TotalRoundTable: 2011 – The Year of “Hot damn… lookit all those games!”
Does sequelitis and oversaturation ruin the best gaming lineup of the best year in gaming?
Published: February 21, 2011
Sir Gordon Wheelmeier, gaming guru:
The crazy thing is that your list is only inclusive of announced games (and far from all of them) – we have no idea what we'll hear about at E3.
This is obviously an awesome year, and one where most people will have to make some serious decisions about where their time and money will go. Methinks that demos and quality marketing will play an even more important role this year than in others. That is, expect some of the year's big titles (of which there are many) to underperform simply because people will have to pass on something somewhere.
The hardware question is a huge unknown. With what are essentially two new PSPs (NGP vs. the Xperia Play) coming to market, there will be confusion. The 3DS's hype could be easily deflated if a notable (even if relatively small) number of people can't really see the effect, or it hurts their eyes. That sort of word gets around very quickly. Remember the iPhone 4‘s antenna problems? Not that said phone didn't sell well...
Anyway, back to the games (speaking of which, there's a notable lack of Team Ico content missing from your list, Sam)… I think that this is akin to something like 2004 or 2005 for the PS2. It's sort of a planet-aligning type of year that introduces what will become classics.
What's crazy is that 2005 was the last major year for the PS2, as focus shifted fully to PS3/360 after that. In this instance, we're supposedly still a few years away from new consoles. So, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what will 2012 and 2013 be like? Or is this it? Will all of these devs (which will, all told, account for most of the big ones) release their final current-gen games and then move on? Or is there going to be yet another round that bests this already incredible-looking year?
Sammy, EIC:
I didn't even think about the whole saturation aspect, but you're absolutely right, Gordon. With so many games that are competing not just for mindshare but wallets, there's a very real risk that a lot of gamers will have to go with one over the other just because pocketbooks are so tight these days, which is sort of a shame. On the one hand, there's pretty much something for everyone when all the platforms are considered, but there's also multiple somethings for everyone, and I'm sure that's a scary prospect for devs right now. That list was purely done for OMG SEQUELSSSS effect, though; the Ico/Shadow Collection and The Last Guardian are absolutely at the top of my list right now, and, yeah, when you consider there's likely to be some very big announcements soon as we start rolling into the year, it's enough to make one's head implode from the sheer overabundance of awesomeness.
I know we talked about the whole phone/PSP2 thing last time around, but the fact that people are still confusing the two at least a little means it's definitely going to be an issue for them, but I don't know...
I do honestly think this will be the last hurrah for many devs. There will doubtlessly be big releases in the next year or so, but I would imagine R&D for the next generation based on projections is absolutely underway. The interesting thing is going to be what kind of leap the next generation of hardware will be. How many cores will the new systems have? How much memory? Will it be unified on all three consoles or will we see another split? Then again, I suppose that's talk for another roundtable, when we're a little closer to finding out actual specs.
The crazy thing is that your list is only inclusive of announced games (and far from all of them) – we have no idea what we'll hear about at E3.
This is obviously an awesome year, and one where most people will have to make some serious decisions about where their time and money will go. Methinks that demos and quality marketing will play an even more important role this year than in others. That is, expect some of the year's big titles (of which there are many) to underperform simply because people will have to pass on something somewhere.
The hardware question is a huge unknown. With what are essentially two new PSPs (NGP vs. the Xperia Play) coming to market, there will be confusion. The 3DS's hype could be easily deflated if a notable (even if relatively small) number of people can't really see the effect, or it hurts their eyes. That sort of word gets around very quickly. Remember the iPhone 4‘s antenna problems? Not that said phone didn't sell well...
Anyway, back to the games (speaking of which, there's a notable lack of Team Ico content missing from your list, Sam)… I think that this is akin to something like 2004 or 2005 for the PS2. It's sort of a planet-aligning type of year that introduces what will become classics.
What's crazy is that 2005 was the last major year for the PS2, as focus shifted fully to PS3/360 after that. In this instance, we're supposedly still a few years away from new consoles. So, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what will 2012 and 2013 be like? Or is this it? Will all of these devs (which will, all told, account for most of the big ones) release their final current-gen games and then move on? Or is there going to be yet another round that bests this already incredible-looking year?
Sammy, EIC:
I didn't even think about the whole saturation aspect, but you're absolutely right, Gordon. With so many games that are competing not just for mindshare but wallets, there's a very real risk that a lot of gamers will have to go with one over the other just because pocketbooks are so tight these days, which is sort of a shame. On the one hand, there's pretty much something for everyone when all the platforms are considered, but there's also multiple somethings for everyone, and I'm sure that's a scary prospect for devs right now. That list was purely done for OMG SEQUELSSSS effect, though; the Ico/Shadow Collection and The Last Guardian are absolutely at the top of my list right now, and, yeah, when you consider there's likely to be some very big announcements soon as we start rolling into the year, it's enough to make one's head implode from the sheer overabundance of awesomeness.
I know we talked about the whole phone/PSP2 thing last time around, but the fact that people are still confusing the two at least a little means it's definitely going to be an issue for them, but I don't know...
I do honestly think this will be the last hurrah for many devs. There will doubtlessly be big releases in the next year or so, but I would imagine R&D for the next generation based on projections is absolutely underway. The interesting thing is going to be what kind of leap the next generation of hardware will be. How many cores will the new systems have? How much memory? Will it be unified on all three consoles or will we see another split? Then again, I suppose that's talk for another roundtable, when we're a little closer to finding out actual specs.
