The Top 10 Game Industry Disasters of 2013
If you think about it everything that exists is subject to -- or a part of -- annual cycles. We are not just talking about the seasons -- oh they count to be sure -- we are talking about the ebb and flow that has an impact on everything from love to life, and even the economy and business -- and the games industry is no exception, though if you think about it, it should be.
Considering how recession-proof the games industry is -- the strong position that it enjoys largely due to the fact that it consistently delivers high-quality and enduring entertainment value for each dollar, duvat, euro, and pound you spend on it!
So when things go wrong -- when the work turns and the warnings appear unexpectedly, well, it is often very difficult knowing just who or what to blame for the swinging pendulum of misfortune!
When the decade of the 10s opened it genuinely appeared that the industry was entering yet another very good period -- the future looked bright, profits were up, and perhaps more important (certainly it is a more important issue for gamers) there were a lot of really good sequels coming out and the news from the big studios was to expect more of the same over the course of the next ten years or so.But fate, mates, is a fickle beast, often changing her mind with the changed direction of the wind -- so when 2013 arrived and along with it signs and portents of evil tidings, well, it is safe to say that we were very concerned.
It was not long then before the pins began to tumble, with the games industry taking its first major hit in a long time -- and when we say major hit we are not talking about the normal cycles that are ever-present in the industry like studio consolidations and shutdowns. That sort of event is a normal part of the business -- because often those satellite and small-to-medium game development studios were only established to produce a game or three and then were expected to self-destruct. And they do!
That is all well and good, but when a major game publisher shuts its doors, well now, that is a horse of an entirely different color indeed! Bad news comes in grops it seems, and one of those groups is guided by a bloke that the Greeks called Thanatos.
'Not youth itself thy clemency can gain, vigorous and strong, by thee untimely slain...'
That line from an old hym whose author is lost to time pretty much describes it, so without further qualification and not to make you depressed, but here -- in case you missed them -- are The Top 10 Game Industry Disasters of 2013:
DRM should be a crime. Publishers need to realize that ownership is what capitalism is all about. People move, have friends, share with their friends, and PC's and consoles die. Hard drives crash. No one should be punished for having to deal with an already horrible situation, ie: catastrophic HD failure.
DRM also creates more piracy that it stops.
I personally was sad to hear about the loss of THQ.
But thankful that the Warhammer franchise was bought over. For all of their terrible games, their Dawn of War and Space Marine IPs were solid, fantastic games!
Will Sims freeplay be a contender for 2014 given the uproar of their new update? Should be its been bsit and switch. A real time game where sims live 42 days! Disgraceful.
"The fact that the vast majority of the content that was being targeted legally qualifies as fair use under the current interpretation of the law considered"
That's where a lot of people have a misunderstanding about Fair Use. Their vids might be seen as Fair Use but ONLY a court of law can make that decision no one else can. Also Youtube isn't at fault here, they are doing only what the law says. If someone files a copyright claim against a vid Youtube has to take it down or they may face legal action from the content owner.
Youtube has been sued multiple times by companies and other people over copyright infringement. Youtube was actually going to shut down do to all the legal troubles until Google bought them.
I took a gamecube to Iraq as well. Eternal Darkness was the kind of thing that made war seem not so bad.
Considering the Steam OS, I personally think that was a very big announcement from Valve and as you can see, lots of game developers thought the same.
Linux is going to be the future, like it or not.
Great list. On a positive note for us non multiplayers The Last of Us single handedly saved the single player game 2013.
Who cares about THQ. In the long run something else will fill the void. And the Xbox one is hardly a failure as they are still selling strong and making microsoft money. They told us before that it will be a gaming system AND a multimedia system. People just need to understand that.