Could a barrage of broken games kill the industry?

I've seen people talking about the game industry possibly crashing again like it did in the mid-80s time and time again, but have shrugged that idea off for years due to how continually well things have been going for the modern industry. But over the past week, I'm starting to worry that, because it seems almost impossible now to launch a AAA title without loads of glitches and bugs (AC Unity, Driveclub, Sonic, LittleBigPlanet) that make people hate them, gamers are going to turn on the industry and stop buying games, publishers won't learn to not rush products, and everything will come crashing down. Does anyone have the same worry?

Nope.

Nah, broken games these days are more like a fart in the wind. People dogpile on it for a bit then move on.

Probably not. It may kill off some companies, but I doubt it would cause irreparable harm to the entire industry. Plus, today's reality where these games can be updated with downloadable patches means they may be salvageable.

So many at once will definitely be a wake up call for publishers, I'm sure. But it won't "kill the industry"

Hopefully the outcry on the internet will tell publishers to fix their shit. As evidenced by last year, we're at an age where bitching on the internet does actually make a difference :D

No. The 80s thing was a completely different time that most the little kids who cite it don't actually know anything about it beyond the fact that it happened.

People are always doom and gloom, but the fact of the matter is the industry is no different than it was 15 years ago. It's been this way for a long time, and unfortunately it isn't going to get better. That won't kill the industry. At this point video games are so ingrained in people (myself included) that we'll still buy games, even if the "AAA" part of games dies.

I guess since the PC didn't die when the gloom sayers said it would now they're going for the whole industry.

*monotone* Yay for new fads.

It could kill a publisher maybe. Not the industry.

Not only that, but PC gaming is more popular than ever now days. If there is any crash, which is highly unlikely, it would involve consoles, but PC gaming will remain strong.

Betteridge's Law of Headlines to the rescue: No.

People seem to think this is a problem today but in fact buggy games have been around since the tech has been around. Its not going to kill games any more than it did last year or the year before that or....

You probably haven't noticed, but the games industry did crash. Everyone lined up to make MMOs and the market changed and they all went out of business. Then everyone lined up to make facebook games and then the market for that fell through. Then everyone lined up to make iOS games and the market for that hit a $0 price point. The only consistently stable part of the industry is console/steam games. Some bad games or over saturation may kill some franchises like Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero or Motorstorm, and that can lead to some devs closing or laying off staff, but the console space is still a much healthier place to be in than anywhere else.

No. I can't imagine the industry even coming close to crashing again. Well, not like it did back in the day anyway. Shit, I think it would take a series of astronomical fuckups, 100x worse than Unity, for a company like Ubisoft to go under. Like...just look back over the past 4ish years. I feel like every 3-4 months, there's some article about how EA, Activision, Ubisoft or whoever fucked up something and yet people, including much of the "hardcore" audience, keep buying their shit even if they got burned the last time.

Yes! The games have a mind of their own, maan. And like, if developers don't make them right, they'll revolt. They won't just kill "the industry" maan, they'll kill everything. This is how it starts-- you'll see.

Video games are so ingrained into culture now that it'll take a hell of a lot to kill them. And also you got to remember we don't have it NEARLY as bad as those who grew up with games in the late 70s early 80s. Perspective people! The crash in the 80s was fueled by games of far more offensive quality and much higher quantity than the games of today... it was also incredibly difficult for potential consumers to research the games they were buying back then which is one of the main reasons people simply stopped buying them.

No. It might actually fix the industry, if some lessons are finally learned.

I find the whole idea of the apocalyptic "video game crash" to be such a misnomer to begin with. I was a little kid in the 80's when the supposed "crash" had happened, but I and everyone I knew were still playing games like crazy. Arcade machines were great, my friend's Atari 2600 still got a ton of use (he even had ET and we could never figure out what the hell we were doing but tried anyway), and at my house we were playing our C-64 or Intellivision on a daily basis. Suddenly one day a friend of mine got this new fandangled "Nintendo Entertainment System" and changed everything, but it's not like video games disappeared off the planet for 2 years.

@mosespippy 's post is very apt. The industry is in a constant state of flux. Genres and certain types of hardware may dip way down again at some point, but video games are just a part of our culture - now, more than ever.

I feel like there should be some kind modern parable similar to "The boy who cried wolf" or "Chicken Little" about the internet overreacting to every fucking thing ever.

We'd have to see a solid year or more of everything being unplayably broken for it to have any notable affect on the industry as a whole. If specific developers/publishers start releasing a deluge of broken games one after the other that would definitely destroy many people's trust in their games, but it's not going to ruin all games forever. And even if AAA games did all crash and burn I don't see that stopping the indie scene from thriving.

I feel like at some point there should be an outcry raised against these day 1 broken games. I know a number of people who are in circumstances where they're unable to hook their consoles up to the internet, so the current console generation has really left them out to dry.

no

No it can't break the industry, but I was actually about to start a thread of my own on this topic, if this trend continues it should without doubt change the way the industry goes about releasing games. How is it now the norm, or at the least, not surprising to release games broken or with server errors or some sort of bar that prevents enjoying it as intended? IGN have a report that Far Cry 4 has errors aswell now. I think it should be unacceptable, but the problem is that there are no real consequences or the publisher/game dev. Sure a consumer could return the game, but If i had bought Assassins creed I don't want to return it...I want to play it!

Nope. But if it has an appreciable impact on sales (looking at you and wishing AC Unity) then maybe publishers will attach more importance to sending a more stable version off for certification. It all comes down to money. Can the narrative that a game is busted put a dent in sales? The answer will determine whether the industry attempts to address this or keeps sending broken games off to MS/Sony with an exorbitant down-payment and a promise to have a patch in the chamber ready for release.

I did my bit. I didn't pick up ACU. I picked up FC4 on PS4, which is perfectly stable. Don't buy broken games and publishers will stop shipping them. Also tell them why you didn't buy them, so marketing knows what's up.

Anything can happen. I highly doubt it'll take the industry down but it might start augmenting it. This is the year that I stop preordering games and THATS A FACT!!!!

Industry, no. Franchises, probably. I don't think anyone will argue that Battlefield Hardline is going to be hurt a bit by all the screwed up problems BF4 had, or more specifically EA's slow response time in getting issues resolved. Personally I'm a bit nervous that Halo 5 is going to suffer a bit if they don't get MCC working to a satisfactory level here soon.

Videogames themselves? No way. Kill is an overstatement by a mile.

But yeah it could really hurt console games if kids games like LBP or Skylanders ships busted and needs extensive user engagement to just make them playable. Most parents aren't psyched about dropping 60 bucks on something for their kid that's busted out of the box. If that happens too often I could see it shrinking the future market if kids don't grow up playing games.

games aimed at older gamers like CoD I don't think have this problem as much, because teens and adults are usually more willing to futz around with this to get it to work.

I have no doubt this trend will hurt gaming companies though regardless by slowing their cash flow and lowering the perceived value of their products. I've bought a lot of games in the past 4 years but only 5 or so total at release largely because I don't want to pay full price for busted games.

Busted games is a big disincentive to pre-order or buy day 1.

This discussion was relevant at the end of the last generation when we were still unsure whether people would buy consoles when they had their mobiles and Wiis already. The answer was a clear 'YES' and the new consoles has done splendidly, aside from the Wii U and Vita, which has both found a niche audience they serve pretty well.

I do believe however, that big cooparations NEED to do something, and do it fast. Both Ubisoft and EA are trying to become Activision and they're both failing miserabely.

KILL

Outside of core gaming forums this is not much of an issue, anecdotical but my neighbor would go on and on how cool AC Unity is. Granted he plays one or two games a year, when I asked him what he thought about the poor frame rate he was like... Dawg what are you talking about? who is this Framerate guy you speaking of?

I didn't go into details because hee: ignorance is blizz... usually over thinking about videogames makes enjoying them more difficult.

Don't be crazy.

BURN IT ALL DOWN

In theory, yes.

But this isn't going to kill the industry.

Also, you called a Sonic game a AAA game. This one isn't. It's a cartoon tie-in game.

This year has mostly felt like a transitional period. New consoles with reskinned products and the old consoles not especially feeling old hat yet. I suspect my Game of the Year considerations might just boil down to, "Trails Fusion wasn't fucked. Win."

What may happen from this barrage is a change of business practices from certain developers as they rethink just how to make a product on these relatively new boxes. I think Evolution Studios are close to toast, though. :(

It would take a solid years worth or more of completely broken games. Completely broken imply's: non stop crashing, freezing, multiplayer servers always down, forcing people to sign up for new game download services, waiting months for patches that do nothing or break more of the game, over saturation of micro transactions in single player games, raising prices and insane DRM. But it would all have to happen at once, and everyone would have to do it.

I highly doubt it.

A crash like 1983? Probably not. However, the bloated AAA market that's addicted to preorder culture and microtransactions cannot survive. The bottom WILL fall out and we will see more THQ-like closures.

I'm looking at you, Ubisoft. Healthy publishers and studios don't release shit like AC Unity and turn their biggest franchise into a punchline. Abuse your customers enough and they will walk.

Resurrecting this thread because a new but similar problem has arisen: Every big game this year so far seems to be a dud. The Order, Dying Light, The Crew, Battlefield Hardline, Evolve, etc. Is it possible that instead of broken games, nonstop mediocrity will cripple the industry?

They buy the duds.

Seriously though, perhaps publishers like EA will look at Cities:Skylines and realize what they did wrong with Sim City. Even if they don't, it doesn't truly matter. There isn't nonstop mediocrity since great games are coming out along with the disappointing ones. If one publisher doesn't make the game the audience wants, someone else will.

no

Nope. But I think in like 20 years people will look to this current era as the indie era and how "every" big game was "broken." Also how "everyone only" wanted indie titles. They'll blow it out of proportion but it'll be half true.