Topic: The State Of The Gaming Industry

[AndyMuller]

Is anybody else worried about the state of the gaming industry at the moment? 2019 to me feels like a pivotal year in gaming in regards to the negative aspects of the industry. Lootboxes and micro transactions are being implemented more and more despite the negative feedback the developers are receiving from the public. Games are coming out half finished more frequently with massive day 1 patches to download before you even play the game and then you have to pay for DLC to play the rest of the game. Developers are becoming increasingly lazy. Blizzard are facing a backlash over the China situation. Ubisoft just announced The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint are huge flops both critically and commercially for them due in part to the pay to win mechanics and releasing the same type of open world game every year. Bethesda just released a yearly membership pass for a game that came out with nothing to do in it. EA Sports are always receiving negative feedback due to their pay to win schemes in games too. 2K Sports just released a wrestling game which in 2019 looks like a PS2 game at best.

I hope this is a lesson to the big developers going into next gen. Surely they cannot go into the next generation with the same practices and mindset? People will stop buying their games eventually.

[dalarr]

I was worried when I bought Fallout 76 on release day. They were really taking the piss with that monstrosity. I logged on here to write a similar post as yours but my English simply didn’t suffice to get my point across. Then I thought of these titles that are huge commercial successes and marvelous games: Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, God of War.

I believe there is a market of “old guys” like myself who play single player games and don’t have time for all the multiplayer bullshit. I share your concern but I believe and hope that top quality, single player games will be continued to be made. If not, gaming is officially dead.

[Darren G]

I don't personally believe that 2019 has been pivotal in the way that you are describing Andy.  Most of the studios engaged in the practices that you mention have been doing so for a long time now.  Bethesda in particular has been releasing broken games for years and taking the piss with their DLC content, with the horse armour being a meme for some time now.  There are plenty of other games that have released broken in the past four or five years too.  Arkham Knight (2015) for example was unplayable on PC at launch.  The same goes for EA and their lootboxes in that it's not a new phenomenon, but something that's been going on for years. 

If anything I am more optimistic about things going forward than I have been in previous years.  That's not because I believe that developers like Ubisoft will suddenly develop a sense of business ethics, but because people have become utterly sick of the bullshit and - as you point out - it's hitting developers where it hurts in terms of the commercial revenue.  That's not to say that I think that the industry is going to have a complete turnaround.

 At the end of the day, shite developers/studios/publishers will always be a bit shite.  There are also still plenty of good developers around that put out good products though and will probably continue to do so.  If the likes of CDPR, Naughty Dog and Techland start releasing lootbox-driven, broken garbage then I'll concede that the industry is beyond repair.  I don't thik that we're at that point though and I don't feel that things will get any worse than they are now.   

[AndyMuller]

I see your points Darren and agree with you on that it has been going on for years now but it feels like this year people are starting to notice it more and taking action by not buying their products and leaving bad reviews for them highlighting the issues.

Thankfully the likes of Naughty Dog and CDPR continue to release games that aren’t all about monetisation and loot boxes and hopefully other big companies will follow suit going forward.

[Schmidt]

Governments are starting to question the way companies are monetising their games now too, Belgium has already banned purchasable loot boxes and I can see more countries doing the same further down the line. Established games that already have loot boxes are likely to stick with them but I'm not sure we'll see new games appearing too often with loot box systems, as that tends to earn them negative reviews from the outset. To be honest there aren't a lot of Ubi/EA/Blizzard/Bethesda games I'm really interested in now, only the new CoD.

The one growing scummy practice I'm getting annoyed by is "influencers", content creators who essentially get paid to leverage their existing audience by playing EA/Ubisoft games and not saying anything bad about them.

[Scottymuser]

I see your points Darren and agree with you on that it has been going on for years now but it feels like this year people are starting to notice it more and taking action by not buying their products and leaving bad reviews for them highlighting the issues.

Thankfully the likes of Naughty Dog and CDPR continue to release games that aren’t all about monetisation and loot boxes and hopefully other big companies will follow suit going forward.

There are plenty of "double-A" publishers, and indie publishers, out there - thinking of Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive (both as a dev and a publisher), Techland, even Sega/Atlus seem to not really be following the trend of half-finished games.  And Sony/Nintendo as console makers and publishers for their own consoles also seem to not be really following that trend either, especially comparing to Microsoft (thinking some of the micro transactions in the likes of Gears 5 making that game a grind to simply unlock characters without paying for them - and comparing to Zelda/Mario not having any, Sony making and publishing loads of big single player games like God of War, Spiderman, HZD, Death Stranding, the upcoming TLOU2, Uncharted series, etc.).  It's only the "traditional" Triple A publishers, most of whom for years have been seen by many to be dodgy, getting worse.

[Buck Pete]

I believe there is a market of “old guys” like myself who play single player games and don’t have time for all the multiplayer bullshit. I share your concern but I believe and hope that top quality, single player games will be continued to be made. If not, gaming is officially dead.

Totally agree mate

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Totally agree mate

I third this motion. Only interested in single player games on PlayStation. Happy to do local multiplayer on Switch but only want to do the long single player ones on PS4, can't be bothered with headsets and chatting shit to 12 year olds. Was fun when GTAV first came out, for about a week, playing with mates but that was it for me when hackers started making it ridiculous. Went back to single player. Haven't had online since. Saves money too, who needs the subscription fees?

[Scottymuser]

I third this motion. Only interested in single player games on PlayStation. Happy to do local multiplayer on Switch but only want to do the long single player ones on PS4, can't be bothered with headsets and chatting shit to 12 year olds. Was fun when GTAV first came out, for about a week, playing with mates but that was it for me when hackers started making it ridiculous. Went back to single player. Haven't had online since. Saves money too, who needs the subscription fees?

There is exactly 2 games I play "online" multiplayer - Borderlands 2, and (usually modded) Minecraft, both with 2/3 friends.  I have never actually even attempted to play a more "multiplayer" game online, like an FPS/Sports Game or whatnot.  Borderlands 3 comes out soon on Steam, and will probably get into that - but I do feel it as its a Co-op, it's not really the same category.  Until then, need to finish Fallut 3 and all it's DLCs for the first time (started playing the GOTY edition, having never played a Fallout game about 3 weeks ago, put 55 hours into it already), then onto either New Vegas, or some other RPG.

[Macphisto80]

It's all being railroaded into the way of "live service" bollocks, and as has been seen, time and time again, that isn't sustainable in the long run, the game releases as a piece of buggy, half baked boring shit (see Anthem) with a promised "road map" and it inevitably falls flat on its fucking face, and rightly so. Won't stop these greedy c*nt publishers from keeping on trying, though. They think (or know) that if they crack that, then it's a gravy train of free money for little effort, really. The entire industry is rotten from top to bottom. The business models taken by developers and publishers is not sustainable in the long run for what their expectations are. The industry needs to crash. Yeah, I'm serious. It needs a right boot up the bollocks and a hard crash like the Atari one in the 80's. It's the only way it'll get sorted to some degree, and it's probably coming. Then again, when you see trash like Fifa, and a rebooted COD that does the business every year, I'm still a wee bit skeptical on that. This generation of console's will probably, likely, be the last of it's kind. Single-player games will be even less prevalent in it, and we'll see a gradual shift to a streaming Netflix type scenario where you pay a fee for certain packages.

[Lynndenberries]

In some aspects, yes. I have an Xbox One and a Nintendo Switch, and I find myself playing the Switch much more often now.

Basically anything that EA has produced the past few years has been a disappointment. FIFA has been on the decline since 2016 and the latest Battlefield and Battlefront games were just awful. This is the first year since 2007 I have not bought FIFA and I don't plan on buying it at any point in the future. These were three games I typically played the most on Xbox and to see them fall off the map like they have is really unfortunate.

I have been very pleased with the games the Switch has released however. Breath of the Wild is easily one of my favorite games of all time and Super Smash Bros comes close to Melee as the best game of the franchise. Odyssey lacked depth and wasn't that difficult, but I still put in ~40 hours and it was a beautiful game. I have high hopes for Luigi's Mansion and Pokemon, too.

[AndyMuller]

It's all being railroaded into the way of "live service" bollocks, and as has been seen, time and time again, that isn't sustainable in the long run, the game releases as a piece of buggy, half baked boring shit (see Anthem) with a promised "road map" and it inevitably falls flat on its fucking face, and rightly so. Won't stop these greedy c*nt publishers from keeping on trying, though. They think (or know) that if they crack that, then it's a gravy train of free money for little effort, really. The entire industry is rotten from top to bottom. The business models taken by developers and publishers is not sustainable in the long run for what their expectations are. The industry needs to crash. Yeah, I'm serious. It needs a right boot up the bollocks and a hard crash like the Atari one in the 80's. It's the only way it'll get sorted to some degree, and it's probably coming. Then again, when you see trash like Fifa, and a rebooted COD that does the business every year, I'm still a wee bit skeptical on that. This generation of console's will probably, likely, be the last of it's kind. Single-player games will be even less prevalent in it, and we'll see a gradual shift to a streaming Netflix type scenario where you pay a fee for certain packages.

Completely agree with this. Great post mate.

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

It's all being railroaded into the way of "live service" bollocks, and as has been seen, time and time again, that isn't sustainable in the long run, the game releases as a piece of buggy, half baked boring shit (see Anthem) with a promised "road map" and it inevitably falls flat on its fucking face, and rightly so. Won't stop these greedy c*nt publishers from keeping on trying, though. They think (or know) that if they crack that, then it's a gravy train of free money for little effort, really. The entire industry is rotten from top to bottom. The business models taken by developers and publishers is not sustainable in the long run for what their expectations are. The industry needs to crash. Yeah, I'm serious. It needs a right boot up the bollocks and a hard crash like the Atari one in the 80's. It's the only way it'll get sorted to some degree, and it's probably coming. Then again, when you see trash like Fifa, and a rebooted COD that does the business every year, I'm still a wee bit skeptical on that. This generation of console's will probably, likely, be the last of it's kind. Single-player games will be even less prevalent in it, and we'll see a gradual shift to a streaming Netflix type scenario where you pay a fee for certain packages.

Yes, depressingly on the nose.

I have no interest in subscriptions. I don't use any of them - Netflix, Spotify, and certainly no gaming ones. I like choosing what I pay for, not being spoonfed the content that providers want to push on me.

It's in all the media industries now - even on the creative side as well as the consumer end - see Adobe with their Photoshop and others, and Avid with their ridiculous ProTools subscription. My old version of Pro Tools (music recording software) stopped working due to my computer updates, and when I looked into what I could afford, I saw they were charging £25 a month! They make you keep your content on their 'cloud', which means were you to disengage, you couldn't access your own recordings!


 I'm happy to pay for a standalone, but I'm not being in hock to you forever, then locking me out should I happen to endure a period of unemployment etc. The way you lose access to your own creations with these latter two that I've mentioned are absolutely unforgivable.

I know I've branched out from games there but the business model is repellent to me.

I honestly think that when it does happen, I will just go through and play all the major games from this and previous generations that I haven't had time to play e.g. Witcher 3 and just do that instead of getting on the train. Could probably keep me going for a long time and cost fuck all.

[El Lobo]

It's all being railroaded into the way of "live service" bollocks, and as has been seen, time and time again, that isn't sustainable in the long run, the game releases as a piece of buggy, half baked boring shit (see Anthem) with a promised "road map" and it inevitably falls flat on its fucking face, and rightly so. Won't stop these greedy c*nt publishers from keeping on trying, though. They think (or know) that if they crack that, then it's a gravy train of free money for little effort, really. The entire industry is rotten from top to bottom. The business models taken by developers and publishers is not sustainable in the long run for what their expectations are. The industry needs to crash. Yeah, I'm serious. It needs a right boot up the bollocks and a hard crash like the Atari one in the 80's. It's the only way it'll get sorted to some degree, and it's probably coming. Then again, when you see trash like Fifa, and a rebooted COD that does the business every year, I'm still a wee bit skeptical on that. This generation of console's will probably, likely, be the last of it's kind. Single-player games will be even less prevalent in it, and we'll see a gradual shift to a streaming Netflix type scenario where you pay a fee for certain packages.

Least you can watch movies and TV series to cheer yourself up though mate 

[Something Worse]

Personally things are pretty good. All the shitty half finished games are allegedly easy to get at their true value (zero) and the good games like God of War I pay for.

The overall trend that bothers me is how it feels like every game is being made more and more "gamey" and less and less fun. That WWE game that is broken as hell is bad for that, but the actual game itself is fucking awful. It's 17 minigames in the form of one terrible match. If you get pinned early and don't successfully complete the shit minigame, you'll lose immediately with no damage taken.

Likewise there's one of those Clancy games that's completely shit with bullet damage. I want to say it's the Division but there's about 18 Clancy games right now. And as stupid as "shooting someone in the head does 40% damage" is as a concept, I'm fine with that type of game existing for those who like it. But they've done the same dumb shit with Assassin's Creed and the sequel to the Clancy game I did play, meaning I now have no option to play a realistic game and am instead stuck playing a game for 6 year olds. Same thing happened to Battlefield, it just became another COD.

It's all just so creatively bankrupt and shit these days, I find myself digging around in the Steam early access folder more and more, hoping to find something genuinely good and fun.

[Kashinoda]

Today's climate is a good advertisement for console exclusives and first party games.

It would be a shit fest without them right now, of course there exceptions but it's pretty grim.

[Macphisto80]

It's all just so creatively bankrupt and shit these days, I find myself digging around in the Steam early access folder more and more, hoping to find something genuinely good and fun.

It's not the creativity that's the problem. There's no lack of that. It's far more cynical than that, and purposefully so. More games now aren't being made to be the best game possible. They have standard plug in elements that work. The rest is deliberately designed to facilitate addictive and compulsive tendencies. The scumbags have it down to a science, and it leads to games being designed around making a player feel like spending more money on it. I've noticed it for years, but game design now has taken a massive nose dive off a cliff. The only place where you'll find any semblance of developers trying to make something they want to make is in indie titles, and that's not a good thing, because most indie titles, I find, are seriously lacking in most other things, but at least you can see they try.

Listen to this c*nt.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/xNjI03CGkb4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/xNjI03CGkb4</a>

And he's not the only one talking like this either. Recently I watched John Carmack talk at Oculus Connect, and he used similar jargon about "whales" and whatnot describing paying customers that get hooked to similar gacha monetization schemes. This is John Carmack spouting this nonsense, and to hear such shit coming out of his mouth, you know things are bad, because they're all thinking the same fucking thing: money. They're all owned, and yes, that includes your Naughty Dogs, Kojima's and whoever else is placed on an imaginary pedestal these days. If and when they are instructed to, they will. Even holier than thou Nintendo have recently started dipping their toes into mobile phone monetization bollocks.

[slotmachine]

Our very own Peter Moore was a big part of the monetizing of the games industry when he was the head of EA. The spending extra on add-ons for fifa and the Madden games was a big part of his strategy. The resources for both these games are mostly put towards the ultimate team and online which gives less of the budget to the actual quality of the game. Madden is a total shitshow with the games from the PS2 15 years ago having more options and realism than the current PS4 version. It looks prettier now but under the surface the games a trainwreck. That twat Peter Moore would charge for oxygen at Anfield if he had his own way.

[S]

As someone who almost entirely plays single player games, these complaints seem totally foreign to me. The last three I’ve bought have been Resident Evil 2, God of War and RDR2. All were absolutely stunning in their own ways. Truly memorably gaming experiences. I’m sure the next instalment of TLOU will be of similar quality.

It’s strange that we have such masterpieces being released at the same time as games that are either shameless cash grabs or simply unfinished trash.

[Kashinoda]

As someone who almost entirely plays single player games, these complaints seem totally foreign to me. The last three I’ve bought have been Resident Evil 2, God of War and RDR2. All were absolutely stunning in their own ways. Truly memorably gaming experiences. I’m sure the next instalment of TLOU will be of similar quality.

It’s strange that we have such masterpieces being released at the same time as games that are either shameless cash grabs or simply unfinished trash.

Rockstar Games are just as bad if not worse to be honest.

[AndyMuller]

Rockstar Games are just as bad if not worse to be honest.

I actually forgot to mention the ‘crunch’ in game development in my OP but I’ll say that Rockstar and Naughty Dog are by all accounts the absolute worst for this.

[Kashinoda]

I actually forgot to mention the ‘crunch’ in game development in my OP but I’ll say that Rockstar and Naughty Dog are by all accounts the absolute worst for this.

GTA online is also a micro-transaction wonderland, they make $500 million a quarter from it. They're all at it.

When it comes to crunch even the likes of 'good guy' CD Projekt Red are guilty.

[Something Worse]

GTA online is also a micro-transaction wonderland, they make $500 million a quarter from it. They're all at it.

When it comes to crunch even the likes of 'good guy' CD Projekt Red are guilty.

I thought GTA Online micro transactions were just to get ahead of the grind, not instead of it?

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Rockstar Games are just as bad if not worse to be honest.

I don't play online so their micro transactions don't bother me as the single player is so good.

But as has been mentioned, the crunch isn't a good look for any employer.

[stoa]

I don't really see how the gaming industry is in a worse state than five years ago, ten years ago or 20 years ago from our perspective as players. I would even argue that the times for us are better than ever before, because of all the possibilities we have. While there are various issues with certain publishers, types of games or mechanics no one is forcing people to buy those products.

I haven't bought a Fifa or PES game in years, because I don't think an anual stat update is worth the money. I never bothered with stuff like Ultimate Team though. I haven't bought a Football Manager games in recent years, because I think the same is true for them. I haven't bought Fallout76, because I didn't think it was worth it, when I saw the previews and I was even more convinced of not getting it after seeing the reviews and the whole shitshow after release. I haven't bought Ubisoft games like that Far Cry 5 sequel or whatever that is or the newest Ghost Recon game, because I didn't think they were worth the money. Same goes for the Battlefield or CoD games.

I have bought games like Witcher 3, RdR2, Rimworld or Prison Architect, because they seemed worth the money (and yes they were). I have been playing stuff like Papers please, Elex, Cities Skylines, Transport Fever, Pathfinder:Kingmaker or the Pillars or Eternity games. I have had fun playing them. I have been playing Borderlands 3 recently and I will continue to do so. I will play The Outer Worlds when I have a bit more time. There's loads to do and to enjoy. You only have to look and be aware. You have to inform yourself what games might be worth your money and what publishers/developers you want to support (and who is worth supporting).

There have always been certain issues in the games industry, that might have been problematic, but sooner or later they were resolved or disappeared completely. There were times when publishers treated gamers more like criminals rather than customers. Times when a strong DRM was more important than having a game working properly. Those times passed, because things changed. Other times, people just stopped buying stuff from companies that were taking the piss. The same will happen to microtransactions or loot boxes. We've seen various shitstorms over games that were riddled with them and I think publishers are becoming much more careful with what they put in their games, because they know they won't get away with overly ridiculous stuff. Some will be quicker to react than others. At the end of the day, the whole world is evolving constantly and I don't think the games industry is excluded from that. Publishers/Developers try new stuff and sometimes they go overboard. If they feel a backlash, they'll dial it back. That's how it has always been. And I think it's even more dangerous for them in times like these, because bad news travel fast on the internet and there are loads of alternatives out there. Just look at how awful Sim City 4 was and how successful Cities Skylines was in comparision. What's needed though is consumers who are aware of their power. Then again, looking at stuff like the Fifa or PES games I'm not sure people care that much about certain issues as long as they can play a new installment of their favourite franchise every year even with very few changes or additions....

[Macphisto80]

Rockstar Games are just as bad if not worse to be honest.

Rockstar can be guilty of other things, most notably their treatment of employees, but monetisation of their games is Take-Two's direct responsibility. The fuckers tried to cripple the modding community and tried to pull a Bethesda by selling mods and banning tools like OpenIV. It was Rockstar that had to step in to get them to step down from it. Still, GTA V online is as bad as anything else out there when it comes to it, but in Rocketsar's defence, they make a game every 5 years or so.

[Darren G]

Rockstar can be guilty of other things, most notably their treatment of employees, but monetisation of their games is Take-Two's direct responsibility. The fuckers tried to cripple the modding community and tried to pull a Bethesda by selling mods and banning tools like OpenIV. It was Rockstar that had to step in to get them to step down from it. Still, GTA V online is as bad as anything else out there when it comes to it, but in Rocketsar's defence, they make a game every 5 years or so.

 Touch their online cash cow with mods though and you'll still get sued: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/21/18274336/grand-theft-auto-online-evolve-mod-menu-cheating-copyright-lawsuit

 Now, one can argue that they are doing that to protect gamers from cheaters, but realistically it's about protecting the income they receive from their fucking shark cards and the like.  As you rightly say, GTA online is as bad as anything else at this point in time.   Rockstar used to be far more consumer oriented in my opinion.  Gamers were crying out for single player DLC for months/years after the release of V, but Rockstar chose to instead focus entirely on milking the shite out of GTA online.  I realise that at the end of the day they're running a business, but that decision felt like a middle finger to many gamers.

[has gone odd]

Am surprised Division 2 was a flop, its a really good game and had no pay to win mechanics whatsoever. In fact if monetizing systems were all like that it would be fine with me.

Game industry is certainly getting a hammering, there is very little innovation anymore, either pixel "retro" games by the floodloads or an annual update for full price. EA continue to get worse and worse in this respect but other companies follow suit. Gamers are getting lazy to, never wanting to try something new and fresh so the same stale IPs get rinsed over and over. Cyperpunk will be commercial and critical hit no doubt but only for its story and visuals, I cannot see much in the way of innovation happening. Its nearly 2020 and ideas are running thin, the tech and the way the media is supplied may be the only real innovation to happen in the near future, perhaps VR will look less like a battle helmet and be more discrete and popular, though I dont personally care for it.

On a positive note, for the past 4 or 5 years some game studio writing and storylines have been movie level, if not better. Its a shame the games behind them cannot do much more with the tech available.

 

[AndyMuller]

Sorry to get an old thread bumping again but since I last made this is it fair to say my point stands more than ever?

[dalarr]

I made a post about this in the “What are you playing now” thread. There were some quality games released in 2021 but overall the state of the gaming industry is in shambles. Even remasters are released unfinished, how is that even possible? Why are the AAA studios allowed to sell an unfinished product?

There is some hope. Both COD and Battlefield have had a huge dip in sales both physical and digital. Authorities are looking into the surprise mechanics loot box system. Downright unplayable games are getting review bombed.

It’s a sad state of affairs, though. I have played PC and video games since the early 90s and view video games as a hobby and an artform. It has now become a major business and the art aspect is largely gone. There are some exemptions, but they are few.

[OsirisMVZ]

There is some hope. Both COD and Battlefield have had a huge dip in sales both physical and digital. Authorities are looking into the surprise mechanics loot box system. Downright unplayable games are getting review bombed.

Yes in the last 12 months there has been backlash from fans/customers which is what was needed, and is a long time coming.

[Drinks Sangria]

Sorry to get an old thread bumping again but since I last made this is it fair to say my point stands more than ever?

I now expect things to come out requiring significant updates and work, and have multiple games I've bought new - Cyberpunk ahem - where I've never actually played them properly because I think I may as well wait for the inevitable update - one which now isn't coming until 2022, 2 years post-release.

[ToneLa]

Sorry to get an old thread bumping again but since I last made this is it fair to say my point stands more than ever?

Yes and no

The top end of this industry, which I work in, is led, I'd say, by a rush for money. Your likes of FIFA and CoD loot boxing are creatively and morally bankrupt.

But you have a sea of indie titles, of lesser known stuff.

There is art in games now, still. Even in the top titles. It's still going somewhere as a form, though I have my own ideas about the technology that isn't profitable that needs investment (AI middleware, emergent gameplay ideas etc)

We need the top tier companies and brands to just... Progress. Ubisoft are toxic Activision, trust in CDPR eroded, Rockstar...

May the hype backlash grow and grow. Crunch time just should not exist in the way it is reported at the worst places.

Like a lot of walks of life, money beats soul every time and the men signing the cheques make the decisions. Some games now are just too big to be down to one person, but also too big for everybody to have a say with such big teams.

So you get the publishers demanding profits, a release in the right quarter of the fiscal year. Which has fuck all to do with making a quality product.

I also question the buying public. Stop sinking money into GTA Online, FIFA ultimate teams packs and the other ways of milking profit from you.

Change will come when the masses vote with their wallets. I think now there is at least an appetite for what we should be doing anyway: when you buy a product, support a company you can trust. That takes ethics and morality I guess and I'm probably a weirdo thinking like this but maybe not.

It seems unsustainable to me. You spend enough time ripping your customers off, sooner or later they'll get tired of it. (He says, in Tory Britain.)

[dalarr]

Nice input as always, ToneLa. I appreciate the fact that publishers are not UNICEF. It’s a business, people have to make money. It’s the greed and arrogance that gets to me. God of War and The Last of Us must have made a decent chunk of money, even without multiplayer and loot boxes.

[naYoRHa2b]

I made a post about this in the “What are you playing now” thread. There were some quality games released in 2021 but overall the state of the gaming industry is in shambles. Even remasters are released unfinished, how is that even possible? Why are the AAA studios allowed to sell an unfinished product?

There is some hope. Both COD and Battlefield have had a huge dip in sales both physical and digital. Authorities are looking into the surprise mechanics loot box system. Downright unplayable games are getting review bombed.

It’s a sad state of affairs, though. I have played PC and video games since the early 90s and view video games as a hobby and an artform. It has now become a major business and the art aspect is largely gone. There are some exemptions, but they are few.

Sorry to pull you up on something but BF2042 is  best selling Battlefield game since BF3. Sold just over 4m in a week and that's where some editions cost £90 and next gen editions £70. I'm guilty, I pre ordered because I bought the hype and even after the broken beta I still thought they could fix it. Oh well.

In general I don't have an issue with the industry. Remakes/Remasters as long as done right are ok with me. Not a huge fan of lootboxes and the ethics around them and even the battle pass system if done right is fine. I haven't had to buy a battle pass in two years for call of duty and they've added new content for multiplayer modes such as maps and zombies and playable characters.

Sometimes I buy a game and it's an error of judgement at the time but mostly I buy games and enjoy them. I think alot of people can make an informed choice now more than ever with greater coverage of games through videos and written reviews.

If people are happy to keep spending money on lootboxes in FIFA then me not buying it won't deter EA from implementing them even though I don't like it, I guess everyone needs to get fed up with it rather than a minority.

Plus I'm getting older so some things tick me off more than they used to but I'm also aware I'm not the target audience for alot of stuff.

[El Lobo]

Definitely a fair point about consumers being part of the problem. If people weren't launching so much money into GTA Online and FUT then the companies might feel obliged to actually make a game that people buy without worrying about if they'll still be able to play it online in four years.

[AndyMuller]

Although I haven't played it yet and it might be good, it sounds like the Halo Infinite development was an absolute mess.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/how-microsoft-s-halo-infinite-went-from-disaster-to-triumph?srnd=premium

[Dench57]

I've been having a lot of fun on Halo Infinite, playing multiplayer with old friends. But now the release date has passed and multiplayer is still completely bare bones. Not many maps and only 3 playlists (Quick Play, Big Team Battle and Ranked). I'm not interested in cosmetics personally but the developers are coming in for a lot of criticism for basically making all the cosmetics microtransactions. I don't know if "micro" is the right word when they seem to be between £5-£30. It's a shame because the gameplay is amazing but...where is the rest of the game?

[Sangria]

There's a video somewhere, about one of the most popular MMOs in the world, that you probably haven't played. Instead of AAA, its market is poorer countries with lower bandwidth and machine specs. So despite a player population in the tens of millions, most of us in wealthier countries haven't even heard of it.

That might be an interesting niche to explore.

[Darkness]

I have never been so bored playing games, sure the graphics are great but everything seems so stale and predictable even all the great AAA titles from the likes of Sony just feel the same nothing revolutionary. Gaming use to be fun it just feels more like cinematic experience or a chore now. Online seems to be the main focus now anyway with single players games dying with every generation or being released as a broken mess.