Investors sour on video games

Like many industries in transition to a more digital, mobile world, video games appear to be caught in a shift away from games played on consoles and PCs.

But the bigger problem is that the staple of the industry — the video game consoles that drive sales of new games — are old and in need of an upgrade. Last year, the industry saw sales of physical software sink to its lowest levels since 2007, with sales of $9.3 billion in the U.S., down 8% from $10.1 billion in 2010, according to data from the NPD Group.

[miyamoto]

I knew it was heading to this.

It is bound to happen!

If this does not stop then hello 1983!

Yearly milking of the same shit on all three major platforms is too hard on the gamer's pocket.

Also its like eating the same food day in and day out.

It gets boring & you wanna puke just at the sight of these games.

Its like cutting trees but failure to plants new ones.

Its killing the industry!
No one is nurturing it.

New exciting IPs. New genres.
Sony cannot do it alone & hurt itself by doing so in the process.

Nintendo and M$ must do their part too. Same with the big publishers.

The same IPs.
The same brand & title with little variations.

Stop the sequels!
Stop the rehashes!

Give the land some years of rest.
New IPs bring excitement to the industry at full price.

[Unexpecta]

Speaking of sequels and rehashes. I hate it when games get a FOURTH sequel, and beyond that. Seems like you're just throwing your money into the pot.

[JBSleek]

So you think the problem is that Microsoft, Nintendo and other big name publishers aren't coming out with enough new IP's and somehow Sony is the one who is trying to change that?

I'm sure games with annual releases such CoD, Battlefield, Fifa, AC have done more good than harm this generation.

So it has nothing to do with this being the end of a generation and the next one is looming. It has nothing to do with the rise of F2P, Social, Mobile, or PC gaming? It also doesn't take into account that Nintendo has revealed a new console thus haulting those sales.

I understand your arguement but it seems misguided to the real problems that are at hand.

[ToZanarkand86]

!Speaking of sequels... Give me Shenmue 3!

[MadLad]

I second this.

[ronin4life]

"Sony cannot do it alone"

They can hardly do it AT ALL
Where is the last guardian anyway?

On a serious note, check out the Nintendo Eshop or the list of 3ds games in Japan before saying Nintendo isn't trying to push new IP's.

[miyamoto]

"Sony cannot do it alone"

Oh, you mean Sony Japan Studio.
Sony couldn't care less about Japan Studio.

What new IPs? the usual kidtendo casual stuff?

If those game does not have the name Mario, Pokemon, Kirby, Yoshi, Zelda, Link ,Metroid, & the usual branding maybe I will consider them New IPs, new ideas or new games altogether.

Nintendo said they want to bring the core gaming hobbyist but they let 2rd or 3rd party devs do the dirty work. And they expect to be taken seriously???
At least they should have told us they are serious last E3 with a title all their own.

Also the whole disruption thing of the HD FPS & Wii casual gaming bandwagon really spiked things too high & the only way is down instead of steady.

When you disrupt the tank to much much water is bound to spill.

The balance between eastern & western games has been disrupted and its unhealthy.

The games industry has become like Hollywood.

To much focus on high budget but no substance.

It has lost its artistic integrity & vision.

Also so much focus on money, bribery & politics has hurt the industry.

[ronin4life]

*ignoring rant*
Nintendo Ips? how about:
Pushmo
Dillon
Sakura Samurai
The Last Story
Captain Rainbow
...Nintendo Land(...yeah, but still...)
Project P-100

There! And as for 3rd Party...
Fantasy Life
Project X Zone
Bravely Default
Little Kings Story(Just had to throw that one up... Awesome game)
Fragile ruins
No more Heroes

...Just a taste from the beginning of this gen on.

And your talking "bribery" and thinking Sony hasn't shelled out MILLIONS for permanent exclusive content for several games?(yes, I'm Assuming...@.@)
Street Fighter X Tekken
Battle field 3
Bioshock
SSX
ALL have Sony exclusive permanent content... That could not have been free.

Arg, I'm in a bad mood...@.@ feeling snappy....
I apologize to everyone if this comment was to rough. @_@;;;;

[miyamoto]

ignoring rant*
Nintendo Ips? how about:
Pushmo
Dillon -------------- no its not Nintendo's creation & Vanpool's IP 2nd Party
Sakura Samurai
The Last Story ----- no its not Nintendo's creation & MW's creation its 2nd/3rd party
Captain Rainbow -----
...Nintendo Land(...yeah, but still...)
Project P-100 ------ no its not Nintendo's creation & PG Games' creation its 3rd party

come on ronin....give me lotso Nintendo 1st party IPs

There! And as for 3rd Party...
Fantasy Life
Project X Zone
Bravely Default
Little Kings Story(Just had to throw that one up... Awesome game)
Fragile ruins
No more Heroes

...Just a taste from the beginning of this gen on.

These are not Nintendo's IPS or creation. Exclusive maybe but they are 3rd party creations

And your talking "bribery" and thinking Sony hasn't shelled out MILLIONS for permanent exclusive content for several games?(yes, I'm Assuming...@.@)
Street Fighter X Tekken
Battle field 3
Bioshock
SSX
ALL have Sony exclusive permanent content... That could not have been free.

yeah assuming....(@.@)

Arg, I'm in a bad mood...@.@ feeling snappy....
I apologize to everyone if this comment was to rough. @_@;;;;

apology accepted

[dcbronco]

@Axelstone

MS and Nintendo are actually making money. You can throw them in with the other companies. Companies making movie tie-ins and rip-offs of someone else's games are the problem. Or big companies buying other peoples IP and having no real idea what to do with it. But the little guy with the new idea is forced to sell of to the big companies because no bank will give them the money.

But this is why I stay away from the market anyway. The market expects you to make huge gains over the previous year every year. It's unrealistic. The market itself is no different than the housing bubble. Companies borrow more than they should in order to expand so that can say look at our revenue to keep the market happy. Which raises their stock price and the whole thing starts over the next year. Then they hit a bad patch and the company falls apart after a few years. It's all based on speculation and accounting tricks. It's amazing regular people still participate.

[SilentNegotiator]

The issue is more simple than that; the generation is coming to a close soon. Things always slow down at the end of a generation. Then new hardware comes and creates excitement and the bell curve of success starts again.

[ATi_Elite]

I think Most Publishers should go private.

trying to make money every second for INVESTORS leaves the company making crap gamers for it's CUSTOMERS!!

Customers come first!

Make better games that are worth buying and not renting or getting used.

I'm not buying a PC Game if I don't see 50 hours of gameplay involved.

[dcbronco]

I agree. I think developer need to use crowd funding instead of investors. There are other ways to get support too. Investing is gambling with the House having the fix in. Watch the Daily Show segment with Jim Cramer where they show the footage of him telling about the ways he manipulated the market as a hedge fund manager. I have no idea why people continue to trust the markets.

[SandWitch]

Oh noes

[Godmars290]

Irony of irony: in trying to appeal to investors, game companies appealed to them over their markets. Investors then lost interest as game popularity became generally unstable.

[ronin4life]

Exactly. It was the investors fault all along.
Good riddance to em, if it helps the Industry find itself again. Once things pick up, investors will come crawling back with their money.

... possibly ruining things again...

[Godmars290]

No. Game companies. Growing too fast and believing their own hype. Thinking if they said something enough times gamers would accept any crap shoved their way while being more focused in presenting proof to investors they were risk the risk instead of providing a quality product which sold itself.

It would be stupid to ignore the fact that its investor money which makes games, just like it is to forget that they invested in the first place to see a return in that investment. That said returns come from the gamers.

[ronin4life]

@Godmars
Investors are panicky and many are uninformed on the actual industries they bank on. They are constantly suggesting/forcing changes on the businesses they invest in and jumping ship the second a company isn't growing at a ridiculous rate.

They can't bare all the blame, and I don't think they are the sole reason(Just made an hyperbolic statement on the direct subject is all), but they cause a lot of trouble when they are allowed to run amok. Just look what happened to Nintendo this last year for proof of what damage investors can do.

1) Nintendo makes a mistake with 3ds launch/pricing. Totally their bad. THEN, investors panic over a small period of doubt, NOT an actual beginning of financial turmoil, causing the damage to multiply.
2) Nintendo goes about fixing things in the manner they should, but misguided investors and speculators(another market parasite) question and oppose these plans, and demand change that would actually bring Nintendo financial ruin. Because Nintendo knows this, they ignore these requests, and suffer FURTHER stock damage
3) Nintendo held firm, and are profitable once again. Yet, Speculator and investor fallacies still haunt them, and it may take months or years before they can prove these people wrong and gain back investor confidence.

Sure, Nintendo caused these things to happen, but investor behavior blew everything out of proportion and caused additional damage that could have been avoided... and had they given into the bitching of investors, their future would be in dire question. Just so they would be profitable in the short term for the investors to make more money, without considering the long term consequences.

And Game companies make money by selling games. The investors aren't needed for this, they only bring extra money on top of this. Consumers bring in revenue, not investors and their finicky nature who bring in fortune and calamity with equal ferver seemingly at the drop a hat.

[dcbronco]

That is definitely a problem. But it is also way past time for new consoles. People will buy something new and shiny. Look at the 360S. But like you said, they are trying to appeal to the market. Dragging this generation out to maximize profits to make investors happy. I would never take my company public. Too much speculation and ignorance forces companies to make poor decisions.

[Ethereal]

It's going to be interesting..

[lonesoul65]

Just like the housing market, .COM businesses, investment firms, banks, and starbucks....if you over saturate a market...it will crumble...and then over time it will rebuild itself

[JBSleek]

Non of those markets had to do with over saturation though. They had to do with faulty business practices and not listening to Economists.

The gaming market isn't going to crumble by any means only console gaming is in decline but F2P market is thriving and expected to post profits of $2B by 2015 and PC gaming is expected to exceed console sales that same year as well.

Gaming isn't dying it is changing and evolving but sure the current model as we know it is dying.

[Hicken]

That would be the problem with trying to please investors instead of trying to please your consumers. In the end, you lose consumers because you're not giving them what they really want, and investors get flighty because of any little thing that looks bad in the market.

Good job screwing yourselves over.