Feature: 'What's Wrong with the Games Industry'

In today's Gamasutra feature, developer Stephen Ford writes an impassioned and controversial article, discussing the issues he sees in today's game industry, and exactly how the business needs to shift as it moves into the next console generation. Ford begins: ""You know what's wrong with the industry?" So begins just about every conversation that I have around the water cooler, in the work kitchen, in the pub, at friends' houses. This conversation arises whenever two people who work in game development get together, particularly if one or both works in a small or mid-sized developer. It borders on cliché to talk about the problems affecting development, the problems of developer studios having to merge or close, or the inflexibility of the whole industry system. A whole host of causes get blamed from publishers to management, economic conditions, brain drain to other industries, incompetent designers, the second hand market, lack of professional methods, hardware manufacturers, media coverage, you name it. And then we all get drunk and reassure each other that if we had our way, all would be better. While these are all lovely rationalisations, and some of them surely are symptoms of the real problem, they are not the cause. The actual causes are simple." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the topic to hear just what the causes are and how they can be improved to reach 'the games industry, version 2.0.' (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).