The State of Gaming

Today’s gaming industry is exciting, unpredictable and at times confusing. The “big three” companies, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, dominate the industry and fight each other for your gaming dollar, and the rivalry among creative teams and developers is raging more fiercely than ever. To achieve clarity amid this confusion, it is a good idea to gain a perspective of the scene and evaluate the current state of the gaming industry and where it’s headed.

The Status Quo of the “Console Wars”
One of the most commonly heard questions you will hear in a gaming store is, “What system should I buy?” Ultimately, any one of the three systems will suit a gamer quite well, although it is preferable to buy as many as possible for access to exclusive titles on each system. The PS2 is the uncontested market leader, outselling the Xbox and GameCube combined, and it has the largest library of both quality titles and budget titles. Its weakness is its age: the PS2 is the oldest system, thus its games do not have the best graphics and audio. The sheer number of games available for the PS2 and PSOne compensates for this weakness, however. Microsoft’s Xbox success came as a surprise, despite predictions of rough times for the big black box. Although it cannot touch the PS2 in terms of sales, it is giving the Nintendo GameCube a tough challenge. Xbox is the strongest system in terms of audio and visuals, but its game library is weak in comparison to the PS2’s, and it lacks the exclusive titles of Nintendo’s GameCube. The GameCube runs in the middle ground for audiovisuals and game quality, and it exclusively features Nintendo’s coveted game franchises. It also offers connectivity with the leader of portable systems: the Game Boy Advance.

The portable scene is heating up with the announcement of the Sony Playstation Pocket (PSP), the most powerful portable gaming system ever created. Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance dominates the portable market now, and it will face a bold competitor when the PSP launches in 2004. Nokia’s N-Gage cell phone / portable game system is still a mystery. It has impressive technical specs, but its high price of $299 and lack of developer support are causes for concern.

As it stands, no company is in dire trouble at the moment; the competition is fierce, and the people who benefit most from the rivalry are the gamers.

Game Content – How good are today’s games?
Gaming, like Hollywood, contains a few hits, a plethora of terrible titles and a few in between. This is not a new phenomenon, however; it has been a problem with gaming (and the entertainment industry) ever since “PONG”. Movie-licensed games tend to be rushed-out, uninspired tripe (with a few notable exceptions); series tend to run dry after too many sequels have been released, and some games are simply imitations of successful titles from rival companies.

Despite serious issues with quality control, the most powerful influence a gamer makes on the market is with his or her wallet. Remember: a game that looks cool in a television commercial could be a clunker in reality. Purchase games that you enjoy and the games of developers you wish to support. Research a game before making a purchase. Read reviews in several magazines and websites. Talk to other gamers and listen to their opinions. Play games before you purchase them if you are uncertain. Do not feel bad about returning a game to the store if you dislike it, but do not make this a habit. It is important for gamers to send a clear message to the game companies: we will purchase good games and ignore bad ones. Otherwise, the market will continue to be flooded with “shovelware” titles that have no redeeming quality other than lining their creator’s pockets.

Sequels on Parade
Hollywood referred to the summer of 2003 as “The Summer of Sequels”, and this spilled over to the gaming industry as well. Endless sequels lined the corridors of the E3 Expo last May, with few totally original and creative titles. Game companies, like Hollywood, are playing it safe with the faltering economy; they are now unwilling to take the many risks involved in pushing unproved and untested franchises.

Sequels to successful games are not necessarily bad. Sequels can expand upon a good formula and make it even better, giving gamers more of what they want. They can address gameplay issues that their prequels suffered from. Sequels are “safe purchases” if you enjoyed previous games in their series. However, sequels are also considered cop-outs if they do not improve or change the original game’s formula enough. At E3, it seemed that many quality titles were in development, but the majority of them were simply extensions of games we are already playing today.

One sequel, however, stood out at the E3 Expo because it sets the perfect example for other sequels to follow. Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3 appears to take the franchise in a radical new direction. MGS3 is not a James Bond / Mission Impossible style spy thriller set in military bases, unlike its predecessors in the series. Instead, MGS3 is a Rambo-style manhunt/survival game set in a jungle. You must eat to survive by hunting wildlife, and you must carefully monitor your health conditions. The game focuses less on storyline and more on exploration and action. You have to avoid detection by camouflage instead of barriers and shadows. The only recognizable aspects of MGS3 are the characters, themes and storyline. Everything else is totally new and innovative. Hopefully, game companies will follow Konami’s lead in producing radically different sequels rather than simple rehashes.

Remakes of old games in a new generation?
This generation has seen an unprecedented number of old games remade or ported to new platforms. Some remakes take the theme of their original titles to a next-generation level. Their graphics and sound are enhanced to the point where they are almost unrecognizable, such as Resident Evil for GameCube, Ninja Gaiden for Xbox and Rygar for PS2. Others are classic titles simply ported over to different systems, such as the Super Mario Bros. titles for the Game Boy Advance. Remakes are not entirely positive; to some they are considered an easy way to make money off an old cash cow instead of using resources to fund development on totally new titles. The benefit to the “rehash” approach is that it allows a new generation of gamers to experience the same classic titles that senior gamers once enjoyed. To senior gamers, however, direct porting of old titles on to new systems may seem like a sell-out. Game companies must exercise moderation in their development strategies: do not forsake the legacy of the old titles for new gamers, but do not milk the classics to the extent that creativity is discouraged.

Gaming PC vs Game Consoles
When the Playstation 2 launched and the Xbox and GameCube followed a year later, it seemed as if the PC had been utterly defeated in the technology race. The three consoles were delivering graphics that even the high end PCs could only dream of. Now, PCs have surpassed consoles with powerful CPUs from Intel and AMD and blazingly fast graphics processors from ATi and nVidia. A top-of-the-line PC will easily outperform even the Xbox, but it is a more costly investment than a $179 dedicated gaming console. PC’s seem to evolve slowly, but surely, over time, while consoles tend to make great leaps every five years. The gaming market has shifted in favor of consoles because console games tend to outsell PC titles significantly. A few standout PC titles, such as Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft, Valve’s Half-Life and EA’s The Sims sell millions of copies, but they are the exception rather than the rule. PC gaming will remain a hardcore niche market, kept alive by developers and gamers who dislike the limitations imposed by game consoles’ fixed-hardware.

The Online Gaming Experiment - Is it a success?
Online console gaming has finally taken off years after the PC started the network gaming phenomenon. Online gaming had a rocky start: in the beginning, none of the big three companies had a cohesive online strategy, but Sony and Microsoft have come through admirably despite their initial setbacks. Nintendo seems to be ignoring online and concentrating on the single player and split-screen multiplayer experience, but it needs to expand its online presence if it wants to compete in the next generation. Xbox Live is the best online service, with its universal buddy list, voice communications headset and large lineup of supported titles. Sony’s online service is close in quality and content to Microsoft’s, albeit not as well organized. The PC is still king of online play, largely thanks to the massive success of the game Counter-Strike, as well as Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net. One troubling issue plagues online console gaming, an issue that does not threaten PC online gaming: future legacy game support. Almost every online console game relies on accessing the parent game company’s server to play. What will happen five or ten years from now when you want to play an old game online with a few friends, but the company has long since ceased server support? Online console games need to be mindful of the future and support outside internet connections.

Overall State of the Industry
The gaming industry has grown exponentially since its humble beginnings in the Atari/Nintendo days. Gaming is huge today with three large companies fighting for your dollar. The best part of being a gamer today is choice. You, as a gamer, have a limitless number of options to choose from, be it choosing one or two platforms or all of them combined, and the vast catalogs of games available for each. Prices in the industry are at an all-time low; you can find many great budget titles in Sony’s Greatest Hits, Microsoft’s Platinum Hits and Nintendo’s Player’s Choice series. No matter what choices you make, you cannot go wrong if you apply research to your game buying strategy and send the companies a message: build good games, and we, the gamers, will come.