New Players Only series detailed

A new series of Digital Trends' Players Only show starts today, with episode one taking a look at the impact of the global recession on the videogames industry.

Entitled "Video Games Are Dead" the two-part season opener features developer names including David Perry, Cliff Bleszinski, Chris Taylor, Ted Price and Lorne Lanning, as well as key analysts, who debunk the notion that the industry is 'recession-proof' and ponder its future.

"Companies lost their way for several years," said Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter. "Publishers were too big, they were chasing too many things at the same time and spending money on either old concepts that no longer worked, or new concepts that hadn’t been proven." "The types of companies that are going to have the best success in the years to come aren’t necessarily going to be the big goliaths," added Lanning. "The companies that continue to marginalize themselves into profit zones only... are going to lose to the more innovative, smaller operations that are forcing themselves to be more efficient."

Meanwhile Chris Taylor questioned the validity of the traditional developer-publisher funding model, and argued that it's obsolete.

"Advances against royalties?" he said. "That's absolutely a model that has seen its day. It's time for reform."

Players Only, hosted by Scott Steinberg, is available at DigitalTrends.com from 9am EST today, while future episodes will cover topics including game design and journalism, the impact of social network and iPhone games, and how services like OnLive and Gaikai and control methods such as Project Natal will change the way we play games.