Back from Hiatus in Time for E3

Hey there POWSO-bots, Balloo here  after an all-too-long hiatus. I wanted to put up quick word that yours truly has managed to secure access to this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). I’ll have write ups of the days’ news and shenanigans here every evening of the event this week (assuming I’m not exhausted), along with photos and whatever else I can provide. I may even be twittering while I’m there, and if you’re inclined for more up to the minute (and casual updates), feel free to follow me (abuballoo). Keep gaming, stay beautiful.

EGM RIP, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Recession

Photo courtesy of http://www.gamesetwatch.com/magweasel/egm-0707.jpg

It’s a surprising thing to hear of something happen this suddenly in the game world. I daresay the news was more shocking to me than Atari’s step down from developer to publisher. In case you haven’t heard it, EGM is to be printed no more and the 1UP.com site has suffered 30 layoffs as Ziff Davis sold it off. (For the full story, see here: http://www.videogaming247.com/2009/01/07/ziff-davis-quits-egm-closed-1up-sold/) According to the guys over at ign on the latest Game Scoop (Episode 104), the perplexing thing isn’t just the size of the layoff but that rather than the “background” people that you’d expect to see laid off in a transfer like this, it’s actually the “talent” portion that brought the personality to the site.

1UP Yours has been an on again off again favorite podcast of mine (I had to stop during the school year because I really can’t find 2 hours a week to sit down and really take in and enjoy the podcast as it deserves). With the news of this transfer and the layoffs the ever resounding “why?” needs some facing up to.

Of course everyone’s first response to seeing one of the oldest (if not the oldest) running video game periodicals come to a grinding halt is to blame the economy, but that’d be lazy. Why not Gamepro? Why not Game Informer? The simple answer is that it’s just the way business goes. I’m no business minded person and can’t really comment to the nature of EGM’s former structure and decisions that led to its decline and demise (which the boys at Game Scoop say has been coming for a while). Suffice to say, the lesson is that we shouldn’t be lazy and just blame this stuff on the economy.

What it comes down to is that there’s a lot of discussion of whether or not the video game industry is recession proof. Maybe someone with thick framed glasses and awesome pie charts (because pie charts are awesome) can explain this better than I, or maybe they can totally refute this and call me on bullshit, but I don’t think the Video Game industry is “recession proof” per se. Recession resilient more like. What I mean by this is that people are going to spend less on their entertainment (i.e. video games and game consoles) but they’re still going to spend. It just means the profits are going to be slimmer pickins for console manufacturers (except for fricking Nintendo, thank you NPD’s) developers and publishers.

We’ve all heard the arguments for the “recession proof” side of it. With everyone tightening their belts, reusable entertainment like video games becomes the preferred option. What people don’t take into to account is that it’s not as if people who, when the economy was good, had 500 dollars a year for entertainment, are now trying to invest that 500 dollars more prudently this year now that the economy’s bad. It’s entertainment, they spend it however they want it. The issue becomes that when the economy is bad, that person would only have 200-300 dollars say. Granted, maybe video games being more “reusable” is a more attractive bang for one’s buck, but the fact is, there’s going to be less capital for the entertainment companies to potentially grab because everyone is going to be cutting back on entertainment expenses in the coming year.
What seems to be the most obvious thing is that serious upgrades to entertainment (consoles) are supposed to slow down. The PS3 suffered this one the most it would seem in November: that much money is a lot to shell out in your now tighter belt budget to just update your TV corner with a shiny new machine you can do without. The Wii’s lowest shelf price tag (SPT) makes it eternally attractive as both a personal and gift purchase. Kids (and old people) just love that damned waggle.

So my prediction is that the PS3 and 360 are going to feel the hard times quite a bit more than Nintendo (although seriously, sooner or later EVERYONE has to have a Wii finally so he sales will just hit a wall). But the SPT is the subject of a recent marketing report released by Sony as it lines up its prospects for 2009. In the report, Sony does a cross platform comparison of features versus price. While the PS3 has the highest SPT ($399), it comes with more features and value right out of the box for that money that it winds up being the best value. Making a 360 perform with similar capabilities (outfitting Wi-Fi, added HD, and online play subscription) winds up not only costing more than the PS3’s $399 with all that included, but clutters the entertainment center with all kinds of unnecessary stuff the PS3 would spare you of.

While this is pretty obvious in some ways, it’s kind of surprising that Sony decided to step up to 3:10 to Yuma and call Nintendo and Microsoft out. The fact is that aggressive marketing has existed in this console generation for ages (Microsoft nabbing exclusives, and attacking Sony openly in its presentations also). Heck, cross platform battling goes back to the great days of the SNES and Genesis. (Because Nintendon’t ring a bell?) Frankly, if the average consumer doesn’t realize and the PS3 may just be the better value and alternative in these ways it’s up to Sony to let the consumer know this through their marketing, it’s what marketing is.

Aggressive marketing is really the only marketing there is. It’s ineffective for anyone, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony or Little Debbie, to put out ads and news that effectively say “We’re okay, you may enjoy us, but there are alternatives that you could enjoy more also and that’s fine.” In the end, it’s up the consumer to look over what all the companies offer us, and see what the product itself is and make educated decisions about what we purchase and support.