IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
The Video Game industry Is Headed For A Generational Reckoning
Why is it, when the player base has never been wider, people are buying fewer games?
kotaku.com
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The Video Game Industry Is Not Equipped to Handle What Comes Next
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Opinion Business
kotaku.com
Dorfdad
Gold Member
People want to play with others, and have an experience that doesn't cater to toxicity for their hobby anymore. Sure there are people who love that hyper competitive aspect, but the masses see gaming as entertainment or a replacement for tv / media and playing and laughing with friends is what they seek not sweaty, cheating, communities. All the games mentioned and others offer multiple ways to enjoy the games outside competitive.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
And that's why everyone is desperate to have a live service game or 2 hit. The industry is moving to where players are.
Yet a lot of GAF seems to think it's completely irrational.
semiconscious
Member
wrong. i'm not in odinsleep. i'm replaying older games, many of which are still more enjoyable than anything now being released...
otherwise? correct...
I wasn't selling any
Member
Yeah, my son and his friends only care about Minecraft and Fortnite. They don't even care about GTA VI
JoduanER2
Member
The fault comes in one word "woke". The industry wants to appeal to a target audience which doesnt exist. The majority of gamers are tired of girly stories and character. Just look at all the main AAA games and most of them focus on writing empowered female and racialy diverse characters, and the stories that come out of these things are sooo boring and predictable. You can already tell how everyone behaves and reacts... all very polically correct. They are making games for no one so no one buy thems... the same is happening with "AAA" movies
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Guilty_AI
Gold Member
There's too many games, with both the number of releases having multiplied compared to the past, plus the already existing library of old games. And then, half of the population are playing the same top titles with their friends and the other half are on their own niche among hundreds.
Gone are the times when just one release was an event, gone are the times when a new gen of consoles came with great leaps in visual quality. Games aren't a novelty anymore, just another form of entertainment among many. Nowadays you have two choices, you either slowly carve out your own niche, or you make a gamble with a big release.
Gone are the times when just one release was an event, gone are the times when a new gen of consoles came with great leaps in visual quality. Games aren't a novelty anymore, just another form of entertainment among many. Nowadays you have two choices, you either slowly carve out your own niche, or you make a gamble with a big release.
It's because its a bunch of middle aged dudes here who think Video Game companies need to keep making physical media when every other form of media has abandoned it so they can display their piles of landfill waste as it's some achievement. They also like to argue about their plastic boxes that even the said companies don't care about "Console Wars" anymore. It won't be long until those plastic boxes go away either.
Gaming is completely DEAD from what it used to be and it isn't coming back.
Yes, it has to do with being "Woke". And I am sure they are making games to makes sure no one is going to by them.
Good lord.
Bojji
Gold Member
But why gaming companies should only be focusing on broke kids?
We (people that were growing up with SNES/PlayStation) maybe are old (30+) but we certainly have a lot more money to spend on our hobbies. I personally think this is the best demography to target, good AAA and AA games will sell, and we will still buy games until we are ~60s or something.
Kids and young adults are not interested in paying for games...
But they aren't just focusing on them. They're still very much doing all the other categories.
A lot of GAF have just managed to convince yourselves that they are putting all of their attention onto GAAS etc because they dared to try and develop a few.
THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE
- but for 'woke' obsessed middle aged Gaffers
justiceiro
Marlboro: Other M
So we will have less kids on my games? Sing me up!
yurinka
Member
Since the 70s, game developers are used to have every few years big changes in game development, either in tools or in the platforms where games are played.
Devs will adapt and will use this on their advantage to develop better games and faster, which will be way better than the result of a player inputing a "make GTA8 set in Pakistan" prompt.
Wrong, money spent in games has been growing since the 70s and it's in all time highs.
Same goes with the amount of great games (judging by objective metrics like reviews, not your personal taste) released every generation or year.
Devs will adapt and will use this on their advantage to develop better games and faster, which will be way better than the result of a player inputing a "make GTA8 set in Pakistan" prompt.
Wrong, money spent in games has been growing since the 70s and it's in all time highs.
Same goes with the amount of great games (judging by objective metrics like reviews, not your personal taste) released every generation or year.
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mayham2199
Member
I agree but do you still play the same games you did when you were 7? Those kids will grow up and I'm sure they will play something new. What that is I don't know.
It's not that they don't have money. They simply don't care for cinematic AAA single player open-world narrative games. And certainly, they don't care about graphics (raytracing, yeah right)
Bojji
Gold Member
Yes, but we see how destructive this strategy have been for Sony studios...
They don't get that all those gacha games, Fortnite and Roblox are so massive because they are free. And even if you make F2P game competition is so strong that your project is still way more likely to fail than to achieve success (Highguard).
RoboFu
One of the green rats
I stopped reading at " broke kids " that's a pretty daft statement.
I'm sorry your parents hated you but, All kids are not some parentless street rats. Parents do buy things for their kids and give them allowances.
Yes well it's not necessarily going to be easy to produce a hit.
That doesn't mean it isn't rational for them to try given the large, long term profits that are potentially there to be found.
Bojji
Gold Member
But it's not kids that are paying for them, unless they steal money from their parents (or parents give them money).
Gen Z was raised on Minecraft, no wonder they don't care about graphics. But market for "old fucks" that care about this stuff is still massive and will be big for the next few decades. Unless of course game makers will completely abandon us.
Right now even young adults are broke once they pay for rent and groceries...
I know some kids get money, I worked at retail store at some point and sometimes sold PaySafe cards to children that had surprisingly large amounts of cash... But what % of children gets money like that to spend on bullshit in current economy?
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ShadyAcshuns
Member
I'll single-handedly save the gaming industry for free, you're welcome:
- drop the high-budget games that take almost a decade to release
- stop chasing graphics and high end everything
- roll out cheaper hardware
- lower game prices
- keep physical around
- have more digital sales more frequently
- kill all woke/dei projects and fire the people that want it in the industry
bighugeguns
Member
Great article, know exactly who you're making a game for, or you'll be increasingly making it for nobody.
We have growing backlogs and alternatives of titles that know who they were made for, you'll increasingly sell nothing if you try that weird catch-all "safe" shit (don't even drift a tiny bit), and just make audiences hate your company's carelessly unfocused arrogance of thinking target demographics don't exist.
Market is going to increasingly punish these companies until things like Concord become a normal regular occurrence.
Even Call of Duty who historically was laser pointed on its target audience started quietly drifting (fucking warzone's COVID era success' fault) in recent years, everyone fell for this absolutely insane bullshit. Their new games are still market-demographically confused and wobbly because of that.
Article is on point, these guys are not prepared for what's happening.
We have growing backlogs and alternatives of titles that know who they were made for, you'll increasingly sell nothing if you try that weird catch-all "safe" shit (don't even drift a tiny bit), and just make audiences hate your company's carelessly unfocused arrogance of thinking target demographics don't exist.
Market is going to increasingly punish these companies until things like Concord become a normal regular occurrence.
Even Call of Duty who historically was laser pointed on its target audience started quietly drifting (fucking warzone's COVID era success' fault) in recent years, everyone fell for this absolutely insane bullshit. Their new games are still market-demographically confused and wobbly because of that.
Article is on point, these guys are not prepared for what's happening.
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Topher
Identifies as young
Outside of insinuating that I need to schedule a colonoscopy, I think I'm missing the point. A crash is coming? That it?
Guilty_AI
Gold Member
"Yap yap yap yap yap inclusion" about sums it up
JimmyRustler
Member
Your kids won't play those games forever you know. They will grow up one day - and usually that's more when you look for games like God of War.
yurinka
Member
Yes, obviously kids don't have money and are parents who pay for them. Always worked in this way. Part of Nintendo sales are because of that: their parents have to buy a game for the kid and know Nintendo are a safe bet. And then the kid ignores it and goes back to play Roblox in the tablet.
In case you didn't notice it, Minecraft, Fortnite and specially Roblex made a shit ton of money.
The thing is that the kids market is monopolized by these few games (plus a few more), so most top publishers know it and avoid that market.
Most publishers focus where they make more money and where more players are, which is the 25-45 range. Sometimes also try to appeal teenagers as long term investment (if they become fans of the IP will spend money on it in the future once they get money).
videogamedude
Member
all gamers want is something to complain about, too many jagged edges here, the upscaling in this game just isn't fucking good enough... blah, blah path tracing blah blah native resolution
If the industry can keep tapping into the same moronic bullshit, they can keep making money
Hey, look, it's the latest thing to fucking complain about, and only < insert dollar amount >
If the industry can keep tapping into the same moronic bullshit, they can keep making money
Hey, look, it's the latest thing to fucking complain about, and only < insert dollar amount >
ReBurn
Gold Member
It seems they point the article is making comes down to people not wanting to adopt anything new in terms of life service games and people just keep sticking with stuff like Roblox instead of the newer games. With the cost of development and the number of games not succeeding the industry is heading for a bad thing. Since it's Kotaku they say that the key to success is more diversity and inclusivity, but I guess they forgot Concord happened.
Bojji
Gold Member
I was pirating games when I was a kid/teenager.
I doubt most of that Minecraft/Fortnite money comes from people under 18.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
They spend a lot of money on games though. Younger demographic spends a lot on in game items and in game currency.
And it's not like they're abandoning millennials and above. Most of the games that are released today are single player experiences.
But its still young people asking their parents, friends, families for v-bucks or robux gift cards for their birthdays. Publishers do not care who's bank account the money comes out of. They care about who's spending it.
GudOlRub
Member
It is irrational to have every dev studio have a go at it. It's going to crash and burn entire companies unless they actually find a middle ground.
You still need to have a game to cover that period of their lives. And if they continue (sticking with it rather than turning into SP core gamers) into more mature GAAS etc games as they become adults then you need to be able to target them during that phase as well.
You have to go to where the customers are, either way.
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Guilty_AI
Gold Member
eh, it's not so clear cut. I've seen plenty of people in their late teens, early twenties discussing games like Fallout and Mafia.
Also, one big advantage of single player games for parents is that it's much easier to curate them, whereas online stuff like Roblox and Fortnite is always subject to classical internet problems. I'd feel much more comfortable putting a kid up to play some platformer than Roblox.
This is always has been like that, kids back in the day didn't even know what framerate even meant and played what was popular at the time, those kids playing Roblox or whatever right now will grow and graduate to that kind of games to something else or move on entirely, but no one stick to the same forever, only exception to this day are the Star War fanboys grasping at whatever slop Disney serves them, but that's another thing not related to this
This push to GAAS will only last so much, it's like everything, it's go to novelty to mainstream, to dwindling or straight up fad
This push to GAAS will only last so much, it's like everything, it's go to novelty to mainstream, to dwindling or straight up fad
Buggy Loop
Member
Yup
"Listen to gamers!" The gaming crowd yelled
Surprisepikachu when indeed the industry listened to gamers
Unknown Soldier
Banned
The Western AAA industry dug its own grave when it went full woke/DEI at the same time that it was being replaced by Fortnite and Roblox
In reality, Western AAA would have survived and been fine if they were still making games that the millennial gamers still wanted to play but they decided to make insane political propaganda instead. So the young people didn't even know AAA existed, but the older gamers were all fleeing en masse from garbage like Star Wars Outlaws and Dragon Age Veilguard
Which leaves Western AAA with no audience. Dead.
In reality, Western AAA would have survived and been fine if they were still making games that the millennial gamers still wanted to play but they decided to make insane political propaganda instead. So the young people didn't even know AAA existed, but the older gamers were all fleeing en masse from garbage like Star Wars Outlaws and Dragon Age Veilguard
Which leaves Western AAA with no audience. Dead.
Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Wouldn't call it irrational. With the cost and time it takes to make a game, working on something that has regular revenue coming in over time is the most rational thing you can do. Very few games sell enough for the project to not just break even, but be profitable enough for the studio to be able to comfortably start work on their next project without having to lay off staff 2 years into it.
Same reason most tech moved to a SaaS model.
Dr Cowley
Member
This and also used.
I got used/ 2nd hand games for Christmas often. 2 brand new ones or a dozen used.
Nydius
Member
Because it IS irrational in the exact same way someone blowing their entire mortgage payment on lottery tickets is irrational.
Sure, maybe that person will get a jackpot winning ticket. But the odds are most likely that they'll lose damn near everything, fail to break even, and then not have enough money to pay for their house.
Spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars chasing a singular unicorn is a completely stupid business strategy, especially when one considers that the biggest GaaS games out there didn't chase the trends, they created them.
But where are these costs coming from? It's almost completely salaries and for whatever reason many of these studios decided to produce these game in areas with the worldwide highest salaries for game devs, artists, managers, marketing and all the other professions involved in creating games. The world is big and every other place is cheaper than California or the other gaming development hubs in the US. I would somehow understand it if these were the people with the most skills or talent but considerig how almost all of the games have been trash or mediocre at best in the last decade.... Their struggles with out of control budgets are 100% self inflicted and their solution of creating the next bit GAAS hit is just one big gamble. A gamble that only works as long as there is money to gamble with. That money is drying up and we see now ther consequence in form if layoffs and studio closures.
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DreamcastSkies
Gold Member
I just want the industry to go back to a Wii/PS3/360 era feel.
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