The 21st century has seen an enormous amount of development within the entertainment industry. Games have played a leading role in this.
Within the last decade game releases have been rivaling movies in terms of revenue, games such as Halo selling tens of millions of copies. The movie industry has not been unaware of this success and many popular games have been turned into full blow motion pictures. An odd twist on the usual movie based game, cash-in bonanza. (“you've watched the film! Now play the game!”).
However, with this new found success come a new host of problems. Many games developers are now owned by big multinational corporations who demand quick returns for their substantial investments. According to BBC News, the average PS3 game costs nearly $15 million to make -- and that's before any marketing. Not only does this ensure our store shelves will be stocked with sequel after buyer-recognizable sequel, but it's also bad for developers, who could go belly up after one unsuccessful title. As time goes on and the technology and consoles get more advanced,gamers are increasingly going too expect more from their games, so costs are only set to rise.
All this pressure will surely have a negative effect for gamers. Developers will be less willing to experiment and risk huge sums of money on ideas that might not pan out. Resulting in less choice and the worrying possibility of a reverse of the video game crash of 1983 which was caused by there being too many games on the market.
So all in all the future of the games industry relies on finding a delicate balance between creative freedom and financial risk. I for one sincerely hope that balance is found.
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