In Defense of New

Truth be told I’m surprised that I feel the need to even write this post. Every investor group I've ever spoken to has always talked about how they’re looking for people who are breaking away from what's been done and really doing something new. It’s not difficult to figure out why either. Apple went from being a Niche computer company to a gadget company that changed the entire music industry, making a massive amount of money in doing so.

At the same time of course it’s easy to see why many companies shy away from doing something new. While new gives the chance for massive profits and growth it also comes with huge risk and for many there is no safety in case things don’t go well. The games industry in particular is incredible punishing if a new IP(Itellecual Property) isn’t a success. It’s pretty common for a studio that just a released a game that didn’t live up to expectations to expects some layoffs in the near future. This environment of course doesn’t come about without reason. The development budget of a AAA video game usually lands somewhere between 25 to 50 million dollars. To spend that amount of money and have a couple games be flops can quickly turn a leading publisher into a failing publisher. As a result of all this you get headlines like “EA no longer sees new IP as Priority”. Understand, thats the second biggest video game publisher saying that it doesn’t think it’s wise to focus on create new original content in a industry based around creativity.

So when you consider that a company like Microsoft who's not really know for trying new things was will to make massive strides with windows 8, you really have to give them credit simply for having the balls to do it. However when I read reviewer warning people that theres a learning curve, it’s as if there is something to be afraid of. A Lot of people from different industries have bashed the changes but many of their concerns really don't hold up. I’m not trying to argue whether or not windows 8 was a smart move for microsoft. I’m simply pointing out that the same people who are criticizing Microsoft for the changes are the same people who work in the industries that investors are desperate to invest in new and different. Microsoft invested 1.5 billion dollars windows 8 overall, even for a corporation of Microsoft’s size thats no drop in the bucket. Say what you will about their OS, but at the very least give a respectful nod to a large corporation that had balls when many others didn’t.