Welcome back, my fellow gamers! I wish times were better in the gaming industry, but it’s a real mess with careless acquisitions, massive layoffs, disappointing content, toxic fandoms, sky high prices, and necessary changes in business models. Xbox closed four of their developers, which is a shame because some of those studios were quite popular. I’m sure more studios from other companies will close throughout the year. Perhaps, the gaming industry would have more stability if their products sold better. On that note, here are several trends that I believe are hurting video game sales.
$70 Price Tags Consumers tolerated $60 games for a number of years, but $70 is a deal breaker for many people. It’s absurd to spend that kind of money on a new game. Hardly any AAA title justifies $70. Today, it’s the norm for gamers to wait until new releases go on sale. Naturally, this hurts the bottom line for developers and publishers. You can thank Sony for this awful trend. PlayStation was the first brand to mainstream $70 for major games. Releasing Too Many Games in a Tight Schedule This one should be obvious, but I’m not seeing a change at all. Basically, video game studios are committing friendly fire, even within their own schedule. People are only going to spend a certain amount of money on video games per year. Furthermore, their time is also limited. The average person needs to maintain a household, work 40 hours a week, take care of their family, run errands, maintain a social life, etc. They don’t spend their entire week playing video games. Recent gaming schedules are oversaturated with tons of games and that means consumers are going to pick whatever appeals the most. Predatory Micro Transactions What a great way to ruin a game. I realize free to play games are going to rely on micro transactions because they have to make a profit. Unfortunately, micro transactions are becoming standard in many $70 releases. Pay to win models are becoming a common trend. Now you can pay real money to buy weapons, additional characters, health items, power ups, and more. In fact, you can’t finish the main campaign in some games without buying extra items. I truly despised the micro transactions in Diablo IV and Dragon’s Dogma II. Disappointing AAA Games If we’re going to spend $70 on a game, it needs to be good. Sadly, high prices don’t guarantee quality products. I’ve seen quite a few AAA games that were panned by fans and critics alike. This situation paints the video game industry in a negative light and it drives away customers. What’s the point of waiting years and spending a lot of money on new games if they’re going to be terrible? Mass Layoffs This phenomenon is both tragic and unavoidable. Most video game companies expanded their brands during the pandemic and hired a ton of employees. Bigger studios also acquired a bunch of smaller ones. Publishers thought video games would become a huge craze, potentially bigger than movies and streaming. After the pandemic eased, many casual players abandoned video games in favor of other activities. It costs a lot of money to churn out AAA games and the current landscape is simply unsustainable. That means people are losing their jobs in droves. Companies are closing entire studios, including developers that are quite popular. It highlights corporate greed and causes gamers to lose faith in these companies. After all, why should we support a publisher who’s not going to support the developers who make our games? Spending Many Years to Make a Single Game It’s always a good idea to spend enough time on game development. Rushing the development process creates too many broken games with a lot of issues. However, time has limitations. I would say five years is a pretty standard timeframe for many AAA games. Some titles take eight years, ten years, or even longer. At that point, audiences are going to lose interest in a game or potentially forget about it completely. Wonder Woman, Fable, The Outer World 2, and Marvel’s Wolverine were announced quite a while ago. Supposedly, Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines 2 is finally coming out later this year, but does anyone care about that game? Most likely, Bloodlines 2 will launch with little fanfare and become a commercial bomb. The “Git Gud” Culture Online bullying and toxic behavior ruins video games for many people. It drives away casual players and large groups of people who would ordinarily spend a decent amount of money on video games. That’s bad business for the gaming industry. The advent of multiplayer games, the soulsborne genre, competitive esports, and social media streamers is leading to an elitist subculture who believe real gamer enjoy hardcore, difficult challenges. Anyone else is just a loser who should quit. Many of these gamers who promote the Git Gud image also bully women, kids, and the LGBTQ community. Don’t listen to their lies. These trolls feel threatened by competition and try to make the landscape easier for themselves by driving away players. Console Exclusive Titles Everyone loves exclusive games on the PS5 or Switch. They play a major part in the value of having each type of console. With that said, games that are exclusive on specific consoles are limiting their sales options. Exclusive games cut out consumers who don’t use that particular console. Those numbers add up quickly. Exclusive AAA games are a big part PlayStation’s appeal, but it’s a significant part of their financial problems. You’re not going to see four or five AAA exclusives per year on the PS5 anymore. Square Enix has a similar issue. Most of the Final Fantasy games were made for the PlayStation market, which is causing financial problems for Square Enix now. I wish Xbox and other companies had more exclusive games, but it seems like diversity makes sense in terms of money. Empty Promises Let’s face it. Every video game company gives their audience a ton of empty promises. I don’t want to hear excuses. They’ll all guilty. They promise to make better games. Prices will go down. Those acquisitions will build jobs and make better content. AAA games will continue forever. They’re going to clean up open world environments. New games will come out more frequently. The next generation of consoles will be a true revolution. Blah, blah, blah. Gaming publishers will make a lot endless hallow promises to make you buy more games. It’s just a marketing ploy. Consumers are finally noticing this unsettling trend and they’re being more cautious about buying new games. It’s always a good idea to conduct a little research before dropping $70. Creating Games That Nobody Wants I’m a big fan of new content and creativity. Granted, it seems like the gaming industry is releasing quite a bit of junk and unappealing content. Gamers are tired of live service games and micro transactions, but publishers are doubling down on these products anyway. I hear a lot of complaints about bloated open world environments, yet studios continue to churn out humungous RPGs. Probably a third of last year’s releases were shameless shovelware, such as Lord of the Rings: Gollum, The Walking Dead: Destinies, and Skull Island: Rise of Kong. I thought Immortals of Aveum was a good effort, but nobody asked for that game. The new PlayStation VR system is a commercial failure. That’s because the majority of gamers don’t care about VR titles. It seems like publishers are somewhat tone deaf to their audience. Those are my two cents. Would you like to join my rant in the comment section? I’m sure most gamers are upset with the industry’s current state. It’s going to take a while for video game companies to figure out a more efficient business model. In the meantime, the people who create this content will suffer the consequences. Gamers will also suffer. On the bright side, we’re still getting a lot of positive content with high quality. I suppose it’s a double edged sword. Hopefully, you can all have a great Mother’s Day tomorrow. Take care of yourselves and come back again next week. Good night!
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May 2019
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