Although games with established subscription bases have an income to keep them afloat, new company startups (which would ordinarily be thick as flies thanks to all the talented people looking for work) have been almost completely shut down thanks to difficulty in getting funding.
You also have to look at the indies that have and/or ARE releasing.
Darkfall, Fallen Earth, MO, Global Agenda, Earthrise... and the list goes on.
What promising Indies have been shut down? I can't think of any..
If anything the SUCESS of Indie Devs this year demonstrates the safety of MMO's in this "Recession".
Might as well put 2010, 2011, 2012 and onward on your list because game designers lack creativity any longer and all they wish to do is give us the same old, same old, or poorly designed and implemented games. It's all about how fast and simple they can push a game to market and or how some indie company pushes out a crap game that they hype up with tons of promises of innovative game play that they cannot deliver on. Just look at games like DF, MO and FE. Crappy animations, crappy graphics, crappy game play, crappy MOB AI, crappy combat, crappy worlds. Though they tried, they failed miserably. Better luck next time.
We need game designers that love their game enough to make it truly epic. The old school designers of Asheron's Call, now they loved their game and it showed it. Same goes for Blizzard and how they did WoW and payed attention to details. old school DAoC with it's innovative RvR. What we need is designers like these that have focus and creativity to design a game that brings back the magic that these older games once had. What we're getting is garbage any more and I refuse to pay for it.
Does this mean indie developers will have to rely on working for free (or on a very low budget from smaller investors) to get their games created and published? How do you think this is going to affect the industry's future?
P.S.: I'm still VERY new to the developer's perspective, so please forgive the questions that may have very obvious answers. I'm still out doing research on my own time.
Ouch. Does this mean indie developers will have to rely on working for free (or on a very low budget from smaller investors) to get their games created and published? How do you think this is going to affect the industry's future? P.S.: I'm still VERY new to the developer's perspective, so please forgive the questions that may have very obvious answers. I'm still out doing research on my own time.
Indie Devs will always have to rely on a small budget. As I stated above.. the Indie Dev field was not hit like was stated... we have seen more Indie Sucesses this year than any other I've been around to see.
Thats no it at all, I won't pretend to be the end-all say on the topic. I just don't see the points adding up... its a typical " The Recession" scapegoat as I see it.
2009 was indeed a terrible year.. but we're lucky it's almost 2010 ^^
Same thing was said in 2008, 2007, 2006....
I don't have high hopes for 2010 to be honest.
Indeed. I think there are still a lot of people working in the industry who simply don't deserve to be - judging by their results.
Agreed, but I don't necessarily blame the developers. It's mainly execs and marketing monkeys pulling the strings. And they've pulled pretty damn hard in 2009. The jury is still out as to whether or not they get away with all the crap they've pulled this year. And while we wait to see the verdict, the snake oil salesmen and women in the MMO industry will claim they're breaking new ground in the business, causing others to jump on board. Then the pendulum will swing. 2010 is going to be a doosy of a ***edit*** - up (borrowed from TUX), but I have high hopes for 2011 when publishers start to realize people are on to them, and that word of mouth/reputation is important (that's right I'm looking at YOU SOE).
What game companies need to be doing is finding out why people stop subscribing to their games and add content that will either bring back former subscribers or bring in new ones. trying to squeeze extra $$$ out of already paying customers is just plain greedy and needs to stop...and i don't care if it's only 'cosmetic' mt's either. lets hope 2010 is the year the companies start to listen to their customers instead of lining their pockets.
I don't think there isanything the developers can do about unemployed customers.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
Your missing the fact that Gaming was/is considered Recession proof... so the impact of the tightening of credit applications is minimal, if anything banks would have placed more money in Devs hands based on the economic reports that its safe. Interest rates dropped.. so thats a non-factor. For every investor thats a Bank, theres an investor that has the capital on hand.
I get what you're saying, but at least as far as I've seen this past year, being considered recession proof didn't mean it actually was. Kind of like nice theory and all but... no. Lenders stuck together and adjusted rules, rates and criteria to stay competitive. And if the gaming company is public, it was dealing with a very volatile and emo stock market that drives the share value down and adds to the challenge of finding a lender to back your line of credit.
Enough about economics.
I was more engaged in gaming in 2009 than ever before, so I don't see the year as "horrible" at all for games. I tried a few new games (and left most of them) and stayed with others just like every other year. I look forward to 2010's rollouts for their creativity and imagination but that's based in appreciating what I already have.
And even though I don't agree with Scott a lot of the time, I really like the way he writes.
"Because in today’s economy the pocketbooks of your customers are as tight as yours are, the last thing they’re going to want to do is shell out $20 for a shiny +12 suit of Extra Special Value Chain Mail, and if you design your game so that +12 Value Chain Mail is necessary, your users will inform you that no, it’s not necessary because your game is not necessary."
If only these GOLDEN WORDS were hammered into every game developing company's entry!
From a gamer's perspective 2009 has not been so horrible, but at least full of mediocre stuff. And that Facebook thing. Isn't it fading already? I mean for a while I was active on it myself, but after half a year or so, I thought WTF am I doing here? And ever since I stopped my Facebook involvement at all. Quite a silly way to waste time IMO.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It was a horrible year for sub and big-studio MMOs you mean. Both indies and free-to-play games seem to have done fine. I haven't heard of any of the f2p ones close at all, and there are tons active and thriving. They are so successful that western developers are now emulating their approach.
I've noticed that a lot of industry people have tunnel vision and tend to define "MMO" as "Western-Developed big-budget game." If you look at the larger picture, the market isn't as bad as you think.
My thoughts on this went a few different directions.
1) There will ALWAYS be a market for MMOs. The pricing is reasonable for the entertainment you are given, so if someone puts out a great MMO, it WILL succeed, even in the worst of markets. It will probably do better than most other forms of entertainment, because the dollar will stretch a lot furter (heck, even playing an hour a day on average is completely worth the price of admission on a great MMO). As others have said, what we need is a truly great MMO, something with a great plot, some amazing gameplay, and the respect for the playerbase to not mictrotransact the bejeebers out of it (that link to the CO respec REALLY got me hot...).
2) It makes me very sad that even the gaming industry isn't immune to the recession. I have a variety of skills and a lot of education, and I too thought I would be immune to the recession, but found out rather surprisingly that I am not. Still, I found that while nothing can change the reality of how things are, my attitude toward such challenges has a tremendous impact on how that reality affects me. For those who are struggling during these difficult times, reach out to others, share your story and reinvent yourself in meaningful ways. The world, and the US especially, admires innovation, so direct such energies inward, and it will bear fruit. I know for me, one big step was when I stopped playing MMOs as a form of escapism, and began playing them for fun and social interaction.
My favorite part of the article was actually the following caption, that you had next to a WoW race change ad/graphic:
When Blizzard just said,
"Oh well, why not, they'll buy ANYTHING."
The irony is, I'm starting to truly believe that this is the mindset of most of these companies today and therefore the real cause for the mess we are in and most likely the culprit behind these layoffs, as well.
These companies, ie Funcom and Mythic took us for a bunch of fools. Due to Blizzard's success, they had these huge dollar signs in their eyes with overconfident expectations and champagne and caviar dreams. All the while, trying to pass along unfinished products with misleading advertising, with their hands on our wallets and a snickering laugh.
Hopefully 2009 is the year where developers have learned that we are not the fools that some mistook us for and that we will not settle for half-finished garbage products wrapped in a golden bow of lies and deceit.
My favorite part of the article was actually the following caption, that you had next to a WoW race change ad/graphic:
When Blizzard just said,
"Oh well, why not, they'll buy ANYTHING."
The irony is, I'm starting to truly believe that this is the mindset of most of these companies today and therefore the real cause for the mess we are in and most likely the culprit behind these layoffs as well.
These companies, ie Funcom and Mythic took us for a bunch of fools. Due to Blizzard's success they had these huge dollar signs in their eyes with overconfident expectations and champagne and caviar dreams. All the while, trying to pass along unfinished products with misleading advertising, with their hands on our wallets and a snickering laugh.
Hopefully 2009 is the year where developers have learned that we are not the fools that some mistook us for and that we will not settle for half-finished garbage products wrapped in a golden bow of lies and deceit.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
My favorite part of the article was actually the following caption, that you had next to a WoW race change ad/graphic:
When Blizzard just said,
"Oh well, why not, they'll buy ANYTHING."
The irony is, I'm starting to truly believe that this is the mindset of most of these companies today and therefore the real cause for the mess we are in and most likely the culprit behind these layoffs as well.
These companies, ie Funcom and Mythic took us for a bunch of fools. Due to Blizzard's success they had these huge dollar signs in their eyes with overconfident expectations and champagne and caviar dreams. All the while, trying to pass along unfinished products with misleading advertising, with their hands on our wallets and a snickering laugh.
Hopefully 2009 is the year where developers have learned that we are not the fools that some mistook us for and that we will not settle for half-finished garbage products wrapped in a golden bow of lies and deceit.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
Not sure you can lump Aion in with those other titles. While someone could argue that Aion was a grind it was nowhere near as buggy and problematic as the majority of other games that have been released. I can only hope that the list of games coming out in the near future are released with as much polish as Aion.
While Aion may not be your cup-of-tea, I wouldn't go as far as calling it half-baked garbage.
Nice article. Better summary of the trends of the year than most. And, I agree with others that say this was probably the THIRD bad year in a row for mmo's...which doesn't make '10 look promising.
I don't know that the whole "recession vs. bad games" debate can be completely solved now, as it usually takes years to truly assess that effects of major economic climate changes. I think there are a lot of good points here, and the data, both empirical and not, is pretty solid, so I think the discussion is nice. I just don't know that anyone will have a simple answer ("this caused the hardship in the market") right now.
But...because all the great posts here got me thinking, let me offer up one "compromise" possibility: What if the Recession AND "bad products" caused the retraction of the industry this year? Let's say that many (most?) mmo's run on investment dollars, both from individuals and publishers. A recession hits, and those individuals and companies have left themselves vulnerable (say because they were basically running on loans to cover payroll). They need to see a QUICK influx of cash from somewhere to keep THIER company afloat. What do they do? They push (force?) the mmo company they are funding into an early release in order to start recouping investment via sales/subscriptions. The investors hope that the influx of money, at least right away, will replace the no longer available loans.
The problem is...the game isn't ready for release. So, the devs rush out a bad game, it gets crushed by the public, and the sales don't happen. A "bad game" doesn't generate any income. Maybe that causes layoffs. Or, perhaps, a next step. Investors try to force the dev company to get them their promised returns. Does that lead the dev company to layoffs?
Overly simplistic example, I know...but just a thought about how both the economic changes, and bad products, could be combined into a "retraction" of the workers in the industry.
I do beleive games, mmo's in particular are immune to recessions however.
It was also nice to read about the facebook game scams, and the unethical practices it takes to make the kind of money off free games w/ microtrans that the usual suspects are going after. Though the games themselves are highly addictive and enjoyed by millions. (why the scams worked). Those little social minigames that were thrown out of the mmorpg genre years ago. A shame that potential playerbase is still ignored.
See you in the dream.. The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Nice article. Better summary of the trends of the year than most. And, I agree with others that say this was probably the THIRD bad year in a row for mmo's...which doesn't make '10 look promising.
I don't know that the whole "recession vs. bad games" debate can be completely solved now, as it usually takes years to truly assess that effects of major economic climate changes. I think there are a lot of good points here, and the data, both empirical and not, is pretty solid, so I think the discussion is nice. I just don't know that anyone will have a simple answer ("this caused the hardship in the market") right now.
But...because all the great posts here got me thinking, let me offer up one "compromise" possibility: What if the Recession AND "bad products" caused the retraction of the industry this year? Let's say that many (most?) mmo's run on investment dollars, both from individuals and publishers. A recession hits, and those individuals and companies have left themselves vulnerable (say because they were basically running on loans to cover payroll). They need to see a QUICK influx of cash from somewhere to keep THIER company afloat. What do they do? They push (force?) the mmo company they are funding into an early release in order to start recouping investment via sales/subscriptions. The investors hope that the influx of money, at least right away, will replace the no longer available loans. The problem is...the game isn't ready for release. So, the devs rush out a bad game, it gets crushed by the public, and the sales don't happen. A "bad game" doesn't generate any income. Maybe that causes layoffs. Or, perhaps, a next step. Investors try to force the dev company to get them their promised returns. Does that lead the dev company to layoffs? Overly simplistic example, I know...but just a thought about how both the economic changes, and bad products, could be combined into a "retraction" of the workers in the industry. Again, great article, and great discussion.
That is a good point, and a plausible one given all the half baked releases these last few years. It comes down, for me, to which came first... The Chicken or the Egg.
Perhaps it can be answered with a simple question :
If sales figures were up across the board, if subscriptions were up and being retained, would people have still been laid off because of the "recession"?
What game companies need to be doing is finding out why people stop subscribing to their games and add content that will either bring back former subscribers or bring in new ones. trying to squeeze extra $$$ out of already paying customers is just plain greedy and needs to stop...and i don't care if it's only 'cosmetic' mt's either. lets hope 2010 is the year the companies start to listen to their customers instead of lining their pockets.
I don't think there isanything the developers can do about unemployed customers.
i understand that they will have lost some customers due to the economic situation. but i just feel that if you sign up for a game thats subscription based, then thats all it should ever be...not subscription based and then a couple of years down the road throwing in item malls and mt's..it's just plain wrong in my book.
what ive always liked about subscription games is your an equal to every other player and how good you are is all down to skill, the time you put into it and hard work, rather than the f2p with item mall games where you basiclly pay to win/be the best, which basiclly shafts everyone but the very rich.
If times are tough, then they just need to tighten their belts like some companies have done with job cuts (although i'd rather this was a last resort), have more time limited promotions like discounted subscriptions for new players, have a free access week for old subbies and things like that, which will get more people playing/coming back. when times get tough people tend to look for value for money more, which is what game companies should be looking at providing a lot more during tough economic times.
Anyway, lets see how next year fares, at the end of the day it's profits that decide how successful subs+mt's are and if they just don't work then i can see em vanishing pretty quickly (crosses fingers).
hey scott...you really oughta remove turbine from that list of devs forced to layoff due to the recession. the reason being that those folks let go last year around the release of MoM were all long term temps hired specifically for the duration of the Mines of Moria expansion and for the most part were all QA related jobs. so i for one would not categorize folks let go at the end of their contract as recession forced layoffs.
This isn't true. Turbine had opened a satellite studio in California which was believed to have been focused on console development. I had heard that the entire CA studio was shut down as part of those layoffs (although it looks like they've been staffing it back up a bit based on job postings, but more for associated LOTRO development then console work.)
In any event, uh, laying off QA still counts. Especially, you know, if you're in QA.
And also, laying off QA counts if you play the game. 'Cause QA is the only thing keeping any software (or any product, really) from sucking.
I feel as much sympathy for an unemployed MMO industry worker as I do any other, but that's also a sign of how badly the industry was overemployed. Just as the general IT industry was way overemployed in the dot-bomb era, so it was in 2009 with the MMO industry. It's very sad that technical schools just churn out as many people as they can get tuition from regardless of the need for their skills in the real world.
My favorite part of the article was actually the following caption, that you had next to a WoW race change ad/graphic:
When Blizzard just said,
"Oh well, why not, they'll buy ANYTHING."
The irony is, I'm starting to truly believe that this is the mindset of most of these companies today and therefore the real cause for the mess we are in and most likely the culprit behind these layoffs as well.
These companies, ie Funcom and Mythic took us for a bunch of fools. Due to Blizzard's success they had these huge dollar signs in their eyes with overconfident expectations and champagne and caviar dreams. All the while, trying to pass along unfinished products with misleading advertising, with their hands on our wallets and a snickering laugh.
Hopefully 2009 is the year where developers have learned that we are not the fools that some mistook us for and that we will not settle for half-finished garbage products wrapped in a golden bow of lies and deceit.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
You can't blame us players though, if that's all that is out there for MMOs, what else are you going to play with your friends?
And unfortunately, anyone that isn't a customer has no power to effect any change. The decision-makers do not listen to "the person on the street", they listen to the person with the customer survey results. Scott Jennings also had an article here a week ago that mentioned this very issue - game companies do not listen to non-customers and therefore really don't know what to do to get new ones.
Comments
You also have to look at the indies that have and/or ARE releasing.
Darkfall, Fallen Earth, MO, Global Agenda, Earthrise... and the list goes on.
What promising Indies have been shut down? I can't think of any..
If anything the SUCESS of Indie Devs this year demonstrates the safety of MMO's in this "Recession".
Might as well put 2010, 2011, 2012 and onward on your list because game designers lack creativity any longer and all they wish to do is give us the same old, same old, or poorly designed and implemented games. It's all about how fast and simple they can push a game to market and or how some indie company pushes out a crap game that they hype up with tons of promises of innovative game play that they cannot deliver on. Just look at games like DF, MO and FE. Crappy animations, crappy graphics, crappy game play, crappy MOB AI, crappy combat, crappy worlds. Though they tried, they failed miserably. Better luck next time.
We need game designers that love their game enough to make it truly epic. The old school designers of Asheron's Call, now they loved their game and it showed it. Same goes for Blizzard and how they did WoW and payed attention to details. old school DAoC with it's innovative RvR. What we need is designers like these that have focus and creativity to design a game that brings back the magic that these older games once had. What we're getting is garbage any more and I refuse to pay for it.
Ouch.
Does this mean indie developers will have to rely on working for free (or on a very low budget from smaller investors) to get their games created and published? How do you think this is going to affect the industry's future?
P.S.: I'm still VERY new to the developer's perspective, so please forgive the questions that may have very obvious answers. I'm still out doing research on my own time.
Indie Devs will always have to rely on a small budget. As I stated above.. the Indie Dev field was not hit like was stated... we have seen more Indie Sucesses this year than any other I've been around to see.
Ah, chalk another point up to my lack of information retention.
Thats no it at all, I won't pretend to be the end-all say on the topic. I just don't see the points adding up... its a typical " The Recession" scapegoat as I see it.
Same thing was said in 2008, 2007, 2006....
I don't have high hopes for 2010 to be honest.
Indeed. I think there are still a lot of people working in the industry who simply don't deserve to be - judging by their results.
Agreed, but I don't necessarily blame the developers. It's mainly execs and marketing monkeys pulling the strings. And they've pulled pretty damn hard in 2009. The jury is still out as to whether or not they get away with all the crap they've pulled this year. And while we wait to see the verdict, the snake oil salesmen and women in the MMO industry will claim they're breaking new ground in the business, causing others to jump on board. Then the pendulum will swing. 2010 is going to be a doosy of a ***edit*** - up (borrowed from TUX), but I have high hopes for 2011 when publishers start to realize people are on to them, and that word of mouth/reputation is important (that's right I'm looking at YOU SOE).
I don't think there isanything the developers can do about unemployed customers.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Good point.. almost.
Your missing the fact that Gaming was/is considered Recession proof... so the impact of the tightening of credit applications is minimal, if anything banks would have placed more money in Devs hands based on the economic reports that its safe. Interest rates dropped.. so thats a non-factor. For every investor thats a Bank, theres an investor that has the capital on hand.
I get what you're saying, but at least as far as I've seen this past year, being considered recession proof didn't mean it actually was. Kind of like nice theory and all but... no. Lenders stuck together and adjusted rules, rates and criteria to stay competitive. And if the gaming company is public, it was dealing with a very volatile and emo stock market that drives the share value down and adds to the challenge of finding a lender to back your line of credit.
Enough about economics.
I was more engaged in gaming in 2009 than ever before, so I don't see the year as "horrible" at all for games. I tried a few new games (and left most of them) and stayed with others just like every other year. I look forward to 2010's rollouts for their creativity and imagination but that's based in appreciating what I already have.
And even though I don't agree with Scott a lot of the time, I really like the way he writes.
I love his articles... and I enjoy the perspective he gives. Its just this one instance I have to voice my points of objection.
"Because in today’s economy the pocketbooks of your customers are as tight as yours are, the last thing they’re going to want to do is shell out $20 for a shiny +12 suit of Extra Special Value Chain Mail, and if you design your game so that +12 Value Chain Mail is necessary, your users will inform you that no, it’s not necessary because your game is not necessary."
If only these GOLDEN WORDS were hammered into every game developing company's entry!
From a gamer's perspective 2009 has not been so horrible, but at least full of mediocre stuff. And that Facebook thing. Isn't it fading already? I mean for a while I was active on it myself, but after half a year or so, I thought WTF am I doing here? And ever since I stopped my Facebook involvement at all. Quite a silly way to waste time IMO.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It was a horrible year for sub and big-studio MMOs you mean. Both indies and free-to-play games seem to have done fine. I haven't heard of any of the f2p ones close at all, and there are tons active and thriving. They are so successful that western developers are now emulating their approach.
I've noticed that a lot of industry people have tunnel vision and tend to define "MMO" as "Western-Developed big-budget game." If you look at the larger picture, the market isn't as bad as you think.
Great article!
My thoughts on this went a few different directions.
1) There will ALWAYS be a market for MMOs. The pricing is reasonable for the entertainment you are given, so if someone puts out a great MMO, it WILL succeed, even in the worst of markets. It will probably do better than most other forms of entertainment, because the dollar will stretch a lot furter (heck, even playing an hour a day on average is completely worth the price of admission on a great MMO). As others have said, what we need is a truly great MMO, something with a great plot, some amazing gameplay, and the respect for the playerbase to not mictrotransact the bejeebers out of it (that link to the CO respec REALLY got me hot...).
2) It makes me very sad that even the gaming industry isn't immune to the recession. I have a variety of skills and a lot of education, and I too thought I would be immune to the recession, but found out rather surprisingly that I am not. Still, I found that while nothing can change the reality of how things are, my attitude toward such challenges has a tremendous impact on how that reality affects me. For those who are struggling during these difficult times, reach out to others, share your story and reinvent yourself in meaningful ways. The world, and the US especially, admires innovation, so direct such energies inward, and it will bear fruit. I know for me, one big step was when I stopped playing MMOs as a form of escapism, and began playing them for fun and social interaction.
Here's wishing you all a happy holiday!
My favorite part of the article was actually the following caption, that you had next to a WoW race change ad/graphic:
When Blizzard just said,
"Oh well, why not, they'll buy ANYTHING."
The irony is, I'm starting to truly believe that this is the mindset of most of these companies today and therefore the real cause for the mess we are in and most likely the culprit behind these layoffs, as well.
These companies, ie Funcom and Mythic took us for a bunch of fools. Due to Blizzard's success, they had these huge dollar signs in their eyes with overconfident expectations and champagne and caviar dreams. All the while, trying to pass along unfinished products with misleading advertising, with their hands on our wallets and a snickering laugh.
Hopefully 2009 is the year where developers have learned that we are not the fools that some mistook us for and that we will not settle for half-finished garbage products wrapped in a golden bow of lies and deceit.
Your fail comment, failed.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
Not sure you can lump Aion in with those other titles. While someone could argue that Aion was a grind it was nowhere near as buggy and problematic as the majority of other games that have been released. I can only hope that the list of games coming out in the near future are released with as much polish as Aion.
While Aion may not be your cup-of-tea, I wouldn't go as far as calling it half-baked garbage.
Your fail comment, failed.
With all the half baked mmo this year there no surprise some people lost their jobs,
Hopefully we will see an end to half ass games being released.
Hope all works out for those that lost their jobs
Playing Darkfall EU1 Server
Nice article. Better summary of the trends of the year than most. And, I agree with others that say this was probably the THIRD bad year in a row for mmo's...which doesn't make '10 look promising.
I don't know that the whole "recession vs. bad games" debate can be completely solved now, as it usually takes years to truly assess that effects of major economic climate changes. I think there are a lot of good points here, and the data, both empirical and not, is pretty solid, so I think the discussion is nice. I just don't know that anyone will have a simple answer ("this caused the hardship in the market") right now.
But...because all the great posts here got me thinking, let me offer up one "compromise" possibility: What if the Recession AND "bad products" caused the retraction of the industry this year? Let's say that many (most?) mmo's run on investment dollars, both from individuals and publishers. A recession hits, and those individuals and companies have left themselves vulnerable (say because they were basically running on loans to cover payroll). They need to see a QUICK influx of cash from somewhere to keep THIER company afloat. What do they do? They push (force?) the mmo company they are funding into an early release in order to start recouping investment via sales/subscriptions. The investors hope that the influx of money, at least right away, will replace the no longer available loans.
The problem is...the game isn't ready for release. So, the devs rush out a bad game, it gets crushed by the public, and the sales don't happen. A "bad game" doesn't generate any income. Maybe that causes layoffs. Or, perhaps, a next step. Investors try to force the dev company to get them their promised returns. Does that lead the dev company to layoffs?
Overly simplistic example, I know...but just a thought about how both the economic changes, and bad products, could be combined into a "retraction" of the workers in the industry.
Again, great article, and great discussion.
Great read.
I do beleive games, mmo's in particular are immune to recessions however.
It was also nice to read about the facebook game scams, and the unethical practices it takes to make the kind of money off free games w/ microtrans that the usual suspects are going after. Though the games themselves are highly addictive and enjoyed by millions. (why the scams worked). Those little social minigames that were thrown out of the mmorpg genre years ago. A shame that potential playerbase is still ignored.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
That is a good point, and a plausible one given all the half baked releases these last few years. It comes down, for me, to which came first... The Chicken or the Egg.
Perhaps it can be answered with a simple question :
If sales figures were up across the board, if subscriptions were up and being retained, would people have still been laid off because of the "recession"?
Be careful though, its a trick question.
I just want to say F2P games are doing great. IJJI.com had it's biggest year this winter, so many new games and updates. My head is still spinning.
I don't think there isanything the developers can do about unemployed customers.
i understand that they will have lost some customers due to the economic situation. but i just feel that if you sign up for a game thats subscription based, then thats all it should ever be...not subscription based and then a couple of years down the road throwing in item malls and mt's..it's just plain wrong in my book.
what ive always liked about subscription games is your an equal to every other player and how good you are is all down to skill, the time you put into it and hard work, rather than the f2p with item mall games where you basiclly pay to win/be the best, which basiclly shafts everyone but the very rich.
If times are tough, then they just need to tighten their belts like some companies have done with job cuts (although i'd rather this was a last resort), have more time limited promotions like discounted subscriptions for new players, have a free access week for old subbies and things like that, which will get more people playing/coming back. when times get tough people tend to look for value for money more, which is what game companies should be looking at providing a lot more during tough economic times.
Anyway, lets see how next year fares, at the end of the day it's profits that decide how successful subs+mt's are and if they just don't work then i can see em vanishing pretty quickly (crosses fingers).
This isn't true. Turbine had opened a satellite studio in California which was believed to have been focused on console development. I had heard that the entire CA studio was shut down as part of those layoffs (although it looks like they've been staffing it back up a bit based on job postings, but more for associated LOTRO development then console work.)
In any event, uh, laying off QA still counts. Especially, you know, if you're in QA.
And also, laying off QA counts if you play the game. 'Cause QA is the only thing keeping any software (or any product, really) from sucking.
I feel as much sympathy for an unemployed MMO industry worker as I do any other, but that's also a sign of how badly the industry was overemployed. Just as the general IT industry was way overemployed in the dot-bomb era, so it was in 2009 with the MMO industry. It's very sad that technical schools just churn out as many people as they can get tuition from regardless of the need for their skills in the real world.
Don't count on it. Look at the number of fools that spent money on games like Aion and Champions. Guess what theose same people will be buying games like Mortal Online and Star Trek and later SW:ToR...and nothing will have changed. The game companies will continue to pump out garbage game after garbage game because they know that gamers right now are so looking for the next good game that they are willing to shell out money on anything they (the game publishers) put on the market and that is a shame. If the majority of games(like some of us) had the will power to just stop buying these games maybe then we can force some real change on this genre. Until then...they'll just keep putting out half-baked garbage.
You can't blame us players though, if that's all that is out there for MMOs, what else are you going to play with your friends?
And unfortunately, anyone that isn't a customer has no power to effect any change. The decision-makers do not listen to "the person on the street", they listen to the person with the customer survey results. Scott Jennings also had an article here a week ago that mentioned this very issue - game companies do not listen to non-customers and therefore really don't know what to do to get new ones.