my main issues with the gaming industry atm.
-Release of unfinished games: the gamer is now the QA tester. it seems to be accepted that releasing bug riddled or unfinished games is ok nowadays. i guess its not much of an issue for those with access to high speed broadband but not everyone one does believe it or not. However, anyone who purchases a game should be able to enjoy it in it entirety.
-games are too big nowadays. some are just overwhelming and require a huge amount of time which only a teenager might have when you think about it. its the main reason i went and bought a switch and have returned to simpler 16 bit era games. there seems to be a huge emphasis on sandbox or open world games with nice graphics but feel like a chore to play. For some people, linear and less choice is actually better! it would be nice to experience more games faster too.
-the pricing of new games and consoles. 70 euros seems to be the norm for new games now.
So taking those points, 1 at a time, and what I feel on the issues:
Release of unfinished games - seems like it might be just the games you are choosing to play - in the smaller and indie scene, this is not the case at all, and in fact, in Triple A there are still lots of studios (most of Sony's various studios, ditto Nintendo, 2K, Arkane, heck even a lot of Ubisoft studios even) releasing games which ARE complete (and don't rely on consumers being their QC). Heck I am not sure I have ever played a game that I'd describe like this. There are definitely more games releasing which then have DLC released for - but that is definitely not the same thing and is usually linked to the success of a game - for example compare Borderlands 2 (much loved game, did very well, was worth the studio working on more DLCs as they knew it would make money as people wanted to play more in the world) vs Borderlands TPS (not as loved, and as a result, post-launch support fizzled and only had 2 DLC campaigns released (and 2 DLC characters, but that is slightly different as it's cheaper for them to make compared to new campaigns, and is an easier sell).
Games are too big nowadays - again, only if you are wanting to play a big open world RPG - but then you can't really complain about the nature of its big open world nature. And this has been an issue for 10+ years ever since Oblivion came out (if not before). Games have always taken a long time - back in the 80s/90s even the simpler games could take 20+ hours to complete, but that was more because of the difficulty (and needing to make it last as the audience were younger, and therefore had less cash). Is the issue more you want to play more games, or there are more, say, TV shows you want to watch as well? As there are still plenty of shorter games out there. Take something like the new Tomb Raider games - very much linear experiences that take about 10-15 hours to complete (actually less than the PS1/2 era game probably). Or the new Doom (10-15 hours), Halo Infinite (15-20 hours), Dishonoured (10-15). RPGs have always been big meaty games, think Planescape Torment (35+ hours), Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 (45+ each). What we have now is more side content - stuff like side quests, collectables - optional stuff. Also, a lot of people like to think of games as "bang for their buck" and this helps.
Prices - prices are no more expensive than at any point in the past for console games, and due to the nature of sales online being far, far more frequent nowadays, usually cheaper than in the past for PC, when adjusted for inflation. PS1 games in the 90s cost 40-50 dollars - so adjusting that for inflation would give a a cost of about 70-90 dollars. PS2 games were 50 USD brand new when released in 2001 - again applying inflation would give a 2021 price of 78 USD.
In the UK, it definitely is worse now (as it seems they've started to do the 70 USD = 70 GBP conversion, which never used to happen) - but most retail shops retail them at 60, not 70. Outside of inflation, you could use a "how many hours at min wage does a game cost" type converision - in 2001, the min wage was 4.10, and as a kid I remember PS2 games being 30-40 quid - so somewhere between 7.3 and 9.8 hours worked in order to afford one. If you were to apply that to the 8.91 min wage we have today then to be the same, the game would need to cost between 65 and 86.
