Sega Exec: EA Struggling with Hardcore Crowd, Industry Heading Towards 'Snackable Gaming'

Comments like this merely reflect the expanding demographics of gaming. When I was in high-school and college, I really liked playing games that required a large time commitment. But now that I'm older I really do not have the same kind of appetite for a game that takes 40 hours to complete. GTA 4 is a good example. I bought it and enjoyed it for probably about 15-20 hours of play time, but then I got bored with it and wanted to play something else, even though I had only completed about 20% of GTA 4. Because I know this about myself, I find that I wait for the prices of most games to be reduced before I buy them. I generally don't get $60 worth of value out of a game before I get bored with it and want to play something new..

"Gamers are driven by getting achievements, finishing games, and they want to consume a lot of games."

I don't know what "gamers" he's talking about, but it's probably not us. I don't care too much for achievements. I like finishing games, but only if they're worthwhile, and I'm not going to buy a game because it's short. Besides, with games being $55 per unit, I'm going to be limited in my choices anyway.

"Disposable income isn’t a problem for them. If it takes a shooting game 20 hours to complete, that’s frustrating."

Somebody hasn't played Deus Ex. If it's a good rewarding game, we'll play through it, but that takes a LOT of effort and time, far more than most publishers are willing to allocate to developers without seeing a frequent return on their investment. Which is why more publishers are pushing for shorter games, shorter development cycles, and increased usage of microtransactions.

Bioshock is a good example for modern game development. It was rather nice, but it could've been deeper. Levine and Irrational could've aimed for System Shock 2 depth, but that probably would've taken far more time and resources than 2K was willing to invest. Gotta sell something so we can fund the next project, which will hopefully be better. No, wait, budgets are tightening, gotta make it mass market. I got a fever, and the only prescription is more microtransactions!

Man, in a way I am glad I don't work in the industry anymore. Modern gaming is shit and I had to trow similar shit like this guy. The funny thing is that you start to believe all that crap if suits you.

5-10 hours = shit game. Why would I want the game to be this short if I truly like it? Fuck you, mr. publisher.

Somehow, I never told myself "Urrgh! Why can't I finish this game already, I'm having too much fun for TOO LONG."

Fuck that. Pick up and play games? Snackable gaming? Go make bejeweled 2, Sega. The shift is not coming from the gamers' change of taste, but simply because publishers and developers have started to include the whole family as a potential consumer instead of the little guy who finished Mass Effect in one night.

Stop mistaking the 'core gamers' with your mom and dad, seriously. Not saying it's a bad thing that other people play games, but shit stop saying we're the ones changing the industry. I don't give a crap about 'snackable games', unless it's 8 o clock in the morning and I have 15 minutes to waste before school. Like, Rock band. That's kind of a snackable game, but an exception really, cause rock band rocks. Yeah.

i don't think i can take any comments from sega seriously anymore. they havnt come up with anything great in too long. they are still flogging sonic for all he's worth, which isnt much anymore and all their other games are ok at best.
they should try making better games themselves before they criticise others.

EA make shit loads of money from releasing sports games every year but, hell, Skate was awesome, burnout paradise, bad company, also great.

Lets see you put your games where your mouth are, sega!

Actually, I kinda like games that take 20+ hours to beat and those are the ones I usually buy first. I haven't played a "good" long game since Oblivion, or Final Fantasy X, then again Metal Gear Solid 4 is amazing and that long.

If it's gonna be be short to no single player then it better have amazing multiplayer like Warhawk or Battlefield Bad Company (the best two "online" games I've played for consoles until maybe SOCOM). or maybe even Mario Kart, which is fun online. Those I would buy too.

The core problem of all this is that epic games just cost too much these days.. And unless they also make epic sales they are not justifiable anymore for most publishers/developers.
What are epic games? Mostly RPGs. Action RPGs, etc.
Developping a Zelda Twilight Princess is roughly ten times more work (read: money) than developping a Zelda:Link to the Past... So what?

Fuck everything. Back to 2D!
And I mean it. I love 3D games, I fucking do. But if that means that we get to see less of them and those we see are getting shorter and shorter (not to mention many of them are only pale shadows of they glorious 2D ancestors) well that's a no-no for me.
(And I don't mean portable games either. Spending 40 hours on a DS? Thanks but no.)
Developping 2D games with today's hardware can lead to great results, and at a fraction of the cost of a 3D game..
MegaMan, Bionic commando, that's the way to go.. A new 2D 40hours+ Zelda? (and not 6 hours like Phantom Hourglass) Fuck yeah!

(What is the latest long game I played? Super Metroid, last month. :( And I enjoyed every minute of it. )

all that doesn't mean hardcore gamers are going anywhere, so there's room for hardcore games. Hey, EA isnt't exactly an example of a company that didn't succeed!

"Call of Duty 4 had a shorter single-player campaign and really good multiplayer... Gamers are driven by getting achievements, finishing games, and they want to consume a lot of games."

Complete BS. And he wonders why EA struggles with the "hardcore" crowd. Yes, I love CoD4's multiplayer, but I would have loved the single player campaign to be twice as long. Multiplayer is a big part of why I like games, but not the only one. Look at Half-Life 2 (and 1 for that matter), it had what I consider to be one of the best singleplayer stories every made, AND it had great multiplayer, thousands of mods, and a huge and still active fan base/community.

Good games aren't "short and cheap" like they want them to be. I don't buy 10 games a month. I barely buy 10 a year. If they want a AAA blockbuster title for the hardcore crowd, they're going to have to work at it and put some effort into it. Sad thing is that if they ever do have that one great title, game of the year and all that jazz, they're going to milk it for dozens of sequels and spinoffs anyways.

EA, you're too big to see that the problem IS that you're too big. Please, take your 4 hour games and cram'em.

They don't know how to make games for us, that's hilarious, I love it, it will be like an open market.

I don't give a damn about 'snackable' games, party games, casual games and the likes. For all I care they could invade the planet like crickets on a Africa corn field. Where I do give a damn is when they take away the wonderufll talent of people like Nintendo EAD to make these 'games' instead of working on their next epic wonder. :( THEN that becomes a real problem..
And if last month's E3 was any indication, there's a fucking DESERT of epic game goodness ahead of us... (at least from Nintendo) :(

Fuck snakable gaming...give me a 50+ hour long games with a great storyline and incredible gameplay...with COOP, and a PC exclusive, so I know it won't have a shitty, bloated console-influenced HUD taking up half my screen as well as having responsive mouse controls instead of the laggy shit that Oblivion and Bioshock had! Where the hell was the coop for Bioshock? Systemshock 2 had it...after it was added in through a patch post release. Damn, it's not just publishers these days that make me sick...the devs are losing their knack as well.

By the way Bethesda...don't ever blow all of your voiceacting money on Patrick Stewart again, or any other "iconic" figure that I would recognize by voice, and sure as hell don't advertise it as "this game has the voice of so and so...buy it because of that." That type of marketing shows that the game probably isn't good enough unto itself to be marketable, which is a bad thing. You should have used the money you gave Patrick Stewart to 20 other voice actors and given us some diversity...having 4 or so voice actors for hundreds of characters shows a lack of..."fill in the blank here." I don't believe they have learned their lesson...Fallout 3 will likely dig its own grave. They're great at hyping, but are shitty at delivering. If they can do it, great, PLEASE prove me wrong, but the track record of so many companies, with few exceptions, is abyssmal. Activision, Epic, EA, Flagship, ID, Ubisoft, Sierra, 2K, etc.

Please, just keep the games for those with no attention spans off of the "this must be what most gamers want" idea chart, because you're only making the problem worse, and you're an idiot simply for making an assumption without asking different age groups, or even looking into the age of the average gamer. Did you even know that the majority of gamers are in their 20's and 30's?...we've learned something called "patience" and I for one would like to continue to see long games...try playing Neverwinter Nights, BG2, taking the time to get good at Simcity 4, play the entire campaign of Freespace 2 or Freelancer, and you'll start getting a better idea of how long games ought to be. If you're going to sell 10 hour games, at least change the price to relfect that. 40-50 hour games with high replayability sell for $50...so, you know what to do.




I apologize for some of the rant, not all of it though as I believe some of it was warrented. I have a tendency of providing examples to back up my statements, or current perspective of how I view things. I am a strong advocate against shorter games, as well as not being fond of the current trend of simplifying gameplay. What can I say, other than I truly enjoy playing games, and am quite saddened to see gaming in the state it is currently in. I continue to play because even in the darkest eras, both in gaming as well as in history, there are small twinkling gems with which to seek and use as a beacon of hope for the future. I almost feel as if it would be best if all game developers and publishers suddenly bit the dust, and allow for the industry to rise back and reshape itself. As things are right now, publishers seem to have a deathgrip on devs due to their financial strength, and the devs needing the funding if for no other reason due to the publishers marketing power. But, I suppose all I can do is wait and see how things will shape themselves, as a single person, on the recieving end no less, is not going to hold any sway over a single developer, let alone an industry as large as this.

I hope I'm not the only one that thinks that Simon Jeffrey is a bit of a douche.

Sadly it seems the only thing Sega's got right is making arcade games for Japan -_-

I'm honestly not a fan of the under 20 hr gaming experience, although as I have aged, I do have much less patience for shovelware. Personally I love replayability, epic length, basically total war has always delivered. I don't play total war everyday, my mood dictates my gaming urge, sometimes I want 20 mins instant frenetic action. But don't try to sell me that I value these experiences the same way, I understand mr pr man that you want to sell me less product with a greater margin, but please don't tell me it was my idea k?

Sega? Seriously? You made a mediocre imitation of a Nintendo character 15 years ago. Being as charitable as "Sega is struggling" would be a stretch, regardless of genre.

Longer games are expensive to make, with all the next gen graphics.

Shorters games are cheaper.


The end.

so, is Wow "Snackable"?

People playing this game for >2 years and there is still no end to it..

I guess Sega dreams about the day when they can produce games 5 min in length and charge $50 as they think everyone has lots of disposable income.

Snackable Gaming™, cruchtasticly delicious!

Jesus Christ, "Snackable"? Really? That's the best your fucking PR people could come up with?

Seriously?

Jesus.

So... they are not announcing more video game-branded cereals? :|

Does Sega have any room to talk about EA struggling with the hardcore crowd? Sega is struggling with EVERY crowd.

iphone games are "an extremely high profit-margin business"

paradoxically maybe, as you give people less product your profit margin grows because people don't care about small values of money

this is why the gaming industry is moving toward a bunch of cheap crappy games LOL