A chill wind for the industry?

[PeteJ]

No disrespect to Sega or Nintendo, but I honestly believe that it's Capcom who are evolving gaming in new and exciting ways more than anybody else. With all the talk of bad sales and dieing developers, its extremely pleasing that a company can develop the likes of Tekki, Viewtiful Joe and PN03 without any apparent worry of market conditions.
Tekki probably didn't sell well enough, but they are already planning on the sequel (unconfirmed) and Xbox Live! update (unconfirmed).

Although many say gaming is in trouble, I strongly believe the future is brighter than ever.

Talent stays, time wasters do not.

[Concept]

Yes, but the only way Capcom has managed to fund those above titles is because of their franchise policy.

Street Fighter or Resident Evil, anyone?

There's no doubt they've got the talent to exploit innovative and rich gaming concepts in a successful manner. The problem is, do you have to sell yourself out on the street a hundred times to do it?

If so, it's probably just going to lead to more chart apathy.

[Lorraine Kelly]

Yeah, they're also releasing 6 Megaman games this year. Still, as long as the original games keep coming as well, I'll be happy.

[Madbury]

Capcoms strategy then, makes Segas seem all the more puzzling. The only franchise that Sega have that does consistently well is the Sonic Franchise. Why then have we not seen a glut of sonic themed games (like we did back in the 16bit era). We've had 2 sonic adventures, 2 sonic gameboy titles and sonic shuffle in the last 5 years. Where's my sonic spinball advance? Where is my update of sonic drift? Mean Bean machine and all the other spin offs?

Sega can't fund their innovative projects from nothing. They will have to start milking the cash cow and not just by porting their old stuff to a million and one platforms.

[PeteJ]

So now we have (the possibility of) Namco and Sega. Namga.

What effects do you think this'll have on the situation discussed in this thread?

[Riskbreaker]

Price is a factor... But I don't understand the logic of spending ?40 odd on a **** game these days, when the truly brilliant get ignored to the space of a bargain bin.

Surely it would be better for wallet and mind if these people if they had a bit of common sense?

I'm being harsh. It's just... The education, the message to the wider public in gaming, isn't getting through.

Hence the apathy when mr. joe buys his Harry Potter and finds it's a load of old uninspired cobblers.

The problem is Joe Public (or Miss Jo Public) isn't as informed as you, he/she doesn't buy Edge or Games TM and s/he doesn't visit websites for news on the latest releases.

Unlike everything the Public's want to buy, games are the least informed aspect for them. If Joe wants to buy a Music CD, he has the radio broadcasting 24/7, TV shows, TV channels etc. to give him and idea as to what to buy.

If he wants to buy some clothes, he has his whole environment to base his decisions on according to the tastes of his peers, whats in/out according to FHM and the like.

Cinema, same again, TV shows about movies, reviews on Radio stations, in magazines and newspapers etc.

Also, all of Joe's mates are interested in Clothes, Movies, Music etc. so he has constant exposure to their opinions for purchases of this nature.

What does he have for games. Poor or non-existant TV shows, generally poor magazine coverage (if he buys a magazine that is), extremely poor regular press coverage.

In short unless Joe decides to have a real interest in gaming he's screwed. As long as it remains something he has a go at occasionally, he will never know what to buy.

The only time he has something of substance to base his decisions on, are when games somehow link to one of his keener interests. Lord of the Rings was a good movie, so why should it be an at best average game?

I feel sorry for Joe and Jo Public as concerns games purchases Its like trying to enjoy watching films by only ever going out and watching poor B-films.