video games

The Toy-Game Interface: It’s A Trend.

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OK, it’s a trend.

Yes, after weeks of me ranting about what’s going on in gaming, what it means for your career, and why I’m still confused half the time, there is a trend I distinctly want to call out.

Merchandise-game integration.  Let’s call it MGI so we have a cool acronym.

Awhile ago at NerdCaliber I called out that we were on a cusp of a trend where games were integrated heavily with merchandise. and marketing.  My example was Disney Infinity, which was pretty much “Skylanders” with Jack Sparrow and a sandbox mode.*  I felt this was one to watch because I could see a lot of properties done MGI style, and transcending some of the previous attempts out there.

(Disney is so confident, they don’t mind a delay – that may mean selling more)

Ironically, of the many properties I discussed where heavy MGI possibilities lay, I missed one, and of course some smart guys and girls ended up creating the most obvious MGI I could have seen, only I didn’t see it.

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The Best Laid Plans Of The Gaming Industry

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“What magical scapegoat will game companies point to when no one buys their $70 games on owner-proof, piracy-free systems?”
@ThiefOfHearts

ThiefOfHearts has a point there – a lot of what we’re seeing in the console and game market points to more and more restrictions on games that keep costing a pretty penny.  We can expect no backwards compatibility on the PS4, I’m not particularly confident on the Xbox 720 (or whatever), prices seem to keep going up for AAA titles that are repetitious,  though there’s a few signs of hope game companies don’t want to piss people off.

But in general, in gaming, there’s the sense of wanting to make more limits and more restrictions, at least in the console market, and with some concern in the PC market.  Of course this exists to preserve and expand profits, unless someone in the security divisions of various companies has some weird bet going on how many people they can annoy.

At the same time, with game prices going up and budgets going up, there’s the need to make, well, a lot of money.  As the next generation of consoles at least looks like it’s going to fail to impress, I’m wondering just how much is going to get made. There’s a reason I’m moving to PC.

Are these security changes going to cure the larger market problems?  Well, no.

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What The PS4 Means For Your Gaming Career

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The PS4 got announced in case you happened to have forgot that a Net full of Inter is out there, avoided all television, and talked to no other people.  And you in no way will be startled that yours truly is going to keep with my continuing obsession about analyzing game news and its career implication and analyze the crap out of this.

So gear up people, here it comes.  The PS4 is coming, and here’s what I think.

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