Anyone else starting to think that the industry has backed itself into a really nasty corner? The 360 is in its 5th year, the PS3 in its 4th. This is typically the period when things start ramping up for the next generation. The 'core' gaming community starts winding down at this point in the cycle, because they are getting bored with the rehashes of the same stuff that they've already been playing for a few years now, and they are getting antsy for some new experiences on new and improved hardware.
But the industry is in no position whatsoever to stick with the traditional cycle. MS and Sony have no interest at all in taking on billions of losses upfront again to try to bring bleeding-edge tech to the masses. And even if they scaled back their ambitions and went with a more typical upgrade path, the publishers don't have a chance in hell of taking on even bigger budgets than the ones they are already losing fortunes trying to maintain.
Which leaves the status-quo for several more years. But which runs the real risk of more and more gamers sitting on the sidelines in boredom until the next gen finally does come around. There will certainly still be many very successful titles released. The Halos, Call of Dutys, Gran Turismos, should all be fine. But with the status-quo, we will see
A WHOLE LOT of lesser titles struggle mightily.
Kinect and Move are the temporary solutions that MS and Sony have come up with to try to alleviate the problem. Those products may or may not find their own success, but they certainly won't do much of anything to help boost the traditional 'core' portion of the industry.
DMczaf said:
UFC 2009 First month
4. UFC Undisputed (360) 679.6K
5. UFC Undisputed (PS3) 334.4K
UFC 2010 First month
4. UFC 2010 Undisputed (360) 221.1K
5. UFC 2010 Undisputed (PS3) 192.3K
goddam
THQ doesn't have a big stable of blockbusters. This is going to sting!
And Capcom is thanking their lucky stars that they have MHP3 coming this year to save their asses. They have been churning out one high-budget mega-flop after another lately. Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Now Lost Planet 2, which was initially expected to sell 3.7 million units, and was likely budgeted with those expectations in mind. And they still have Dead Rising coming as well. Ugly.