News
Top Five Reasons for Video Game Shrinkage
Cordova, TN; March 23, in the year of our Lord 2015--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is taking a clinical look at why the video
game industry is in decline*. There are five things we hear all
the time from families as to why the video game industry is
shrinking. You might even have a reason or two yourself. But
first see if you can recognize these five issues, and what can
be done about them. Do you think the corporate suits will
correct these issues before it is too late? How long do you
think the industry will backslide?
1. The first issue we hear all the time from families is is the
video game industry has left them behind. They have no interest
in macabre and morbid video games. A few years back the video
game industry was the talk of the town. Families were falling
over themselves to play clean, fresh, and fun video games.
Families got up off the couches and moved around while gaming.
The industry has turned away from exercise, and turned away from
safe for the entire family games. The hardcore gaming population
is way smaller than the family friendly gaming population. Hence
a decline in the industry.
2. Casual gamers have left the hand held and home console video
games for their iOS and Android devices. Playing simple and easy
games on their phones and tablets has become the latest trend.
Companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have been trying to
bring these casual gamers back into their camps. Most ignore
these attempts since they already have a phone, and do not need
to purchase another device to play their favorite little apps.
The video game industry needs to acknowledge apps have become
cool. Apple has undercut them at every angle. Porting apps is
fine, but they need to bring in cool new little games that will
make casual gamers buy their machines. Why buy Angry Birds on
the Wii when you have beaten it on the iPhone? An all new
original Angry Birds on the Wii is a way better idea.
3. The rise of Steam and a resurgence of Personal Computer
gaming has hurt console and hand held gaming. Steam, and Desura
are way more open to independent developers than Microsoft,
Sony, and Nintendo. All of the Big Three companies have tried to
open more doors to indie developers. They have made some
progress. Here again, PC gamers are happy with what they have,
and few move over to the consoles. The indie community is so
much larger on the PC, moving to the consoles will only limit
their access to games.
4. Consumers tell me all the time they will not purchase a video
game if they do not have a physical copy of it. They understand
they lose all their rights with digital downloads. Why give
these companies that kind of power? Why give away your rights?
As Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft continue to push the digital
downloads, they are only limited their sales. This is another
reason the video game industry is shrinking. In fact this has
helped boost the retro gaming scenes. What makes matters worse
is physical copies of many of these digital download only games
are being released in other regions. If Europe and Japan can get
a physical copy, why can't America?
5. The Big Three continue to show how slow they are in terms of
pricing of their games. They want billions every single year.
Their failures in terms of lowering prices of games has shown
they are not even trying to be competitive. Nintendo complained
about the ninety-nine cent apps at one point in time. They did
not want to go that low. Now they are trying free apps on their
machines hoping to get revenue from the in-app purchases. So
they are trying to follow suit at least. Their games in stores
have not been so fortunate. Old Wii games are still priced way
too high. Lower the prices and more sales will arrive. We have
even seen Wii games selling for higher prices than newer Wii U
games.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming
*VGChartz.com has a very good comparison of the eight console
generation versus the seventh console generation (as well as the
hand helds). It shows the steep decline of the video game
industry in this sector.