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COMPUTER GAMES HAVE become more mainstream and acceptable in the eyes of the media over the past two or three years, according to one of the former industry’s most influential figures.
Having previously lamented the reluctance of those in influential positions to embrace the video-gaming industry, studio director of the multi-million-selling Football Manager series, Miles Jacobson, now feels there is a more accepting attitude towards the industry.
Jacobson, who received an OBE in 2011 for his services to the gaming industry, admits there are some cynical reasons behind this change.
“I think it’s partly improved because the games industry advertises more in the mainstream media now,” he told TheJournal.ie. “Therefore, they take us more seriously because they’re making more money out of us.”
However, he also feels the transformation is partly as a result of the growing prominence and popularity of games at all levels.
Certainly, journalists who’ve grown up playing video games, as they start getting editorial positions, it does improve things, but it’s improving because gaming is becoming more mainstream in general.I still haven’t seen the guys who made Call of Duty on chat shows and stuff like that. I think there have been a couple of instances in America where people have gone on, but it’s normally to do game demos.
“But it’s still going to take time [before games gain full acceptance]. When Elvis Presley came along, it was described as the devil music and he did alright for himself. People [who criticise games] just don’t understand them. It’s just a form of entertainment.”
And despite his success, Jacobson and his colleagues are not universally loved within the industry.
Several installments of the Football Manager series are among the highest-selling PC games of all time, and this level of success has somewhat inevitably attracted skeptics.
“It’s more popular inside the football world than it is inside the video game world. And that’s quite an interesting thing.
“We’re kind of seen as the Status Quo of the video games industry, but when you look at us from a football perspective, people are using our database to aid their work and I think we’re a lot cooler in football circles than we are in video game circles.
“Maybe we’re more like Boyzone than Status Quo. Boyzone were always popular among footballers, but weren’t that cool within the music industry.”
Our full interview with Miles Jacobson will be up on the site from 12pm today.
Football Manager 2014 was released this week. More details here.
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Damn you journal I had controlled my football manager addiction this had just reminded me .
I haven’t gotten off fm14 since it’s out, only for food and toilet breaks… Dam u footo…
You take toilet breaks ?….pffft amateur
Toilet breaks with football manager are for noobs… I’ve done my best transfers on the throne.
Oh my god, there is never an instance in which boyzone could be considered cool!!
A lot of footballers like boy zone… Why doesn’t that surprise me….
I prefer ratchet and clank. I’m 22
You look younger….
Kiss me
Should these advertisement pieces not be labelled accordingly?
Have been addicted to championship manager/football manager from day one. Sensational series with exceptional layers of detail. The developers deserve huge credit for breathing new life into it every year.
I prefer Wonderboy. Anyone remember that?
Wonderboy 2 in Monsterland did it for me. Shinobi was a close second.
Double dragon.
Wonderboy. What is the Secrert of ur power…..
Rick dangerous was the man….
I do find myself frustrated by the mainstreaming of the gaming industry. Successful formulas are repeated as nauseam, emphasis is on lucrative franchising and less on creating new and exciting intellectual property. Being original is seen as too risky. How many football games are there now? Jesus H, how many ways can you play?
I say mainstreaming has hurt the creativity of the gaming industry.
You cannot blame them not risking millions on a new game when they can take in millions by churning out the latest FIFA.
I disagree, while there are many successful game series’ there are as many new games with new storylines and ways to play being launched every month. A lot of gamers stick to what’s familiar and are unwilling to try something new.
Some of the more innovative games do tend to come from the smaller studios now.But look at the success of the Walking Dead game for example while it’ll never get Call of Duty sales ,it sold well and shows that innovation is still alive and well,past year or two has produced some amazing games.
Being a developer I can say straight out that games becoming main stream has only helped the industry, from all level of development from AAA to indie
Are you suggesting telltale games are a small studio ( the walking dead ?)
Micheal inovation exists at all levels of development . But as of now technology cannot keep up in a finincial sence as far as servers game engines etc etc are converned . Smaller studios have more room to inovate as most indie titles would not be pushing game engines … the larger studios are always at a point of needing to develop new engines to add to games
There’s a lot of independent developers out there creating fantastic stuff, that you can only buy online. Check out Minecraft, Terraria and Limbo!
Although you are correct buddy those three games , minecraft in particular has as much exposure and irs sales figures compete with AAA titles . Noch has made some 130 million dollars from that game . It would be great if people really passionate about gaming would support the irish gaming industry . All we have are very small indie studios but BatCat Games ,Bitsmith games are some of the best we have to offer so look up games like KU on steam or mobile devices and frankinjohn in dwvelopment .For anyone interested there is also a lot of gaming events over here monthly . Such as Dubludo and gamejams that you can come along and chat to developers and offer opinions on games to help there development. For others that are more mainstream you can attend events like xboxone on tour in dublin on the 14th to the 17th to try out the next gen console games. There loads to do if you like and want to get involved . Irishgamedev is a good place to start . It would be amazing if the journal would come to events like gamejams there amazing fun (teams competiting to build a game from scratch in 12 hours etc) most events are free to attend or cost very little 5 euro etc
I hate football…. I hate playing with balls..
I love them
Programmers and Elvis? ??
have your say