Video Games Find Their Voice with GTA

GamesIndustry.biz editor Rob Fahey has an editorial discussing how the games industry is beginning to find its own voice alongside the move and music businesses. He uses the hype and launch of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as an example of the increasing popular culture acceptance of games and gaming. From the Article: "The videogames industry is fond of comparing itself with the movie and music industries - as long as the figures show it in a positive light, of course. For years, a host of slightly dodgy statistics have been dragged out at the drop of a hat to prove that videogames generate more revenue than rival mediums, usually missing such crucial points as the fact that movies generate both box office and DVD/video revenues."

Comments

Innovation factory

[Zareste]

Is anyone else annoyed that game developers are now being called the game industry? It's bad enough that they remain nearly anonymous while the company takes most of the credit, but now the innovations and individuals are being blobbed together as part of a mindless industry?

Yeah it's not the most on-topic statement, but I'm sure quite a few people are thinking the same thing.

Re:Innovation factory

[Babbster]

Yeah, see, here's the thing: It IS an industry. It is a large number of people and corporations all engaged in producing products which they then sell for a profit. Further, NO game sold for the PS2, Xbox or Gamecube is the product entirely of one person. Even low-budget games have staffs of at least 20 people and usually many more. I recall that even during the time Sid Meier was making games for Commodore 64 (and the other home-computer platforms with 64k RAM or less to work with), he had a lot of other people working with him on his games.

We're long past the days when you could isolate a single person and identify them as the sole creator of a game, responsible for every nuance. There are still some great individual designers and they're just as well known in this industry as Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton are in theirs (though obviously the film industry receives wider recognition), but the truth is that without the rest of the people on their staffs their games wouldn't be what they are.

Not so sure...

[igrp]

Frankly, I'm not sure viewing TV, the music and video industry and the video game genre as strictly seperate and independent businesses is all that smart.

Just look at the major video game releases: one of GTA Vice City's major features was its licensed soundtrack. Halo 2 has not just one, but two official soundtracks. The Halo franchise rivals most Hollywood blockbusters with regard to its script, its score and its marketing.

Remember the Wing Commander franchise? Wing Commander 3 (which was a three CD release, IIRC) had professional grade blue-screen cutscenes that were groundbreaking at that time. Remeber the movie?

Remember Resident Evil? There have also been rumours about an movie studios being more than willing to bring "The Sims" and the Halo franchises to the big screen.

That's why I'm inclined to believe that it's not really fair to compare different forms of presentation any more - at least when it comes to major blockbuster titles. They become less and less separable. Video games incorporate technology that just a decade ago was unavailable to anyone but major movie studios. TV is becoming increasingly interactive (the American Idol type of shows being one example). Video game background music is produced by professionals.

There's really no point in doing "we're doing better than you are" comparisons. We're talking genre cross-over here (at least at the high end of the spectrum).