What's gone wrong with gaming?
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:02 am
Yesterday I started playing, for the first time, the first of the Uncharted franchise, Drake's Fortune. It was immediately apparent that I was in the realm of something special, something like the first kind of gaming experience I'd ever partaken of, back in the day of my first consul (Sega Dreamcast) and the first game I played, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation.
These were the games that were released back in the day when the game was the thing. Before the day that it was realised that the consumers purchase of the game should only be the first of the transactions that were entailed within it. That the profit from the game was not to be made from its initial sale, but from the ongoing sales of in game products - armours and weapons that would never be available to the 'vanilla' players, quest lines and bonus features that unless you sprung for club-card membership, you would never attain.
Now we find ourselves in a place where the idea of producing a game that is stand alone, that will be released just for what it is, is anathema. Elden Ring is, I believe, pretty much this kind of production, but the sales revenue from even as massive a production as this are dwarfed by the ongoing income streams generated by games like FIFA and Pokemon.
My great fear is that the next Elder Scrolls game - should I be fortunate enough to be around when it releases - will be bastardised to within an inch of its life by pulling the same tricks on it. Skyrim sits as beyond question the best game ever made in my book. But I fear that this height of gaming will never be reached again. I'm just not sure the economics are behind it. These companies are in it for the commercial game, not to worry about the aesthetics of gaming - the heights to which it could be taken. If a product doesn't meet the bottom line it isn't going to get the funding - and the groups that put forward that funding are looking for maximum return, not artistic plaudits. There simply isn't the middle ground in gaming financing, as there is in say movie making, that allows for much more in the way of independent gaming production. I think that small independent games like Kingdom Come Deliverance will soon be a thing of the past, drowned out by increasing costs and a word of finance that has no interest in artistic merit, but only concerns itself with maximisation of profit.
These were the games that were released back in the day when the game was the thing. Before the day that it was realised that the consumers purchase of the game should only be the first of the transactions that were entailed within it. That the profit from the game was not to be made from its initial sale, but from the ongoing sales of in game products - armours and weapons that would never be available to the 'vanilla' players, quest lines and bonus features that unless you sprung for club-card membership, you would never attain.
Now we find ourselves in a place where the idea of producing a game that is stand alone, that will be released just for what it is, is anathema. Elden Ring is, I believe, pretty much this kind of production, but the sales revenue from even as massive a production as this are dwarfed by the ongoing income streams generated by games like FIFA and Pokemon.
My great fear is that the next Elder Scrolls game - should I be fortunate enough to be around when it releases - will be bastardised to within an inch of its life by pulling the same tricks on it. Skyrim sits as beyond question the best game ever made in my book. But I fear that this height of gaming will never be reached again. I'm just not sure the economics are behind it. These companies are in it for the commercial game, not to worry about the aesthetics of gaming - the heights to which it could be taken. If a product doesn't meet the bottom line it isn't going to get the funding - and the groups that put forward that funding are looking for maximum return, not artistic plaudits. There simply isn't the middle ground in gaming financing, as there is in say movie making, that allows for much more in the way of independent gaming production. I think that small independent games like Kingdom Come Deliverance will soon be a thing of the past, drowned out by increasing costs and a word of finance that has no interest in artistic merit, but only concerns itself with maximisation of profit.
