When someone retires from a particular field, it usually means that it’s final and their decision remains throughout the rest of their lives. Or it would be if not for anything relating to entertainment, whether it’s sports (think Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher — heh, how’s that for a random coincidence?) or in this case, gaming.
Cliff Bleszinski’s retirement from the lead designer position at Epic Games was certainly news-worthy in a year containing many other departures from various developers. But it was never a permanent retirement, he is way too young for that, rich though he might be, and it was only a matter of time until the once-known-as Cliffy B got back into the game, so to speak.
He hasn’t, just yet. I should probably get that out there. But he has given an interview on the prospects of his return, and it’s quite the interview. According to Bleszinski, now would be an unwise time to exit retirement and return to the gaming industry, since it is now in a state of turmoil not seen since the 1980s crash. And so he has opted to wait out the current climate to see which platform emerges victorious, before making the important decisions.
“The business has not been in a state of transition like it is right now since the video game crash of the ’80s,” explained Cliffy B. “I really think we’re in a massive state of turmoil. I think Nintendo could possibly be faced with the situation of becoming a company that only makes software moving forward. I think Sony and Microsoft are about to come to major blows.”
Salute.
“But at the same time, people love playing games on their iPad. The PC is going through a wonderful renaissance right now. I think we’re ready to do digital download games all the time… I just want to see what happens.”
Something of an industry pundit in many ways now, Cliffy B went on to compare the games industry in its current state with a game of Super Smash Bros, further adding that console companies should remove the red tape that prevents developers from improving their games on the fly.
“They are going to need to reduce that time as much as possible, as well as continue to enable user-supported mods, independent games, and really just get rid of the wall that makes it incredibly hard to find those products.”
I have to admit that I’ve been of the opinion that gaming is moving too far forward too fast and it needs to slow down or we are going to reach a point of implosion where we forget the purpose of the entire thing and start treating it like a whole other entity, much the same as music now. But on crack.
Last week’s PS4 announcement sealed the deal for me, where I saw a press conference in which nothing was really shown and yet the world went wild. People were defending the console without a fight ever being started, claiming that it was progress rather than evolution. And there are some things which I feel really need to be looked at with those rose-tinted spectacles off.
I’ve been attempting to advise lots of friends over whether or not to get a current-gen console, a next-gen console or a gaming PC in the coming years and honestly it has dawned on my like surprise buttsex in a dark alleyway that if gaming keeps going in this direction of selling promises and nothing else, then we are moving towards something similar to that 1980s crash which Cliffy B referred to. I do hope this isn’t the case, but it’s really difficult for me to sufficiently explain why without this turning into a thesis (Postgrads, if you take my idea, I will find you…) in order to get my point across.
What do you think, though? Do you agree with Cliff B’s assertions, and do you see the gaming industry as growing gradually or erratically? Discuss.
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