If you don't know, the Retro Video Game System (Retro VGS or RVGS for short) is a new console concept whose major selling point in 2015 is that games will release on cartridge.
Here's a little history to bring you up to speed:
In late December, 2014, RVGS Co-Founder and President, Mike Kennedy, bought the injection mold tooling for the Atari Jaguar video game system and also cartridge cases.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
In early January he began taking preorders for new plastic parts from Atari Jaguar fans worldwide.
http://atariage.com/forums/...
On Jan 30th, RVGS began recruiting game developers for a console that didn't yet exist.
http://nintendoage.com/auth...
As of May 31st, Kennedy was still discussing what would be a $150-200 console, with the caveat "may be more".
http://atariage.com/forums/...
As of today, a $300+ RVGS is 5 days into a $1.95m Indiegogo campaign that appears to have all but stalled.
https://www.indiegogo.com/p...
This post isn't intended to go into detail of the whole affair, but more specifically to scrutinize and discuss a single paragraph from their campaign. A paragraph that, I feel, potentially gives more insight into why the RVGS guys think and act as they do regarding this project, but ultimately why their failure is all but inevitable. So no, this is not a flag-waving cry for you to rush out and back the project. Far from it.
The quote follows:
"I was walking the E3 floor and noticed that Sony and Microsoft had invited various indie developers into their pricey booth space to show off their creations. And most of these games were all retro style, influenced games. I saw the mainstream industry now taking notice of these developers and these style games. Retro gaming is now become a genre and an art form! I thought it was a shame, however, these games were going to be relegated only to digital downloads. These games should have the chance to survive and live long into the future, not be tossed aside like so many games these days once the "newness" has worn off. Some games deserve to be preserved and there is no modern day console that will do this. And, in fact, as new generations of consoles have been introduced they are separating gamers even further from their games."
There's a lot to address here.
"And most of these games were all retro style" - Despite the mixed messaging with "most were all". If you go do an E3 recap, as I have, of the indies you'll see mentioned very few are of the polygonal-pixel fake-retro variety. I'm not sure where Mike was, but this was not the E3 the rest of us witnessed.
"I saw the mainstream industry now taking notice of these developers and these style games". What rock has he been living under? I think the 360 was well known for its indie output for quite a time. On the Sony side, I think one Shahid Ahmad would most definitely take issue with this comment. Ahmad went from making games way back in the day (when "retro" was still cutting edge) to working on Atari classic remixes for Hasbro, via all kinds of other stuff to being the main driving force behind the huge efforts Sony have made to be the first stop for indies on console. He knows "retro". And he knows Indies as well as anyone on this planet. His and Sony's wider efforts with the Vita are no secret. There's a little box called the Vita TV/PlayStation TV that, wait for it, takes cartridges and plays many of these retro-styled indie games on a TV - what a concept! Unfortunately it's currently all but abandoned and the platform deemed "legacy" by a Sony that has its hand full with an increasingly popular new console format, the ps4. If Sony's efforts with cheap, accessible, high-street available hardware fell flat in the shape of the Vita TV, how or why would a $300+ mail order Atari Jaguar look-a-like do better? The lengths Sony go to to secure, curate and nurture indie development on the ps4 platform is a Really Good Thing for this most important sector for the future of the games industry, and as a direct consequence has microsoft trying much harder once again, pulling away from some of their more restrictive policies and having some success bringing on exciting and exclusive indies. Between them, they've done more than just suddently take notice for a very long time now.
"Retro gaming is now become a genre and an art form!" Urgh - where to begin? Pixelated graphics and "retro gaming" should not imply the same thing. Games have always been and will always be an art form, irrespective of genre or appearance - chunky pixel graphics are but one aspect of that.
"I thought it was a shame, however, these games were going to be relegated only to digital downloads. These games should have the chance to survive and live long into the future, not be tossed aside like so many games these days once the "newness" has worn off." For one, Sony has facilitated plenty of physical release indies for ps4 so far, with a title such as Retro City Rampage able to see a print as low as 2000 units. A game being a digital download does not mean it will vanish off the face of the earth years down the line. Steam and services like it are a thing - it's ignorant to ignore them with an arbitrary "consoles" qualifier. They're likely to have as much permanace as anyone would reasonably care for. They can also be enjoyed between your devices. Same goes for games on a platform such as droid. Here I see Kennedy's mouth saying one thing, but I hear something completely different - surviving long into the future isn't about a game being enjoyed over a long period of time, not at all, it's about a phyiscal item in his hands appreciating in value as time passes. This is about creating a collector platform out of thin air. More on this later.
Beyond the actual delivery method of the game into your device, there are a whole series of benefits to having games digitally rather than physically just for the sake of it that Keneddy, a self-admitted phillistine when it comes to modern gaming (hasn't bought a new game off a shelf for years), is ignorant of through non-exposure rather than a more cynical wilful ignorance. Consider the benefits to devs knowing that you are download-enabled: their games - wait for it - make use of online capabilities. Be it online communities, trophies/achievements/medals, leaderboards, additional content, user-created content, the list goes on. How will a game that enjoys many of these features transfer to a closed, isolated, unupgradeable, offline "retro" box? Look at something like Resogun. That's Defender reimagined on the latest console hardware - something Housemarque do not attempt to disguise. They didn't just shoddily go for a pixellated cardboard-cutout look, they hyped things up using a very powerful voxel engine making some very early use of GPU compute at the very start of the console lifecycle. That's beside the point here, but this was a digital download game, the audience were 100% online, and their game reflected that. Online scores. Additional free content. Further downloadable purchaseable content. User created content to download and contrubute to. If this was a cartridge only on teh RVGS it'd be just the base game and nothing more. It would be a lesser experience. It would cost 4 or 5 times as much. So where does this leave RVGS? If it wanted to obtain games such as this, they would have to be severely gimped - then surely the potential backer would have to ask the question "why are we even doing this?" because a lesser experience, for more money, just so I can physically push a box into a hole before playing?
Despite what the RVGS team seem to believe, modern "retro style" or classics with a twist are usually much more than chunky graphics, bleeps and blops and a single fire button. Of course, there are a few indie games out there that reply on those for cheap aesthetic bonus points, and some that do that well and need no more, but that's not where indies are taking these game concepts, not where many of the games of real value lie, not what makes them great and definitely not what results in the kinds of games that "deserve to survive into the future". There's just way more to it than that. They do the kinds of things the old systems never could, they "cheat" a lot because they are not bound by the same rules, but who cares if the games are great yet they still inspire that same feeling those of us old enough remember vividly? Retro VGS claim they will strictly scrutinize and carefully select the titles that will be allowed to appear on their platform (as though devs will be queueing up to have their games RVGS-ified). But where is the audience for this sub-genre of a sub-genre they appear to wish to restrict themselves to? They have publicly dismissed many of the wonderful indie genres that "play like movies" or offer similarly offbeat or non-standard game play, because they all about that player/missile/boom... yet it's many of these indies that might not always grab the attention of a wider audience, that probably should be considered more as art pieces or future classics, as they're defining new genres and pushing the boundaries of where one media ends and another begins. So where is the audience for a system that only plays offline-only modern indies with a retro pixelated aesthetic? Hang on a second - how many qualifiers was that exactly? Why is that even a thing? The xbox one and ps4 allow you to play loads of these games and way, way, way more besides and to do so without having to spend $60 a pop for the privilege. On PC it's the same deal only multiplied, literally, by hundreds or probably even thousands. I get that there's an avid classic videogame fan base out there, I really do, I interact with it daily. I just don't think it has anything like the appetite for what RVGS offers. It's like designing a Blu-Ray player that only plays modern adaptations of old movies and trying to sell it to technophobe fans of the originals at a great premium, because, well, they liked their old VHS tapes, right?! It might even be more ridiculous than that.
"And, in fact, as new generations of consoles have been introduced they are separating gamers even further from their games." It seems they know little of what is taking place in the current console space. Cue 360 backwards compatibility on xbox one, or, as is widely tipped to appear very soon, ps4 support for ps1 and ps2 digital content. I could also argue for the recent spate of HD remasters and definitive versions of games - these might require additional purchases, but the end result is usually pretty damn nice, and for those who were not in on them in their previous incarnation, a great opportunity to get a top game in its best form - plus usually at a discount... now let's compare that to an old, long out-of-print RVGS cart... if I want to enjoy that, I'm going to have to go hunting and be prepared to shed $$$s - because, Kennedy says in his IGG sales pitch (whilst attempting to appeal to indie devs themselves, no less) "...in 20 years, when gamers walk into a videogame store... they'll spot your game on a shelf, or on the wall, or maybe even locked up behind a glass display case"...
*WARNING BELLS SOUND*
Or is it the sound of the ca$h regi$ter? "Retro VGS is all about games" claims the IGG campaign text. I beg to differ. It seems far closer to reality that it's about, once again, turning games into commodities, and that leaves a really bad taste in the mouth given the rhetoric in their campaign briefing. And who do you think would be sat with a box of every title stashed away under his bed 20 years from now labelled "retirement fund"...? I jest, I jest... I... jest?
This whole idea of a console isn't just an answer to a problem that doesn't exist, it's attempting to be an answer to three problems that don't exist. In doing so, creating more and more problems for itself at every juncture.
If I was a prominent indie dev right now and was looking to the RVGS, if the campaign did well I'd definitely see it as an opportunity. But not one to broaden sales possibilities by reaching new customers on this obscure platform, but solely by being in there quick and gaining a lot of cheap publicity as one of the first to have their carts appear when it hit the usual sites. There would be nothing beyond that. I wouldn't be surprised to lear that's pretty much in line with what the majority who bothered to reply or even read the RVGS mass mailout.
Yes, it is once again tail time, thanks to Limited Run Games.
Tormeted Souls II has its apparent flaws, but it also happens to be a great horror game and throwback title to the classic survival horror days.
The Outerhaven writes: One of our Nintendo Switch 2 dock died less than a week after launch—and neither Nintendo nor GameStop offered real help. Here's why early adopters should be worried.
How much is a dock for that damn thing if they want $180 to “repair” that one? No way in hell that dock is that expensive.
Nintendo will Nintendo I guess.
I'm just glad indie devs still keep putting out Sega Genesis games.
i understand the interest in going retro and maybe there is a market out there but not enough to warrant the costs. there's a reason why we don't have cartridges anymore. the only positive thing about cartridges is access read times. they are not economic, they don't hold much storage, and they won't offer anything a small download can't do.
the system has failure written all over it. they should make a very limited edition and it will sell out but that's about the extent of it.
Supernintendo will always be in my heart.