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PoV: Is the racing game market shrinking? |
Listed in: PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Activision, Bizarre Creations, blur, need for speed
Bizarre Creations is a studio known for its racing games. After creating the successful Project Gotham Racing series, the studio was bought by Activision, for which it developed a new racing game called Blur. The game wasn't well-received sales-wise and eventually led to Bizarre's closure earlier this year.
Both Activision and Bizarre have had ther say as to what led to the studio's demise. The main reason that comes up again and again is that Blur didn't recoup all the money poured into it. According to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, it goes a bit deeper than that.
"The racing genre had shrunk, pretty precipitously," he told Joystiq. "It was a big investment. It was a big investment in marketing. And sometimes you pour the chemicals into the beaker and nothing explodes. There are these big, very well established franchises that we would be competing against, fighting for a shrinking opportunity."
Is the market for racing games really shrinking? I don't think so, since a lot of people still buy the Need for Speed games. Gran Turismo 5 is still a big hit as well and Xbox 360 gamers have Forza Motorsport 4 to look forward to. Even Test Drive Unlimited 2, with its myriad bugs and issues, managed to get decent sales figures.
I guess the blame lies more on a marked wariness of new IP than on a shrinking market. Yes, gamers are always calling for more innovation and the like, but I believe that's more of a hardcore sentiment. For the more casual amongst us, you can't beat good old brand recognition. A lot of casual gamers don't pay attention to who develops which game, so even Bizarre's pedigree couldn't have pulled up Blur's sales all that much. No matter who's working on this year's Need for Speed release, though, the mere fact that Need for Speed is a recognizable brand can be enough for it to fly off shelves.
What do you guys think? Sound off in the comments section below or continue the discussion with the rest of the QJ.NET forums community.
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Comments
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It dominates them all, thats why its suffering, blame Gran Turismo
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When with a new series, it comes with uncharted territories.... a gamble for the gamer to buy it...
After all its racing games, you don't aspect it to be a too much storyline like the RPG stuff....
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Just like fighting games.
But they still have a valuable place and people will still want a good.
Just like football and baseball games.
(Although with nowhere near THAT devoted following.)
You can fight and race around in a sprawling epic game like GTA, but the fighting in GTA wont be nearly as in depth as a dedicated fighting game like Tekken, and the racing wont be as in depth as grand turismo.
There probably wont be the market for endless different versions of the same thing any more like there was on older systems because the new systems are so much more powerful and the gamers so much more sophisticated that we just expect more.
But thats good.
There only really needs to be a handful of good ones anyway.
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Nuff Said.
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I hope the racing genre doesn't die.
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