ourselves into the same situation as we did in 1983, but I do find that some of the similarities are disturbing.

To those that think that I am spelling out gloom and doom, it's not really the angle I was going for. I'm not trying to be the guy on the corner telling everyone that's passing by that the world is about to end. lol. I think there is bound to be a lot of customer distrust when we transfer over to the next generation and it could certainly stint the gaming industry.

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Dzpool - 521 days 1 hour ago

I think that you will start to see alot of hardware sales start to slow on all three platforms with the econamy in such a decline people just don't have the extra money to pay for a 250-500 video game consoles i think the 600-1200 dollar stimules checks help to push hardware in the last few months but i think you will still see decent software sales

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kingme71 - 521 days 1 hour ago

I don't see us entering a gaming depression like in '83. That was a very different environment and games were just a niche market. Now it is a massive burgeoning industry and the landscape is totally different.

What I do see is something akin to what the movie industry has gone through. Sure movies are doing well, but movies cost alot of money to make and it's big business. Therefore, production companies want to make sure they get their dollars back and then some so movies follow a set formula, they create for certain genres (Just look how many superhero/comicbook movies we have out this summer), and they release at certain times to make sure the audience is there which means there is always a lull in the movie market just like in the gaming industry.

The one big thing I think games hold over movies is that there still is alot of freedom given to development companies to create "their" product despite this growing trend. Sure they might have to make an FPS because they sell, but as you can see from this year, there is alot of good content in the upcoming games even if they are similar genres. Developers by their nature are gamers and they want to create something great and artistic if given the chance. No one wants to churn out the same bland games unless they are in a position where they have no choice.

I'm hoping the industry doesn't stifle this creativity as the profits roll in. The advent of smaller, cheaper, downloadable games is a good sign as well as an increase in the Indie market. You don't need a huge budget to create a good game and hopefully we will continue to see more great stuff from them.

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AcidHorse - 521 days 1 hour ago

with caution. I do not see a 'depression' of the game industry, rather a recession. It is true, regardless what fanatics think, that the Wii has an overload of shovelware that developers have, well shoveled into the Wii in the attempt to make some quick cash. No one here can name a good 3RD party game worth 50 bucks. I'll give you a second to think.... 1.... 2.... 3.... oooohh times up! That's right you can't think of one, especially 'hardcore'.

All this crappy software is actually going to harm the attitudes of new prospective gamers. Not only that, all the effort and time it has taken the game industry to prove itself worthy of being considered as a real entertainment medium is being de-evolved by the Wii. The Wii is reinforcing the ignorant attitude from the public that games are only for children. You can imagine grandma voting for strict anti-game conservative politician after she sees footage of GTAIV and relating her small experience with video games with the Fisher-Price like Wii. Imagine a mom seeing the Wii as the spokesmen for the gaming industry and then forming a completely ignorant perception of what video games are and what the could be.

If history is an indicator of what is to come then this author has a good argument. In the early 80's there was and abundance of bad to average games. 360 has NOTHING but online shooters, most of which are only on par or subpar. The PS3 has great games, but not many games to compare.... the Wii holy crap.... the amount of garbage on that system is frightening. Sooner or later those casual gamers are going to move on to another trend... leaving a big whole in the gaming industry's wallet.

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Monty_The_Great - 521 days ago

after reading the link you providing, I completely agree with you. I think maybe you should include that link somewhere in your story, because I don't think to many people know that. It is very similar, in most ways far to similar. That wiki post is a very good read to anyone who doesn't know what you are talking about.

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Armyless - 520 days 23 hours ago

No.

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KidMakeshift - 520 days 22 hours ago

I'm just tired of the lack of variety. Everything is multi-platform and trying to look "realistic" with ugly earth tone colors. I'm sick of the Unreal Engine fad. I'm tired of how bland or broken gameplay is this generation. I'm sick of next-gen shadowing. It's hard for me to convince myself to sit down and play something. I'm praying to God that TGS redeems the crap-fest that was E3 this year

Please Team Ico, save the game industry or at least make me excited to play again

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ylwzx3 - 520 days 22 hours ago

Gaming has its ups and downs right now. There is lots of games on the all the systems that are just tossed together. I feel the quality of games has also gone downhill. Another thing is I wish the patching system didn't even exist for games in todays world. This means the company can be lazy and ship a game and patch it later. At least before they had to make sure all there bells and whistles were working way more before they shipped.

It'll never crash...

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Fernando8777 - 521 days 3 hours ago

but correction PS3 has only been on the market for about a year and a half...

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juuken - 521 days 3 hours ago

Lol, @ the apple with the RROD light. xD

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Microsoft_Warrior - 521 days 3 hours ago

http://www.konami.com/news/...

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Mr Fancy Pants - 521 days 2 hours ago

i haven't read the article but with the Wii alone, what kind of depression can hit us? it's selling a lot and everybody wants one.

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RAM MAGNUMS - 521 days 2 hours ago

halo started the baby craze of easy games thus becoming mainstream & that created the wii & avatars!?
So if m$ Tanks, say goodbye to the casuals & thier sex toy.
That only depresses xbox360 Install base.
Hey check it out! I got some gameinformer stats.

Xbox 360 owners who had owned several xboxes were slightly more likely (59 percent)
to consider which system their friends played on when deciding which console to purchase a multi-console
game for when compared to ps3 owners of last month(50 percent).

Checking The XboX

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ThatCanadianguy420 - 521 days 1 hour ago

Well,depends wich console you own...

*Cough*360's got no 09 lineup *cough*

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falcon323 - 520 days 20 hours ago

I like this site, but come on enough is enough. This isn't news.

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