The 10,000 foot view
Let me zoom out from the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) vs. Sony battle to offer some observations about the current state of the gaming business. I was surprised to read this very gloomy characterization of the gaming industry by fellow Foolish blogger Leo Sun:
“When I think of the current state of the video game industry, which is characterized by declining hardware and software sales being propped up by endless refreshes of tired franchises, I like to reminisce about the good ol’ days of gaming, when video games resembled games more than Hollywood movies.”
I find I have no such nostalgia for the good ol’ days of gaming and in fact look forward to future games resembling Hollywood movies even more. As a story-telling medium, the cinematic role playing game is still in its infancy, just as motion pictures were a century ago. In those early movies, stories and characters were shallow by today’s standards, as movie makers focused on mastering the technical challenges of their new medium.
Current game designers are still contending with the challenges of their medium like the early film makers, so stories and characters have taken a back seat to the technical aspects. This is starting to change, and we saw plenty evidence of this in the game announcements that accompanied the new consoles. More games are being produced that allow completely free roaming by the player in their virtual worlds. Story lines are increasingly non-linear, another break from the past which is also difficult to master.
Far from being endless refreshes of tired franchises, what E3 offered was exciting new games with spectacularly detailed physics modeling and image rendering, combined with interesting story lines. Even the acting is getting better. One game, Beyond Two Souls, features the voice and on-screen avatar of Willem Dafoe.
The game industry has been in the financial doldrums because of the long time since the last generation of consoles was introduced, while PC gaming rigs were beyond the reach of many who could otherwise afford a $400-500 console. Having a new generation of high performance consoles will release pent up demand and spur purchases of game content. Once both Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) and Microsoft start delivering the new consoles in quantities, 10 million consoles per quarter between them is quite realistic.
The passion with which gamers have reacted to the new consoles, whether negative or positive, shows how important this new digital entertainment industry is.
Mark Hibben has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
The article Sony and Microsoft Battle for Hearts and Minds at E3 originally appeared on Fool.com.
Mark is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
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