Generation 8 - The Hard Sell

This comment from a recent essay on Gamasutra about the looming eighth generation of video game consoles leaped out at me for its brilliance, and how it captures the sense of apathy from many gamers:

What made me excited about a new cycle of consoles was that I was going to see a new wave of killer games, some new, and some based on my old favorite IPs and brands, as if the software that I loved and cared about was going to grow up along with me.

This generation, I'm not so sure. Something I noticed is that up until this point, I always felt like the diversity of software available for my console hardware was steadily growing until the past half-decade or so. I remember stumbling into game stores and finding PS2 games I had never seen or heard of, plopping down twenty bucks cash for it, and having a blast when I got home. There were still newer entries in older IPs and brands that I really, seriously enjoyed, whether it was Final Fantasy, Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, et cetera...

I guess the vibe I'm getting is that the way things are going, at least in the console space, we're going to see less software with lower quality, and certainly fewer risks being taken. It seems like the days of going out to my local retail store with twenty bucks in my pocket and returning with Katamari Damacy are not only long gone, but are never going to return.

 

This is the best comment from that thread, and I agree completely. There's little incentive to be excited about video games when everything is narrowed down to a handful of franchise titles that, frankly, haven't changed at all over 10, 15, or 20 years. What's strange is this continued push for more power, more graphics, when the consequences are narrowing genres, a loss of variety, and budgets spinning out of control.

I honestly don't see the point in throwing away a video game system, with its library of software titles, just to buy the "super system" that offers the exact same titles all over again. What's the point? Zelda 12, Call of Duty 9, Grand Theft Auto 11, Halo 8, Madden 22, Final Fantasy 18...why should anyone be surprised by declining sales numbers?

I was playing Soul Calibur and NFL2K1 on my Dreamcast last night, and I was amazed at the glorious graphics and fluid gameplay. In a sense, they haven't really aged at all, even though the technology, naturally, has leapfrogged the Dreamcast a hundred times over. That's not an issue for me. I have an idea of what a "video game" looks like, and I suspect most people feel the same way.

Games like Wii Sports and Wii Play and New Super Mario Bros Wii were really aiming back to the video games of the 1980s, and they were hugely successful because of it. iPhone games like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and Tiny Wings follow this approach, too, and they're also very popular games. People Love Video Games, not "cinematic" experiences by frustrated wannabe movie directors.

If you enjoy First-Person Shooters and sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto, I'm sure you'll be thrilled and dazzled by the next generation. The rest of us? Shrug. Not so much. 

Notice the final sentence, which I emboldened for emphasis.  "It seems the days of going out to my local retail store with twenty bucks in my pocket and returning with Katamari Damacy are long gone."  The writer is lamenting not only today's runaway video game prices, but the collapse of diversity.  These are poisonous to the medium.  A video game should be like a good pop song: short, infectious, social, and as affordable as possible.