Continuing Trend in major videogame makers.(my report)

Over the last several months, I\'ve noticed a continuing trend in the major videogame makers and what I call a changing of the guard when it comes to production of killer apps by third party developers. This trend is that more and more are noticing that more money can be made by whoring themselves out to all the consoles out there, even if it means making an inferior product for one console, because the company makes the game as good as possible for the more powerful console, then dumbs it down for the lesser powerful one. Companies arn\'t worried about making innovative games anymore. They are more worried about making a mediocore game that has mass-market appeal instead of cult or sleeper hit appeal. Unfortunately, I believe this trend started with the introduction of Tomb Raider 2. I say Tomb Raider 2, because Tomb Raider 1 actually was innovative and a very good game in my opinion. I\'m not saying all companies are doing this, but some of the bigger name companies have started to. For example(and I know Im going to get flamed for this.Don\'t get me wrong Square is one of my favorite companies. Many of my favorite games come from square like FFT,FF7,Xenogears,and Chrono Cross),recently Square has starting moving away from innovative, original games and are making games that are more graphically superior then the one before it. I find this disturbing because I feel that this trend of appearance over substance is going to catch on to most other big companies because most gamers DO NOT come to websites like this before making purchases, they see a commercial completely of FMV and say to themselves,"OHHH, pretty, must have." and they buy it.Look at the trend lately of square games. Bouncer and Driving Emotion type-S. I have yet to play these games but looking at reviews of them, and previews, it seems that the reviews said,"The games stunning"or,"beautiful...but" and the buts were that the game was graphically great but the gameplay and fun factor just wasnt there. I hate to include this in my report because Square is one of my favorite producers, and I hope they end this trend soon.

There are a few big companies that still put out amazing games though. Those companies are Konami and Capcom. These producers each have a very nice list of original games coming out.(Z.O.E, Ominusha....)

Not all is lost though. Because of this, other smaller companies are able to move into the niche originally held by the big companies in the hardcore gamers mind by making games which value substace over apperance. Granted, their games look good, but the games are fun and deep as well.
An example of this would be THQ/Volition. Right now they have one game on the market, and that game is summoner. Other than a few graphical glitches this game is great. Deep involving storyline, fun enviroments, huge amounts of side quests. I mean really, how well known was THQ/Voliton before Summoner. They also have Red Faction coming out which is set to take that beaten to death genre of FPS, and beat some new life into it. The FPS\'ers out now are not bad, but what NEW do they have to offer, Not much.

Don\'t misinterpret this, this isnt against the PS2 but against the gaming market as a whole, I just have more experiance with sony than others so I used them in my examples.

I know I left out many middle-sized companies that are still making great games, but this was on big companies.

Well, thats my report for now, hopefully that will change soon.

Let me know your thoughts.

I wouldn\'t let it get to you too much.  These things go in cycles.  Just buy and promote high quality titles and the wheel will swing back to gameplay soon enough.

The industry will change and it cost a ton more money these days to build that blockbuster title

Right now the user base on all next gen systems is very small so Dev\'s can\'t recoup there investment on one machine

later on when a console has a very large userbase we may see more exclusive blockbuster cause the money can then be recouped and porfits made

If your not making a profit your not going to stay in business

Personally, I think a better solution to ofsetting the finacial burden of creating next generation games should be through product advertising. Now I\'m not suggesting bardardizing Mario by having him collect Pepsi points instead of coins, far from it. I\'m saying that game developers should use product placement in the same way movies do. For instance, in Resident Evil 2 (a game that depends on realism to a certain digree) there are various references to Burger King (Burger Kong), Coca Cola (Cola Cola), and if you watch you the opening movie closely you can see AT LEAST six "Marlboro Cigarette" looking logos in the scenery. What would be the harm in inviting corperations to fund games in exchange for a little subtle marketing? In my opinion, it\'s a win-win situation. We the gamers get more realism in the games that need it (Shenmue, RE, Silent Hill, ect), participating corperations get advertising, and developers get more money for better games.

Of course this wouldn\'t be a status quo in every game. Increased revenue garnished by letting outside buisnesses pick up a bit of the tab could go back into games with NO product placement.. like Mario, Zelda, or Crash.

Product placements in games is coming

If  there is one thing no one can argue about is the fact that advertisements pay alot of bills