Dyack Says Industry Still In Dark Ages, Console Makers Under Siege

Denis Dyack has shared his most recent musings on the games industry in a talk at the Games Institute, in the University of Waterloo. In it, he described the industry as still being in the Dark
Ages, but a Renaissance is in the horizon, after the industry sheds off consoles.

In fact, Dyack describes the console makers as under siege, as proprietary hardware has lessened, giving way to consoles with similar specs in the  Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

You may not agree with everything he says, but some of his assertions make sense. Perhaps partly based on his experience, he is worried about the reliance on even bigger and more expenseive productions. He makes an example of GTA and worries what would happen if just one of those games fails.

Ultimately, he thinks the industry’s problems stem from commodization, and how the value of products lower over time as they get commodified. Console games have been moving in the opposite direction of this trend, and this is a direction that does not make sense. As a result, the industry is very volatile and uncertain.

Subsequently, he believes the right direction for the industry is to go small. Developers in particular stand to benefit working on smaller projects, and being afforded the freedom to take more risks than they do so now.

On the side, Dyack was of course asked about Precursor Games and Shadow of the Eternals. He has simply stated the team decided to take a break because they needed the rest.

Image is from Shadow of the Eternals.