Anyone who says there's going to be another crash, a la the crash of '84 (and notice I said '84, not '83, as I described back in 2008: http://www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1947), is wrong. There's just no other way to put it. We may as well say that the music industry will crash because of some high profile failures or the movie industry will crash because Green Lantern and other big budget films like it didn't make enough money (or that viewers are "rebelling" against 3D films). Any sufficiently mature industry with big money players will sustain itself through every up and down. The last crash - and the last true crash the industry will ever see - happened in 1984 for a reason--too many companies with shallow pockets glutting the market with product. Videogames have long since moved to "mature industry" status and a market that will correct itself.
Now, this doesn't mean that the marketplace won't change--we've seen a dramatic shift in the aforementioned music industry in the face of new technology. Videogames are in such a shift, where companies who do business exclusively the old way simply won't survive. They certainly won't be taking the whole industry with them, though. So much is different, from the grudging mainstream acceptance of videogames to ever lower barriers of entry for creative product to find its way to market, to an almost unlimited number of consumers to target. No, now is the best time to be a gamer and the best time for the industry, even though we're in a bit of a downturn along with nearly every other industry on the planet.
In reading Rampant Coyote's comment just now, I can see he's saying pretty much what I am.
Anyone who says there's going to be another crash, a la the crash of '84 (and notice I said '84, not '83, as I described back in 2008: http://www.armchairarcade.com/neo/node/1947), is wrong. There's just no other way to put it. We may as well say that the music industry will crash because of some high profile failures or the movie industry will crash because Green Lantern and other big budget films like it didn't make enough money (or that viewers are "rebelling" against 3D films). Any sufficiently mature industry with big money players will sustain itself through every up and down. The last crash - and the last true crash the industry will ever see - happened in 1984 for a reason--too many companies with shallow pockets glutting the market with product. Videogames have long since moved to "mature industry" status and a market that will correct itself.
Now, this doesn't mean that the marketplace won't change--we've seen a dramatic shift in the aforementioned music industry in the face of new technology. Videogames are in such a shift, where companies who do business exclusively the old way simply won't survive. They certainly won't be taking the whole industry with them, though. So much is different, from the grudging mainstream acceptance of videogames to ever lower barriers of entry for creative product to find its way to market, to an almost unlimited number of consumers to target. No, now is the best time to be a gamer and the best time for the industry, even though we're in a bit of a downturn along with nearly every other industry on the planet.
In reading Rampant Coyote's comment just now, I can see he's saying pretty much what I am.