Is the apocalypse nigh? I sure think so. The last one happened at the height of Atari's power, they were invincible, pumping out hit after hit. Pac-Man, ET, Asteroids, movie tie-ins, overflowing arcades and a rabid fan base. They were in the spotlight of the mainstream press, songs making the top 10, and money coming out of their ears. What could go wrong?

To start with, a flood of games that, for lack of a better term, sucked. There were gems, but they tended to get drowned out in a sea of mediocrity. Magazines were afraid to give big titles a bad review, and scores creeped up in the name of advertising dollars. Comic books were awash in ad pages for the latest Parker Brothers 2600 cartridge, and the magazines covering the industry were thick and glossy.

To me this is really just a side effect of the amount of money going into it. Once you get these gigantic budget projects going, of course the majority will be crap. It's easier to cash in on a safe bet than to innovate, but hope is not lost. We've seen the Katamari Damacy games, Guitar Hero, Resident Evil 4 (the best retooling of a stagnating series I've ever seen). There's plenty of innovation going on, and if the majors get too bad, there's really always the independents like Troika.