Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Activision, and Capcom are all names known throughout the gaming industry as some of the most wealthy gaming companies.  Yet they all share something else in common–aside from their gigantic marketing clout and control of the gaming industry at large through titles such as Call of Duty, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy. 

But something has happened to these once mighty giants that is cause enough to mourn.

They’ve stopped dreaming and coming up with new ideas for something that I would gladly throw my money at.  I remember one of the first games I ever played was Final Fantasy: Legend of Mana; it was hard and honestly made me contemplate breaking my GameBoy more then once–but I stuck with it because it was worth it.  Then I move to one of their more recent titles and I just want to cry.  What pushed these companies to the sorry state they’re in?

Personally I think it’s fear; not fear of making a good game, because they’ve all proved they can do that. Just take a look at Mega Man Legends. 

Millions of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours go into making a single game and the financial risk just isn’t worth a flop.  It’s why the Call of Duty franchise comes out with a new game at least once a year, if not twice a year.  Ever since Call of Duty Black Ops came out, we’ve been bombarded with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare No. X and Call of Duty Black Ops No. X.  It’s a trend that’s unlikely to change any time soon, so what can we as gamers do to let these giants know we miss our story lines–we don’t care if it’s bad, we just want something different?

But what is that bright light?

But rejoice, for all is not lost. There is a new type of developer, one with imagination, without fear, only hope and limited funding.  These new developers have been rocking  the gaming world with titles like Minecraft, Terraria, Torchlight, Journey, and many more that have shaken the very foundation of gaming with something so simple and pure you can’t help but notice. 

These developers aren’t necessarily looking to make gobs of cash (even though it is a part of it). They simply want to share their vision with the world and restore hope to an audience filled with foul mouthed twelve year olds that never had the chance to play some of the games we loved most growing up.  So rejoice and know that there is hope for the future of gaming, and it lies in the form of Indie developers looking to make the industry better, little by little, as best they can.