GameBlurg

At the heart of our cute videogaming mecca filled with presumably harmless “play-things” rests an undeniable truth: we make money. A lot of it. Under the crevices of hot venture gossip lays speak of the videogame industry’s promising future, and more importantly, any way to capitalize on the business’ astounding growth. Recently, fluttering rumors of Google takeovers and Electronic Arts’ devouring attempts have simultaneously disrupted the thoughts of concerned gamers worldwide. And although the thought of consolidation is scary, as we will all soon come to realize, it is inevitable.

Few things in the world are more entertaining than groveling fan boys trying to get in the way of power-hungry businessmen. The aggression that channels throughout the tie-wearing monsters is fueled by money, and where there is new money, there is interest, which can ultimately lead to overbearing acquisition. There are plenty of pros and cons to what will become a familiar situation, but one thing that needs to be understood is at the end of the day, consolidation is a vast part of industries of any kind.

Ironically, consolidation prompts…consolidation. From aggressive fan bases to methodical stock-wielding suits, videogame publishers/developers are exceedingly competitive, and if there are advancements from one side of the map, there will be similar retaliation from the other. Publishers are currently (yes, probably this very second) in the process are buying this, merging that, wisely out of fear that their similar competitors are doing the same. Unfortunately, this fear and what it generates is an important part of our business, as it is a large contributor of cultivating the advancement in technology and industrial design. Before the early days (Computer Space/Tennis for Two) of the videogame business, there weren’t so many options to choose from for specific gaming experiences, but now, there are so many choices that publishers/developers must aggressively pull out many stops in order to convince you to consider their game before any other.

Not all aspects of consolidation are negative. I don’t mean to toot an old horn, but rising costs in videogame development require drastic measures to be taken from struggling developers in order to survive the production of the inevitable wave of future-gen software. The upside is the ability to pay rent, and heightened with the possibilities of producing AAA titles in order to keep afloat and start making profit. The downside (apart from the obvious, which is failing altogether) lies with the effects that the drastic staff/company changes will undoubtedly have on the company’s infrastructure. Merging companies are also proposed with the possibility of losing original vision and an even deeper loss in the ability to create distinctive and innovative titles.

For those companies who are deep in the pockets, and don’t need petty mergers to help them keep the lights on, may take the other route: buying the competition. To understand this core concept of acquisition, it requires particular understanding of the concept of progression. The key here is to excel at, what should be a dominant goal at any big publisher, maintaining a dominating, household brand. Building/buying growth can reap specific benefits. For instance, diversifying your company’s portfolio by way of acquisition aids in the overall goal to have a greedy hand in every lucrative trend, fad, etc. that makes its way in and out through the videogaming industry.

It doesn’t aid the argument against consolidation that the one most related industry across from videogaming (movies) has a small list of controlling media infrastructures that overlook a vast majority of the content that escapes into their main media outlets (movie theaters). Generally, if you have seen a movie in theaters in the past five years, you have undoubtedly at least one logo that ultimately leads tracks back to the homes of “The Big Six” (Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, NBC, Time Warner, Walt Disney).

Drawing comparisons from other entertainment industries, such as music and movies, in due time, the hope of an innocent, free-spirited nation of indie-producers came to an end, just like the videogame industry’s arrangement of games escaping from so many separate directions (publishers) will be over in due time. Luckily for this generation of gamers, this will not happen in the near future, as it will take years for big publishers to continue to lose enough money to be put into the desperate position of being up for sale.

Eager ears catch wind of innovative work, attempt to snatch it up (or outright, steal its idea) and devour what was once pure and transform it into a sequel-riddled debacle. Games are all about imagination, and creating astounding experiences that exist outside of our normal livelihoods, but the captivation of the videogame industry under a few selective roofs could threaten that very idea. Luckily, whether in the regards of programmers, designers, etc., we’re all artists at our craft (How good of an artist some of us are is a question for another day). The videogame industry primes and births artists, aesthetically and technically, and we can only hope that our industry’s best continue to express themselves throughout this wave of consolidation as it steadily begins to infest our industry’s DNA. Irregardless of whatever transpires, as long as there’s someone with the dream and drive to create personal games that deviate from industry trends, we’ll always have our “indie darlings”.