How Corporate Greed is Killing Your Favourite Video Games

[SpellowHouse]

I was reading about this situation the other day, and it seems that it wasn't corporate greed, rather it was corporate stupidity. It seems that many companies started planning and spending big when Covid hit, only to fall flat on their faces when sales collapsed after Covid. It was blatant stupidity on their part. They didn't see the fall coming after the surge in sales.

 

[Darujhistan]

I was reading about this situation the other day, and it seems that it wasn't corporate greed, rather it was corporate stupidity. It seems that many companies started planning and spending big when Covid hit, only to fall flat on their faces when sales collapsed after Covid. It was blatant stupidity on their part. They didn't see the fall coming after the surge in sales.

They're sacking developers of hugely succesful games now, so...

 

[xaldub]

They're sacking developers of hugely succesful games now, so...

Corporate greed and stupidity aren't mutually exclusive. The reality is it's a huge dollop of both that is killing the video game industry.

 

[Maundie]

My biggest gripe is not with me but with my son and it's games like Fortnite who want money for things like skins and other non game changing items. If it was for an upgraded weapon or something then fair enough, but coming at me for £15 for a skin seems like such a waste of money to me, but all his pals are doing it. They've really got them hooked on this sort of thing and we've spent over £100 on Fortnite alone.

This is an issue worldwide, neighbours have 2 boys (12 & 9) and all they ask for at Xmas and Birthdays is Fortnite bucks cards, they think because they've got the latest skins they some how managed to get good presents, they will be sorely disappointed when the game stops being 'cool' and no one is playing it anymore.

With regards to early access I can't remember what game it was I got early access for but it was such a mess it was barely playable so it's a hard no from me going forwards, tbh most games released are not the finished article and require a few 'updates' to make them something like

 

[mid_gen]

I was reading about this situation the other day, and it seems that it wasn't corporate greed, rather it was corporate stupidity. It seems that many companies started planning and spending big when Covid hit, only to fall flat on their faces when sales collapsed after Covid. It was blatant stupidity on their part. They didn't see the fall coming after the surge in sales.

Lots of investment money poured into the gaming industry during covid, which allowed a lot of studios to grow (and new studios appear).

It's taken a few years for these investors to learn the painful lesson that making is actually really, really hard, and it takes a looong time to get a team together that can reliably produce profitable games.

There's been a huge pivot in the last couple of years away from in-house development now, which is an attempt to de-risk the development process. There are loads of external development houses now.....so you have the lead game studios now, which can be much smaller, you just have a core team that do the initial development of the prototype and get the game together, then once you're ready to go into production, you hire an external development house to do the heavy lifting and support to get the full game built and ready to ship.

The external developers can be quite nimble and have multiple teams, and multiple clients, and hop between projects quickly. If a project fails, they just move on to the next client.

The lead developer, if their game is a flop, they've just lost the money spent on the external developer, they're not sat there with a full development team on the books losing money hand over fist, and having to lay off most of your headcount.

 

[ninjag]

This is an issue worldwide, neighbours have 2 boys (12 & 9) and all they ask for at Xmas and Birthdays is Fortnite bucks cards, they think because they've got the latest skins they some how managed to get good presents, they will be sorely disappointed when the game stops being 'cool' and no one is playing it anymore.

With regards to early access I can't remember what game it was I got early access for but it was such a mess it was barely playable so it's a hard no from me going forwards, tbh most games released are not the finished article and require a few 'updates' to make them something like

This is exactly what happened when they all moved to that Roblox game, then they wanted Robux I think it's called. Then they switched to Minecraft, which thankfully wasn't so bad. Then back to Fortnite when a new update came out...rinse and repeat being suckered in.

 

[doodah]

We had it so much easier. Mum/dad - can I please have/save up for game X or console Y?

 

[ninjag]

We had it so much easier. Mum/dad - can I please have/save up for game X or console Y?

Although there was that long dreaded wait of anticipation when this screen appeared, praying to your deity of choice for what seemed like an eternity....lol

 

[jaybee]

I feel like this thread hits hard because gaming should be a joyful thing, and it seems to be just another thing suffering over time due to capitalism. The average gamer age on these forums will be higher that average I expect, so there will be some element of rose tinted specs looking back on the glory days.

Mostly though, I think gaming really is past the best times due to the landscape changing vastly. I think it's similar to film and even music to some extent. There is only so much creativity and new ideas one can bring to the table in this world. The push for better graphics year on year is possibly the most dissappointing priority we see and is definitely a profit driven thing. Games looked good enough two decades ago, let alone today. Serving up a new turd of a game in 4K HDR with Ray tracing will still be a turd of a game. We all want pretty, but not at the expense of gameplay.

Late stage capatalism / the rot economy / enshitification has come for almost everything we enjoy.

Or this in other words, yes.

 

[ninjag]

I feel like this thread hits hard because gaming should be a joyful thing, and it seems to be just another thing suffering over time due to capitalism. The average gamer age on these forums will be higher that average I expect, so there will be some element of rose tinted specs looking back on the glory days.

Mostly though, I think gaming really is past the best times due to the landscape changing vastly. I think it's similar to film and even music to some extent. There is only so much creativity and new ideas one can bring to the table in this world. The push for better graphics year on year is possibly the most dissappointing priority we see and is definitely a profit driven thing. Games looked good enough two decades ago, let alone today. Serving up a new turd of a game in 4K HDR with Ray tracing will still be a turd of a game. We all want pretty, but not at the expense of gameplay.




Or this in other words, yes.

Definitely re. the graphics thing. I often feel that once you are getting into a game you quickly get used to the graphics anyway, whether they are amazing or average, so it's the core game itself that's important.

Speaking of gamer age, I'm not sure if it's related to age or perhaps because I used to play flight sims, but I always invert my mouse vertically for FPS games, but my son doesn't and I don't think any of his friends do either. Maybe it's because they are used to console controllers.

 

[Calin Banc]

I feel like this thread hits hard because gaming should be a joyful thing, and it seems to be just another thing suffering over time due to capitalism. The average gamer age on these forums will be higher that average I expect, so there will be some element of rose tinted specs looking back on the glory days.

Mostly though, I think gaming really is past the best times due to the landscape changing vastly. I think it's similar to film and even music to some extent. There is only so much creativity and new ideas one can bring to the table in this world. The push for better graphics year on year is possibly the most dissappointing priority we see and is definitely a profit driven thing. Games looked good enough two decades ago, let alone today. Serving up a new turd of a game in 4K HDR with Ray tracing will still be a turd of a game. We all want pretty, but not at the expense of gameplay.




Or this in other words, yes.

What's joyful to you, may not be to another. From a gameplay perspective, Fallout New Vegas was awful for me. Nothing truly changed or evolved enough with Bethesda's franchises (I know that wasn't made by Beth, but it followed the same recipe). And yet it still sold, even the Starfiled. It's not just capitalism, but gamers, too. Mostly gamers as they are the ones buying, giving the OK through their purchase.

 

[Villan]

Yes of course they were just "testing".

Activision Insists Heavily Criticized Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Warzone Ads in Loadout Menus Were a 'Test' Published 'In Error,' Strips Them Out Following Backlash

 

[MissChief]

Yes of course they were just "testing".

Activision Insists Heavily Criticized Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Warzone Ads in Loadout Menus Were a 'Test' Published 'In Error,' Strips Them Out Following Backlash

Only an error because of the backlash. If no one batted an eyelid they'd be there.

 

[arknor]

Although there was that long dreaded wait of anticipation when this screen appeared, praying to your deity of choice for what seemed like an eternity....lol

didnt take that long for them too add loading bars, or was that just the pirated copies

 

[ninjag]

didnt take that long for them too add loading bars, or was that just the pirated copies

Oh I'm sure everything from Paddy's Market was genuine....

 

[Black Dog]

I haven't bought AAA for a long time now, Indie games is where its at. Pride and passion have been put into these games and it shows. Indie games tend to be original with content I have not seen before. The issue with AAA as said in previous posts, it's just copy and paste with nothing new.

I have enjoyed many Indie games recently and have to say that some of them have been the best games I have ever played. I have been gaming since 1980 so that's saying something.
Just finished Chained Echoes on PC and it was absolutely fantastic. Made by a solitary developer that took over 7 years to finish. Okay, not an original idea of a game, but very retro and the quality of the game was outstanding.

 

[Villan]

Steamworks partner:

Why I Deleted My Steam Account After 20 Years

Why I Deleted My Steam Account After 20 Years. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

 

[Villan]

Saudi takeover of gaming industry leaves little room for dissent​

Saudi takeover of gaming industry leaves little room for ...

Investment from the Gulf state provides a boost to the games business – and soft power for Mohammed bin Salman

observer.co.uk

 

[bigmike20vt]

My biggest gripe is not with me but with my son and it's games like Fortnite who want money for things like skins and other non game changing items. If it was for an upgraded weapon or something then fair enough, but coming at me for £15 for a skin seems like such a waste of money to me, but all his pals are doing it. They've really got them hooked on this sort of thing and we've spent over £100 on Fortnite alone.

honestly i am totally the other side of the fence on this specific example.
Fortnite is free to play, it has to make money some how (unlike games which charge upwards of £50 on launch but still feel the need for loot boxes)

For me the beauty of fortnite is precisely because you do not have to spend a penny on the game and it is still an even playing field........ Yes i do know what you mean that it feels a waste of money to buy skins but i would FAR rather that than golden ammo or unicorn weapons/armour which would be the absolute definition of pay 2 win. I have never personally spend a penny on the game however have loads of cosmetics through gameplay. once you get enough passive vbucks to get the pass then if you play enough (admittedly they have dialed that up a bit and it has been a whilst since i maxed out in a season) you get enough vbucks in game to earn the next season pass for free.

off all the companies who are destroying great games with microtransactions for me Epic with fortnite is the shining beacon of how it does not have to be that way.

As for spending over £100 on fortnite alone..... whilst i admit i do feel like my lad wastes his money on it, ultimately it is his money to spend. he has a set amount to spend on crap each week and i try to pressure him to spend wisely as much as i can but ultimately it is up to him (within reason of course) and once it is gone it is gone (better that than cigarettes - my dad was 9 when he started smoking!).. and depending on his age it is up to you as a parent to use the parental controls to limit him.

 

[bigmike20vt]

I feel like this thread hits hard because gaming should be a joyful thing, and it seems to be just another thing suffering over time due to capitalism. The average gamer age on these forums will be higher that average I expect, so there will be some element of rose tinted specs looking back on the glory days.

Mostly though, I think gaming really is past the best times due to the landscape changing vastly. I think it's similar to film and even music to some extent. There is only so much creativity and new ideas one can bring to the table in this world. The push for better graphics year on year is possibly the most dissappointing priority we see and is definitely a profit driven thing. Games looked good enough two decades ago, let alone today. Serving up a new turd of a game in 4K HDR with Ray tracing will still be a turd of a game. We all want pretty, but not at the expense of gameplay.




Or this in other words, yes.

there are still plenty of shining lights in the dark however.
perhaps look away from the big box titles and look to the more indie ones.

Team 17 and the like are still going (one of my favourite dev teams in the 16bit era along with sensible and bitmap bros) and produce some great titles and even for the expensive games a small amount of patience will likely mean they end up cheap on humble bundle or an epic store freebie, and if you ignore all the lootbox BS there are still a lot of good games out there.. ..

Even that aside some are better than others. On the surface Helldivers 2 is everything i would dislike about modern games..... its a "AAA" pay to play title and has a cash shop........

BUT look a little deeper and it actually RRPs at almost half what new releases are these days and even tho it has warbonds which cost money and some offer flat out upgrades............. they really are earnable in game in a reasonable time frame. Outside of i would say 2, maybe 3 warbonds you really do not need any more and i have earned enough for those just by playing and not grinding.
i recently upgraded my copy of the game to the super citizen edition, not because i had too but just to say thanks to the devs. i doubt i will spend another penny on the game now - so total cost of £37 for a game i will likely get >100 hrs out of (and that is 100hrs of OTT nonsense fun, not dull crap too eek the game out).

in principle i do not disagree with you. whilst obviously i would happily knock a few decades off my age.............. in truth i genuinely would not swap my video gaming journey for anything... going from my binatone pong gaming system and donkey kong nintendo hand held (I still have one here in my man cave now albeit it is my wifes one, mine went years ago), to my rubber keyed speccy 48k, to the amiga A500 / A1200, then to PC (with a bunch of consoles thrown in to boot) it has truly been a great journey.

add to that I got to live the golden era of the arcades and that made my childhood holidays to fleetwood and blackpool even more magical........ I still play a lot of those older games now and many have survived the test of time really well.

others not so much but its fun going back to them and showing my lad them.