I have been playing games for 30 years myself, and back in the early 80's, if you recall, there was a video gaming crash' caused primarily by the introduction of too many low quality games into the market which lost consumer confidence. I think that the same thing is happening with console gaming to an extent, which directly translates to handhelds like the PSVita and Nintendo. The prices are too high and only certain games reach epic status. This is responsible for the 6 Billion dollar decline from 2008 to 2010.
Yes, Nintendo used to be a driving force of innovation, but the truth of the matter is, they rode the Wii train for too long and didn't innovate (i.e. MS Kinetics), and have lost 15% of their market share in only 2 years. Sony is also on its way in terms of decline. And on top of that, they continue to churn out the same old same old every year (i.e. Sony PsVita and Nindendo 3DS)
Again, you are missing the fact that the video game consumer is changing, and that is evident of the amount of support from developers that the portable platforms like iOS and Droid are getting. Games are reasonably priced, if not a major fraction of what a DS or PSP game costs, which gives consumers the ability to buy multiple games within a confined budget. That was not available back in the 80's, and a reason for the first crash. Portable platforms ilke the iPhone, iPad, etc. are also getting extremely powerful, coupled with quad processors and iCloud storage options. For those that want true controllers for their portable devices, well they are already in production as well, but the majority are looking for a quick hit of entertainment without having to power up a device, pull the controller out, turn on the television, etc. etc. etc.
I invest long in companies that I think are going to be game changers in the future. Nintendo is off my radar in that regard. The best thing that they can do at this point is reinvent the Wii to competes a true home media, internet device, and/or license off the Mario franchise to iOS and Droid. I doubt that they will do either, and you will probably see them file some time within the next 5 years if things don't change. As for your PSPVita, I see it going by the wayside in similar fashion as the Atari Lynx system. You might want to keep it as I'm sure that it will be a valuable rare collectible in about 30-40 years. Hope you didn't pay too much for it.
Hmmm, you put forward an interesting argument, but one I am not entirely convinced by.
You made me chuckle where you said ?they continue to churn out the same old same old every year? hehehe ) sorry, but Apple constantly regurgitate the same product, with a few added extras, pretty much like clockwork, and the fanboys lap it up. As for the pricing? erm? £500 for an iPhone, or £40 a month for (at least) an 18 months contract?? The Vita looks like good value to me, at a maximum of £280 for the 3G/Wi-Fi version. It packs a lot of grunt and some innovative features, including the rear touch pad, and PS3 connectivity.
I fully understand how the Videogames industry and its consumers have changed, and continue to do so. It all started with the PS1, when videogames went mass-market and became cool. Sure the consumer has changed in so much that the number of people who play games has increased and the type of people who play games has changed. Wii was a massive game changer in that it attracted people to gaming who would never have considered it before, and to a certain extent, Kinect is doing the same thing. Wii U will, again, move the game forward. It seems to me that Nintendo are innovating. I don?t see anything particularly revolutionary coming out of Apple?s camp?
The long and short of it is that there are still a significant number of gamers out there who are not satisfied with trying to fudge there way through a FPS with a touch screen. We want proper controls and proper games. Sony and Nintendo deliver on that front, and whilst they might not have the mass market penetration of the iphone (well, in Europe and the US) they will always have a market.
Actually, I will be happy when all the ?casual? gamers sod off with their iPhones (and its limited mini-games) whilst the real gamers can go back to the good old days when games were innovative, and developers took risks!!
You obviously haven't played any of their recent offerings, as they are every bit as good in capability versus a Playstation 1 and even 2 in some cases.
There are a handful of titles that reach console quality but look at the list of top PS2 games:
Beyond Good and Evil
Burnout
Colin McRae Rally
Devil May Cry
Final Fantasy X
God of War
GTA: Vice City & San Andreas
Gran Tourismo 3 & 4
Jak & Daxter
Max Payne
Metal Gear Solid
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Ratchet & Clank
Resident Evil
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory & Double Agent
SSX
Star Wars Battlefront
TimeSplitters 2
Tomb Raider
On iOS:
Angry Birds
Bejeweled
Cut the Rope
Dead Space (watered down port)
Doodle Jump
Fruit Ninja
GTA 3 (port)
Infinity Blade
Modern Combat
Monkey Island (port)
N.O.V.A
Plants vs Zombies
Real Racing
Rolando
Tetris
Tiny Wings
Tomb Raider Guardian of Light (port)
Zen Bound
+ the other games you mentioned
Every year, I hope the list improves and it does but it never does by much. We are 4.5 years into the platform at this stage with 250 million device owners (more than the PSP, DS, 3DS, Vita combined). The 3GS, 4 and 4S are all capable of graphics above the PS2 but the games companies continue to invest their franchises in consoles. A few of the studios are owned by console makers so they will never make games for iOS but even some 3rd party developers seem to be holding out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmvsm
The game Infinity Blade itself raked in over $30 million in revenue in one year by itself, and that's at a $6.99 price point. How many console games can you say that about that average a $35-$40 retail? Not many.
That's true but not many iOS games make that much either. Apple has paid out $3 billion to developers, which would only equate to 100 apps making $30m. Spread that out over 500,000 apps and it's not a lot of money with the majority of it going to the long-term occupiers of Apple's charts.
I suspect this will put off some game developers who don't have money to burn like EA and Rockstar and can't really take the risk of publishing in a store that doesn't balance effort with visibility:
games have almost become disposable on the device, and that's what makes the platform so successful.
I don't see this as a good thing. I would say it's analogous to reality television: cheap to make, low quality, disposable, easy to make lots of it. After a few years, people are getting tired of it.
I have had more enjoyment from a single PSP/PS2 game costing $20 than 10 iOS games costing $0.99-4.99 equating to the same overall amount. Splinter Cell Conviction on iOS was terrible compared to Double Agent on PS2:
Remember the majority of apps are free or 99-cents, and use ad impressions to make the real income. That skews the app-store sales numbers significantly higher. Then take out the crapware apps and place the majority of the $3b in the hands of several hundred apps rather than several hundred thousand and it looks a lot better for shipping a truly good app.
Comments
I have been playing games for 30 years myself, and back in the early 80's, if you recall, there was a video gaming crash' caused primarily by the introduction of too many low quality games into the market which lost consumer confidence. I think that the same thing is happening with console gaming to an extent, which directly translates to handhelds like the PSVita and Nintendo. The prices are too high and only certain games reach epic status. This is responsible for the 6 Billion dollar decline from 2008 to 2010.
Yes, Nintendo used to be a driving force of innovation, but the truth of the matter is, they rode the Wii train for too long and didn't innovate (i.e. MS Kinetics), and have lost 15% of their market share in only 2 years. Sony is also on its way in terms of decline. And on top of that, they continue to churn out the same old same old every year (i.e. Sony PsVita and Nindendo 3DS)
Again, you are missing the fact that the video game consumer is changing, and that is evident of the amount of support from developers that the portable platforms like iOS and Droid are getting. Games are reasonably priced, if not a major fraction of what a DS or PSP game costs, which gives consumers the ability to buy multiple games within a confined budget. That was not available back in the 80's, and a reason for the first crash. Portable platforms ilke the iPhone, iPad, etc. are also getting extremely powerful, coupled with quad processors and iCloud storage options. For those that want true controllers for their portable devices, well they are already in production as well, but the majority are looking for a quick hit of entertainment without having to power up a device, pull the controller out, turn on the television, etc. etc. etc.
I invest long in companies that I think are going to be game changers in the future. Nintendo is off my radar in that regard. The best thing that they can do at this point is reinvent the Wii to competes a true home media, internet device, and/or license off the Mario franchise to iOS and Droid. I doubt that they will do either, and you will probably see them file some time within the next 5 years if things don't change. As for your PSPVita, I see it going by the wayside in similar fashion as the Atari Lynx system. You might want to keep it as I'm sure that it will be a valuable rare collectible in about 30-40 years. Hope you didn't pay too much for it.
Hmmm, you put forward an interesting argument, but one I am not entirely convinced by.
You made me chuckle where you said ?they continue to churn out the same old same old every year? hehehe
I fully understand how the Videogames industry and its consumers have changed, and continue to do so. It all started with the PS1, when videogames went mass-market and became cool. Sure the consumer has changed in so much that the number of people who play games has increased and the type of people who play games has changed. Wii was a massive game changer in that it attracted people to gaming who would never have considered it before, and to a certain extent, Kinect is doing the same thing. Wii U will, again, move the game forward. It seems to me that Nintendo are innovating. I don?t see anything particularly revolutionary coming out of Apple?s camp?
The long and short of it is that there are still a significant number of gamers out there who are not satisfied with trying to fudge there way through a FPS with a touch screen. We want proper controls and proper games. Sony and Nintendo deliver on that front, and whilst they might not have the mass market penetration of the iphone (well, in Europe and the US) they will always have a market.
Actually, I will be happy when all the ?casual? gamers sod off with their iPhones (and its limited mini-games) whilst the real gamers can go back to the good old days when games were innovative, and developers took risks!!
You obviously haven't played any of their recent offerings, as they are every bit as good in capability versus a Playstation 1 and even 2 in some cases.
There are a handful of titles that reach console quality but look at the list of top PS2 games:
Beyond Good and Evil
Burnout
Colin McRae Rally
Devil May Cry
Final Fantasy X
God of War
GTA: Vice City & San Andreas
Gran Tourismo 3 & 4
Jak & Daxter
Max Payne
Metal Gear Solid
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Ratchet & Clank
Resident Evil
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory & Double Agent
SSX
Star Wars Battlefront
TimeSplitters 2
Tomb Raider
On iOS:
Angry Birds
Bejeweled
Cut the Rope
Dead Space (watered down port)
Doodle Jump
Fruit Ninja
GTA 3 (port)
Infinity Blade
Modern Combat
Monkey Island (port)
N.O.V.A
Plants vs Zombies
Real Racing
Rolando
Tetris
Tiny Wings
Tomb Raider Guardian of Light (port)
Zen Bound
+ the other games you mentioned
Every year, I hope the list improves and it does but it never does by much. We are 4.5 years into the platform at this stage with 250 million device owners (more than the PSP, DS, 3DS, Vita combined). The 3GS, 4 and 4S are all capable of graphics above the PS2 but the games companies continue to invest their franchises in consoles. A few of the studios are owned by console makers so they will never make games for iOS but even some 3rd party developers seem to be holding out.
The game Infinity Blade itself raked in over $30 million in revenue in one year by itself, and that's at a $6.99 price point. How many console games can you say that about that average a $35-$40 retail? Not many.
That's true but not many iOS games make that much either. Apple has paid out $3 billion to developers, which would only equate to 100 apps making $30m. Spread that out over 500,000 apps and it's not a lot of money with the majority of it going to the long-term occupiers of Apple's charts.
I suspect this will put off some game developers who don't have money to burn like EA and Rockstar and can't really take the risk of publishing in a store that doesn't balance effort with visibility:
http://www.appolicious.com/tech/arti...-total-revenue
games have almost become disposable on the device, and that's what makes the platform so successful.
I don't see this as a good thing. I would say it's analogous to reality television: cheap to make, low quality, disposable, easy to make lots of it. After a few years, people are getting tired of it.
I have had more enjoyment from a single PSP/PS2 game costing $20 than 10 iOS games costing $0.99-4.99 equating to the same overall amount. Splinter Cell Conviction on iOS was terrible compared to Double Agent on PS2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQGeu...ailpage#t=238s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfz80...tailpage#t=85s
This will probably just take time to correct but I still don't see a major shift in how developers treat the platform.