Would a gaming collapse help the industry? I ask because we seem to be in a gaming drought,overall. Sony and Microsoft seem to believe that beefing up their machines, makes them next gen worthy, along with adding in various other medias such as movie players, social networking, television connectivity/control, motion control, etc. Some of which have been copied form Nintendo and their history of innovation. However, we have not seen anything truly innovative within the last generation, or two, other than Nintendo’s Motion controllers (Copied and evolved as the PSmove and Kinect), the Wii U gamepad (Currently being copied by Sony and Microsoft in various ways for the next gen consoles), Virtual Boy (maybe copied by the Oculus Rift), and the Gameboy (Obviously copied by many handheld manufacturers – possibly even a concept that Nintendo copied in the past).
I think we can all agree that Nintendo has been an innovator over time, and many of the peripherals and consoles that we have today would not be here if they did not try them first. However, we seem to be in a drought where everybody wants power and graphics over game quality and stories. For example, Call of Duty is a good game, with good graphics, online capabilities and great interactivity with fans. But, for me at least, I cannot be drawn in to play it and immerse myself into it. IT is just a rehash of a rehash of a rehash, each built upon the prior release with better graphics, new weapons and maps, and the same gameplay. The creativity has gone. However, we still see games like Xenoblade and The Last of Us, which caused a world wide uproar to get a North American release.
Back in the 80’s, Nintendo had the guts to try new things and was essential in keeping the video game industry alive. Today, they still innovate and create, not attempting to compete with the two companies that are already in a knife fight against each other. Some say Nintendo is cowering in the corner and riding the curtails of defeat. So what are your thoughts? Are we in a drought, and would another industry crash be enough to revive the industry? Enough to bring back the creativity, instead of just remaking the same games over and over again? Of course. we can not only include games like Saints Row, CoD, Grand Theft Auto, Madden, and more. We must also include Mario, as many of the side scrollers share the same elements, although each game seems to feel brand new again. We can maybe even include Pikmin as well.
If there was a crash, could Nintendo bring the industry back once again, or would we see a new victor?
***Since Lou reminded me about the weekend discussion, I thought I would post something that would bring up discussion on both sides of the fence.
