BioWare Dev: “Too Many Games” To Play
I know I’ve said it before, and maybe some of you have too. There is just so many games to play and so little time to finish them before the next blockbuster title makes its way onto my entertainment shelf. Bad habits of a gaming addict? Probably so, but apparently one developer seems to share the same opinion.
Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare, has shared some of his personal gaming trends with Develop, lending light to his opinion on the rate of output from the industry.
“There are too many games released today. It’s interesting, because it’s very, very busy – it makes it very hard as a player to keep up. The releases clump up – even though that is changing a little bit.
“For us, we have to play our games, play competitor’s games, play other relevant games and play the handful of games we just really want to play more of and finish.
“I try and play two-or three hours a night, but that’s hard and it’s not enough.”
It also seems that BioWare itself is feeding that “too many games” trend as they are beginning to have shorter gaps between releasing new titles. When Knights of the Old Republic came out in 2003, Jade Empire followed next about 2 years later. Then again, in another 2 years (2007), Mass Effect is introduced.
As of late though, that cycle seems be shortening. In the fall of 2009 brought the year of Dragon Age. Then, a few months afterward, Mass Effect 2 hit the scene in January 2010, probably bottle-necking some time for gamers to dedicate themselves to one game. And now, only a year after that we’re already anticipating the spawn of Dragon Age 2 to grab hold of our time.
That’s the time line with just one developer, so you can imagine the flood of titles when you view the industry as a whole.
So what do you think? Should developers back off releasing too many titles? Or can there never be too much of a good thing when it comes to gaming?
[Via]
12 Responses to “BioWare Dev: “Too Many Games” To Play”
Tell me about it. Next year we have Agent, Socom 4, Sorcery, Journey, Twisted Metal, Resistance 3, inFamous 2, Killzone 3, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Lord of the Rings: War In The North, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Tekken X Street Fighter (Street Fighter X Tekken), Portal 2, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, LittleBig Planet 2, Max Payne 3, Agent, Alice: Madness Returns, Batman: Arkham City, The Last Guardian, L.A. Noire, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soilder, Duke Nukem Forever, Crysis 2 Rage, Red Faction: Armageddon, Spec Ops: The Line, Yakuza 4, Horizon (Quantic’s project), Dynasty Warriors 7 ,Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, Echocrome 2, Heroes on the Move, The Agency, Uncharted 3, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Ico & Shadow Collection. and then Bioshock Infinite.
YOU KNOW SOMETIMES THEY JUST DONT WANT US TO HAVE MONEY THEY DONT LOL
My wallet just had a heart attack looking at that list… never saw it all written out like that…
hello …
my wallet too tazinlwfl
& my brain stalled for i want 90% of this list, maybe more …
when i look at the small list i have (35 PS3 games (18 being PSN titles) & having finished only 3 & 77 (not counting 100s of old 1s) PC games & playing ONLY 1 MMO + 1 Tower defense game,
i agree, we have far too many games, but can’t get enough of good things
I will buy more & hope, really really hope to win the lotto & retire so that i can play all my games someday.
cheers!
there is always a clump and dead zone. it’s nothing new
Do we got too many games to play? Yes.
Is it a bad thing? Surely not!
One word: filter.
Twisted Metal, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City, Duke Nukem Forever, Crysis 2.
See ?
That’s one game per 2 months
I know its sad but I bought Bioshock since January and I still haven’t beaten it yet.
Games I’ve bought and haven’t finished (even PS2 games): Dragon Quest VIII, Rogue Galaxy, FFX (bite me), FFXIII, Just Cause 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza 3, Transformers 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and a few smaller titles.
I need to ban myself from buying anymore titles and lock myself in a room until these are finished. I’m in so much trouble…
Funny, I just posted about this on Amazon recently… couldn’t find my post though or I would have just copy/pasted (their forums have a strange, horrible setup!).
I’ve felt overwhelmed recently by “too many games”. Its not that there’s just too many games, because there’s been a lot for a long time. Game quality has increased dramatically in the past few years, and as a result there’s too many must have, must play games, and even with a filter (lemulot) known as my wallet, there’s a lot I miss. Even if I had a bigger budget, I simply don’t have the time. And from a business stand point, this is bad – when the market is flooded with more product than demand, a return on sales is greatly diminished. This is why so many games have been delayed past the holidays, which isn’t a new trend, but an increasingly popular one. Normally I’m pissed about it, but this year I’ve been saying “Oh that’s okay, I already have too much to play as it is”. For us its not so bad, but for publishers and developers it may be, since this will force them at some point to reassess how many games they make, and how much content they contain for the standard $60 price tag, and obviously, when they release them.
i have over 75 games in my ps3 collection alone (although many are things like buzz, singstar and guitar hero/rock band games) and i still have over 40 that i need to complete, its just terrible going out and seeing a game i really wanted for a very cheap price, this is whats caused the build up and then other new games come out and i have to choose what to play, its all too hard
Sony could probably launch an exclusive once a month next year. Agent, Twisted Metal, Killzone 3, LittleBig Planet 2, Resistance 3, Final Fantasy Verus XIII, inFamous 2, The Last Guardian, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Uncharted 3 (maybe), Yakuza 4, and there’s like PixelJunk Shooter 2, Echochrome 2, Journey, and Sorcery still. Looks good for a Playstationer next year!