Anyone enjoying the spectacle that is the video game industry collapsing under its own weight?

[XVR103]

Between Microsoft acting stupid and Sony fumbling their first big PC success when they just needed to do nothing to keep it that way it's easy to forget that Ubisoft is at the verge of collapse if they don't get a big win soon, WB just lost 200 million dollars with the Suicide Squad game (and somehow they think more of that kind of game is the key to success), Epic keeps burning money with their barely functional store, and EA keeps being their special brand of stupid with plans to include ads to their games.

I'd say the industry crash is coming but I think we're already in it.

 

[JustAnotherLurker]

for the large AAA companys the crash definatly has started. however there are still games companys out there that care more about their games rather then profits

 

[proamazing4002]

Between Microsoft acting stupid and Sony fumbling their first big PC success when they just needed to do nothing to keep it that way it's easy to forget that Ubisoft is at the verge of collapse if they don't get a big win soon, WB just lost 200 million dollars with the Suicide Squad game (and somehow they think more of that kind of game is the key to success), Epic keeps burning money with their barely functional store, and EA keeps being their special brand of stupid with plans to include ads to their games.

I'd say the industry crash is coming but I think we're already in it.

I'm with you in that the industry has already fallen, I rarely pick up any "recent" AAA game to play and I see many people close to me who have given up on following releases, indie games for me are still worth it.

 

[Scathe]

Indeed, the indie game scene has never been stronger and arguably the "AA" scene too. Alas, the big AAA players have finally reached Hollywood levels of implosion.

 

[e6mill]

 

[Arachel]

It's collapsing under the weight of the culture wars and woke "fake" gamers pandering to people on Twitter not it's own weight.

 

[JustAnotherLurker]

this sums it up perfectly

 

[Rostabu]

well AAA have gotten out of hand price wise while its nice to have cinematic quality visuals, do they justify the price associated with them? would anyone say doom2 isn't still playable? or original quake? Also how they have skewed story lines as well... how many actually enjoyed last of us 2?

they need to get their act together

 

[LadyCeleste]

Most of the companies collapsing are ones I dislike anyway, but unfortunately they're taking out smaller decent companies as collateral damage, like Arkane Studios

 

[Earlybird]

Yes it's glorious. There is a certain schadenfreude I get when I see all these terrible decisions finally come to fruition.

 

[Silwith]

It's collapsing under the weight of the culture wars and woke "fake" gamers pandering to people on Twitter not it's own weight.

Becaus pure greed is now somehow also the mysterious "wokes" fault... god, can people stop being stupid as fuck someday?

 

[XVR103]

It's collapsing under the weight of the culture wars and woke "fake" gamers pandering to people on Twitter not it's own weight.

I'm sure that's a factor for some people, but I think the fact that some companies expect you to pay with the soul of your firstborn to play a barely functional stripped down version of a AAA game with microtransactions so expensive they're just transactions, only to make the game fully functional, could be having a bigger impact than that.

 

[LadyCeleste]

Becaus pure greed is now somehow also the mysterious "wokes" fault... god, can people stop being stupid as fuck someday?

Found one

 

[Arachel]

Becaus pure greed is now somehow also the mysterious "wokes" fault... god, can people stop being stupid as fuck someday?

It's woke consulting firms like Sweet Baby tanking narratives for the sake of inclusion and lowering the quality of the AAA titles. The Sweet Baby death kiss is real and if you honestly believe that it isn't you're in complete denial.

 

[Arachel]

I'm sure that's a factor for some people, but I think the fact that some companies expect you to pay with the soul of your firstborn to play a barely functional stripped down version of a AAA game with microtransactions so expensive they're just transactions, only to make the game fully functional, could be having a bigger impact than that.

Suicide Squad, Saints Row, gender neutral Spanish in Spiderman, Forspoken, some of the companies aren't around anymore because they went woke. Rocksteady had the Arkham games by all accounts were successful and Sweet Baby got involved and they release Suicide Squad which has less than 200 concurrent players already.

 

[Silwith]

Yeah, throw around the "woke" more... its totally not because they do everything to make as much money are possible with as little expense as possible while exploiting their workers... you know, the opposite of "woke" behaviour... If I am in denial you live in delusion-town...
Whatever, said my piece, not interested in further discussion with people that are too stupid to understand that what really hurts the consumers experience is the corporations greed for higher profit... *wave goodbye*

 

[pierce125]

I feel like AAA games just reached a level of too much to handle. Every single console generation, it's been "make the game bigger/longer/better graphically" and more and more pressure gets put on the devs and the game itself to succeed. Development and marketing budgets get bigger and bigger, requiring the games they release to sell more and more to make their money back, while at the same time with how large many AAA games are studios can't output games as often as they used to, meaning there's even more pressure. And now we're seeing the breaking point.

We've reached a point where even games which heavily reuse previous assets still take many years to develop. The days of something like Abe's Exoddus being developed in just over a year are long gone.

 

[XVR103]

I feel like AAA games just reached a level of too much to handle. Every single console generation, it's been "make the game bigger/longer/better graphically" and more and more pressure gets put on the devs and the game itself to succeed. Development and marketing budgets get bigger and bigger, requiring the games they release to sell more and more to make their money back, while at the same time with how large many AAA games are studios can't output games as often as they used to, meaning there's even more pressure. And now we're seeing the breaking point.

We've reached a point where even games which heavily reuse previous assets still take many years to develop. The days of something like Abe's Exoddus being developed in just over

The industry needs more smaller games. People think smaller games are worse game but they aren't. Games don't need to look like a Hollywood blockbuster to be good, and in fact sometimes that works against them. Nintendo releases many games that aren't big, and don't sell as much as some AAA games, but they're much more profitable because making those games didn't cost 200 million dollars.

Microsoft seemed to get it right finally with Hi-Fi Rush and then... after selling well and getting multiple awards they got rid of the devs. I guess some companies are doomed no matter what.

 

[pierce125]

The industry needs more smaller games.

Absolutely. Some of my favorite games I've played these past few months are Stray, Bomb Chicken, and Sonic Mania, none of which are very long games. There's something special to me about a game I can reasonably play all the way through in a day or two, and that adds to the appeal of playing retro SNES/N64 games to me.

 

[Fall12Dr]

I wouldn't say it's a collapse but rather the result of putting profits before everything else, what i do believe is that the industry will be greatly restructured in the future but for now we will face the era of games to make money at any cost. cost. , a dark era. It is up to us what will happen. It is clear that they are looking for the balance point where they generate the maximum money and people are willing to put up with it. It is up to us to know how to spend money to get better products.