http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/zynga-insiders-cashed-just-stock-crashed-144334658.html
This has been making news. There also appears to be a concurrent downward trend between Zynga and Facebook. Back when my sister used to play Farmville, her, that game, and Facebook were locked at the hips. Now she pretty much ignores Facebook and consequently ignores Farmville. I’ve also been hearing the games are getting overboard on the ads to the point that it’s putting people off from playing the games.
You said back during E3 that the Social Media trend of gaming had peaked and now could only decline, and this would seem to vindicate that statement.
I wonder about Valve, now. I wonder about their future. Something I’ve thought about is Steam. They tend to have a lot of sales on their site. A lot. Now depending on how old the games are, this might not be a big deal. But some of the newer games are not out for very long before getting marked down by a significant amount. Now the part of me that is a consumer of gaming, doesn’t really care that much (I don’t really use the Steam platform, I only have it on my computer so I could play an old copy of Half-Life someone gave me). Sales are all well and good, and the sales probably wouldn’t be needed if the value of much of these games are so weak, but that makes me wonder about how much longer Steam can last. I think a lot of developers might start to get wind of the fact that they could just as easily set up a site for themselves to sell their games and on their terms.
As little as I care for them, I might be able to see why EA would just make their own store now, as they might have been Steam as being a rip-off for being on an open platform. And actually, considering that games like TF2 are free, and considering that if I’m not mistaken, they made Portal off of an idea from somebody else, and seeing as that they’ve been busy making hats for people to buy for TF2 instead of actually making new games, I’m starting to see Steam as actually being detrimental to the longterm health of gaming by exploiting customers to do their job for them and by continually eroding the value of the games on its platform with constant sales.
Christensen has said that a key element of disruption is decentralization. And you said that the key element of why the internet works is decentralization. And it seems to me that Steam wants to become the end-all, be-all, go-to platform for PC gaming. But I wonder if that can last. I’ve been on forums and I’ve seen people mock Newell’s comments about Windows 8 as being similar to comments he made a few years back about the PS3 being awful, only to change his tune with Sony started being more receptive to Steam. And now I see people calling him out on his comments about Windows 8 due to it coming with a gaming app. Game companies making their own services to sell their games hurts the centralized gaming hub future that Valve is pursuing, and so Newell rattles his saber.
The “hardcore” gamers loved EA because EA did everything they wanted. But that path lead to decline rather than success and growth. So being late to the party, they tried to ride the wave of good fortune of other developers, but they didn’t know how to ride the wave properly and are beginning to sink with a lot of other game developers. And of course even though they are trying to save themselves, gamers are turning on them and seeing them for who they really are. I’m starting to wonder if Steam/Valve might suffer a similar fate a few years down the road.My comments on the Valve Corporation were more about how Valve Corporation doesn’t seem interested in making video games anymore. There was a story about a high profile artist at the Valve Corporation leaving the company because he was interested in making games and Valve Corporation doesn’t do that anymore. This told me that Valve Corporation won’t be coming out with a game anytime soon (aside from hiring modders for cheap and getting them to make a game for their company which I interpret as somewhat exploitative). If gaming was music, Valve Corporation is no longer a ‘band’ that ‘plays’. Valve Corporation is now a music publisher who finds promising bands on the rise, refuse to give them the financial knowledge for them to make their own financial structure, but market themselves as saying, “We will make your dreams come true if we can own and publish the songs you make.” Digital distribution has really freed musicians from such publishers as musicians have given them the middle finger. With video games, it seems to be going the opposite way.
I wouldn’t say the ‘Social gaming’ bubble has “burst”, but it has certainly peaked. I think ‘Social Media’ is the most overhyped bullshit ever. To hell with all these gaming websites saying “Post this on your Facebook page!”I never liked the phrase ‘Social Media’ since it implied if you did not use it, you were ‘unsocial’. But the Internet is the most social medium ever made. Decades ago, it brought everyone email, online chat, message forums, and more. The Internet did not become ‘social’ because of ‘Social Media’. It was always social.
A better phrase would be ‘Viral Media’. Marketers approach Social Media so everything can go ‘viral’. Like their latest post on their stupid game? They want it to go ‘viral’. Those stupid 3DS games they included with the system? Those were to be ‘viral games’ to make the system popular. Apparently, people didn’t like Wii Sports but the game only went ‘viral’ because it was a ‘viral game’. At least, that is what is going on in the heads of Nintendo. The Wii U OS has all this viral crap in it too. Do I really need to see Miis hanging out at the ‘most popular’ games? If the game was truly popular, I would know about it anyway. You cannot force a Jones effect.
“It’s the content, stupid.” These four words sum up how entertainment works. All marketing can do is direct the person to the product. If the content isn’t there, the sales won’t happen.
It’s like no one wants to make a quality product anymore. Where is the pride in making quality? At E3 2012, did you see console companies stand proudly behind the quality of their games? Or did you see console companies show us how much they are involved in ‘social media’?
Social media is making our game consoles do jobs we don’t want it to do. Where are the games? I want games. And I want to play these games online. But Nintendo thinks they are ‘with it’ on the Internet because the Wii U connects to Twitter, Facebook, smartphones, your friends, message boards, but none of the Nintendo launch games allows any online gameplay.
To give an analogy that even Nintendo can understand, imagine the N64 being shown off for the first time at E3. It has 3D in the start up screen, in the titles of games, in the logos, there is 3d everywhere except in the games. And then Nintendo declares they are ‘with it’ concerning 3d.
Nintendo would be laughed out of dodge. And the laughter is going to grow as Nintendo continues this ‘online’ direction.