Music and Movies and Games, Oh My

GameSetWatch points to an interesting exchange over at… er, GigaOM, which asks what - if anything - games can learn from the music industry’s trials and tribulations.  The jumping off point for the discussion is Radiohead’s recent album release, which as you may be aware is available for download for “what you think the album is worth.”  But that’s not really GigaOM’s proposal.  The author proposes a few basic guiding principles to summarize what people want: consumers want freedom (no DRM!), and content creators want control of their inventions (no obtrusive labels!).  It’s hard to disagree with that.

In addition to these general observations, the author cites two main “issues” with the gaming industry in particular:

1.  The lack of a common platform; and

2.  The fact that game sales - the primary sale of content - is really the only stream of revenue the industry has.

To touch on each of these points separately, I think they’re 50% correct.  We’ve discussed common platforms on this site before, and I think our conclusion was basically sound: consumers would benefit substantially from a standard platform, but the industry is currently constructed in such a way that it will never, ever happen.  There’s just too much profit in separate platforms, especially given the relatively low price point of a console vis-a-vis introductory computers 20 years ago.  Perhaps as console prices (and development costs) continue to increase, we might see additional consolidation - but not right now, or in the foreseeable future.  So this seems to me to be a non-starter.

The second point is, I think, more valid.  The article provides the example of CDs as loss leaders to promote live performances.  I don’t see The Wizard-style SMB3 blowouts any time soon, but I really do think there’s a future in competitive gaming and alternative revenue streams.  You’re seeing that now in MMOs, DLC, and episodic content, of course, but these are immature innovations at best.  To the extent that brands can be extended past the game industry (think 80’s-era Nintendo) there are of course other options, but it assumes that games can break out of the sort of pop culture ghetto they now inhabit.