The Imperminence of Games (and why GAAS is a fallacy built on sand)
'Look upon my works, ye mighty and weep in despair. ' And so goes the poem Ozymandias by Shelley. It is the boast of a megalomanic Ramesses II who thinks his glory and works will persist forever, an immortality of sorts. Of course, a few centuries later his works are in ruins as they have been pillaged by other empires and he is barely remembered, apart from a bit part in The Ten Commandments film where he is played brilliantly arrogant by Yul Brenner and the impressive temple complex near Luxor, the Ramesseum. Shelley was writing about the impermanence of everything and I only wish more people in the upper echelons of the games industry would pay attention.
I was lucky enough to visit Abu Simbel in 2011 and can say that it is a very impressive monument to greatness.
Across time, many have sought glory- fame or infamy. There have been great rulers, despots and dictators who have sought to use the power of the profane and divine to create reverential works that they hoped would be like Ozymandias'. No matter how much many studios try, this has not come to pass for the vast majority in the digital videogaming space. Whereas before people create great physical monuments or arts praising their achievements, now game studios spend much more money, time and effort to carve up a bit of immortality- at least for a short while- in the digital space, only to realise that their works are ephemeral and will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Be it consolidation, downsizing or shuttering there is a real problem happening in the videogames space. Some studios are even shuttered within a few short months after spending hundreds of millions of pounds on a product, even if it was well received and award winning.
Most of these studios are closed… even after releasing successful game.
Games As a Service are looking for a part of this immortality, they look to be monuments in our life that we interact with daily but there is a flaw: time is finite so not all GAAS can or will succeed. Instead, what games should look for is immortality through greatness like Doom, which has been ported to manner of devices including calculators, or any manner of Nintendo titles that lack backwards compatibility and so are always sought after. Their greatness is ported across generations and lives on, like RE4 or Skyrim. Who wouldn't want that for their title?
The digital real estate business- which is what this is- as whole world's lore and mechanics are created, costs more than some of their real world counterparts but will obviously lack their permanence, being a digital space rather than an actual physical space.
Some studios are aware that their works cannot withstand the ballooning costs of development and are limited in their scope and aspirations, a moment in the sun for a while to support their next moment in the sun maybe. However, for those who place their entire fortune and future at the foot of their one and only hope, there can only be heartbreak as not all succeed. This is what we are seeing as this unsustainable risen in costs is leading to huge cuts across the board and consolidation across companies as they all seek to carve up a piece of the stagnating pie that hasn't seen console install base growth for a while.
We'll see what happens but, as a guy who likes the big AAA titles as much as the next person, maybe reign the costs in a bit by removing the bloat, 'roadmaps' and carved up games which I still in you the need to buy the DLC to finish the experience!
LINK- Japan: My Journey to the East
LINK- Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 3 (English Dub) - Complete Series Review
LINK- The Midnight Library and the Idea That You Can’t Go Home Again
LINK- Manga Exhibition at the British Museum
LINK- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review
LINK- The Transportive Nature of Objects (And the Power of Mini Consoles)