[disc] Are Casual Games headed for a "1984"?

[LilGames]

Yes, perhaps it is a "doom and gloom" question, but let's discuss this:

Background:
1984 marked the Great Video Game crash. The dominating video game system of the time was the Atari 2600. Shortly before this, Atari lost/settled a lawsuit with Activision, which opened the doors to any company having the right to develope and publish games for the system.

The end result was a flood of clones and low quality games that should never have left "the drawing board", much less see light as a finished published product. Lack of innovation and too much product caused a "crash".

Consumers got burned and burned out. At one point, you could buy brand new boxed games for as low as $1 at discount stores.

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So the discussion: How will the large quantity of games, and quantity of clones affect the casual games market?

Could the market be headed for another 1984? If so, why? Can it be avoided, and how?

[DrWilloughby]

The video game industry is much more mature than it was then. This sort of problem is unlikely. Also, consumers are generally better educated. They are willing to pay higher amounts for games that they think are good. There is also a lot more information out there for the consumers in the form of reviews, time-limited demos, and word-of-mouth.

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see a slight downturn (in fact I think we are already seeing it) in the console gaming world, but casual games are on the rise. Digital distribution is really helping the PC market and it will take the consoles a little while to catch up with this trend (though XBLA and Nintendo do appear to be making worthy efforts).

[arcadetown]

Always love this topic as some seem to welcome a great gatekeeper that'll prevent over staturation by keeping the "low quality" games out of the market, since of course that would never apply to their games. Not sure the same applies here as the 2600 simply sucked and there was huge limits to what you could do with it. Whereas PC power keeps increasing all the time and casual games still appear to be getting much better.

[Anthony Flack]

Yes, the 2600 situation was pretty extreme; some of the worst games ever made - painfully pathetic piles of rubbish that were knocked together in literally no more than a few hours - selling for, what? How much? Like $50 wasn't it?

We'll never see that scenario again. Although it would be nice if anyone could still produce their own console games without a license, wouldn't it?

[James C. Smith]

I think 'Try before you Buy' is the biggest relevant difference between today’s casual games and the crash of 84. Today we have just as much crap as we had in 84. But it is easy for consumers to ignore the crap and buy the good stuff.

[electronicStar]

Sometimes, when I look at some of the clones and some of the big license games (EA games) and the way they are colonizing all the marketplace, I think that a "1984" is still a possibility.
But the difference nowadays, is that next to the crap games there are still a lot of good games, while in 1984 it was mostly crap and no games had the technical capabilities to keep you entertained for hours.
Nowadays, despite all the crap, players can still find some damn good games to spend their time with.

[Anthony Flack]

Also, you have to consider what the videogame crash actually was. It wasn't the end of videogames, and it wasn't worldwide.

Atari went under, several other US companies pulled out of the console business and the investors decided to stop pouring money indiscriminantly into videogames like they had been. It didn't stop people making C64 games, that's for sure.

[DangerCode]

I think casual games are headed for a "2007", and perhaps a "2008" the year after.

:)

[soniCron]

Today we have just as much crap as we had in 84. But it is easy for consumers to ignore the crap and buy the good stuff. Not sure I agree with that. Games are being released like hotcakes and it's only getting more populated. What's the field going to look like in 2-4 years? It's not easy to download/install/learn/play/uninstall all of them, and someone has to do it in order to populate the top lists.

What happens when the portals wise up and stop offering what amounts to hours upon hours of free gameplay? When we're left with video pre-views and no demo? The industry has whittled its way down to 60-minute demo limits from the age-old "Entire First Episode Free!" I don't have any reason to believe they'll be stopping this trend, unless they find a lot of money in in-game advertising. And then it'll be a balance between advertising-supported demos and video previews. I (honestly) wonder which will prove to be more profitable?

[dxgame]

"How much? Like $50 wasn't it? We'll never see that scenario again."

You bet, we NEVER see crap games for $50.00 anymore do we? :eek:

[Adam]

"How much? Like $50 wasn't it? We'll never see that scenario again."

You bet, we NEVER see crap games for $50.00 anymore do we? :eek:I think Mr Flack was comparing effort to price.
A crappy commercial game would take months as opposed to a day and employ many more people. Plus licencing and testing costs.
The game has to make an attempt at being decient as to recover the investment costs, no longer can the publishers create games for next to nothing to flood the market like in time leading up to the crash.