Jonathan
Ratcliffe
|
by Jonathan Ratcliffe |
| When sitting down and counting the number of gaming platforms in the electronic gaming industry today, any gamer will notice the dramatic change from the way things have been in the past. It seems that the number of platforms are uncountable, while just years ago there were a limited few. Electronic gaming covers a wider scope than in previous times, and many companies have urgently jumped upon the bandwagon in a search for a "get-rich-quick-scheme." Gaming companies, like Nintendo and Sega, seem to be waiting a shorter amount of time between the release of their systems. The unfortunate pattern doesn't allow gamers to get overly attached to their systems, forcing them to upgrade and purchase a new one the next year (the consumer doesn't necessarily have to purchase a new system, however, but not doing so has proven to be a most difficult task). Before you realize it you've become disgusted upon the hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned cash you've spent on gaming systems - ones that don't last long enough to even develop a personality of their own. Why are more of these platforms appearing on the store shelves than in the past though? Most obviously, the hobby of video gaming covers a larger scope than in previous years. Technological advances are plentiful and technology has reached an all-time high in this new "computing era." The technologies that companies learn today are outdated tomorrow, making it more than difficult enough for everyone to keep up. After a company makes the choice to use a new type of technology and make a more powerful game platform or type of computer, the onlookers are forced to adopt the new tricks themselves just to keep their profit-margins high, thus making an equal or more powerful piece of equipment. This pattern then shows that after a single company upgrades or discovers a new type of technology, the remaining do as well, creating a never-ending "tug-of-war" tying each of them together. The consumer becomes "stuck" in the median, trying to make their own decisions based upon hype and other related things such as price. Technology, however, isn't the only factor leading to an abundance of gaming platforms. Put yourself in a company like Nintendo or Sega's place. Would you rather be trying to produce quality games for a system with limited capabilities, or bright out an entirely new system? The answer may not be clear until you put in the factor of profit. Releasing Killer Instinct for SNES may get Nintendo billions of dollars from sales, but releasing a new system, such as the Nintendo 64, with a whole slew of new games, will raise the profits above what they could have ever imagined or above those that KI would get. The majority of gaming fans will buy a system just for the name of the company, such as Nintendo or Sega, before knowing whether the system will even be supported for more than six months (as has been proven in the past). Since most gamers make decisions like these so easily (and rush out to buy a system that has been hyped for more than a year), the gaming companies make a phenomenal amount of money. The sheer amount of profit they gain from these acts is ridiculous. When it comes down to it, there is not only a release of a large number of game platforms to keep up with technology, but because the companies make their largest amount of profit when they do this. If releasing a new system meant more money for you, wouldn't you do it? If there was only a way we could fix things... |
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