Non-Traditional Games On The Rise

The Guardian Gamesblog has up an editorial looking at what the author perceives as a rise in the number of non-traditional games being developed. From the article: "There's Nintendogs, Electroplankton and Wizard of Funk. And there's EA doing a train game and all the Sims community stuff and Spore. And there's Sony larking about with EyeToy. And Bully from Rockstar. And The Movies. Is it just me or is a corner being turned? I mean, there's plenty of dull unimaginative genre regurgitation going on, there always will be. But I can't remember a time when there were so many titles coming up that couldn't comfortably be slotted into established categories."

Comments

Katamari

[Apreche]

The success of Katamari really opened the floodgates for this, and I'm glad. These games are usually cheaper to produce than an fps or an rpg. They are also faster to produce. And they can sell them for almost the same price as other games, for huge potential profit. However, these are also really hit or miss games. For every Katamari there are 10 Katapoopies.

The genre rehash games and movie license games may cost more with less potential profit, but they have less risk of losing money. The reason is that non hardcore gamers, which constitute a larger portion of the market, are very likely to buy the games. Make a game about Batman and every kid who went to see the movie will buy the game regardless of its quality.

I don't think I have to worry about this pleasant trend continuing. The Revolution and the DS are sure to fan the flames.

Wow.

[Adapt or Die]

Thanks for the non-article. Slow day, eh?