BETA | DUST 514
The most important
console game ever made
CCP could breathe new life into the tame and tired console business, says Rob Crossley
A SUCCESSFUL game is easy to spot: The publisher is richer, the retailer is busier, the people who play it are happier, and the studio that created it hasn’t closed down. Success for Dust 514would trigger something else entirely. This PS3 exclusive could pave the way for a dramatic transformation of the console business. It could revolutionise PlayStation Network.
It could bring a microtransaction craze to consoles. It could make Xbox Live appear insular and out of touch by comparison. And it could mark the first meaningful connection between the PC and consoles. Look at it like this: For Sony, the most
Uncharted 3 can do is enlarge the bank balance. Dust 514 could change the currency. But to understand why this is, you first need to accept this...
GAMES CONSOLES ARE NO LONGER AT THE FOREFRONT OF GAME TECHNOLOGY.
Systems like the Atari 2600 miraculously brought interactive entertainment into the living-room. Later, more advanced devices flooded the high street with 3D games no longer exclusive to high-end PCs. Consoles could read DVDs before the masses even knew what they were. The Dreamcast allowed friends to meet online years before Facebook was conceived. What was supposed to happen was, in this age of unprecedented connection and interactivity, games consoles would again set
18 | NOVEMBER 2011
the example. They haven’t. In the sphere of interactive entertainment, it is the internet itself that is now leading the way; unrestrained in what it offers, and seemingly unlimited in its potential. The web is now the ‘platform’, the progenitor of hundreds of captivating and crazily innovative services that emerge each day on PC, on browsers, and on mobiles.
The console space is right now where the
PC was before the internet kicked off. It’s about to leap forward and it
won’t look back. Thor Gunnarsson, CCP
Smartphones and the PC – two platforms that only a few years ago were deemed worthless to games studios – are now flooded with games business as a result of adapting to the internet age. Social games firms have amassed
hundreds of millions of dollars because of a revolution in how they can interact with their audiences; popularity in online games can be quantified and acted on. Zynga, Valve, Tencent and others have
triggered a tectonic shift in the industry, with
new online-focused businesses erupting across the landscape. What has specifically driven them is the tight and rapid discussion between developers and their customers. But the console manufacturers have blocked off any such potential. They have severed the direct lines between creators and consumers. It’s because they want to remain at the
centre of the relationship. They want to be middle-men with control and influence over both sides of the equation, because it gives them collateral when brokering deals. And the platform holders worry that
constant updates to games will slow down the consumption of others. Console manufacturers believe in is a market that buys lots of different games, particularly their own first-party titles. This is typified by Valve’s Team Fortress 2, an
FPS released in 2007. On PC, the game has been updated more than 200 times – all at no charge. One update added a microtransactions economy, another made the game entirely free. On Xbox 360, it has had a handful of
updates, which Valve has on occasion been forced to charge customers to download. Valve president Gabe Newell put it best when he spoke to Develop in August: “The games industry needs to figure out how to make the internet better instead of figuring out how to keep customers off the internet”. Anxieties of online disruption have
compelled platform holders to shelter their
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