OK there is lot of talks about the schism of the game developers between "social facebook games" and "core console games".

I decided to make this topic because of a story I heard.
There are news on this story.

Konami recentely bought the studio known as Hudson Soft.
Hudson Soft are some of the oldest developers,they are making console games since mid-80s.
They have made some very popular plarform and puzzle games like Adventure Island and Bomberman series.
Hudsont Soft had been working on three Nintendo 3ds games lately which where to be launch titles for the new console.
Some of the games where Bomberman 3ds,Bonk and Omega 5.
At the last moment,just a week or two before the launch of 3ds,Konami buys Hudson and cancel all of their games.
Konami then closed completely the U.S.A department of Hudson Soft and fired 40 people from Hudson's Japan department.
Konami announced that Hudson Soft,a developer that had be making console games for more than 25 years from now and on will be making ONLY social network games.
Some of you might not like Hudson's games,but that should interest you because it's a big hit on core gaming for the favour of Facebook games.
Personally,I was very dissapointed because I grew up playing Bomberman on my SNES and I was a fan of the series,and from now and on I won't have the oportunity to play a new Bomberman game on a console.
I'm afraid that Hudson Soft won't be the only studio that publishers will limit and force to make only Facebook games.

What do you think ?
Are you afraid that more developers will start making Facebook games exclusively ?
Do you think that Facebook games are a danger to the future of console gaming ?

I don't think games like Farmville endanger console gaming. I got roped into it once and it wasn't very appealing at all. And really, not that many people play it that I'm aware of.

If they start making exclusive Facebook games, let them. They're just selling themselves out by using an already ridiculously over-hyped internet phenomenon. Unfortunately things change.. I wouldn't be surprised to see those classics made into a crazy rendition that's browser-based.

I think it will be only a small portion of the future of gaming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBPYdgy35KA

Not really. If a developer/publisher goes on to produce Facebook games exclusively then I can't imagine their retail offerings to be all that stellar to begin with. I'm all for less crap to sort through on Amazon.


Nope.


It's cute that they try. :tongue:

It used to be that gaming was a niche activity, now it's not. With a larger, more casual audience now available it only makes sense that some people in the industry will begin catering to them. However this doesn't mean that "hardcoe" console and PC games are a thing of the past.

Take a look at the movie industry, while summer blockbusters may be the big thing many studios are going after it doesn't mean that there aren't more "hardcoe" films, indie films, arthouse films, genre films, niche films, etc.

Not really. LIke someone else said, games like Farmville are boring, and get quite old after awhile. I mean honestly, if you had the choice between Skyrim and Farmville which would you pick? :tes:

No there will always be a market for the more serious style of games.

We, as customers and gaming enthusiasts, should embrace those things that swell our medium to a new and very large market. Because the more people we get playing games:

-The greater the number of game offerings we will have
-The greater the variety those games will be
-People whoo got their start with casual games will, in some cases, start to explore the more traditional gaming offerings.

Both the "core" and "casual" game markets have room to grow. They need not stand either apart or opposed. I actually hope that one day, the line between them blurs enough that we won't even notice it's there.

No. The rise of social gaming is simply another face of the market, the traditional "hardcoe" gaming will remain a very profitable one. I don't think the situation with Hudson is directly related to this.

What happened with Hudson is instead a symptom of the polarization of the industry. Hudson is an old and very culturally significant developer, but today they're not exactly "AAA" status, so Konami decided to push them to the opposite end of the spectrum. There's little room for "middle-class" type games these days and it's constantly shrinking. Today you either make a huge multi-million dollar hardcoe game and market the hell out of it, or you make a super cheap downloadable/browser game.

God i hope not

There will be beatings, if it is... many, many, many beatings.

Really? Are you serious about this? I am sorry if this was true, Bethesda would have never made Oblivion the way it is then. Bethesda admitted they made Oblivon to be more "steamlined" for the masses, for the common gamer and not the true serious style gamer.

Sadly I think this will be the way of gaming, Bethesda already has started doing it. Luckily though Bethesda hasn't gotten ridden of the 200+ hours games though. I guess the day we have a TES game that is done in less than 8 hours, is the day gaming is dead. So hopefully Bethesda will not go down this route, but Money talks.

We will see.

No, I'm not worried about this.

That doesn't make it anywhere near as casual as Farmville.

God I hope not. Social network gaming irritates me, people ramble on about city and farmville... I walk away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SX3JnUhTaE&feature=related

It saddens me that Hudson Soft will no longer produce Bomber Man games, but I don't think that facebook games will take over the market. I think nerd rage could take care of any problems that might occur in the future.

So I've recently gotten into the Extra Credits videos, and I think they have valuable insight here. I think, really, it's all a matter of perspective. The following two videos talk a bit about casual gaming, and I find their points compelling:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2821-Ludus-Florentis
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2005-Gamer

"I think Microsoft have? targeted every demographic here, apart from the people who want to just play a [censored] game."-Youtube Comments. This is true.

Oh wow, that's sad for hudson soft. It's like getting your balls cut off and being forced to wear frilly dresses in a window shop.

Anyway, I don't think this kind of thing is any threat to serious gaming, But wow, if I were a hudson soft employee I'd go on a murderous rampage.

Oh yeah, the Extra Credits videos are very interesting.

We have talked a lot about this in our school. Facebook be major part of gaming industry in near future. Well it already is, but it will be same scale
as console or PC games (market share).

But if devs can't bring new innovative ideas to Facebook games (other than Farmville clones) Facebook games
might not grow that much.


I'm more worried about games like Angry Birds to become more and more popular among casual gamers. It is so much easier to
develop game to I-devices than it is to Facebook.

No danger whatsoever. The audience they cater to are Facebook/social network addicts who spend a lot of dedicated time on there and would be more likely to play. If you aren't in that group..

I use FB on a fairly regular basis, but for the last two years I've had all apps/games disabled. Not much of a fan of Farmville or any of that spam nonsense.

Nah, there will always be a demographic for us. Two completely different games, but there may be a melding and acceptance of culture between "us" and "casuals" in that we will all be under one banner. Just different genres if that makes any sense.