Video Games, Part The Second
First, thank you for responding, the post really was an elaborate plot to get you into the argument.
Second, on to my response to you. I openly admit that none of the big three have it all right. The list of Nintendo “innovations” was my list of going nowhere for them. As for listening to outsiders, I’m fine with their isolationist policy. I would rather Nintendo err on the side of caution than have their dedication to innovation ebb away. Sure, you cannot force innovation on people, to which that same list of Nintendo failures attests. However, the culture of innovation has to be there before innovation will occur. This again is a reason I look to the Revolution with hope. While the 360 and PS3 look like the complexity of their hardware will in fact lead to major development slow-downs, all that I’ve heard from the Nintendo camp is that the Revolution is trying to be as developer friendly as possible. Besides, I’ve heard a lot more excitement from developers being genuinely excited to try out new things with the Revolution than I have with all other previous systems combined (granted I’m paying more attention now).
All of that having been said, I think we can both admit and recognize that the true leaps forward in terms of generational creativity is largely done by the middle-ware guys. Criterion, RenderWare, etc. are the ones that are really figuring out how to best tap the potential of the systems. I wonder if it is tough never getting the limelight.
Okay, onto software. Yes, Nintendo has not come out with a new property outside of Miyamoto’s genius in…what…a decade give or take? Chibirobo looks really neat but also very similar in many ways to Katamari (which I don’t love by the way). However, what Nintendo does do more so than any other publisher pumping out sequels and derivatives is change it up a little. All of the Mario platformers have added new and exciting elements to game play that drastically- perhaps in some cases fundamentally- change the gaming experience. The difference between Mario 64 and Sunshine is a much larger than the one between THPS4 and THUG. Metroid was completely revamped with Prime. But, yes, I'd like to see a new Nintendo property take off.
I can't much argue with you on the Publisher side of things, since you are much more apt there, but having worked in Retail for the past year, and desperately seeking answers there, let me share some observations to that end. Retailers are run by people that have zero interest in video games. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that there is no money in games on the retail side, but most of it, I think, is to apathy at the corporate levels. Madden may be a 12 year old dinosaur in the realm of video games, but it consistently sells 1 million copies a year. My circuit city location received 5 copies per system for its release this year, and we are in the top 1/3 in the company in terms of video game volume sales. We sold out in about 8 hours that day. On the other hand, with the release of Peter Jackson's King Kong: the official game of the movie we got about 30 copies per system....and are still working to sell through them 3 months later. Or take our GBA/DS selection: apparently CC execs don't think anyone over the age of 7 plays portable Nintendo games because while we have ZERO Phoenix Wright: Attorney at Law (a game I'm still looking for) we have 20 copies of PicPals (I don't even know...) or while we have 1 copy of Final Fantasy Advanced IV, we have 20 of Disney Princesses. It is ridiculous. Meanwhile it isn't even a priority to get most titles in the stores the WEEK of their release, let alone the day after shipping date. So at CC it is a vicious cycle, we don't sell video games well because consumers know we won't be the first to get them, so corporate interprets this to mean that the market for video games is less stellar than it actually is and gives less import to the product.
As I type this, Walmart is market-share of retailers for video games. Walmart....come on! All I'm saying is that retailers need to work on it. EB/Game Stop could do so much better if it had a system of bottom up management. Most of the employees I've ever talked to at a game-only store care about their video games and could tell the company which games matter.
As for the buyers, sure there are a lot of dumb gamers out there. Sure there are a LOT of games trying for that lowest common denominator. I don't know what to say about this...I guess it is to be expected that as more people come into gaming that more bad games will sell (see the music industry), but there has to be a business model that allows creativity and genuinely good games thrive.
I guess what it really comes down to is people like us continuing the fight at all levels open to us.
Also, sorry to hear your game got the axe...you had me excited about Taxi Driver, and now I'll never know about it.