New Video Game Documentary Asks if We’ve Learned Anything

In a time when video game sales as a whole are down, and it seems like retail box sales are falling, gaming companies need to re evaluate their strategies. And yet, it seems like large companies like Activision, Ubisoft, and EA aren’t doing anything different. The large companies are refusing to take risks, cutting back their spending on new titles and instead sticking to sure-sellers like the Call of Duty franchise.

While the “Traditional” gaming market is decreasing, the “Casual” games market seems to be ever-expanding, with Facebook and other free online games being released every day. iPhone and iPad game sales are also increasing, with many being given freely away and the rest being priced under the $10 mark. Innovation is happening all over the web, but very few big-name companies are involved. Instead, the innovators are the small companies, releasing their games freely or cheaply either online or via Steam. Consumers are responding better to the cheap/free games, and cutting way back on buying retail boxed games.

All that’s information that you probably already know. The question, then, becomes why big game companies refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room. The new documentary Game Theory attempts to answer the question and prod game companies to get their heads out of the sand. “We’re in the Cambrian explosion of games, where all these weird new life forms are popping out for the very first time and filling these niches that are appearing dramatically,” says The Sims creator Will Wright, who points to the rise of social games and free online games as a major turning point for the field. “Of course a lot of the old, established things are going to be dying off pretty rapidly,” he ominously portends. “Even the major life forms.”

Game Theory is available to view online, and provides a glimpse into where the industry might need to be going. Check it out here.