Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Jul 8, 2012, 00:35:
I don't see EA surviving any kind of major shake-up; it's pretty common knowledge now that their business practice amounts to "hemorrhage as much money as possible for as long as possible without actually imploding" and they never really make money no matter how many big earners they push out.
I very much dislike EA as a business but they have substantial investments in casual gaming and despite the fact that Origin is just getting up to speed I'm sure it will be making them some decent money, as the margins are huge. I'd love to see them collapse and be bought up by a company like Valve.
Jerykk wrote on Jul 8, 2012, 03:36:
I wouldn't be so sure. At one point, Codemasters was trying to compete in the AAA game market except they failed, so now they only make racing games. Same applies to Majesco, only they've switched to mobile/casual games. THQ will likely follow suit within the next couple of years.
Codemasters made some pretty poor non-racing games and then went back to their strengths, which was a sensible strategy. Majesco isn't a major publisher and they have a particularly poor selection of games, which reflects on them not the industry. And THQ has made a series of incredibly poor investments in games projects - Homefront being an obvious one - and has been struggling to compete on quality for a long time. Just like any industry, if you make bad products and bad investments you're unlikely to survive as a business. I don't expect THQ to survive. The difference is that although EA and Activision make plenty of shitty moves they're design to make them more money (Origin for EA; rehashing CoD to death for Activision) - heck, Modern Warfare 3 is still in the top 20 on Steam (and has been there since launch 7 months ago), at a higher than market average price, with a huge selection of overpriced DLC and is the 8th most played game on Steam. As much as I HATE CoD for being utterly derivative and lacking innovation there is absolutely no doubt it's a huge money making product.
Advertising budgets are the biggest issue with gaming at the moment. For instance, I've seen a lot of TV ads for Spec Ops: The Line which looks shit and is backed up by a score of 75 on Metacritic. It used to be only major games like Bioshock and GTA4 that received advertising like that. However, with digital distribution likely to play a bigger role for the next generation - and Steam and Origin already going that for PC sales - advertising budgets will be better spent on social media, gaming websites and digital distribution sites themselves. Publishers need to be a lot more clever with advertising budgets and because they have investors they cannot afford to keep making bad decisions.
I'd love to see a huge shake-up in the gaming industry and to see shitty companies like EA or Activision goes bust or be forced to change their business practices but people shouldn't be too happy at that prospect. PC gaming is likely to be hit first, followed by a huge number of developers moving into the more profitable social / mobile gaming market. Afterall, Epic stated that their recent mobile game was the most profitable product - relative to investment made - they've ever made.
PS - I really wish that Valve would invest in game development more. Considering the amount they must be making from Steam - and that they're a private company - it's disappointing that their approach to development is so casual. They're one of the few companies that can afford to go crazy with game design and not worry about making a loss (which would be virtually impossible given they own the distribution medium).
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."