Grand Theft Auto stands alone
Given that I am far, far behind you guys in terms of gameplay (I managed to make a completely embarassing rookie mistake and erase all of my game progress), I have a couple questions inspired by GTA IV I'd like you folks to weigh in on.
GTA III came out in October 2001. While in some respects it's similar to a few earlier efforts (the 1990 Terminator game, Freelancer, and I suppose Mario 64 come to mind), it basically invented the third person "sandlot" genre. Particularly when it comes to realistic, populated worlds.
Here we are seven years later. And the genre is still, basically, Grand Theft Auto. Why the hell is that? This latest iteration moved six million units in less than a week. IIRC, it earned something like half a billion dollars in a matter of hours.
Zork spawned a thousand text adventure games. After Wolfenstein and Doom, we saw an explosion in first person shooters. I'm not sure what the first RTS action game was, but whatever it was, I'm sure there hundreds of copycats that appeared within seven years.
So what's going on with the sandbox genre? Off the top of my head: Crackdown, Saints Row, Mercenaries, Just Cause, True Crime, Godfather ... and maybe Assassin's Creed. That's all I can think of. That's a pretty mixed bag in terms of quality and economic success. Where are the rest of them? Why haven't we seen an explosion in offerings by now?
I can think of a few reasons why Grand Theft Auto is not only the best game in town, but pretty much the only game. None of them are wholly satisfying. I'd love to hear you guys weigh in:
1.)The games are too difficult to make; people who can, already work for Rockstar.
2.)Seven years is not enough time for a game genre to start blossoming, as fewer and fewer games are released each year (really?).
3.)There are tons of sandbox offerings: they're called role playing games.
4.) The Grand Theft Auto series is so effing dominate people don't want to invest the capital to compete; it's like launching a competing football franchise against Madden.
5.)I'm inventing a phenomenom that doesn't exist, as separating GTA style games from other RPG/adventure games is a false dichotomy. GTA does things differently, it isn't anything new.
Any other reasons? What's going on here? It seems like the market for this type of game can sustained more than one, maybe two titles a year.
GTA III came out in October 2001. While in some respects it's similar to a few earlier efforts (the 1990 Terminator game, Freelancer, and I suppose Mario 64 come to mind), it basically invented the third person "sandlot" genre. Particularly when it comes to realistic, populated worlds.
Here we are seven years later. And the genre is still, basically, Grand Theft Auto. Why the hell is that? This latest iteration moved six million units in less than a week. IIRC, it earned something like half a billion dollars in a matter of hours.
Zork spawned a thousand text adventure games. After Wolfenstein and Doom, we saw an explosion in first person shooters. I'm not sure what the first RTS action game was, but whatever it was, I'm sure there hundreds of copycats that appeared within seven years.
So what's going on with the sandbox genre? Off the top of my head: Crackdown, Saints Row, Mercenaries, Just Cause, True Crime, Godfather ... and maybe Assassin's Creed. That's all I can think of. That's a pretty mixed bag in terms of quality and economic success. Where are the rest of them? Why haven't we seen an explosion in offerings by now?
I can think of a few reasons why Grand Theft Auto is not only the best game in town, but pretty much the only game. None of them are wholly satisfying. I'd love to hear you guys weigh in:
1.)The games are too difficult to make; people who can, already work for Rockstar.
2.)Seven years is not enough time for a game genre to start blossoming, as fewer and fewer games are released each year (really?).
3.)There are tons of sandbox offerings: they're called role playing games.
4.) The Grand Theft Auto series is so effing dominate people don't want to invest the capital to compete; it's like launching a competing football franchise against Madden.
5.)I'm inventing a phenomenom that doesn't exist, as separating GTA style games from other RPG/adventure games is a false dichotomy. GTA does things differently, it isn't anything new.
Any other reasons? What's going on here? It seems like the market for this type of game can sustained more than one, maybe two titles a year.
posted by O.C. Mike at
2:57 PM
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