The next Videogame crash in 2005????

[wisekrak]

This guy seems to think so. He has some good points too.
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html

[Jasoco]

Yay! Another "Doom and Gloom" thread.

In before teh lock!!!

[Kejoriv]

Not a bad written article. He does have some good points.

[christianscott27]

people have been predicting another video game crash every year since 88, dont hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

[Jasoco]

Pretty interesting article. I'll have to finish reading later... after I choose which smiley and french fries are my favorites. And after work.

[RCM]

I do not dig all these predictions about the end of gaming. I don't believe gaming is a fad. It is a form of art. I really didn't see many good points in the article nor did I enjoy the frequent general statements that the author used to back up his theory. I can't think of many or any fads that have been able to exist for over 30 years. If anything, I believe that gaming will be a very different beast in another 30 years (duh). If gaming must be compared to film, look at films first 30 and look at its second 30. The changes are significant on many levels (the art of filmmaking, it's social acceptence and value, etc.). Is this what is meant by a crash? A change of the very definition of gaming? I don't think that's what the author meant. Something that i haven't seen addressed is where the crash will take place. If the industry does crash, will it be in all markets? Is it possible for gaming to survive minus one of the major markets while the other 2 exist? I predict that gaming will be strong in 2005. It will be strong in 2006 and beyond. Of course the industry won't always have significant growth or any at all. Is that a harbinger of doom if 2004 is a less profitable year then 2003? Nah.

THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM

[stargate]

"All it will take is some other fad, some toy, some other hobby to come along, and interest will fade. It's out there, on somebody's drawing board. Something truly new and different and novel, dammit. The market is ripe for it."

Umm, is it just me or does anyone else feel this guy makes very few good points if not any at all? I mean does he actually believe some new "fad" will come along and replace video games? Is he living under a rock?

Look, the dreaded video game crash of the 80's affected us gamers, how exactly? Quite frankly, besides having to play some crappy games, I'm pretty sure I was gaming as much as ever and when the NES came along, everybody and their mother was a video gamer. The whole crash wasn't really much of setback for video games and one can argue that the whole video game industry actually learned some valuable lessons as a result. This is probably why today many games have their release dates bumped up many months so the developers can make sure the game is ready for release and not be faced with another E.T. dibocle.

Gaming has really come a long way. I am 34 years old and gaming more than ever. My son is 12 and we have to literally pry him away from his GameCube to sit down and eat. ALL of my friend are gamers and most of their children have systems.

"I'm going to share a secret with you; the average video gamer isn't big on
fist-pumping competition with strangers."

Another ridiculous quote. My son and I will both play Diablo II for hours on end. I LOVE being able to play against other people, strangers or not. It basically means the enemy AI is human and not a program. It makes it much more exciting. Granted this is on a PC, but we are both waiting for online play on a console to be more affordable and have better support. This time will be coming soon.

The comparison screenshots he displays to show how little graphics have improved over the past 7 years are a joke. I am sure any gamer on this forum could go on a tangent regarding the graphic quality differences between a PSX game and an XBox game. I really feel that 3D graphics are truly just becoming acceptable. That crap we had to deal with on the PSX and N64 was, for the most part, headache inducing garbage.

Look, the fact is that console gaming has been going strong for 26+ years and counting. We are not taling about a fad like a Cabbage Patch doll or the friggin Care Bears (which I believe are also going strong BTW). We are talking about a multi-billion dollor industry that has been growing by leaps and bounds for close to 3 decades. This guy is a moron and obviously has too much time on his hands.

One more of his quotes I would like to com,ment on before I go:

"Quick, go get your old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. What? You donated it to a homeless shelter ten years ago? And even they don't play it"

Nope, I still have my original NES and I play it every day, thank you very much.

[josekortez]

How do the homeless play video games? Well, maybe, they could play handhelds...

WILL WORK FOR BATTERIES!

[poe]

Wow. That's the first article ever on PWOT to use some facts or informed speculation. Read "50 Reasons Why Lord of the Rings Sucks" for an idea of typical fare for the site. Lots of articles there are meant as satire or to agitate fanboys. You can also look at any of the links at the end of the article.

[crashdummycow01]

the name of the link says it all..

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html

[HellStar]

Cdc is right...thats

[swlovinist]

I have said this before, and I will say it now. There will not be a crash like in 84, but a correction is due. 10 years ago, games got caught up in embrassing technology and not gameplay. Games were jumping to 3-D, and FMV was everywhere. Many consoles were trying to get a piece of the action. The Jaguar, 3D0, Saturn CD-i all ate it big time. The game market in general took a dive in sales until the Playstation came out. While I question the overpowering wacko format of the article, it does make you think about where games are going. How many people think that games could be better? I know that many here at this site are frustrated at the ho hum level of quality and creativity the new batch of games has delivered. What I see is the market again getting flooded with consoles and games that all try to do the same thing and that is bad. Unless there is a breakthru in gameplay or type of game offered, I dont see the people Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo expect accepting the new systems. Is the market crash? I dont think so, but I feel enough of the game market is going to be affected by a lack of sales to at least have the industry in general look at itself and wonder........can we still sell Xgame sequel #6 and profit?????

[Mr. Smashy]

It's good to see that everybody else is as annoyed as I am with any sort of talk about a future video game crash.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm glad that Yamauchi and the rest of Nintendo have realized that Nintendo has traditionally focused on fun, not simply technology. That also helps from the standpoint of cost performance -- cheaper for them, cheaper for us.

I do hope his idea succeeds...it will be a dark day if it does not.

[crashdummycow01]

until they can make a person ACTUALLY look realistic in games, then it can always get better... most games i've played on the new consoles, theres just something about how the characters look that make them not realistic... whether it be their hair that looks matted together, or their body's having sharp edges.. whatever it is, they still havent quite nailed that... until u can walk into a room and look at the TV at a video game playing, and not be able to tell whether its a video game, or a movie, there will always be room for improvement..

[MarioAllStar2600]

I have been saying this since I joined this board. I am not even going to get into it cause its gunna happen.

[crashdummycow01]

to quote Mr Garrison....

YOU GO TO HELL... YOU GO TO HELL AND DIE!



jk

[mezrabad]

Okay, I'm not an economist, nor have I ever played one on TV, however I seem to have heard something about basic economic theory predicting that markets have cycles, not necessarily predictable cycles, but cycles that can be analyzed after the fact. If they happen in every market, why would video games be any different? And So What? if they are?

Do I think the author at pointless waste of time is talking out his ass? Well, yes, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a chance of being right. To quote Carl Sagan "Possessing scientific genius does not prevent you from being dead wrong.", (said in Cosmos, regarding Ptolemy.) from which we can derive "Being a dumbass doesn't prohibit you from guessing correctly for the wrong reasons every so often."

So what if it crashes? What is everyone afraid of if the gaming industry crashes? That might actually be an interesting topic.

[Packerfan66]

That article is kinda scary because it describes the phases I go through for video game cycles. Everytime I get a new system I'm into it for three years then it seems the games get stale then I lose interest in video games a little. A new system comes out and boom I'm right back into video games again. This happened for NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast and now.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Mezrabad has some other smashing crashing thoughts in this thread, but since it's locked let's keep the discussion going here.