I don't think the industry is failing but I think if we aren't careful we will risk history repeating itself. In the mid 80s atari were part responsible for a crash in the games market that affected the entire global economy.

This happened for many reasons but part of it was an abundance of shovelware and licensed movie game trash. They just assumed it would sell because of the name on the box. ET showed them they were wrong.

We see this pattern still today as big publishers haven't really learned. If we aren't careful they'll rest on their laurels too long and studios from the developing world will take their place like Japan took over the console market for near 20 years after that mainly US based disaster.

Be warned!

It wasn't just Atari. It was most video game publishers at the time that were releasing shovel ware.

I agree with you though I can see it happening again and soon too. Although I don't see it as big publishers who are making the mistakes. Rather I see it as indies who are going to cause the crash. Don't get me wrong there are some truly amazing indie titles out there but when you look at steam and the other app stores there is also a huge amount of crap and it looks like there are far too many kids trying to play in a very small paddling pool.

I can watch movies, TV box sets and read books, look at the same paintings and listen to the same music over and over again. However very few games have the same deployability factor. The are exceptions to the rule but for the majority of games they are just throw away entertainment that in 10 years will only have novelty or kitsch appeal.

This is massively oversimplified. TV box sets? The average person can't watch VHS/Betamax anymore; we had to shift the way we broadcast over-the-air television signals nearly worldwide; and nobody actually buys a DVD player anymore, we're just lucky that Blu-Ray players are backward compatible—and good luck if you invested in HD-DVD.

Music has made even more transitions, from various bespoke recording and playback devices that are only found in museums, to marginally standard variants on the phonograph, to vinyl records, a plethora of magnetic tape cassette formats to CDs (SACDs, Blu-Ray Audio, etc), and that's before we get into audio codecs.

And yet the experience gets remastered, re-produced, re-distributed, to the point that you take physical/technological compatibility/availability for granted. Are games not replayable? Of course they are—and lots of games do get re-released. But video games are a relatively young medium, only just reaching the level of cultural penetration and acceptance to where recreating gaming experiences of previous generations will become a commonplace pop cultural and even critically acclaimed activity. It's happening on the fringe with all those 100-games-in-one-joystick gimmick packages.

It is much too early in the culture and history of games to be making definitive statements as yet. Right now, the form is driven by a pace of technical iteration that other media haven't seen since the early years of audio recording, or television. Go look; how many pre-RCA television broadcasts can you find anywhere? As the sheer pace of technology upheaval slows, then you will see the growing emphasis on repetition that you ascribe to other forms of media, emphases they have accrued over, literally, centuries.

Give it time.

I don't think the industry is failing but I think if we aren't careful we will risk history repeating itself. In the mid 80s atari were part responsible for a crash in the games market that affected the entire global economy.

This happened for many reasons but part of it was an abundance of shovelware and licensed movie game trash. They just assumed it would sell because of the name on the box. ET showed them they were wrong.

We see this pattern still today as big publishers haven't really learned. If we aren't careful they'll rest on their laurels too long and studios from the developing world will take their place like Japan took over the console market for near 20 years after that mainly US based disaster.

Be warned!

It wasn't just Atari. It was most video game publishers at the time that were releasing shovel ware.

I agree with you though I can see it happening again and soon too. Although I don't see it as big publishers who are making the mistakes. Rather I see it as indies who are going to cause the crash. Don't get me wrong there are some truly amazing indie titles out there but when you look at steam and the other app stores there is also a huge amount of crap and it looks like there are far too many kids trying to play in a very small paddling pool.

The distribution channels, marketing vectors and scope of "gaming" today is so radically different that I don't think this will ever happen. Sure, your "AAA" studios may collapse, but there will always be a Clash of Clans, a Dwarf Fortress, a Bejeweled, an Angry Birds—hell, a Flappy Bird—that sees massive popular adoption and success.

The industry is changing. That means new challenges, but also new opportunities.