Is The Success Of Modern Warfare 2 Preventing The Growth Of The Gaming Industry?

[Brilliant Human Being]

Now, as we all know, the Call of Duty franchise, in particular the two Modern Warfare games, have taken the gaming world by storm over the past few years. They have achived phenomenal success, taking in hundreds of millions of pounds (or dollars, whatever) each time one is released. Some argue that since the perceived high point of Modern Warfare, the past two games have become progressively worse, be it due to a rush-releasing; a change of developer; or just complacency. While most of us will agree that the Call of Duty series is very good fun, while not having the same immersive qualities of a game such as Fallout 3, my question is simple. Is Modern Warfare 2 preventing the growth of the game industry?

Now, ones first reaction upon reading the title of this thread would be to scoff and think 'But Couchie! Gaming is the most popular it has ever been! How can you say the industry isn't growing?! You fool!'

This would be a normal reaction to have. However, I urge you to keep with me on this, as I delve further into the topic at hand.

When Modern Warfare 2 was first announced to be released on November 10, 2009, anticipation grew to fever-pitch levels around most of the general public. However, within some of the gaming developers around the world, collectively, the shitting of pants ensued. Why? Well, lets take a look at the list of some of the games that were due to be released around the same time as Modern Warfare 2:

-Bioshock 2
-Splinter Cell:Conviction
-Mafia II
-Red Dead Redemption
-Max Payne 3
-Battlefield Bad Company 2

In fact, the only game whose release date wasn't pushed back was FIFA 10. And therein lies the problem. From the games listed above, all the ones which have been released this year have been released to widespread acclaim, however the fact remains that these games were pushed back because the developers didn't think it was worth the risk.

To link back to the original question, while it is good for the gaming industry to get so much money, most of it ends up going to Activision, the rights holder to the Call of Duty series. As time goes on, will we see developers focus more on lazy sequels, instead of daring, risky games that challenge us? In short, while there is a definite growth in the gaming industry, does that represent a growth in quality as well?

 

[The Doctor]

Personally, I don't think it's preventing growth at all. In fact, I think it's better that companies are staggering their releases. If all those games were released at the same time and you wanted several of them, it would be hard for you to buy them. If no one buys the games, developers get discouraged and don't want to make more. If companies don't make more, the business doesn't grow.

You seem to also be saying that sequels are a reason that the industry is not growing. I must say I disagree with you there. With sequels, any good company knows that in order for people to buy it (and for the public to continue buying their games in the future) they need to make the sequels improved, and full of new ideas. A sequel cannot be a straight port of anything. The developer needs to correct the things that were disliked about the original and add in brand new ideas that will entice people to play. They also need to be things that have never been seen before, in order to give this game an edge over any others that may be on the market.

So, I believe that Modern Warfare 2 is in fact helping the growth of the industry. It forces publishers to stagger release dates, which lets the consumers buy more videogames, and sequels force developers to think of new ideas in order to keep their games fresh and the public buying.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Yes, but not in the way you're saying. I couldn't care less if the developers are scared. Risks are what need to be taken, but not release times. They could add another 6 months onto to production time for all I care, as long as they do their job, which is, producing a game that's actually fucking good.

Developers these days are taking no risks whatsoever, pretty much cloning off successful games until the cow has been milked into an early fucking retirement. Name pretty much all popular FPS game these days, and sure as hell you'll have a million clones off a game that wasn't that great in the first place, but simply sold well. I mean honestly, what is it with everyone wanting to be like Gears of War/Call Of Duty/Halo? They're good, but not THAT great, and developers should be wanting to carve their own legacy out. No, instead we're getting more of the same fucking chest high wall cover, the same regenerating health and blood spatter, the same lame stories with 2D characters. It's shit, and it's only when a half decent game comes out that we actually realise the awful bog-infested industry we've been playing in.

So yeah MW2 is preventing growth. Because everyone wants to copy it.

 

[lghikas]

I wouldn't say so, just some of the recent games I have played, recently new have been really good...Assassin's Creed II, Dragon Age, Uncharted 2. If anything I think MW creates more competition. I think we are starting to see this with Socom now is paying attention to getting a good story one player mode. Now is that because the story mode of MW is soo good? I don't know. So I really don't think MW is hurting the industry, competition is good. If you want to beat it make an EPIC game.

Now personally I think if anything is hurting the gaming industry it would be when developers just crank out games to beat a deadline and just to simply make money. Most of the time, not all, Yearly games come to mind, Sport games....SvR. Alot of the times they come out year after year with little updates, that just take money from consumers.

 

[ABMorales787]

Honestly, yes. I mean, what game do you see nowadays that doesn't involve gun warfare and/or an apocalypse of the human race? The developers today seek to top the previous rather than branching out and searching for new terrain to explore. Its like we are stuck in a fad or something? Since when are games steadily of the same genre for so long? There's always something else but nowadays these are hugely overshadowed over MW and other online friendly "gun games". Basically its "you do what I did, or you don't go far" so to speak. It limits the playing field because if you try something else the general public will probably look the other way. Dante's Inferno is a thing of the past. So is Tatsunoko VS Capcom. God Of War III is getting dry. Modern Warfare 2? People still play it.

 

[PsychoBlack]

i think that it is simply because battlefield bad company 2 was just as good as a game but most gamers dont realize it because of CODs hype and it basically had game of the year locked up before it even released dont get me wrong i love MWF2 but its a shame other games have to stand in its shadow

 

[Alex]

To be honest games like Modern Warfare 2 have really killed single player and why most games rely to much on multiplayer. I play online occasionally but cannot stay there for 4 hours straight, I prefer an interesting single player with multiplayer as an extra, but Modern Warfare 2 has reversed it, they'd rather have a good multiplayer and a tacked on single player campaign. I've seen reviews where people are like 'but multiplayer makes up for it' but if your a guy who just wants to play a game for a story then your out of luck.