Three Player Co-Op 11.17.09: New IP, Music Genre Decline, and Modern Controversy

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 11.17.2009

What's the proper mix of new IP and existing franchises? Can the music genre be saved? Is the controversial scene in Modern Warfare 2 a disaster, dud, or delight? The 411 staff discusses these topics and more in the latest edition of Three Player Co-Op!

John De Large has joined the game.
Sean Garmer has joined the game.
Rod Oracheski has joined the game.

Question One: Question One: EA's financial troubles have caused them to rein in their new IP investment, looking for stability in franchise titles as they streamline the business side of thing, however Take Two was the only major publisher to see growth in the latest NPD numbers, propelled by the expected strong sales of NBA 2K10, but also lifted by surprisingly strong sales from new IP Borderlands. Do you think EA is making a mistake by looking to capitalize off existing franchises?

John De Large

Well, while most 1980's wrestling commentators would advise against going to the well one too many times, I can't see anything wrong with it in this case.

Hell, Nintendo's been making a fortune off franchises that should've died years ago, what's wrong with EA following suit?

Sean Garmer

EA didn't say they weren't going to not make any new IP's, EA just said they would cut back on the number of new ones and mix that in with the franchises that sell well. In all honesty I can't blame them. EA is simply taking the approach some of other big companies have and something the movie industry is focusing on a bit too much.

In the end, what matters is results and being praised by critics is really not going to make people buy things. Sales numbers are what's going to speak to the higher ups that may not speak the gaming language or have time to see if a game will develop a cult following. With the economy being the way it is they kinda have to focus on what makes them money. As long as we don't see an over-abundance of titles and the same quality, it shouldn't be too bad of a change. We all love new IP's, but sometimes its better to go with the safe bet.

Rod Oracheski

Like Sean, I think EA needs to do more of the movie industry model. Do the safe game - the major franchise release that's going to sell big time - and then do the new IP that you believe in, but nobody else might.

It's too bad that EA got into financial trouble as soon as they decided to revise their corporate image by not milking franchises to death. EA brought us a slew of new IP this generation, and since gamers failed to reward that with sales, we might be in for a glut of 'been there, played that' games in the near future.

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Question Two: With sales tanking, Activision is looking to scale back their music game releases next year. Staples like Band Hero, Guitar Hero, and DJ Hero will remain, but we won't see another 'seven music games released in an eight month span' like this year had. Is it too late to save the music game genre from the market saturation brought to bear against it this year?

John De Large

Here's how you "save," the genre.

1. Stop releasing so many games.
2. Take the content you would've put into a game and make into DLC.
3. Sell the DLC more frequently and for cheaper than the games themselves.
4. ???
5. Profit!

Sean Garmer

I don't know, this is my favorite genre not named traditional Japanese RPG's. I have close to 600 songs on Rock Band 2 and I play it every day because it helps me relieve stress and lets me enjoy music in another way than just putting on some headphones or playing my real guitar. So I really don't wanna see it die. I think Activision did a good job of going in a different direction with Band Hero and DJ Hero. This allowed them to appeal to a different market than what the usual Guitar Hero/ Rock Band crowd. Something I don't think Harmonix captured well with LEGO Rock Band. Though I think it wasn't their intention to go after the young teen/girl market, they wanted families.

Guitar Hero really needs to focus on their three main horses and leave the band only games alone. Especially if now they are just going to use an old engine for them and just make them to build-up the GH 5 song library in a stupid fashion. Harmonix set the standard with one band only game and I don't think Activision wants or cares to take that step unless they ink a deal with Led Zeppelin which isn't going to happen. And they should really just take Harmonix's approach regarding the portable titles, just release DLC for it and stop charging people for an entire new game just to get some songs. They need to think about quality over quantity and release maybe one game a year for each of the three or maybe just mix-up the setlist in GH 5 a bit more, release Band Hero specific DLC and only release two games a year. It will build up great anticipation and ease the strain on people's pocketbooks.

Rod Oracheski

Activision released seven music games in eight months, then wonders why the games aren't selling as quickly? Half - if not more - of those games could have just been DLC, but instead they clogged store shelves and confused the hell out of parents who couldn't tell the difference between all the Hero games and Rock Band.

Can it be brought back? Probably, but I'm honestly so sick to death of the games that I'd just as soon see them put it out to pasture permanently instead. Do bigtime DLC and release a DLC disc every six months or so - just stop putting out "new" games constantly!

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Question Three: The media's all over it - but getting it wrong as usual. Come on, saying "you play as a terrorist" is just flat-out wrong! In any case, what's your take: was Modern Warfare 2's controversial airport scene a disaster, a dud, or a delight?

John De Large

Quote what I said to Rod on AIM:
JDL on AIM: that's
JDL on AIM: awesome
JDL on AIM: not that slaughtering millions of fictional innocents part
JDL on AIM: but the sheer balls to put something like that in a game is beyond awesome

Sean Garmer

I don't like games like GTA for a reason because I don't like just killing anything that moves or harming civilians or whatever. However, I also understand that this is a video game and doing anything done in that game in real life will for sure get in me in major trouble. Call of Duty is a war game, I like shooters, but they did cross a line here.

My only fear is parent's getting this for their children and not understanding this level is in the game. Do I condone Activision for this? No, because this is still a video game. Does it hit a little close to home, does my moral compass go off? Yes it does, very much so. However, they did allow players to skip the level and for that I applaud them. Does it advance the story? Yeah in a sense. And in reality it's just letting people know how some if not most terrorists think, and maybe helping regular people try to comprehend a little of what the government thinks about these terrorists too.

Rod Oracheski

I don't really understand the controversy here. It's a Mature-rated game, and that means those impressionable young children can't buy or rent it. Are we blaming the industry for irresponsible parents now?

Just kidding - of course we're blaming the industry for bad parenting. Scapegoating is way easier than expecting people to take responsibility for their own actions, right?

In any case, it's much ado about nothing. The "horrific scene" wound up feeling overdone and lost any impact it would have otherwise had.

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Question Four: Software sales are still behind last year's numbers, but we've got some heavy hitters in the pipeline. Can games like Modern Warfare 2 and New Super Mario Bros Wii turn things around?

John De Large

I just tried New-per Marios and it was a pretty fun game. Not that it'll matter, it's a game with Mario's face on it, it'll sell record numbers with the children. Come to think of it, my response regarding Mario could also apply to Modern Warfare, just switch "Mario's face," with "the words Call Of Duty," and just replace "children," with "man-children." Man, I love interchangable answers.

Sean Garmer

Do I think we are going to reach or surpass last year's numbers? Maybe not, but the way the economy is what matters is that they get relatively close. No one is expecting the game industry to continue to flourish when almost everything (game industry included) is being affected by this downturn. Modern Warfare 2 has sold a bunch and is heavily on the lips of gamers, casuals, and the media right now. New Super Mario Bros, is going to launch sales of the Wii again, not to mention give game hungry Wii owners something to play. So this will help immensely as we head into the holiday season. With Black Friday not too far away, I fully expect to see those game sales go up. I just hope they aren't too far off last year's numbers.

Rod Oracheski

We're sitting roughly a billion dollars down from last year, so I doubt it's going to catch up. That said, I don't think it made much sense to hold those kind of expectations in any case. After all, 2008 was a record year for the industry, as were the previous three or four as well.

Software sales totals are ahead of the 2007 numbers by a healthy margin, so I think we're going to see a split between the 2007-2008 final numbers - somewhere around $18 billion in revenue. Not too shabby, by any standards.

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Bonus Question: Judging by how 'successful' Modern Warfare 2's boycott was, do you think Valve has anything to fear from the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott?

John De Large

Hah! Yeah right! The fanboys and boycotters alike will eat Left 4 Dead up with a spoon and sop the remains with a piece of bread! I don't care what these guys (they are guys, right?) say no one can resist zombie combat (zombat) action.

Sean Garmer

Modern Warfare 2 people maybe had a right to boycott because the airport level was very controversial and set off a fire from the media. I know this boycott is mainly about dedicated servers and I understand why people are angry because this is just lazy from Activision. Ya know, for a company worried about its sales, why would you not have a dedicated server for the biggest game of the year? This is why sometimes I wonder who works at Activision, and why it takes people boycotting their games or not buying them, for the people up there to get a clue.

As far as Valve goes, I don't think they would just turn off Left 4 Dead 2's online capability just like that. I don't think there is going to be that many people boycotting as there was with Modern Warfare 2. Left 4 Dead 2 yields itself very well to off-line play with friends at home as it does online too. Yeah both games still aren't as fun by yourself, but overall I don't think its going to happen with L4D2.

Rod Oracheski

It looks like the attention the boycott brought did more good than bad for Modern Warfare 2, so I think Valve has nothing to worry about. There are always going to be complainers, no matter how good something is. Even before the dud that was the Modern Warfare 2 boycott, Valve had nothing to fear from its fans.

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That's it for another week of Three (sometimes Four) Player Co-Op. Thanks to John for filling in, and if you have any questions you want answered - leave a comment!