Satoru Iwata said, “If that (keeps happening), the console business becomes a commodity business. There is no reason to choose one console over another, except price,” he said. “Then it doesn’t matter which machine you choose–they all play the same games.”
“If you are just simply comparing the 3 hardware consoles in terms of functionality, you can make similar games and many people are now trying to introduce multiplatform games. It may be good for game users but when it comes to some kind of unique interactions with the hardware I don’t think multiplatform games are contributing a lot. Whilst I think it is good to have many different titles for the platforms, I think that only Nintendo can provide certain experiences,” said Miaymoto.
Yamauchi also highly criticized large-scale AAA games and said companies who make these kinds of games will eventually go bankrupt. “Large-scale games are done for. If they continue to be made, then companies around the world will go under,” said Yamauchi.
“I’m not sure if it’s the whole world demanding realistic graphics or just a limited number of games players, but some developers are in the mindset that they feel threatened by the world into making realistic looking games right now,” said Miyamoto. “Therefore, they just cannot afford the time to make unique software because they feel the pressure to make realistic games and are obsessed with graphics.”
In the last 17 years, we have steadily seen:
- Multiple companies around the world going bankrupt, unable to keep up with development costs
- The homogenization of AAA gaming- most games follow a template or formula (usually modeled after some obscenely successful game, be it Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, or Skyrim)
- Commoditization of games hardware, till consoles are generally indistinguishable from one other in hardware and software lineups
- The death of the exclusive due to escalating costs- for most third parties it is no longer cost effective to create exclusives, and the only exclusives come from first parties, or first party funded games. This has led to further commoditization of hardware. Some consoles, with minimal exclusives, have found themselves on the wrong end of this commoditization, and have struggled to keep up with the competition
- The total collapse of mid tier games
In other words, even if Nintendo did a whole lot of stupid, asinine shit - and they did so much fucking ridiculous stuff - there is no denying that they had their finger on the pulse of industry trends, and they knew where the industry was headed. On their part, they appear to have done their best to stop it- but the rest of the industry wasn't listening, and the result is today's market- a market with no mid tier games, with most developers bankrupted, with the few who remain being forced to homogenize their output, or chase sequelization or excessive monetization to be guaranteed income, and more.
Is there any actual way back from this? Can the potential success of the Switch, for instance, resurrect a middle tier of game development, and the return of exclusives and unique games? Or are we doomed to a future where most of the game machines and games themselves on the market look largely the same, with the few exceptions that stand out becoming more and more of an endangered species with each passing year?
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