Why are our bargain bins dissapearing?

[Qilue]

One thing I have noticed about console games. There's almost no innovation in game developement beyond eye candy graphics. Look at racing titles from 5 years ago compared to recent release racing titles. There's almost no difference beyond graphics.

It's much the same with sports, fighting and other console game genres with the same bland crap getting new wrapping and not a whole lot else. This is why they're so much cheaper to produce and thus have a higher profit margin and thus take shelf space from PC games.

[Nikolai]

Somebody better start enlightening the masses then.

[snoopy369]

I'd actually say that sports games had, up to this point, seen some innovation. Unfortunately, it was always the sort of innovation that could be trumpeted as a new feature - "better AI" is not something that can be easily advertized. Like with Madden, they add in 'hard hitting defense' and then the next year 'truck stick' (hard hitting offense) ... this year they'll probably add in 'hard hitting kickers' or something

[Qilue]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Somebody better start enlightening the masses then.

The masses are almost always stupid and gullible. The publishers know this and they are thus able to re-wrap the same insipid crap again and again.

[RGBVideo]

Why are our bargain bins dissapearing?

\/\/4|23%.

[Dis]

and even the big stores are reducing their bins. My best buy has no bargain bins anymore that I can find.

Fry's still has them, but they seem to have less games. You used to be able to find cool games such as fallout and SMAC in them. But I no longer see them there.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I'd actually say that sports games had, up to this point, seen some innovation. Unfortunately, it was always the sort of innovation that could be trumpeted as a new feature - "better AI" is not something that can be easily advertized. Like with Madden, they add in 'hard hitting defense' and then the next year 'truck stick' (hard hitting offense) ... this year they'll probably add in 'hard hitting kickers' or something

The vision cone was a very interesting innovation in Madden. I hope they continue to work with it.

[CerberusIV]

If you own a PC it is easier to buy on online. I recently bought 3 PC games for just under £18 including postage. not used and delivered within a week. One sucked but I am enjoying playing the other two.

Of course, I don't have much choice as finding PC games in rural Ireland isn't easy. Even if I do it is usually cheaper to buy online even with postage costs. Actually, that's probably why there is less shelf space in the stores for new PC games - why buy there at full price when you can get it cheaper from an online store.

[DrSpike]

Quite. Games are usually a high enough price that the savings you can get online are more than enough to pay for P&P. Plus, games aren't in the category of goods where you prefer to see and touch the item before purchase.

To an extent this should apply to console games too though.

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by DrSpike
edit....

To an extent this should apply to console games too though.

It could do - i'm sure some console game players do buy on-line. But i suspect the vast majority of console gamers dont even have a PC in their house, or internet. For these folks they probably dont even read review magazines often, and that is why we often see a high proportion of movie tied in games in the game charts - these games are usually rubbish, but that never stops them getting their top-ten placings.

So we could say ignorance(of the innocent kind) is what is shaping the games industy today? And is the reason for the slow 'death' of high street shop PC gaming, and the same for PC bargin bins. PC folks are just better informed, often on-line and partially responsible for the majority of game piracy.

So i should revise my statement

We could say ignorance(of the innocent kind from the un-informed masses) and fear(of losing sales to piracy) is what is shaping the games industry today?

I think this will be a good thing and lead to a re-birth of PC gaming, mostly based on-line and mostly direct from the developer to the customer, cutting out the expensive middleman(the publisher) and the high street stores. This area of gaming will become the preserve of the console game - and will be an endless stream of lame(but sexy looking) movie tie-ins and sports titles.

All the cool(and interesting) games will come from the PC sector. It will take a while for the money to get back into full time PC gaming, but the sharp investor will see the opportunity that could lie in this new-dawn of PC gaming

Sadly we are probably seeing the true death of the bargin bin as we have known it.

[Quillan]

Honestly, what I think is shaping the games industry today is the bottom line. Developing for a console is easier than developing for a PC, as there is only one possible hardware configuration you have to consider. Combine easier development with (much) higher sales potential and you get higher profit. There are a rare few PC titles that sell like console titles do, things like Half Life (though the sales of Half Life were really driven by Counterstrike for the most part) for example. Most just don't sell that well. Consider Thief and System Shock 2. Both were highly rated by the critics, and have a loyal following even now, but just didn't sell that well.

I also think advertising is hurting the games industry, as it is other industries now. They spend SOOOO much money on promoting the game, they have to sell even more copies of it to make the money back. With so much on the line, they can't afford a losing title. So they tend to only back sure things.

[RGBVideo]

Since there are no HD's in consoles, it's impossible to \/\/4|23% via Internet with them. This is the sole reason consoles are gaining sales compared to PC's. Consoles by their very nature are dumbed down PC's with simplified controllers.

I think this will be a good thing and lead to a re-birth of PC gaming, mostly based on-line and mostly direct from the developer to the customer, cutting out the expensive middleman(the publisher) and the high street stores. This area of gaming will become the preserve of the console game - and will be an endless stream of lame(but sexy looking) movie tie-ins and sports titles.

The problem with this is that the potential customer gets exactly the same product with exactly the same effort but zero cost by warezing it thru p2p instead of translating some $$ by a credit card and then downloading the game from developer's website. What is needed to save PC gaming as we know it is a new kind of anti-piracy tool, and it needs to be invented quickly.

[DrSpike]

No hard drives in consoles?

[Nikolai]

Well, the times for one configuration on consoles might soon be over(except for Nintendo). Xbox360 will get a better processor and/or graphics card IIRC(according to Microsoft employer) and Sony has hinted on PS3 being upgradable.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by VJ
Since there are no HD's in consoles, it's impossible to \/\/4|23% via Internet with them.

It is? So I guess those games I played on a console a few years ago (on a friends console) was just in my imagination? Those games sure wasn't bought anywhere