A growing topic within the video game industry this generation has been the rising cost of development. This leads not only to higher prices, but to publishers being less willing to take a chance on new properties. Heck, it was just revealed last week that Crackdown, which sold 1.5 million copes and then some, just barely broke even. To me, this is a primary reason why this generation needs to last for a long time (imagine how expensive the next next-gen games will be), but I digress.
However, Valve’s Gabe Newell has recently spoken about something that he feels is an alternative: gamers becoming investors that fund the making of games. Right now, the current model works with a developer going to a publisher with an idea, and getting a commitment of millions based on the concept. What Gabe is proposing is that gamers would become that investor, thus eliminating the middle man and producing an open relationship between the creative and the consumer.
While I think this is an interesting idea on paper, I can’t really see it working. It seems to me that gamers would only really want to pay money up front for a game that they are sure of, and if there’s that kind of demand, there is probably a publisher willing to back it anyway. I mean, who would fund Katamari Damacy based on the premise of a guy pushing around a ball of garbage? You get the point.
Anywho, what do you guys think of this? Is Valve on to something here?
Source- Kotaku
Howdy all. Been a long and relaxing weekend, hence the lack of posts. I’m kind of a weird creature in that the less I have on my plate, the less I tend to do. The busier I am, the more time I make for posting on GamerSushi, working out, etc. It’s odd.
I have been an FPS guy for years. Years upon years, even. I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D, Quake and Doom on my slow-as-balls PC, gunning away to my heart’s content. Eventually, as the Internet actually became a living, breathing entity that took hold of our collective psyche, I started jumping into multiplayer matches like they could sustain my very being. 
Over the years, gaming has produced quite a few fond memories for me. There are the emotional moments, the rushes of pure adrenaline, the challenges, all of these things have created a slew of experiences for me to draw from. However, there’s another thing that gaming is great for, and that’s memorable quotes.
We all love and dread the holiday season when it comes to purchasing video games. Love in the sense that we know we are going to be getting tons of quality games, but dread in the sense that there is no way we can purchase all of them at once, meaning that some will slip to the wayside. It happens every year.
Well folks, it’s time for another GamerSushi Top Six, where Anthony and I dissect the gaming world and come up with a list of six spectacular things. Why six? Because six sells. Our feature this week even has a holiday theme.
Though I didn’t get to play much of Dead Space when it released, I’ve been wanting to do so, even though I’m a big wuss when it comes to survival-horror games. Many people I know have played and loved the game, so it’s definitely on my list of titles I’d love to tackle eventually.
Even though many people live in a fantasy world where video game companies only exist to make fun things for cool people, the reality is that they also exist to take away our money. This is a fundamental truth that you can’t escape, and I won’t believe otherwise until someone starts giving me free video games.
Blizzard, Blizzard. You seem so content to make it into the WTF parties these days. While lately I’ve been upset with the amount of whining and fussing that gamers tend to go on and on about, I can’t help but sympathize a little on this one. 
One of the first games I ever played with more than 2 people was Doom on the PC, when a friend of mine had several computers set up on a LAN. We would go over there after school and just kill each other for hours at a time. I had never experienced anything like it.
We all have games that we have adored throughout the years, returning to play them again and again. Typically, it’s hard for us to see the games we love as anything but perfect, having put them up on a pedestal. Occasionally though we will tear off the rose colored glasses and start to see the cracks in their armor.
So over the weekend, I played and finished the Ghostbusters video game. Overall, it wasn’t the best game ever, but it certainly had its decent portions. And heck, it was essentially Ghostbusters 3, so how can you not love it? I’ve been waiting years for more Ghostbusters content, and this provided it.
Meant to say this earlier, but I guess it’s better late than never: Happy’s Father Day, dudes. Hope you guys have had decent days with your dads, and if not, then I hope you at least got some good gaming time in. Myself, I’ve been playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope all day and might purchase Metal Gear Solid on the PSN.
Nothing is worse when playing a game online than getting stuck with some jerk on your own team. I mean, getting matched up against them is bad enough, but when you’re on the same team with them, you just have to put up with their garbage for the entire time you play, rather than just the occasional match-up. And the worst part about it is these jerks come up in all shapes and sizes.
A few months ago, I wrote a feature about the things that are wrong with the gaming industry on the whole. Some of that had to do with the games themselves, some of it had to with the journalists that covered and reviewed them, and some of it had to do with the gamers that played them. In terms of gamers that are hurting gaming and its culture unknowingly, console and even PC fanboys rank right at the top.