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Today In Things That Make Us Scream Incoherently

Angry Birds Dev Claims Console Games are Dying

by James Plafke | 5:05 pm, March 14th, 2011

At South by Southwest, Peter Vesterbacka, CEO of Angry Birds developer Rovio, informed a panel about his interesting view regarding the console gaming industry: He claims it’s dying. You know, only a few days after the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops was named the best-selling console game of all time. He claims one reason behind the (not actually) dying console industry is because mobile developers are more nimble and able to provide updates for their games more quickly than the console industry, and people paying $40 or $50 for a game that is difficult to provide updates for is turning gamers off.

Yeah, I don’t know what he’s thinking either. Updates are nice, but we gamers don’t buy games solely based on the quantity of updates a game may receive down the line. Another point he didn’t seem to mention was that Angry Birds, which recently reached the 100 million downloads mark, is indeed wildly popular, but is also available in free and $0.99 versions, and has an installed platform base of basically anyone who has a phone, an object that wasn’t bought with the specific intent of playing games.

Vesterbacka also said he’s tired of the phrase “casual games,” and no one refers to particular movies as “casual movies,” which is true, but not exactly the best comparison to make regarding “casual” and “hardcore” gaming: No one stands in line and plays three-and-a-half minutes of a movie while waiting for their burger, and “hardcore” gamers don’t spend the money their much more in-depth games cost to play them for three-and-a-half minutes at a time.

There’s a place in the industry for both casual and hardcore games, but Vesterbacka doesn’t seem to understand much about that.

(VentureBeat via Eurogamer)

  • Athemesong

    i feel like this article is misinformed and the guy thats making millions of dollars knows what he’s talking about

  • Talesin

    Agreed, Athemesong. The article comes across as biased toward a preconceived determination, or simple desire for it not to be true.
    Not sure if anyone else mirrors this (though it’s likely), but my console gaming time has hit rock bottom; most of my gaming is done via smartphone, handheld, or desktop means at this point. Two of the three are venues for original ideas to be delivered inexpensively, rather than this year’s SHOOTER MANS 7.

  • http://twitter.com/tailieucauhinh tailieucauhinh

    i feel like this article

  • Anonymous

    This article is terrible. It provides absolutely no proof of the author’s assertions. Personally, my gut feeling would be that console gaming IS dying, since some of the biggest growth has been seen in XBLA, Wii-ware, and similar platforms, and none of those need to be tied to a console. With online gaming becoming the standard and more and more single-player game modes taking the back seat or being dropped altogether, I think we’ll see a migration away from consoles. In fact, I would go further to argue that the longevity of this current iteration of consoles is indicative of a decline in console purchases and overall console gaming.

    All in all, dreadful post. Is this the same blogger who posts drivel about NCIS and Life not understanding gamers? Oh, of course it is. No shock, he didn’t do any research there either.


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