Bungie reccently announced that they're looking to shoot the moon. If you think it'd be awesome to tell your grandkids you saw the Master Chief shuttle launched at Cape Canaveral, you might want to sit down, or start earning an Aerospace Engineering degree as the enterprising young go-getter that you are. Bungie Aerospace will be awesome, but not quite that awesome (seriously, someone at NASA should make some phone calls). Bungie Aerospace is a newly announced program from (surprise!) Bungie, who hopes to give Social/Mobile/Web games developers some guidance, and access to the Bungie.net platform for publishing.
What Aerospace will probably be is a talent-farm for young designers interested in creating mobile and social gaming apps. It sounds terribly dry, but it's actually the offspring of the games industry's panic du jour – that the mobile games industry is threatening those hot hunks of plastic hooked up to your TV.
The folks over at Extra Credits brought up some great points in a recent video about this very subject. AAA development houses are losing ground to the Social/Mobile/Web crowd on a few fronts. Most notably, a lot of new development talent is being scooped up by the SoMoW (see wut I did thar) elephant in the room.
If you're a smart developer, and you've noticed this trend, then you've probably been running around as though your hair is on fire and Oprah just gave you a new car. In short, you're alarmed. A new talent drought means that you're in serious trouble of having a new games drought, and from what I'm told by industry insiders, it's hard to keep a game development house open if you don't make new games.
Now that the new kid on the block is throwing his weight around (sup, Zynga) all the graying, stodgy men of Ye Olde Developmente Haus have realized they can't simply ask the kids to quit playing on their lawns anymore. They have to join in, or watch in horror as the unwashed casuals cart wheelbarrows full of money to the new kids, trampling the compulsively manicured shrubbery of Developmente Haus.
It may seem like this is a doomsday scenario, destined to kill Father Gaming as we all know him, but smart developers like Bungie are seeing this for what it is: a new opportunity to push out their games to a bigger audience. Yes, Bungie's games. That same old familiar comfort food that we curl up on the couch with when we've had a bad day. Sure, Aerospace is here to help SoMoW developers put out their games, but it's also here to help Bungie stay in business.
See, Bungie Aerospace isn't really a party for the SoMow crowd – wait, scratch that, it's totally a party for SoMoW developers. But like any high schooler can tell you, you don't throw parties for other people because they're fun. You throw them because they're a great way to get interesting, influential people interested in you.
That's what Bungie is doing with Aerospace. They realize that in order to stay afloat during this transition (yes, this is very much a transition – mobile phones present an orgiastically huge install base, and any developer worth its salt can't possibly ignore it) they need to bring in people who can breathe the SoMoW atmosphere. What better way to do that than give them a tour of your ridiculously huge mansion with gold plated statues of naked ladies, and casually mention “Oh yeah, we made that one console game too. What's it called? Helo? No? Oh, right! Halo! Yeah, we made that. I bought three Bentleys with my bonus check from that game.” Once you've shown them they can buy their own Bentley if they simply come work for you, everything works itself out from there. You get to create the games you've always liked creating, and they help you navigate this new, scary planet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing Bungie for their Aerospace program. I think they're absolutely doing the right thing. I'm sure we'll see AAA games hitting phones or tablets, or whatever new device Apple comes out with in five years that everyone else ends up copying. Gaming is undergoing a permanent transformation, but there's really no need to be alarmed. I'm sure you'll still get to play Call of Duty 12, it just won't be on some ancient box that usurps your TV with a bunch of wires.
I've been boring the hell out of everyone I know by talking about how development houses need to bring in some new perspective from outside talent in order to bring a larger audience to gaming, and Bungie is on the right track. They've seen the writing on the wall – SoMoW will not be ignored. It shall flay the skin of all who stand in opposition. Let not a single gamer blaspheme the truth of SoMoW. SoMoW's word is final. All hail SoMoW.
SoMoW.
P.S.
Would someone at The Escapist please remove Daniel Floyd from his helium booth? I'm really concerned for his health.
