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“Money hungry thieves” is what lead singer of Linkin Park (Chester Bennington) called the men behind the music industry, and they are not the only ones who think so. It is almost well known that the music labels and the managers behind them exploit the talented artists that produce music. The music labels influence the bands completely, Linkin Park were originally called “Hybrid Theory” but the label they signed with (Warner Brothers) believed they should change their name and so they did. Record companies can really make or break a new group/singer, they can make a group of 5 talentless boys hit number one every time which just goes to prove if you throw enough money at it, it’ll work. If a music label decides your good enough then they will set the band a certain amount of money, if that band gets coverage by all major music channels, has a stunning video, gets appearances on various TV programmes and adverts then the chances are they’ll do well.
And that is down solely to the record label, it is the record label that decide the time it should take for the next album to be produced, numerous times have bands produced “Re-mix” or “Live” albums to prevent the fans losing interest and to keep their record label happy. And so we come to the game industry, a fairly decent industry in comparison, but the harsh reality is that soon enough the games industry will soon be following the music industry. Sony is themselves a record label, and since their entrance to the games industry many years ago it has been evident they are dragging the industry down the same road. Every Record label meanwhile is corrupt in one way or another but the difference in the game industry is that one is not. Now enter the bias I am so famed for, but this is why I like Nintendo so much, the reason I like Nintendo is because I find the games stunning but my obsession stems from the fact that these guys are the good guys of the industry. I would love to put SEGA besides Nintendo, they have always followed similar beliefs in how the industry should work but sadly they are victims of the industry’s tumble into the dark depths of business.
SEGA were good guys within the industry, they didn’t put pressure on the various companies that worked with them (Amusement Vision, Sonic Team etc…) if they wanted 3 years to make a game then they can have 3 years and SEGA would support them. They were also willing to let new talent try out and support them as well as more well known stuff, many companies hit dizzying heights with the Megadrive with SEGA’s willingness to support them through thick or thin. Come 1995 and the year of the Playstation and this was one company who worked slightly differently to both SEGA and Nintendo. Sony knew it was all about image, much like a good deal of the pop stars today if it looked good it sold and it didn’t matter if it didn’t play/sound good. Advertisement became a big thing and Sony used their money to get the majority of airtime on various TV programmes. Lets face it half the games on the Playstation did well because of Sony’s use of the media and the amount of persuasion they gave the companies to produce a sequel within a short period of time. 5 Tomb Raider games, 3 Tekken games, 4 Resident Evil titles and 4 Crash games all appeared on the console and this was all due to Sony wishing developers to make a sequel time and time again, after 5 Tomb Raider games I know I’d get bored.
And then there is Nintendo, it seemed like almost certain death for Nintendo a while back there but the reason they survived as opposed to SEGA was due to Nintendo standing by the way they run business. SEGA tried to follow Sony with a marketing Blitz, sadly it all backfired for SEGA who tried adopting new ideas and concepts to help compete with the big guns. Nintendo didn’t move, long development time, lack of pressure on their second party developers, refusal to believe that just because it looks good doesn’t mean it plays well, the Nintendo difference so to speak and sure enough it paid off. Whereas Sony released games as soon as possible Nintendo took their time, Zelda took 3 and a half years to make, Sony wouldn’t stand for it, at least 2 games would have been released by that point. Although Nintendo suffered in between the long development periods when the big games do get released that is when Nintendo’s bank balance err balances. Mario Sunshine released recently in Japan has re-born the Gamecube, the amount of money made on the title proved that it was worth waiting that extra 10 months after the Cube’s launch. Would Sony have waited? Nintendo are offering huge sums of money to new games companies, Sony offer some assistance but nothing in comparison to Nintendo who are willing to advertise new ideas e.g. Pikmin/Pokemon as much as old favourites e.g. Mario/Zelda.
Sadly we are being dragged into an industry that resembles the musical world, and it is Sony who are doing it, if a game is good but sells poorly then Sony doesn’t want to know. Whereas Nintendo despite poor sales for certain titles are willing to release a sequel if the game is good. DMA another game publisher wouldn’t support a sequel to Body Harvest despite being an awesome game. They may allow the game to be released if it happened to get a graphical face-lift but even so they are far more willing to pump millions into the better selling GTA series rather than give Body Harvest the recognition it truly deserves. It won’t be long before we see more gaming channels, we may see channels that allow you to choose the game clip you want to see (now there’s an idea), and I can guarantee you Wipeout 4 will get much more coverage than Ico 2.
Here’s to the future
Dringo.
And that is down solely to the record label, it is the record label that decide the time it should take for the next album to be produced, numerous times have bands produced “Re-mix” or “Live” albums to prevent the fans losing interest and to keep their record label happy. And so we come to the game industry, a fairly decent industry in comparison, but the harsh reality is that soon enough the games industry will soon be following the music industry. Sony is themselves a record label, and since their entrance to the games industry many years ago it has been evident they are dragging the industry down the same road. Every Record label meanwhile is corrupt in one way or another but the difference in the game industry is that one is not. Now enter the bias I am so famed for, but this is why I like Nintendo so much, the reason I like Nintendo is because I find the games stunning but my obsession stems from the fact that these guys are the good guys of the industry. I would love to put SEGA besides Nintendo, they have always followed similar beliefs in how the industry should work but sadly they are victims of the industry’s tumble into the dark depths of business.
SEGA were good guys within the industry, they didn’t put pressure on the various companies that worked with them (Amusement Vision, Sonic Team etc…) if they wanted 3 years to make a game then they can have 3 years and SEGA would support them. They were also willing to let new talent try out and support them as well as more well known stuff, many companies hit dizzying heights with the Megadrive with SEGA’s willingness to support them through thick or thin. Come 1995 and the year of the Playstation and this was one company who worked slightly differently to both SEGA and Nintendo. Sony knew it was all about image, much like a good deal of the pop stars today if it looked good it sold and it didn’t matter if it didn’t play/sound good. Advertisement became a big thing and Sony used their money to get the majority of airtime on various TV programmes. Lets face it half the games on the Playstation did well because of Sony’s use of the media and the amount of persuasion they gave the companies to produce a sequel within a short period of time. 5 Tomb Raider games, 3 Tekken games, 4 Resident Evil titles and 4 Crash games all appeared on the console and this was all due to Sony wishing developers to make a sequel time and time again, after 5 Tomb Raider games I know I’d get bored.
And then there is Nintendo, it seemed like almost certain death for Nintendo a while back there but the reason they survived as opposed to SEGA was due to Nintendo standing by the way they run business. SEGA tried to follow Sony with a marketing Blitz, sadly it all backfired for SEGA who tried adopting new ideas and concepts to help compete with the big guns. Nintendo didn’t move, long development time, lack of pressure on their second party developers, refusal to believe that just because it looks good doesn’t mean it plays well, the Nintendo difference so to speak and sure enough it paid off. Whereas Sony released games as soon as possible Nintendo took their time, Zelda took 3 and a half years to make, Sony wouldn’t stand for it, at least 2 games would have been released by that point. Although Nintendo suffered in between the long development periods when the big games do get released that is when Nintendo’s bank balance err balances. Mario Sunshine released recently in Japan has re-born the Gamecube, the amount of money made on the title proved that it was worth waiting that extra 10 months after the Cube’s launch. Would Sony have waited? Nintendo are offering huge sums of money to new games companies, Sony offer some assistance but nothing in comparison to Nintendo who are willing to advertise new ideas e.g. Pikmin/Pokemon as much as old favourites e.g. Mario/Zelda.
Sadly we are being dragged into an industry that resembles the musical world, and it is Sony who are doing it, if a game is good but sells poorly then Sony doesn’t want to know. Whereas Nintendo despite poor sales for certain titles are willing to release a sequel if the game is good. DMA another game publisher wouldn’t support a sequel to Body Harvest despite being an awesome game. They may allow the game to be released if it happened to get a graphical face-lift but even so they are far more willing to pump millions into the better selling GTA series rather than give Body Harvest the recognition it truly deserves. It won’t be long before we see more gaming channels, we may see channels that allow you to choose the game clip you want to see (now there’s an idea), and I can guarantee you Wipeout 4 will get much more coverage than Ico 2.
Here’s to the future
Dringo.
A long time since I won for a post... joy.
Well done Dringo!
Definitely GAD worthy.
Definitely GAD worthy.
Great post, Dringo.
Well deserved GAD, me thinks.
Well deserved GAD, me thinks.
Nice post, I'm sure soon someone will reply telling us that Nintendo are the bad guys (they DO hate Europe after all!) ;-)
Anyway there are good points and bad points to each approach. Shigsy has said himself that he is a perfectionist. If he had it his way he'd keep improving a game forever, but you have to unleash it on the public sooner or later. Nintendo do seem to be changing their approach a little, I think they're going by a policy in Japan of releasing one Nintendo game a month (dunno if that is including or excluding second parties though...?) which I don't think the NEED to do because unlike the N64 they have third party support. However, it is a quite good choice and as long as they keep bringing out quality games like Pikmin, Smash Bros, Wave Race etc. they'll do fine. None of these are the console selling games if we're honest, but Mario Sunshine is lurking ready to be unleashed on Europe while Japan already has it...
Sony's approach ensures gamers never get bored, there's always something new. However, can we honestly say we can all afford a new game everytime we get bored? I certainly can't. If it hadn't been for a few GAD wins I would still have just one or possibly two GameCube games. But it also allows a lot of choice. What it does risk though is quality. Now you may still get great games with this approach, but if developers do have contant pressure and deadlines as many major labels impose on music artists then you're going to see an increase in sequels, an increase in quick cash in style games (ie. jumping on bandwagons, less innovation and more copying others ideas) and you're probably going to see some very popular franchises appear. This is already happening to some extent. Look at the Fifa series of footie games. Most experienced gamers will tell you they are far from the best footie games around (obviously personal preference applies, but I still think most gamers will agree that Fifa games are far from the best) but they sell so well every time a yearly update is released or a world cup edition comes out. Similarly the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games are becoming another popular franchise, so much so that I'm pretty certain no other skateboarding game, no matter how good in quality it was, could outsell the latest THPS game, simply because it's another of those established franchise games.
All developers care whether their games sell though- but some do care about the games quality too. In fact, all must do, but I think many care more about sales than quality. Now obviously Nintendo care about profit, but you can tell Nintendo and their head games designer Shigeru Miyamoto also care about the quality of games. Shigeru Miyamoto makes games with new concepts in them, I mean if he wanted a game to sell incredibly well he could have chosen something more acceptable to gamers than the concept behind Pikmin. He could have gone with more realistic graphics, a more accepted RTS style. He still could have stripped it down, but he could have gone with anything graphically, and he chose little flower people. Why? Because that was his idea. It wasn't about whether people would like the idea of controlling flower people, that was the idea, and he knew some people at least would love the game for how it played. And that's why it has sold well.
Anyway, I'm going to end this reply here, I've written far too much already... :D
Anyway there are good points and bad points to each approach. Shigsy has said himself that he is a perfectionist. If he had it his way he'd keep improving a game forever, but you have to unleash it on the public sooner or later. Nintendo do seem to be changing their approach a little, I think they're going by a policy in Japan of releasing one Nintendo game a month (dunno if that is including or excluding second parties though...?) which I don't think the NEED to do because unlike the N64 they have third party support. However, it is a quite good choice and as long as they keep bringing out quality games like Pikmin, Smash Bros, Wave Race etc. they'll do fine. None of these are the console selling games if we're honest, but Mario Sunshine is lurking ready to be unleashed on Europe while Japan already has it...
Sony's approach ensures gamers never get bored, there's always something new. However, can we honestly say we can all afford a new game everytime we get bored? I certainly can't. If it hadn't been for a few GAD wins I would still have just one or possibly two GameCube games. But it also allows a lot of choice. What it does risk though is quality. Now you may still get great games with this approach, but if developers do have contant pressure and deadlines as many major labels impose on music artists then you're going to see an increase in sequels, an increase in quick cash in style games (ie. jumping on bandwagons, less innovation and more copying others ideas) and you're probably going to see some very popular franchises appear. This is already happening to some extent. Look at the Fifa series of footie games. Most experienced gamers will tell you they are far from the best footie games around (obviously personal preference applies, but I still think most gamers will agree that Fifa games are far from the best) but they sell so well every time a yearly update is released or a world cup edition comes out. Similarly the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games are becoming another popular franchise, so much so that I'm pretty certain no other skateboarding game, no matter how good in quality it was, could outsell the latest THPS game, simply because it's another of those established franchise games.
All developers care whether their games sell though- but some do care about the games quality too. In fact, all must do, but I think many care more about sales than quality. Now obviously Nintendo care about profit, but you can tell Nintendo and their head games designer Shigeru Miyamoto also care about the quality of games. Shigeru Miyamoto makes games with new concepts in them, I mean if he wanted a game to sell incredibly well he could have chosen something more acceptable to gamers than the concept behind Pikmin. He could have gone with more realistic graphics, a more accepted RTS style. He still could have stripped it down, but he could have gone with anything graphically, and he chose little flower people. Why? Because that was his idea. It wasn't about whether people would like the idea of controlling flower people, that was the idea, and he knew some people at least would love the game for how it played. And that's why it has sold well.
Anyway, I'm going to end this reply here, I've written far too much already... :D
brad@specialreserve wrote:
> Linkin Park changed there name because there was another band with a
> simular name (Hybrid 11 I think) and they didn't want a possible court
> case.
Is that so? I initial read it was because Warner Brothers wanted them to compete with Limp Bizkit but a later Interview with them just said their label wanted to change their name and so they called them self Linkin Park after the Linkon Park's in america... A third source contradicts them all...
> The only reason the music industry is aloud to get away with making
> terrible music is because 80% of the british public are dribbling
> fools who have become products of their televisions.
Exactly, and they know exactly how to exploit that as well.
> Linkin Park changed there name because there was another band with a
> simular name (Hybrid 11 I think) and they didn't want a possible court
> case.
Is that so? I initial read it was because Warner Brothers wanted them to compete with Limp Bizkit but a later Interview with them just said their label wanted to change their name and so they called them self Linkin Park after the Linkon Park's in america... A third source contradicts them all...
> The only reason the music industry is aloud to get away with making
> terrible music is because 80% of the british public are dribbling
> fools who have become products of their televisions.
Exactly, and they know exactly how to exploit that as well.
Linkin Park changed there name because there was another band with a simular name (Hybrid 11 I think) and they didn't want a possible court case.
The only reason the music industry is aloud to get away with making terrible music is because 80% of the british public are dribbling fools who have become products of their televisions.
The only reason the music industry is aloud to get away with making terrible music is because 80% of the british public are dribbling fools who have become products of their televisions.
“Money hungry thieves” is what lead singer of Linkin Park (Chester Bennington) called the men behind the music industry, and they are not the only ones who think so. It is almost well known that the music labels and the managers behind them exploit the talented artists that produce music. The music labels influence the bands completely, Linkin Park were originally called “Hybrid Theory” but the label they signed with (Warner Brothers) believed they should change their name and so they did. Record companies can really make or break a new group/singer, they can make a group of 5 talentless boys hit number one every time which just goes to prove if you throw enough money at it, it’ll work. If a music label decides your good enough then they will set the band a certain amount of money, if that band gets coverage by all major music channels, has a stunning video, gets appearances on various TV programmes and adverts then the chances are they’ll do well.
And that is down solely to the record label, it is the record label that decide the time it should take for the next album to be produced, numerous times have bands produced “Re-mix” or “Live” albums to prevent the fans losing interest and to keep their record label happy. And so we come to the game industry, a fairly decent industry in comparison, but the harsh reality is that soon enough the games industry will soon be following the music industry. Sony is themselves a record label, and since their entrance to the games industry many years ago it has been evident they are dragging the industry down the same road. Every Record label meanwhile is corrupt in one way or another but the difference in the game industry is that one is not. Now enter the bias I am so famed for, but this is why I like Nintendo so much, the reason I like Nintendo is because I find the games stunning but my obsession stems from the fact that these guys are the good guys of the industry. I would love to put SEGA besides Nintendo, they have always followed similar beliefs in how the industry should work but sadly they are victims of the industry’s tumble into the dark depths of business.
SEGA were good guys within the industry, they didn’t put pressure on the various companies that worked with them (Amusement Vision, Sonic Team etc…) if they wanted 3 years to make a game then they can have 3 years and SEGA would support them. They were also willing to let new talent try out and support them as well as more well known stuff, many companies hit dizzying heights with the Megadrive with SEGA’s willingness to support them through thick or thin. Come 1995 and the year of the Playstation and this was one company who worked slightly differently to both SEGA and Nintendo. Sony knew it was all about image, much like a good deal of the pop stars today if it looked good it sold and it didn’t matter if it didn’t play/sound good. Advertisement became a big thing and Sony used their money to get the majority of airtime on various TV programmes. Lets face it half the games on the Playstation did well because of Sony’s use of the media and the amount of persuasion they gave the companies to produce a sequel within a short period of time. 5 Tomb Raider games, 3 Tekken games, 4 Resident Evil titles and 4 Crash games all appeared on the console and this was all due to Sony wishing developers to make a sequel time and time again, after 5 Tomb Raider games I know I’d get bored.
And then there is Nintendo, it seemed like almost certain death for Nintendo a while back there but the reason they survived as opposed to SEGA was due to Nintendo standing by the way they run business. SEGA tried to follow Sony with a marketing Blitz, sadly it all backfired for SEGA who tried adopting new ideas and concepts to help compete with the big guns. Nintendo didn’t move, long development time, lack of pressure on their second party developers, refusal to believe that just because it looks good doesn’t mean it plays well, the Nintendo difference so to speak and sure enough it paid off. Whereas Sony released games as soon as possible Nintendo took their time, Zelda took 3 and a half years to make, Sony wouldn’t stand for it, at least 2 games would have been released by that point. Although Nintendo suffered in between the long development periods when the big games do get released that is when Nintendo’s bank balance err balances. Mario Sunshine released recently in Japan has re-born the Gamecube, the amount of money made on the title proved that it was worth waiting that extra 10 months after the Cube’s launch. Would Sony have waited? Nintendo are offering huge sums of money to new games companies, Sony offer some assistance but nothing in comparison to Nintendo who are willing to advertise new ideas e.g. Pikmin/Pokemon as much as old favourites e.g. Mario/Zelda.
Sadly we are being dragged into an industry that resembles the musical world, and it is Sony who are doing it, if a game is good but sells poorly then Sony doesn’t want to know. Whereas Nintendo despite poor sales for certain titles are willing to release a sequel if the game is good. DMA another game publisher wouldn’t support a sequel to Body Harvest despite being an awesome game. They may allow the game to be released if it happened to get a graphical face-lift but even so they are far more willing to pump millions into the better selling GTA series rather than give Body Harvest the recognition it truly deserves. It won’t be long before we see more gaming channels, we may see channels that allow you to choose the game clip you want to see (now there’s an idea), and I can guarantee you Wipeout 4 will get much more coverage than Ico 2.
Here’s to the future
Dringo.
And that is down solely to the record label, it is the record label that decide the time it should take for the next album to be produced, numerous times have bands produced “Re-mix” or “Live” albums to prevent the fans losing interest and to keep their record label happy. And so we come to the game industry, a fairly decent industry in comparison, but the harsh reality is that soon enough the games industry will soon be following the music industry. Sony is themselves a record label, and since their entrance to the games industry many years ago it has been evident they are dragging the industry down the same road. Every Record label meanwhile is corrupt in one way or another but the difference in the game industry is that one is not. Now enter the bias I am so famed for, but this is why I like Nintendo so much, the reason I like Nintendo is because I find the games stunning but my obsession stems from the fact that these guys are the good guys of the industry. I would love to put SEGA besides Nintendo, they have always followed similar beliefs in how the industry should work but sadly they are victims of the industry’s tumble into the dark depths of business.
SEGA were good guys within the industry, they didn’t put pressure on the various companies that worked with them (Amusement Vision, Sonic Team etc…) if they wanted 3 years to make a game then they can have 3 years and SEGA would support them. They were also willing to let new talent try out and support them as well as more well known stuff, many companies hit dizzying heights with the Megadrive with SEGA’s willingness to support them through thick or thin. Come 1995 and the year of the Playstation and this was one company who worked slightly differently to both SEGA and Nintendo. Sony knew it was all about image, much like a good deal of the pop stars today if it looked good it sold and it didn’t matter if it didn’t play/sound good. Advertisement became a big thing and Sony used their money to get the majority of airtime on various TV programmes. Lets face it half the games on the Playstation did well because of Sony’s use of the media and the amount of persuasion they gave the companies to produce a sequel within a short period of time. 5 Tomb Raider games, 3 Tekken games, 4 Resident Evil titles and 4 Crash games all appeared on the console and this was all due to Sony wishing developers to make a sequel time and time again, after 5 Tomb Raider games I know I’d get bored.
And then there is Nintendo, it seemed like almost certain death for Nintendo a while back there but the reason they survived as opposed to SEGA was due to Nintendo standing by the way they run business. SEGA tried to follow Sony with a marketing Blitz, sadly it all backfired for SEGA who tried adopting new ideas and concepts to help compete with the big guns. Nintendo didn’t move, long development time, lack of pressure on their second party developers, refusal to believe that just because it looks good doesn’t mean it plays well, the Nintendo difference so to speak and sure enough it paid off. Whereas Sony released games as soon as possible Nintendo took their time, Zelda took 3 and a half years to make, Sony wouldn’t stand for it, at least 2 games would have been released by that point. Although Nintendo suffered in between the long development periods when the big games do get released that is when Nintendo’s bank balance err balances. Mario Sunshine released recently in Japan has re-born the Gamecube, the amount of money made on the title proved that it was worth waiting that extra 10 months after the Cube’s launch. Would Sony have waited? Nintendo are offering huge sums of money to new games companies, Sony offer some assistance but nothing in comparison to Nintendo who are willing to advertise new ideas e.g. Pikmin/Pokemon as much as old favourites e.g. Mario/Zelda.
Sadly we are being dragged into an industry that resembles the musical world, and it is Sony who are doing it, if a game is good but sells poorly then Sony doesn’t want to know. Whereas Nintendo despite poor sales for certain titles are willing to release a sequel if the game is good. DMA another game publisher wouldn’t support a sequel to Body Harvest despite being an awesome game. They may allow the game to be released if it happened to get a graphical face-lift but even so they are far more willing to pump millions into the better selling GTA series rather than give Body Harvest the recognition it truly deserves. It won’t be long before we see more gaming channels, we may see channels that allow you to choose the game clip you want to see (now there’s an idea), and I can guarantee you Wipeout 4 will get much more coverage than Ico 2.
Here’s to the future
Dringo.