Alec Mowat :
*FacePalm*
What a rant.... Stop mentioning the Government and the Gaming industry in the same sentence. There's no relationship. You are just demonstrating that you only support the little guy because you are anti establishment, not because of game quality.
I don't know why you are trying to push your personal opinion like it's a fact.
EA is losing money because they are losing customer support for making bad products. They release incomplete games and don't listen to consumers. But other companies are doing well. That doesn't mean the markets don't want big budget games, it just means EA isn't making quality products, regardless of their budget.
Sim City was rushed, and did not meet expectations. They also had to hand out free games to compensate for it not working
BF4 is a buggy mess, it's nothing more than a BF3 upgrade. I'm sure it didn't meet sales expectations.
Dropping Steam and moving to Origin was understandable, but a bad move overall.
Titan Fall will probably turn them around this year.
TF2 and Counter Strike are NOT free games. Half life 2 was $50 when it was released, TF2 and Counter Strike only went free to play almost a decade after they were released. That's not a good example of free to play.
You also see Skyrim, Rome 2, Football Manager and a lot of other big budget games on that list. This will generally reflect games with high replayability.
The market for big, high budget games still exists. The issue is that major publishing companies are not listening to consumers, and it shows. I don't necessarily need 80 hours of fetch quests, but I do expect the game to work on release day. I'm not going to spend 400 hours playing a 3D shooter. Once I've finished it a big title, I usually don't pick it up again. However; I still feel all three Batman titles were well worth the money, and the voice acting was exceptional. I'll gladly pay $50 for the new one.
Take 2, EA, Activision Blizzard, Sony, Nintendo, Bethesda, Ubisoft.. the only except here is Minecraft.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/top-10-game-sales-according-to-npd-may-2014-watch-dogs-on-top/1100-6420523/
Runic who? You liking something doesn't make it a fact, nor does it make it popular. The Xbox sales tables haven't been updated since Xbones release. I assume it basically looks like the list above, same big brand names.
You tell me about it NOT being about BAD GAMES, but then tell me this:
"EA is losing money because they are losing customer support for making bad products. They release incomplete games and don't listen to consumers."
Do you actually read the post before responding? You're quoting 2 of the 3 reasons I posted from consumerist etc. You responding to me telling me I'm wrong but then telling me my own words as being right...ROFL.
By comparing the LARGE pubs/devs to the govt I'm not saying they're related. I'm demonstrating what you get when they get too big and have little competition. NO service, and BAD products, both of which you cited yourself. From your hate of me actually mentioning the govt, I'd guess you work for them
😉 Now that they have some competition in places they can dominate by pushing people around (can't push around valve, thus they tried to do Origin etc), they are now losing money at many large firms. As I said the little guy can get seen, where they couldn't before on shelf space. I mentioned many other large companies too (ms, att etc), which while not related again illustrate the point I was making. Large with no competition usually means we get crap products or service.
TF2 and Counterstrike are FREE to play today. You're using ancient history to defend your point, but at the same time recognizing I'm correct. They are FREE, hence most played. I didn't say they NEVER cost a dime at any point in history. You're choosing to ignore reality today, because at some point ages ago they weren't free? That's like saying The Bard's Tale isn't $2.99 on android because at launch it was $50. No, it's still $2.99 for anyone buying it today. Period. That is what is happening RIGHT NOW. This is part of the problem for the $60 game; you can get great stuff today for $2.99. I'm not wrong in TF2 or CS. They are free TODAY, irregardless of price even 6 months ago, let alone years ago. Half life 2 $50 upon release, again comparing ancient history and using it as a basis for your argument. That is NOT reality today, so pretty ridiculous to even mention it in a conversation about what is going on in the games industry TODAY. Today games go on sale quickly after release and much of the competition is cheaper than $60, so it's tougher for the big shots to compete. EA's history I quoted was 10yrs long. You can say they are having problems because of unfinished games and bad service (which was 2 of my points already) but you're also missing how long they've been losing money and as noted overall losses for 10yrs. I never said other companies were not doing well, so I don't get your point there.
I didn't say the market for big games doesn't exist, just that it will die if there isn't a perceived VALUE for that $60 game vs. cheaper ones made by not only INDIE people you've never heard of but more importantly by industry experts who went back to work for themselves today. I said there are exceptions, but as noted big prices have to be worth it and generally today they are not, hence many losses at these big yearly rehash firms.
Also you're quoting numbers that don't include digital sales. I'm kind shocked you don't know who Runic is and there stuff is pretty famous for a little guy (2mil sold for T2).
From your own link you apparently missed this very important detail:
"The top 10 games list follows below, though it's important to keep in mind that this represent new physical retail only, not digital or used game sales."
Steam, the largest digital distribution house doesn't divulge numbers, neither does gog, or many others AFAIK. So your argument is flawed at best about who's on top. Xbox1 sales numbers (through sales) are not reported because they are far lower than PS4
😉 According to the channels though, they haven't hit 5mil (stores know, whether MS wants to say it or not, they can do the math). PS4 gives sell-through numbers and even they aren't great in the grand scheme of things today with such a large gaming industry vs. when xbox360/ps3 etc were launched. Many of the games today are NOT ever on a retail shelf, so hard to say who's really on top when the digital shelves won't divulge numbers. You're also ignoring profits, while I'm talking who's making money here also (IE, lots of little guys are).
Even Richard Hilleman from EA said that ~25 devs were working on HIGH BUDGET titles for the eighth console generation, compared to 125 at the same point in the 7th gen-console cycle seven or eight years earlier. That's EA telling you the HUGE budget games are dying (and failures cost huge sums of money so just plain stupid in most cases today). It will get worse for them as the smaller devs put out great stuff with serious value and great support.
http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/financial-statements?symbol=ttwo
TakeTwo doesn't look much different than EA. ~$10mil in PROFITS over the last 10yrs. LOL. How many games do they put out? Torchlight 2 made more for Runic and they put out a game every year or two. If you don't get the point here, I'm really wasting my time with you. THQ same story, obviously already gone bankrupt. IF you take away Activision/Blizzards WOW earnings monthly (7-8mil subs at $15/mo is ~105mil+ or 1.2B/yr, which is their profits for the last year at 1B last two years each), they'd be about in the same spot. Nintendo? Well take a look at their losses over the past few years...IF they'd release their games on other hardware they'd be profitable as they do have fun stuff to play but I didn't mention them as a terrible software company. Sony/MS lost 4B+ and 3B+ on ps3/xbox360. So how successful is that?
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-05-14-sonys-game-division-reports-full-year-loss
Game division at sony produces a year loss again even with PS4 in there. I doubt any difference for MS as their sales are far worse for xbox1.
Handhelds?:
"That downward trend is expected to continue in the coming year, with all three products forecast to sell a combined 3.5 million."
Handhelds etc at sony set to fare badly for the whole next year too vs. tablets phones etc with far cheaper games. 1.24B loss for the whole division is bad right? You can cite a few games on top from these huge companies, but overall you're talking pretty much a whole group of losers as shown. You don't seem to follow the financials unfortunately.
You call my post a rant, but that's pretty much what yours is. You even use false data, as in pricing from years ago, and don't even know the players are here today with no idea who Runic is. These are the ex-diablo/diablo2 guys etc who are pretty famous people in the games industry(thus the comparison of $20 game vs. $60 which is Diablo3 etc which is why Torchlight 2 is compared in the media to Diablo 3). You didn't even understand why I mentioned Torchlight 1/2. All of the games I mentioned are from guys who made the most famous games in gaming history who are now making games TODAY that are competing with $60 games and as noted previously NONE will likely be $60. Now I get why you called them indie, when really you have no idea who the people making them are, and no idea what these games are. It's not indie gaming when it's made by Brian Fargo, Richard Garriot, Chris Avellone, Feargus Urquhart, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, Tim Cain, Josh Sawyer etc. These are the people who were involved in some of the most famous games in history. Like Ultima's, Guild Wars games, Dragon Age games, Alpha Centari, Star Wars The Old replublic, Guitar Hero, Wing commander series, Wasteland, Fallout series, Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale series, Bard's Tale series, Planescape Torment, Arcanum, etc etc...Now they're back to working in small teams etc. Why do you think their games are the most funded on kickstarter? Inxile, Portalarium, Obsidian, Runic etc are not NEWBIE indie teams of game developers. LOL. Some of the people STILL work at big devs while doing projects on their own (IE, Grim Dawn guys, from Titan Quest series).
It's no wonder you acted like they are all crappy graphic/junk games. You don't even understand who I was talking about. These people will be putting out $60 quality games at $40 and under. You literally do not understand who I was talking about or the QUALITY of stuff they'll put out. Please do yourself a favor and look up all the games and companies I just mentioned (and in my previous posts) before "ranting" about me hating on the "big corporations" , hating "the man" and loving crappy non $60 games. Sure some great games will come from really small indie teams (like the Grimrock guys etc) and now they can all get seen on Steam/Gog etc, but most of what I was talking about are EX-employees of EA, MS, Activision, THQ etc and all the companies they bought and destroyed along the way. You don't even understand the conversation you are in...ROFL. I don't expect 400hrs from every shooter either. Serious Sam 1+2 were far less hours, but great fun/value for $20 and worth every penny. IF the market for $60 games was there TODAY, they'd be making tons of money instead of losing tons of it on these games right? Except for a few great hits that make a decent profit to cover many other losers, that market has a tough time competing with the likes of the games/companies/people I mentioned with the ways they can get noticed etc today.
I'm not ranting when I'm posting comments clearly backed by data from all aspects of these companies. Product, support, financials, customer hate, websites spouting the hate in great detail etc. Quit wasting my time and read a LOT more before posting people are ranting. It's comic when someone lays out a well thought out reply the first words out of the other guy's mouth is "facepalm - what a rant"...Whatever guy, I digress...