Here we go again...another game recession coming?

[G-Boobie]

This is not another doom and gloom discussion that points out that people are going to stop playing videogames. The question I want to ask is: Are we currently entering another game recession? It seems that everything now can have a videogame made for it. Heck, even our cell phones have amazing games these days. Sequels are being pumped out faster than ever. I for one see a growing trend that will continue to lower game sales for the forseeable future

1. Too many sequels. I have been saying this for years, but at some point, people get tired of playing the same type of game

Nah. Eventually Call of Duty will start to drop off, but for now, it's selling more copies than ever. Skyrim sold ten million copies, which is something like eight million more than Oblivion and five or six more than Fallout 3. The MMO landscape is changing to micro transaction based free to play stuff, but that's doing very well for companies like Turbine and Aria. When people get tired of that, something else will come along. People got tired of shady mascot platformers, JRPGs and fighting games, each in their turn, and when they did, they didn't stop buying games (on the whole, I mean). They moved on to different and new experiences.

2. Newer games not as fun as older ones. Sound familiar? I cant tell you how many times I picked up a recent game only to find myself going back to the orginal due to be either easier to play or more fun.

That is entirely subjective. I love the older stuff too, but I've had more fun with games this generation than any that preceded it. I'm not alone, here: someone is buying all the new fangled games. They're buying a hell of a lot of them too.

3. Fewer hardware sales. This generation is slowing down, and the portable market has a potentially smaller market in the future(3DS, VITA)

I can't speak to the lower hardware sales, other than the 360 is still selling tremendously well and the Wii has something like 100 million consoles in homes, but I agree that the 3DS and Vita are probably going to lose out to smart phones and tablets in the long term.

4. More people are just not buying new. The amount of games being played is the same or more, but many folks are now going to just play something old, something really old, or just catch up on previous games that have not been played.

Used game sales are certainly up, but plenty of people are buying new stuff. In fact, the number of games that sold upwards of one million copies last year is pretty inspiring. Catherine, the hybrid dating sim block puzzle game, sold 200,00 copies here in the states, and you don't get any weirder and niche than that.

So what do you folks think? Are we headed for a game recession, or are we just fine?

No sir. I think we're experiencing the very beginning of a very sharp evolution in how we buy, play, and make games, but the video game market isn't going anywhere; if anything, it's growing. You might not enjoy where it's at right now, and that's perfectly fine, but looking at all the sweet stuff that's coming out, and seeing people I know who are getting into games for the first time because of the Wii or Kinect, from where I'm sitting, it looks pretty good.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Boobie in for the win.

Pretty much /thread IMO.

[RCM]

Nothing to see here, move along.

Gaming as a whole has really never been stronger globally and in North America. Just 'cause systems better suited for another age (3DS/PSVita) aren't selling as well doesn't mean a thing in terms of the overall health of games. The same can be said for just about every other point you made.

There's so much more going on beyond the traditional industry and it's really exciting in some ways. But it's a shame about the Vita considering it's the nicest piece of gaming tech I've ever held outside a Japanese Saturn controller.

[kaedesdisciple]

Recession/collapse - absolutely not
Constant industry transformation - absolutely yes

When the collapse happened in the 80's, there were two main ways to game. You played games on your TV through some box that had some wires on it and a stick, dial or buttons that you pressed in your hand or you went to an arcade to pump quarters into a machine the size of your refrigerator. Now with so many games in so many different places with so many interfaces, it's just a matter of which experience the customers want now.

The way we think about games is constantly evolving and the companies that comprise the game development market will follow because they have to in order to remain profitable.