Are the days of 'Epic' games numbered?

dvdbargains

dvdbargains

CAG Veteran
As the world drops into economic meltdown and people have less money in their pockets to spend, will the gaming houses still splash millions on the development of the epic games that we all love? The GTA series, Metal Gear Solid, Assassins Creed etc. all epic games but also come with a price tag.

Now that Nintendo have proved that you can produce smash hits on a low budget ie Brain Training are the days of the epic numbered??

I for one hope not.
 
I thought you meant the EPIC Unreal 3 tech which I'm all for. Bring on the RAGE engine which is PS3 optimized. But in what you said. No.
 
As the world drops into economic meltdown and people have less money in their pockets to spend, will the gaming houses still splash millions on the development of the epic games that we all love? The GTA series, Metal Gear Solid, Assassins Creed etc. all epic games but also come with a price tag.

Now that Nintendo have proved that you can produce smash hits on a low budget ie Brain Training are the days of the epic numbered??

I for one hope not.
 
While I agree, I also disagree.

I think the reason we are seeing an influx of crap Wii games is due to the economic problems. Say you start a company and it cost 20-40 million dollars to start, are you going to go out on a limb and make the game you wanted to make? And HOPE it sells enough to recoup your costs? Or are you going to quickly throw together a Wii game first so you can gain some income in order to beneift your future "epic game".

But the sad thing is that; I hope greed does not set in. I'm worried that instead of ever making that "epic game" they formed to do, they'll be pursaded by the exceptional income of making Wii games and will focus on those due to solely profit (not love and passion).

Time will tell, but I think as long as we are in this economic depression we will be seeing more junk and "popular franchises" instead of new, innovated epic titles.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']Is the General Gaming forum a thing of the past? Looks like it![/quote]

Seriously, remove this thread from the Sony and 360 forums and move it to GGT.

~HotShotX
 
I especially like how it was necessary to post this on both the PS3 and 360 forums...just over a month before RE5 comes out. Not to mention he names Assassin's Creed as an "epic" game. First, learn what an epic is. Go read The Odyssey. It is a great epic. GTA is not an epic. Oblivion is an epic. Fable II is an epic. God of War is an epic. Hell, even Halo 3 could be called an epic.

If you merely mean "big money" games, since you mention they "come with a price tag", why would any of these games begin to disappear when they are all pretty much sure things? If anything, we might see less original IP because developers aren't willing to take a risk in this economic climate. Sequels, there will be plenty of. In fact, GTA5 has already been rumored to be in development. I'm sorry to shoot you down so hard, but this is one of the feeblest attempts at stirring controversy I've seen in some time. Go back to the junior high debate team.
 
I think the gaming market as a whole will probably collapse under it's own weight soon enough if they aren't careful.

Games demand too much time now, and there are more and more everyday and they are constantly releasing new DLC. They are no longer an investment of a day or 2, but the investment of 15-60 hours. A dedicated, core gamer simply can not keep up with the current releases, and hold down a job that supports the hobby.

Core Gamers are dedicated hobbiest. By nature, hobbiest like to be "in the know", and have their hands in everything related to their interest. When the time comes that they can't keep up with current trends, opinions, etc- they tend to back off completely (see Comic book industry crash of the 90s).
 
Second definition of the word "epic" (extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope).

Epic games, as anything extraordinary, have always been and shall continue to be the exception rather than the rule. But they wont disappear altogether.
 
Games are actually cheap entertainment when you think about the cost/time ratio (especially for games with online multiplayer). Epic games as you call them also tend to hold their value longer, and can be resold or traded with some effort. The gaming industry isn't going anywhere and all a recession can do is boost sales as people go out less and stay in more.
 
Besides, if you want to make your point about epic games being a thing of the past, citing multimillion selling titles isn't a good starting point for making your argument.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Epic games are being replaced by double posts, it appears.[/quote]You noticed that, too? I'm not sure why the OP felt the need to post the same question in two forums, neither of which was the best place for it. I've merged the two threads into one and moved the new thread into the General Gaming Forum where we can answer this question again.
 
No. Games like GTAIV, Gears of War, Halo, etc. etc. sell like hot cakes still.

There's plenty of room in the market for those kind of games and casual games like Brain Age and Wii Sports.

There's still more "epic" games a year than I can play and my free time will only continue to shrink so I think I'll have more than enough games to play for the foreseeable future.
 
No, but it seems the single player games are finished. Everybody seems to complain about games being too short if it's around the 10 hour mark, and people power through them over a weekend. Everybody wants online co-op and multiplayer now.
 
As long as there's a PC gaming market, there's going to be some epic games. Some studios will pour their hearts and resources into their passions.

Concerning console gaming, I think we're okay for the remainder of this generation, although our choices might become more limited. Actually, as gamers get older (like me!) and lose their reflexes, perhaps RPGs will gradually replace FPSs. Of course, older gamers in theory have less discretional time to 'waste', so maybe not.

I just hope the platformer doesn't ever become effectively extinct. It seems really close right now.
 
Well first I would say that gamers need to stop using “epic” as some sort of all encompassing word that describes all that is good within gaming. Limiting our gamer vocabulary with “epic” as some sort of catch all for a good game really limits our range of gaming experiences. A lot of interesting stories don’t necessarily fall within the realm of “epic”. Also a lot of games suffer from this requirement by gamers to be epic in scale. Assassin’s Creed would have benefited from scaling back it’s “epicness”, it takes a lot of copy and paste and repetition to fill up that “epic” amount of space.
 
Any label is pretty useless.

I just took it that the OP meant traditional games may be endanger as casual games rise--not any specific type of traditional game. But maybe he did mean something more specific.

Personally as long as I have plenty of FPS and western RPGs to play I'll be good to go, and I can get by with 5-10 a year as I just don't have that much time/interest in gaming anymore.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Any label is pretty useless.

I just took it that the OP meant traditional games may be endanger as casual games rise--not any specific type of traditional game. But maybe he did mean something more specific.

Personally as long as I have plenty of FPS and western RPGs to play I'll be good to go, and I can get by with 5-10 a year as I just don't have that much time/interest in gaming anymore.[/QUOTE]

Have you ever made a post in which you don't refer to the fact that you don't play videogames as much as you used to?
 
All the time. Maybe not often in these "future of gaming" threads since gaming habits are very relevant to the discussion.

Sorry I don't have the free time of all you teenagers and college students. :roll:
 
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[quote name='n8rockerasu']Not to mention he names Assassin's Creed as an "epic" game. First, learn what an epic is.[/QUOTE]

I don't even know how anyone could put AC up there with MGS series. Saw my nephew play it over at my house and all he did was climb walls(might as well play spiderman) and counter-attack enemies. Sure as hell isn't epic nor fun. Only reason I think it even sold so much was because of Jade.
 
Take a look at some of the games coming out this year, Huge blockbuster games are more abundant than ever. Hell February alone has KZ2, SF4, FEAR 2, etc
 
[quote name='n8rockerasu']If you merely mean "big money" games, since you mention they "come with a price tag", why would any of these games begin to disappear when they are all pretty much sure things? If anything, we might see less original IP because developers aren't willing to take a risk in this economic climate. Sequels, there will be plenty of. [/QUOTE]

Well said. And original IP games have been on the downswing for a while. I'm pretty sure most ever gaming website and mag has done a story on devs and pubs sticking to proven franchises (or licensed IPs) more and more as the safe bet. Doesn't help when some highly publicized original IPs with big budgets end up producing games that disappoint either in sales or critic reviews or both.
 
i hope the trend of "epic" games does die out. quite a bit of the epic games over the past few years have been more about spectacle than actual gameplay.

i don't mean to sound like a game snob. i enjoy just as many of the blockbuster games as anyone else. i just wish the hype machines would die down. how many advertising dollars were wasted on making Halo 3, Gears 2, MGS4, and GTA IV huge events? that money could have been spent on actual game content.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']All the time. Maybe not often in these "future of gaming" threads since gaming habits are very relevant to the discussion.

Sorry I don't have the free time of all you teenagers and college students. :roll:[/QUOTE]

You're a year older than me grandpa. I suppose it wouldn't have been so noticable if you hadn't mentioned your 'lack of time for games' twice already in this very thread.
 
[quote name='Halo05']You're a year older than me grandpa. I suppose it wouldn't have been so noticable if you hadn't mentioned your 'lack of time for games' twice already in this very thread.[/quote]
I was wondering when someone was going to call dmaul on that...

dmaul, you're a great poster IMO and I always appreciate what you have to say, but you do seem to work in a mention in almost every post about how you don't even like games very much and barely play them. I just find it kind of amusing and I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed. Rock on man. :)
 
What can I say. It's a gaming site and coming here (while taking a quick break while slaving away on work) makes me wish I had more time to actually play games!

But there's not much with working 60+ hour weeks, hitting the gym, social obligations and other hobbies I like more than gaming to find time for.

So sorry if my posts are redundant but thems the apples of my gaming interests. I like games a lot but don't have much free time and have other hobbies to enjoy so it's always going to be the same story in threads discussing gaming habits.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']What can I say. It's a gaming site and coming here (while taking a quick break while slaving away on work) makes me wish I had more time to actually play games![/quote]
I hear that.
 
It depends on what you feel qualifies as an epic experience. I finally beat Mass Effect two weeks ago. Playing from Virmire to the end. In my opinion that game was epic. The scope of the story was grand. The weight of Shepard's role in the Mass Effect universe and the final development of the story wowed me. For me an epic experience has totally to do with the scale of the world the game places you in. That includes plot, characters, and setting.
I don't think a game needs a big budget to be epic. Shadow of the Colossus was a very epic experience. To my knowledge Team Ico doesn't work with a Triple-A budget. I think what it boils down to is that game developers are focused on making money. If they can be more profittable making smaller game experiences they will. Developers like Bioware, Kojima Productions, & Team Ico are exceptions in the industry and not the rule.

Also I think a lot of people have the notion that if a game isn't epic the game is bad. I think this ties in with my idea that most people have varying opinions on what constitutes as epic and for a lot of people epic=good. This is not the case. In fact, most games are not epic. Most good games wouldn't be considered epic works. People need to rediscover what constitutes as an epic (e.g. the Iliad) and redefine their opinions.
 
I don't see how anyone can ask this question, after the numbers that Gears of War 2 produced... The numbers that MGS4 produced... etc. I definitely think that smaller projects are going to be more abundant, but the "epic" games will still stay in effect. I think that the "epic" games might end up being better produced, as devs can't afford for the game to bomb; so I would think that that more effort would be made to ensure that the project is executed appropriately.
 
There is no precedent to suggest this will happen. During the Depression, Hollywood went through a boom period where technology improvement lead to far more ambitious projects and swelling audiences. The musical spectacular became a staple during this period.

For all of the caterwauling, the situation right now isn't remotely as dire as it was in 1930.

Entertainment companies will seek to cut costs where possible but big budget productions will go on as the rewards remain to be had.
 
[quote name='nbballard']I think the gaming market as a whole will probably collapse under it's own weight soon enough if they aren't careful.

Games demand too much time now, and there are more and more everyday and they are constantly releasing new DLC. They are no longer an investment of a day or 2, but the investment of 15-60 hours. A dedicated, core gamer simply can not keep up with the current releases, and hold down a job that supports the hobby.

Core Gamers are dedicated hobbiest. By nature, hobbiest like to be "in the know", and have their hands in everything related to their interest. When the time comes that they can't keep up with current trends, opinions, etc- they tend to back off completely (see Comic book industry crash of the 90s).[/quote]

Uh, what? Seriously, the fact that I get more for my money by having a longer game or get more out of my investment and thats a bad thing? Whats wrong with this world? Can't keep up with every new release? Here's a thought, play one game at a time until you are done with it. The games will always be there.
 
[quote name='mike.m']Uh, what? Seriously, the fact that I get more for my money by having a longer game or get more out of my investment and thats a bad thing? Whats wrong with this world? Can't keep up with every new release? Here's a thought, play one game at a time until you are done with it. The games will always be there.[/QUOTE]

Yeah it's a great thing to have a lot of games to choose from and to have a lot of games be high quality and fairly lengthy.

I don't have a lot of time for games, so I just buy a handful of AAA games and with online play, DLC etc. I can be set for the year and spend less money than in the past when everything was singleplayer and had no add ons. Also means I can just wait a price drop or two into next gen before buying in (and save money) as I'll have plenty of 360 games to catch up on.

And playing one at a time, and enjoying it is the way to go. As you say the games will always be there, and be very cheap (and readily available on Goozex) when you have time to play them. And personally, it's not the end of the world if I don't play every game that interests me.
 
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no it will not happen. the titles yo mentioned are the cash cows of their company. Each company knows when they produce a GTA, or a Street Fighter, or a Halo...its going to bring in some serious cash no matter what the condition the economy. i only see smaller studios closing up or mergering because obviously their small titles dont bring nearly as much revenue as the titles you mentioned.
 
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