The Game Industry

Like many other businesses, gaming companies are closing down due to the global economic slowdown and with people spending less; this makes the competition tough to win consumers and markets.

Nevertheless, the gaming industry continues to release games of interest to the consumers.
So what are the remaining games companies doing to avoid the closure of their business? Is there a secret to the industry’s maintained success? No. The majority of games being released are sequels and/or remakes of classics which are guaranteed the sales. The endless list includes games such as: ‘Street Fighter, Golden Axe, Resident Evil and Tekken.’ Now I know it’s logical to release a sequel if the previous game was successful and I for one can’t wait to purchase ‘Tekken 6,’ but the first game in the series was a unique and new idea to begin with and a risk worth taking. So are companies now afraid to release something completely diverse?

I remember the classic ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Golden Axe’ being simple, pixelated games but their general idea and gameplay along with addictive qualities is what made them be successful games and part of my favourite video games.

In very rare circumstances, a company may release successful new and unique games that are not taken from a movie or television programme. Although games like these gain consumer interest, they offer a low income and at the end of the day, game companies are only interested in what’s in the consumers’ wallet.

As most gaming companies are relying on sequels of games to generate masses of income, they face challenges to make their next sequels harder as gamers already know how to play them and at the same time, gain new customers. I own ‘Resistance 2,’ and I can honestly say that I did not need to play the first ‘Resistance: Fall of Man’ to get into the game and understand the storyline. I also wasn’t a fan of the ‘Resistance’ series until I played ‘Resistance 2.’

This challenge may impact the industry in the future by consumer’s wanting games that are better than their sequels. Unfortunately, at this point, re-releasing games and sequels over and over again may not be enough to win the market, so companies will have to result in releasing fresh, unique, never before seen games that consumers will want and need. Good luck!