The Fall of Physical Retail...really?

Over the last few years video games stores on the high street having been closing and stores that sell video games on the side have been reducing their stock levels.  One theory towards this is that the online market is impossible to contend with.  Website like Amazon sell the same games, accessories and consoles without having to pay rent, store staff or utilities on stores. But is this really the direction we want the retail sector of our beloved industry to go? Is it even the direction that its going in?

Arguments can be made for the online markets.  Its a lot more convenient to turn your on your computer, pop in some credit card details and hit "check out" then it is to travel into town and use cash.  An online retailer doesn't need to worry about location, opening hours or the running of individual stores, not to mention you can get most things from one website if you go to the right one.

In terms of the UK as a whole online retail is still relatively small if you don't include music downloads and ticket sales at under 10% and if you do under 20%.  But figures do show that the online retail market is growing.

From my own personal observations in my local video games stores sales are up!  I haven't been in and not had to queue for weeks! But is this really what it seems, I doubt it.  A new store has opened on our high street, a second hand game store and its one of the busiest stores around, the games I see people buying form my local are also all second hand.  Second hand games are cheaper, usually just as good and can be available soon after release for most games.

Second hand sales of video games removes millions from the market from the developers view, hence why many games these days are starting to have codes that must be registered online specifically to prevent the use of second hand games.

I do use second hand games but I could live without them. Linking back to my last post, I cannot live without new games and innovation which will die if the sale of new copies doesn't stay alive.

What is more important, the high street stores or the developers?

Innovation, where has it gone?

I have been playing games for years, I started in the early 90's which for some may be in the late stages of their gaming lives.  The games industry is 40 years old, in the eyes of other industries its still a child yet innovation is becoming hard to come by.  When was the last time an original game topped the charts or scored highly on a big reviews site (e.g. IGN or Game Trailers).

These days games like Call of Duty and Fifa get the high scores, games that have numbers either in the double digits, or near enough, after their titles.  Assassins Creed 3, is it really 3 or is it 5? I am not saying that I don't like these games, on the contrary I love Assassins Creed and I play Fifa but I am getting bored.  When I first started playing games everything was new or at least the new versions of games made leaps and bounds to earn the right of a 2 or a 3 in the title.

If I continue to go on about this in such broad terms this post will never end, so lets narrow it down.  The Nintendo 64 was my first real console, I had game boys and some DOS games but the N64 was a leap forward in my eyes.  The N64 may not have as many original titles as people might believe as many of its exclusive titles are sequels from previous Nintendo platforms.  What made these games unique to their predecessors was the innovations in gameplay and the addition of original features. The N64 also has an advantage of being at the start of when video games became more main stream and less of an indie/hobbyist  industry.

•  007: Golden Eye is remembered by many of my generation as one of the best games they ever played with its multiplayer mode. 
• Zelda Ocarina of Time was the first 3D Zelda game and also one of the first games that had a graphically impressive open world experience.   
• Super Mario 64 again a first 3D installment in a franchise
• Winback has the first appearance of the modern 3rd person cover system

Most of the games above were at the top of the sellers list when they were released.

Jump forward a decade and you hit 2000, lets look at the innovative ideas of the naughties (in my opinion)

• Halo: Combat Evolved: this games rebounding health system changed the way first person shooters are played.  Almost every FPS now has a similar system
• Nintendo Wii: This may be a console but its controller and appeal to the casual gamer cannot be ignored
• Xbox Kinect: Removing the need for a controller entirely 
• Portal: A first person puzzle solving game with its amazing portal gun 

Now lets look at the most anticipated games for 2012/13

• Mass Effect 3
• Halo 4
• Assassins Creed 3
• Max Payne 3
• Far Cry 3
• Borderlands 2
• Call of Duty Black Ops 2
• Fifa 13

The list goes on, and I am not saying none of the new games are innovative and not that none of them are original games.  However if you look at the games that I chose to post, their original titles can easily be described as innovative but what about their most recent installments? Whats changed?  For the most part very little in my eyes. For Example Fifa 13 seems pretty much the same to me, though if you ask any of my football crazy flatmates they will disagree.

Innovation these days seems to be an Indie developers job now and not that of the big boys...disagree post below

Intorduction

After starting a blog for my honours project I thought I would start another one.  This blog will be related to one of my modules where we discuss the current state of the industry.  The discussion points raised recently have given me a desire to give my point of view, a view I think most game journalists are either afraid to voice or have lost sight of the point.