What does 'video game' mean, anyway? - Aug 2010
(CNN) -- From plummeting sales to a shift to social networks, critics love to endlessly debate what ails the gaming business. But ironically, the biggest problem of all may be that there is no singular "games industry" to speak of anymore, and that the term "video game" itself is hopelessly outdated.
"I've never seen a period like this ... there's so much disruption," Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins recently said on the online video show "Game Theory." "The industry is really being turned inside out." Credit the rise of new technologies -- from downloadable games to smartphone apps -- streaming "cloud" games and social network titles. Free games playable in your Web browser, electronic amusements based around the sale of bite-sized virtual goods ("microtransactions") and massively multiplayer online worlds are also on the upswing. Simultaneously, tightened household spending is forcing players to look more toward episodic and downloadable content such as new maps, missions and story add-ons that extend the life of games they already own.
Unfortunately for industry titans like Activision and Electronic Arts, most modern forms of electronic entertainment have about as much to do with games like "Call of Duty" and "Mass Effect" as Apple does quilting.
"A lot of the established players [including] retailers and publishers are worried," said "Oddworld" creator Lorne Lanning. "They have good reason to be. People are finding experiences and products elsewhere, and different businesses are emerging that large infrastructure companies aren't used to adapting to, and a lot of them won't be able to adapt to.
"Anyone who thinks that they're deeply entrenched ... is fooling themselves."
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Any of this sound familiar porn people?
