How Corporate Greed is Killing Your Favourite Video Games

[Nasher]

The games industry has been crumbing for years. PC gaming is growing quite fast again, but people are buying PCs to play old games on.

We get a good indie game once in a while, very rarely a good AAA one now and when a good one is released it's an event. The last geniunely good, big budget game was probably BG3. The rest are having to buy reviews and try to silence customers (e.g. Veilguard), that's how bad it's got.

When you look at the "top sellers" on Steam, most of it is made up of free or heavily discounted games and it's a pretty random mix. There is just nothing to dominate the top 10 like in the old days.

 

[MissChief]

The games industry has been crumbing for years. PC gaming is growing quite fast again, but people are buying PCs to play old games on.

We get a good indie game once in a while, very rarely a good AAA one now and when a good one is released it's an event. The last geniunely good, big budget game was probably BG3. The rest are having to buy reviews and try to silence customers (e.g. Veilguard), that's how bad it's got.

When you look at the "top sellers" on Steam, most of it is made up of free or heavily discounted games and it's a pretty random mix. There is just nothing to dominate the top 10 like in the old days.

Many of the big games like COD or Battlefield have moved away from Steam to their own Launchers. Many have come back, sure but they usually open the Publishers App anyway before launching the game. So players often don't even use Steam. Why take that extra step?

AAA games now take so long to make that these studios get impatient and push for early release to get some money back even though the game is far from ready and often bug ridden as QA departments get cut to the bone or even replaced completely by AI or just don't exist and they rely on the public to find their bugs.

 

[ninjag]

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.

That's a good point re. pay to win, I'd forgotten about that and remember how difficult it made World of Tanks when I used to play it.

Paying for new maps would be good, but I just can't get past the whole skins thing and targeting the young generation. Sure it's his money, but the pressure is crazy because his pals are getting skins etc. The developers know what they are doing.

Ironically, now he's a few years older he has less interest in the skins etc, somewhat reinforcing my view that they are deliberately targeting the youngsters. But that's only based on my experience.

But I guess I'd rather a finished free game with in game transactions than these Early Release things we are seeing that can often be more akin to beta.

 

[jaybee]

Team 17 and the like are still going...

Wow. They made the original Worms

 

[bigmike20vt]

Wow. They made the original Worms

some of the games they make now are still great. i bought my lad a worms game for the switch and its not bad, though we ended up going back to the PS3 game tbh!.

but games like yokus island express is a new IP not a rehash of an old game and combines pinball with 2D platformer and it is really decent. others too but no point listing them all here. (alien breed got an isometric remake and in truth its not as good as the originals.... its ok tho, albeit bugged in multiplayer so that it is practically impossible)

 

[Villan]

Has the live-service dream crashed back down to earth? | Opinion

For almost a decade, live-service features have been de rigeur for most games – but with live-service projects being cancelled or pivoted to single player, it a

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Nasher]

Saw this on youtube:

The attention to detail in old vs new games is crazy. A lot missing in new games.

 

[throwaway4372]

Damn that's depressing

 

[Nasher]

Damn that's depressing

Yep it's quite shocking that even with "RTX on" some of the detail is less than 20 years ago. Like the reflections in Indiana Jones vs HL2 and Alien Isolation.

It feels like we are being ripped off with gimmicks like RTX when it's actually improved nothing. Just made performance worse so everyone has to upgrade.

What really grinds it is when a studio does a "remaster" of an old game and **** it up. Like Skyrim Remastered lol

 

[unwashed potato!]

Saw this on youtube:

The attention to detail in old vs new games is crazy. A lot missing in new games.

The only thing I'd add is that these are selected clips.

I remember plenty clips at the time of witcher 3 where the ai was just pure stupid. Unable to find pathing, ignoring crimes in front of their face etc.

It's easy to select the best scenes, in particular there one from witcher 3 that often gets picked to show then and now, but what they don't point out is that that scene is like the first real shot you get of a high up view of the environment with a long draw distance. The devs clearly pull some tricks to make this one shot more impressive, likely by cutting back some other features.

The video does have truth in it, but it's important to remember how purspefully selected the clips are, and how they ignore old games flaws, to compare the best of old games, with the worst of new games

 

[mid_gen]

New 2025 games industry achievement unlocked : learning about another studio laying people off from overhearing a conversation at the climbing gym. That’s on top of the one I knew about already. Literally new layoffs every week at the moment, absolute bloodbath.

 

[Darujhistan]

We're close to the point where much of the Industry doesn't actually want to make games, but they still want all the money every quarter and infinite growth.

 

[Noxia]

TBH although I do enjoy the odd AAA, I noticed I tend to gravitate towards indie games more and more as I got older (Nintendo being exception) I'm not sure, human element aside, that these places churning out slop closing is necessarily bad. Of course there are some being closed who are also good.

I mean if you were a restaurant churning out bang average food or worse you wouldn't expect to last now would you. Though there is always a market for slop. How some of them have lasted this long I'll never know, I would welcome a reset tbh with a focus on quality and god forbid innovation.

 

[Nasher]

We're close to the point where much of the Industry doesn't actually want to make games, but they still want all the money every quarter and infinite growth.

I think some are only making them so they can set up a cash shop and sell tat. The game is half arsed, but a lot of resources go in to making the shop availible on day one..

 

[Darujhistan]

I think some are only making them so they can set up a cash shop and sell tat. The game is half arsed, but a lot of resources go in to making the shop availible on day one..

You'll no doubt have noticed how the cash shop always works flawlessly, even if everything else is broken.

 

[Darujhistan]

TBH although I do enjoy the odd AAA, I noticed I tend to gravitate towards indie games more and more as I got older (Nintendo being exception) I'm not sure, human element aside, that these places churning out slop closing is necessarily bad. Of course there are some being closed who are also good.

I mean if you were a restaurant churning out bang average food or worse you wouldn't expect to last now would you. Though there is always a market for slop. How some of them have lasted this long I'll never know, I would welcome a reset tbh with a focus on quality and god forbid innovation.

That reset isn't going to happen at the top, they've already reset to less innovation, fewer titles, and less studious. The quality is immaterial to them, just get something out every year.

Turns out that consolidating studios within a few massive corporations/publishers like MS is the disaster everyone said it would be.

 

[Noxia]

That reset isn't going to happen at the top, they've already reset to less innovation, fewer titles, and less studious. The quality is immaterial to them, just get something out every year.

Turns out that consolidating studios within a few massive corporations/publishers like MS is the disaster everyone said it would be.

Even if that something results in financial loss? great strategy lol.

There are enough quality games to not worry about future AAA shenanigans imo. Even if not one more game was ever produced I'd get by just fine.

 

[Haggisman]

I mean if you were a restaurant churning out bang average food or worse you wouldn't expect to last now would you. Though there is always a market for slop. How some of them have lasted this long I'll never know, I would welcome a reset tbh with a focus on quality and god forbid innovation.

The problem with this is the younger generation (and to an extent their parents) and their never-ending appetite for slop.

Despite having a reasonably powerful (albeit older) gaming PC, my 13 year old almost exclusively plays Fortnite and Roblox, even though he has access to my entire Steam library through family sharing. While we don't buy him robux/vbucks, he does spend some of his own money on skins etc..

Short of banning him from those games, which seems a bit extreme, I'm not really sure what the solution is, I've spoken to him about it and what is essentially just a waste of money, but he's 13, all his mates have skins etc., so it doesn't really sink in.

Unfortunately that seemingly bottomless cash cow means that studios will keep churning out the same shallow cash grabs, leaving those of us with more discerning tastes a very sparse landscape of smaller indie titles.

Even if that something results in financial loss? great strategy lol.

But it hasn't yet...

All the kids will rush out and buy/demand their parents buy the latest COD/FIFA etc. because all their mates have it, not because it's good or innovative.

 

[mid_gen]

TBH although I do enjoy the odd AAA, I noticed I tend to gravitate towards indie games more and more as I got older (Nintendo being exception) I'm not sure, human element aside, that these places churning out slop closing is necessarily bad. Of course there are some being closed who are also good.

I mean if you were a restaurant churning out bang average food or worse you wouldn't expect to last now would you. Though there is always a market for slop. How some of them have lasted this long I'll never know, I would welcome a reset tbh with a focus on quality and god forbid innovation.

Well, I do know that a lot of people are making their own games now, because when you’ve got no job anyway, what else are you gonna do? Ultimately though a lot of people are just leaving the industry (me included) which means less games are going to get made. The big franchises that have a reliable formula will carry on.

Investment has basically completely dried up for anything remotely risky or innovative. The economics of video game development are just broken right now.

 

[Noxia]

Well, I do know that a lot of people are making their own games now, because when you’ve got no job anyway, what else are you gonna do? Ultimately though a lot of people are just leaving the industry (me included) which means less games are going to get made. The big franchises that have a reliable formula will carry on.

Investment has basically completely dried up for anything remotely risky or innovative. The economics of video game development are just broken right now.

I don't think fewer games being made is a bad thing there isn't a shortage, though if it means fewer good games then yes obviously. I'd personally love to see what comes out of all these closures in terms of people banding together to try something on their own terms. Though I appreciate that can be hard with no funding.

The industry sounds awful in general, I'm amazed people still want to get into it. Though I'm just relying on anecdotal things I read and the main headlines of course, having no experience of it myself.

@Haggisman I was going to (but didn't bother) say that I'm hardly the target demographic these days, and was going to use my gen-z nephews as examples of the 'slop consumers'

Getting to the stage where everything can be blamed on any combination of: boomers, gen-z, a.i, millennials.