The Gamer's Quarter

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

So the DFC has put out an interesting analisys of videogame market and where it is going:

"Suffice to say events of the past six months have forced us to overhaul our models like never before. It now appears clear that this new generation of console systems is going to result in a big shake-up in the game industry power structure."

On top of that there are comments made directly at Sony and their pricing structure among other things. Add to that the recent news that Sony has to now pay $243M in taxes to the Japanese government: things look kind of grave.

I don't know exactly how I feel on this, but I have always had a thing agains Sony. Well, OK, not Sony as much as Sony US branch and their bullshit 2D practices. I also don't like that it takes me a dozen resets to get some games to work on my PS2. Anyways, it kind of feels like I have seen this coming, but I also think they will pull though.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Lestrade · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:24 pm Post subject:

I find myself increasingly interested in the business side of this industry because, well, as an adult one can't ignore the context of things anymore.

That said, I am sort of secretly hoping Sony makes some huge mistakes and comes out of this in a bad way. I have a PS2, and have loved the Playstation systems and their myriad games, but Sony as a company irks me. It must be my Canadian roots; when somebody gets too big, and too arrogant, I want to see them fall. We canucks like keepin' shit real, yo.

Besides, it might be better for everyone, including Sony, if they take a bit of a nosedive. Look what it's done to Nintendo! (Though in Nintendo's case, they always made money, despite everything.)

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject:

any industry that deals with novelty will be volatile. games are nothing if they are not a race for increased waves of novelty. (no mckenna)
_________________

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

I don't know how many of you listen to the gamasutra (né fatpixels) podcast, but this week's is the second half of a panel discussion on development for next-generation consoles. Its focus is on the business side of development (the technology and creativity sides were in the first half). There are some fascinating comments from the developers, and it's remarkable how many of them really want to adopt different (i.e. more expensive) pricing structures for their games, and how much of an influence the console makers have over their business decisions. I think I'll go give it a re-listen.

That series of podcasts is how I heard about TGQ in the first place (during the game journalism panel). So that's pretty cool.
_________________
Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject:

hey, i hear the gamer's quarter is putting out a podcast soon.
_________________

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Nintendo has made so much money off their IPs (heya, pokemon) that it's like they had a mini factory minting bills with Mario on them. Konami did a pretty good job of picking up on that as well.

Sony's other brands are also suffering. Their televisions are good, but they are expensive compared to what's coming out by other firms (mostly Korean). I recently read an article about how Sony is trying to adopt some of Samsung's management and R&D methods because they've been doing so well, to where as Samsung had originally adopted many of Sony's methods years ago. The rest of Sony's stuff has also failed to really innovate, aside from adding proprietary Sony items to their design.

While I like my parent's Sony HDtv, and my older Sony TV, I also have a friend's slim PS2 up at the office to play Gradius and Taiko because my fat, older PS2 refuses to load them. I also had to turn my original PSX upside down to play games, eventually trading it in once it stopped loading anything too FMV intensive - the Tobal No. 1 intro is what did it in. I know all consumer electronics have problems, but I've experienced nothing like my Sony product to product problem/failure ratio with any other brand.
_________________
Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

Szczepaniak · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 770

If the videogame industry is only a quarter as corrupt as the videogame "press", then we're all heading for the mother of all crashes. In fact, if it's only a quarter as corrupt, I don't even want to know about it; because somewhere along the line that would mean they're probably selling guns to genocidal African warlords, and supplementing their budgets with money made from people trafficking in Czechoslovakia.

(btw, I am exaggerating to highlight a point, which is that the whole industry is rotten to the point where I simply don't give a fuck anymore - I'm not kidding)

nICO · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 120 Location: WVUSA

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

SJ · . Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 61 Location: swamp

I bought and returned a PS1 on launch day because load times for exact same scenarios (in Toshinden, hah!) seemed to be random. Sometimes when loading, the drive would get a slight bit louder and take much longer to load. I actually swapped systems twice, and the guys at Babbage's thought I was an idiot because they couldn't see a problem.

I was later vindicated when everyone's launch PS except mine (which I had carefully cherry-picked) started to fail.

Sony's hardware quality record is pretty bad! Who wants to roll the $599 dice with the launch PS3?