EA Games: Lewis Mumford Called It!

Whilst studying I came across a statement on a piece of Lewis Mumford's work that caught my eye:

Modern technology—which he calls 'megatechnics'—evades producing lasting, quality products by using devices such as consumer credit, installment buying, non-functioning and defective designs, built-in fragility, and frequent superficial "fashion" changes. "Without constant enticement by advertising", he explains, "production would slow down and level off to normal replacement demand. Otherwise many products could reach a plateau of efficient design which would call for only minimal changes from year to year."

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These comments were in a book Mumford wrote in the 60's, but the last sentence made me think immediately of EA games, and to a lesser extent, the direction the industry is taking in general. The amount of games that come out on a yearly basis with only "minimal changes" is quite staggering, especially considering these games account for a great deal of the revenue earned by companies in the industry. Not too mention the fact that the 360 could be a spokesperson for "built-in fragility," and Nintendo is the epitome of "superficial fashion changes" by coming out with a new colored DS every couple months. :lol

One wonders, if this trend has been witnessed some time ago in other industries, is it destined to happen to videogames as well?

I suppose that depends on how many companies EA buys out now doesn't it?

Of course your 100% correct about Nintendo there. Game Boy Advance SP? Now with a backlight but no mic jack. Game Boy Micro? A tiny GBA that fits in your pocket a little better then a standard GBA.

Of course, the original Game Boy and Game oy Pocket were guilty of this too :lol

Who didn't love them revealing the Color Gameboy as opposed to the Gameboy Color?

I know Nintendo brought this up a lot when they defended their Wii from naysayers. The whole idea of the Wii bringing genuine innovation and opening up new possibilities to developers was supposed to be in stark contrast to Sony and Microsoft's philosophy of more power. The problem with it so far is that the Wii really hasn't innovated much, and what little progressive steps it has taken has only been that of Nintendo's; 3rd parties still don't really seem to be able to come up with anything new.

Plus, the biggest sellers on the system are still tried and true franchises. Brawl is the most anticipated Wii game, and it doesn't take advantage of the "new" possibilities the Wii controls offer. Another big selling point of the Wii is it's virtual console, which is a prime example of selling the same product in a different package.

I dunno, maybe no one else really cares about how original something is if it's fun. People have been playing some games for decades now, so it may be unfair to blame the industry for giving people what they apparently want: the same thing.