Sign in Join
  • Archive Home
  • Flip-through editions
  • Stories from print sections
    • News & Opinion
      • Alerts
      • Editorial
      • Editors Notes
      • Green City
      • Herbwise
      • The Mix
      • Opinion
      • Techspoitation
    • Arts & Culture
      • Alt.sex.column
      • Art Listings
      • Astrology
      • Club Guide
      • Dance
      • Film Features
      • Film Reviews
      • Gamer
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Music Features
      • Rep Clock
      • Sonic Reducer
      • Stage
      • Super Ego
      • Theater
      • Visual Art
    • Food & Drink
      • Cheap Eats
      • Restaraunts
      • Restaurant Review
    • Special
  • Stories from SFBG.com
    • Bruce Blog
    • Noise
      • Party Radar
    • Pixel Vision
    • Politics Blog
    • Sex Blog
    • SF Blog
    • Video Pick
    • Without Reservations
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Create an account
Sign up
Welcome!Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
  • Sign in / Join
  • <-- Back to 48hills.org
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Create an account
Create an account
Welcome! Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966–2014
  • Archive Home
  • Flip-through editions
  • Stories from print sections
    • News & Opinion
      • Alerts
      • Editorial
      • Editors Notes
      • Green City
      • Herbwise
      • The Mix
      • Opinion
      • Techspoitation
    • Arts & Culture
      • Alt.sex.column
      • Art Listings
      • Astrology
      • Club Guide
      • Dance
      • Film Features
      • Film Reviews
      • Gamer
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Music Features
      • Rep Clock
      • Sonic Reducer
      • Stage
      • Super Ego
      • Theater
      • Visual Art
    • Food & Drink
      • Cheap Eats
      • Restaraunts
      • Restaurant Review
    • Special
  • Stories from SFBG.com
    • Bruce Blog
    • Noise
      • Party Radar
    • Pixel Vision
    • Politics Blog
    • Sex Blog
    • SF Blog
    • Video Pick
    • Without Reservations

Admit it, you’re addicted to Angry Birds

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Linkedin
ReddIt
Email
Print
    Pub date December 21, 2010
    WriterPeter Galvin
    SectionGamer
    IssueVolume 45 Number 12

    GAMER 2010, TAKE ONE Although a large portion of the world remains blissfully unaware of a shift, the game industry has silently surpassed Hollywood as the wealthiest entertainment medium. The year was more transitory than breakthrough, but 2010 boasted a number of changes. Here are seven.

    Reliance on sequels and franchises The industry has long been fond of franchising, but this year was especially sequel-rific. Big sales came from recognizable powerhouses like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Fable III — and these current installments offered thrills aplenty but were largely indistinguishable from last year’s counterparts. It makes you wonder how long consumers will give companies their hard-earned cash for the same experience each year. The Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero franchises can attest that nothing lasts forever.

    A schedule in flux With the success of November’s Call of Duty a forgone conclusion, competitors scrambled to move their release dates well before or after the best-selling war game. The holiday season has traditionally been the most release-heavy time of year, but this year a number of big titles like Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption moved release dates to spring and summer to allow them more room to breathe. While the holiday season remained congested, spreading out a few of the bigger releases helped some titles make money and relaxed the strain on consumers’ time and wallets.

    The game marketplace PSN and Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) discovered profit in championing indie games. Consumers win as well: we got some truly original ideas in Limbo, DeathSpank, Fat Princess, Monday Night Combat, and Super Meat Boy, which commonly displayed a singularity of vision that your bigger, more focus-grouped titles lack. As an avenue for indie developers, the only route more exciting was gaming with iPhone and Facebook.

    Removing the “geek” stigma On that note, everyone has a phone, and the recent explosion of iPhone and Facebook game releases just might make up more play hours than Big Three consoles combined. The success of Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and (dear God) Farmville signals a willingness among casual gamers to while away hours of their lives with the best of the hardcore gamers. While industry giants like Activision say the App Store isn’t worth their time, the seeds have been rigorously sown for our phones to become legitimate gaming devices.

    The battle for the casual gamer While Nintendo’s Wii continues to snub the classic gaming experience, Microsoft and Sony made their own leaps toward unconventional wiggle-waggle gaming with Kinect and Move, respectively. Kinect’s controller-less camera shows a great deal of promise and Move allows Sony an avenue to differentiate itself from an increasingly multiplatform marketplace, but neither company has the “must-have” software to back up their technology.

    Curtain call This year found music gaming down, but not out. Unremarkable entries like Rock Band: Green Day and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock had declining sales figures to match. Developer Harmonix continued to innovate in its main franchise, adding a keyboard to Rock Band 3 and the ability to play with a real 6-string guitar, and Harmonix’s Dance Central demonstrated the best use of Kinect’s technology so far. But neither release was the blockbuster needed to revive a dwindling genre.

    Rise of the DLC Disturbingly, a number of games are being released half in the box and half out; for the full experience you’ve got to get the downloadable content (DLC). Though this model is partially a sneaky way for distributors and developers to increase revenue, these “microtransactions” can also significantly extend a game’s shelf-life, something die-hard fans can applaud. Last winter’s Dragon’s Age: Origins was a great example, including characters at launch that functioned as in-game advertisements for DLC, but by continuing to release large add-ons like Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening throughout the year, gamers are still playing the title today. It’s a thin line, but for now the rewards of microtransactions continue to outweigh the pains.

    • Writer
    • Peter Galvin
    Facebook
    Twitter
    WhatsApp
    Linkedin
    ReddIt
    Email
    Print
      ABOUT US
      48hills.org is the official publication of the non-profit San Francisco Progressive Media Center.
      Contact us: info@48hills.org
      FOLLOW US
      © 48hills