Cliff Bleszinski's Dire Industry Outlook

hal · Feb 25, 2013

In an interview at GamesIndustry, Cliff Bleszinski explains how he's riding the storm out before returning to the biz.

"This business has not been in a state of transition like it is right now since the video game crash of the '80s"

But not all is lost, he says, as there are "other platforms" that seem to be flourishing.

But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now. I think we're ready to do digital download games all the time...I just want to see what happens.

You can sense his frustration with Microsoft and its restrictive practices as he talks about his experience with the QA process involving a Gears 2 patch.

"When Gears of War 2 launched and we found out that our netcode wasn't working right, it took us three months to get an update out," Bleszinski said. "By that time, the majority of users had moved on to the next game or had traded it in. If Microsoft and Sony are to do well in this next generation, they are going to need to reduce that time as much as possible, as well as continue to enable user-supported mods, independent games, and really just get rid of the wall that makes it incredibly hard to find those products, even if they're allowed on the console... All that red tape needs to be stripped away in order to create an ecosystem to allow for a product like Minecraft to actually happen on a console."

Look for more Cliff in the news as he gears up for the keynote speech at the East Coast Game Conference April 24-25.

RoadKillGrill · Feb 25, 2013

Heh I was planning to go to ECGC anyway

Tho I thought he will have more of an appearance at Pax east before ECGC, I'll be going to that too

.... I'm not stalking him seriously, its business

Sir_Brizz · Feb 25, 2013

Yeah, imagine that. Suddenly the PC is a "viable platform" again. Nobody could have told you that 6 years ago.

Kyllian · Feb 26, 2013

Cliffy can just shut up already. He cashed in on consoles when they were getting "huge" and now that tablets/smartphones are gaining ground and PC is "returning", he's covering his ass so he can cash in again.

Manticore · Feb 26, 2013

Sir_Brizz said:
Yeah, imagine that. Suddenly the PC is a "viable platform" again. Nobody could have told you that 6 years ago.

I have to laugh......... :lol:

.... because some of us never left the PC for consoles. I haven't owned a console since the PS1.

Al · Feb 26, 2013

Manticore said:
I haven't owned a console since the PS1.

You missed out (or not, you can still get one) on the PS2. Probably the best console ever. There's games for years.

Capt.Toilet · Feb 26, 2013

Everytime Cliffy mentions that we should go digital only, I wanna punch him in his smug face. Sorry Clifford but no we aren't ready for digital only. I still prefer a physical copy over my digital download. Until we get rid of that wonderful thing called Bandwidth caps, the world will never be ready for digital only.

Bgood · Feb 26, 2013

Don't buy this idea that core gamers can't wait to step down to Angry Birds type titles on weaker platforms. The current consoles have outstayed their welcome that's all.

The fact that the current consoles are long in the tooth has retarded gaming more than any other factor imho , look at the debacle over Aliens : CM being gutted to run on consoles. But ...the PS4 is very impressive and more importantly very conducive to good PC ports. Next year with Oculus Rift, next gen games the situation might look entirely different, who knows?

Raynor.Z · Feb 26, 2013

Capt.Toilet said:
Everytime Cliffy mentions that we should go digital only, I wanna punch him in his smug face. Sorry Clifford but no we aren't ready for digital only. I still prefer a physical copy over my digital download. Until we get rid of that wonderful thing called Bandwidth caps, the world will never be ready for digital only.

Not only this. Until I can be sure that game I purchased digitally is playable 10 years from now on and does not require active internet connection, I do not support game as a service model. It's not always about bandwidth caps, it is also about future proofing.

ambershee · Feb 26, 2013

Indeed. My shelf has some titles on it that are now over 25 years old - and they are all still playable. Half the boxes in recent years, I've had to burn a crack to disk to go with it :/

zynthetic · Feb 26, 2013

The next Minecraft and a nurturing ecosystem? Seems to be a thing now to propose (Wired). Which isn't bad but if they were such a big deal in the first place you also have to remember that at least one platform has always had this.

Manticore · Feb 26, 2013

Al said:
You missed out (or not, you can still get one) on the PS2. Probably the best console ever. There's games for years.

I'm still thinking about getting a PS2 second hand for Gran Turismo.

Capt.Toilet said:
Everytime Cliffy mentions that we should go digital only, I wanna punch him in his smug face. Sorry Clifford but no we aren't ready for digital only. I still prefer a physical copy over my digital download. Until we get rid of that wonderful thing called Bandwidth caps, the world will never be ready for digital only.

Word.

Raynor.Z said:
Not only this. Until I can be sure that game I purchased digitally is playable 10 years from now on and does not require active internet connection, I do not support game as a service model. It's not always about bandwidth caps, it is also about future proofing.

+1

Kyllian · Feb 26, 2013

Capt.Toilet said:
Everytime Cliffy mentions that we should go digital only, I wanna punch him in his smug face. Sorry Clifford but no we aren't ready for digital only. I still prefer a physical copy over my digital download. Until we get rid of that wonderful thing called Bandwidth caps, the world will never be ready for digital only.

This. I don't know about the rest of the world, but the US is horribly behind in the area of bandwidth
Doesn't help when companies like Comcast own so many backbones and then throw fits and lawsuits when someone wants to offer something cheaper

Raynor has a point as well. If Valve's download servers were to disappear(let's assume the auth servers are intact), that's several million dollars worth of games that people can't touch anymore

ambershee · Feb 27, 2013

Kyllian said:
I don't know about the rest of the world, but the US is horribly behind in the area of bandwidth

Your infrastructure, at least in cities, is well ahead of most of the West.

Kyllian said:
If Valve's download servers were to disappear(let's assume the auth servers are intact), that's several million dollars worth of games that people can't touch anymore

Indeed, and it's the main reason I can't get behind digital distribution. Once the servers are gone, your content is gone. This is inevitable - it is more or less guaranteed to happen at some point.

Hunter · Feb 27, 2013

ambershee said:
Indeed, and it's the main reason I can't get behind digital distribution. Once the servers are gone, your content is gone. This is inevitable - it is more or less guaranteed to happen at some point.

There is also the issue of what happens if say Steam had to stop selling a title, even if you had already purchased it you may not be able to download it again.

ambershee · Feb 27, 2013

That has already happened (and on Xbox Live with Doom, as it happens). In both instances the game can still be redownloaded by existing players, but it cannot be purchased.

Hunter · Feb 27, 2013

ambershee said:
That has already happened (and on Xbox Live with Doom, as it happens). In both instances the game can still be redownloaded by existing players, but it cannot be purchased.

There have been issues on iTunes where films/tv/etc have been purchased and then removed from sale and people are unable to redownload them.

Al · Feb 27, 2013

I own Crysis 1 and 2 on Steam and I'm still allowed to download them, even though they're Origin only now.

ambershee · Feb 27, 2013

Indeed - and therein lies the difference between Apple's approach to customer care and the rest of the digital world.

Hunter · Feb 27, 2013

ambershee said:
Indeed - and therein lies the difference between Apple's approach to customer care and the rest of the digital world.

I don't think Apple controlled if they were pulled from sale or not and I'm sure if EA cared about older titles they could pull them completely from steam

Cliff Bleszinski's Dire Industry Outlook

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