Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
As I try and analyze where the game industry is going and what it means for your career, Gabe Newell of Valve came down from Asgard to give us his insights on gaming at the DICE summit. He certainly had a ton of insights to share, and I thought I’d take time to deconstruct what he said.
Fortunately arstechnica has their usual roundup here, so let’s look at the highlights.
Well, that was quick.
Last week I was discussing how monetization was going to be an issue in your gaming career – since there were many options that would obviously affect how you get paid. Or if you get paid. Or if you have any hope in hell of success. Well, now I’m still talking about it – along with my current obsession of analyzing game careers, of course.
One of my inspirations for that post, by the way, was the weird news in Dead Space 3 about how one could purchase quicker collection of crafting materials. Yes, a big console game that just happens to let you act like you’re in a typical free-to-play game, in a way that seemed kinda obvious.
EA was appropriately and mercilessly skewered by Penny Arcade, as was appropriate. However they were also skewered by resource collecting bugs that made the micro transaction thing a null issue.
I’m wondering if they’ll patch it or not.
Here we see another risk to gaming – and a factor to take into any gaming career you may want to have.
Continuing with my weekly obsession in trying to understand what the heck is going on with gaming, I continue with . . . more of the same. After all there’s a chance gaming is part of your career plans, and even if it isn’t, it might whether you like it or not.
Up this week, how the hell will anyone make money in video game?
The video game industry always involved gambles, and as some pretty big stinkers and unexpected hits can tell you, some gambles can get pretty odd. Some series seem to be able to do no wrong, unexpected hits come, guaranteed ideas fail. Some of this seems to be despite the actual quality of the games themselves.
Of course that’s the way it is, but in the disrupted world of gaming, I’m trying to get a handle on just how people and companies are going to handle the gamble – and make money. Here’s my theories – with a caveat.
I am trying to piece things together here from a lot of data, information, trends, experience, and gut checks. I may be totally wrong here, so call me out and explain why, because I really want to get a handle on this.
So on to what I’ve seen. Let’s start with the big names . . .