This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
Editor’s note: Crap games nearly killed the video game industry in its early days. As publishers seek to expand, a number of mediocre casual games have come out. Hardcore gamers, worried that their beloved hobby is in peril, lambaste casual gamers, but Ryan says they should aim their bile at the publishers that make these games. Do you agree? -Jason
Back in 1982, video games captured our attention. With such consoles as the Atari 2600, the ColecoVison, and Mattel’s Intellivison selling like hotcakes, it seemed like game developers had created a golden age — one they thought would never end.
Now let us park our WABAC machine in 1983. People aren’t interested in console gaming anymore. Gamers have either taken their business to the arcades or have given up on video games altogether.
How did this happen? Game developers were making huge profits just a year earlier. With millions of households buying their products, it seemed as though they had won over the average consumer. With such a large consumer base interested in the product, how did they fail?
Too many companies wanted to make a video game console after seeing the success of the Atari 2600. This resulted in a massive flooding of inferior products and faulty consoles. Quality products were few and far between, and gamers had enough of getting ripped off. Most of the blame does belong to third-party developers that rushed out their crappy products to make a cheap buck.
Atari is responsible for the crash as well. Remember the Atari 5600? How about the dreadful Pac-Man port? Do I even have to mention E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial? Game developers had a good thing going for them but lost it because of their own greed. Satuation killed the beast.
Luckily the Second Coming of the home console would come but two years later, and a portly plumber in red hat would lead it.
I’m sure many of you are wondering why I’ve given this history lesson. The answer’s simple. Some gamers think history will repeat itself. They think the industry could be facing a crash much like the one in 1983. With the growing number of casual gamers, the market’s becoming flooded with similar low-caliber titles that tanked the industry way back when.
Is this Armageddon-by-crap prediction valid?
Well, the doomsday theorists do make a valid argument. We get five or six Carnival Games for every Mario Party, and I feel like we’re under siege from a barrage of minigame-filled wastes of time.
You can’t walk into any electronics section or game store without finding a bargain bin filled with minigame collections, half-baked puzzlers, game show tie-ins or lazily developed platformers. The low price and the promise of simple gameplay have a certain sex appeal that draws in the common casual gamer.
With the number of consumers willing to buy casual games growing, the number of these lackluster titles will continue to grow to meet this demand. Economics is fun.
With this influx of consumer crap hitting the market, do I think a second downfall is coming? No.
While I admit many companies are trying to cash in on every possible fad and flavor of the month, hardcore gamers have enough superb titles to keep them swiping their credit cards.
Besides, with the current success of casual games, we’re seeing the market open up to people who otherwise wouldn’t have embraced gaming. Most important, a new generation of gamers are exposed to games through time spent with the family playing Rock Band or even Wii Fit.
The manner in which some gamers scoff at casual games and the people who play them has always bothered me.
Can any of us honestly say that we haven’t played casual games? Absolutely not. Look at the games most of us have grown up with during the 8- and 16-bit eras.
Remember titles like Mega Man, Adventure Island, Sonic The Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country — and let’s not forget the Super Mario franchise — are all casual at their core. They were games that anybody could just pick up and play and weren’t all that long, either. Even the longer and more complex games like Contra, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid didn’t have that steep of a learning curve.
These games were short, simple, and to the point. All we needed was the capability to move, jump, and shoot. It was enough for us to play for hours on end and become lifelong fans of the medium. Many of us that spent our childhood casually playing these wonderfully simple yet still somewhat complex games became the dedicated fans who transformed this niche market into a multibillion dollar industry. Besides, if it wasn’t for the innovation brought by these games, we wouldn’t have the hardcore games we enjoy today.
The increase in the number of casual games isn’t necessarily a threat to the gaming industry (just look at Scribblenauts and the Professor Layton series). The real threat to the industry is developers who are in this business to make money instead of quality games.
What nearly killed the industry in 1983 was the rush to make a quick payday. This flooded the market with mediocrity and downright pitiful games. While it’s true that we have a lot of similar half-assed casual titles, a number of similarly crappy games are out there for hardcore gamers. Developers can clone Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy just as easily as Mario Party.
We shouldn’t target the gamers playing these poor games — we should go after the developers who make these atrocities in the first place.