The Long Console Generation Damaged Gaming

The Long Console Generation Damaged Gaming

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has been telling his partners in the hardware business to get their fingers out and launch some goddamn hardware already. Obviously, Guillemot is a polite, urbane fellow and so, when he speaks through his contacts in the media, he uses polished and refined language. But under the surface his frustration is palpable.

This week he told Polygon, “We need new consoles. At the end of the cycle generally the market goes down because there are less new IPs, new properties, so that damaged the industry a little bit. I hope next time they will come more often." Sony and Microsoft will eventually be bringing new consoles to market, most likely in 2013, but no amount of complaining from third-party publishers will hurry them to market. (See IGN's comprehensive wikis for the rumored new consoles from Sony and Microsoft.)

The question remains, has the damage already been done?

This console-cycle has been the longest in history. Xbox 360 was launched in 2005, a time so far back that George W. Bush still had three years left in the White House. A person coming to adulthood now, was just 11-years-old when that console launched.

Nintendo has launched two consoles since then, Wii in 2006 and Wii U in 2012. So yes, 2005 feels like a very, very long time ago.

It’s not that the games we are playing now are particularly tired. It could be argued that this long, uninterrupted generation has allowed developers to get the most out of the available technology, and to focus on improving their abilities in areas like storytelling and character, skills which in previous years they lacked. New hardware is exciting but it takes time for developers to master the tech.

Although games are being refined in these areas, they are still, ultimately, working with technology that is almost a decade old. This, in a medium that stretches back only four decades to its Paleozoic beginnings of Pong.

The fact that third-parties are unhappy is the real clue. They are seeing boxed games sales falling dramatically. Although this is a result of the rise in digital downloads as well as mobile and social gaming’s spread, they clearly believe that the lack of excitement generated by new hardware is also a factor. New IP is being introduced, but only slowly. EA has come right out and stated that it sees no good reason to introduce its best ideas until some new hardware emerges.

This year has not been a stand-out for ‘AAA’ new IP with Dishonored the major success-story as well as the critically acclaimed Sleeping Dogs. (I investigated new IP through the current generation in this feature last month). It’s interesting that some of the most interesting new console IP coming out in 2013 is being published by a first-party - The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls come to mind.

So traditional hardcore gaming has now become dominated by franchises that could be passing through their creative and commercial high-point, ready to be challenged by new ideas. We can only hope that this is the case. Could there be a more depressing scenario in gaming, than one in which games companies have no more ambition than to rehash their current franchises for new technology? Sony and Microsoft have definitely been guilty of milking the current generation as far as it can. Price cuts have not been aggressive enough as both companies have sought to grow their share of the motion-control and casual markets through 'value-added' pack-ins. And both companies have been extremely aggressive and impressive in developing their digital download offerings, none of which especially helps third parties who still rely on the boxed games market. The hardware companies, perhaps understandably, want to cash in on large user-bases that were acquired at great expense and effort. Undoubtedly, AAA gaming and therefore gaming as a whole would have benefited from hardware launched either this year or even last year. Therefore, the hardware companies’ tardiness has been a hindrance to growth. But taken in the context of the first parties’ own problems, it's understandable that we are still waiting. Let’s hope that we are not required to wait much longer.

As Guillemot says, "Transitions are the best times, are the best ways, to make all of our creators take more risks and do different things. When a console is out for a long time ... you don't take as much risks on totally new IPs because even if they are good, they don't sell as well."