Since I forgot to say it in the video...remember to subscribe! It's free and you get cool new videos all the time! There's reviews, news and retrospectives, as well as stuff like this. And thanks. Also, I'm waiting for someone to recognize the second to last song in the video. It's a personal favorite.
unless western developers can properly deal with those "image consultant" agencies and their game media journalists, it won't get better while non-western developers, those that don't bow to the same detriments, will just get better and better and take over the gaming market.
@@numberonedad Overfinancialization only caused western gaming industry to become like this. The underlying cause is because someone is pushing a social political cause in all western culture in the past 4 years. I wonder who .......
There’s a huge lack in creativity in the AAA industry. The constant and higher and higher pushes for graphics over style and gameplay. The sheer push for profit over "just make a good game and people will buy it" is all over with the absolutely insane amount of remasters and remakes.
@@TheSpongyMallard it's so annoying when companies thing "good graphics" just means "lifelike". The problem is that we aren't getting many stylised AAA games. They all have the same realistic lighting, lifelike characters etc. It looks good, for sure, but so do stylised games like breath of the wild, okami etc.
I genuinely wouldn't mind going back to 7th gen / early 8th gen graphics if it meant one game didn't eat up 20% of my hard drive space and didn't require a gosh dang 4060 for medium settings. I hope the market for handheld PCs (i.e. Steam Deck, Legion GO) grows to a point that developers can't ignore it anymore and are forced to start optimizing their games for low spec hardware.
I think that it's a lack of creativity in general. Everything is curated by algorithms, everyone is chasing trends, original content is hard to come by. Eventually we will get there, but things will probably get worse before they get better
@ Realism has begun to stagnate. It’s no longer, “This looks like an actual human now.” It’s, “WOW look at this 4k RTX peach fuzz on this character’s face!” and “Look, the slightly better lighting on this character’s ear is a better shade while under a tree!”.
One thing that really pisses me off with these AAA developers is how they actually have the gall to blame gamers for why they are failing saying they are entitled and the expectations are "to high" When they half-ass their games and force toxic and aggressive micro-transactions and intrusive kernel level DRMs. Like how dare people chose not to spend their money on crap.
Yea, too many of them are resting on their laurels, especially the ones who've been around for a while and just expect people to shower them with praise despite their games lacking ingenuity compared to games a few generations ago that constantly pushed the envelope.
Textbook definition of Gazlighting. once you know how to spot it, you realise of full of sh!t those devs are. Starfield is the perfect exemple, it would have genuinely have been a better game if it had been a mod for fallout 4 made in a couple years by amateurs. and i genuinely wish i was joking. when you see the man hours spent, and the result, unless Besthesda is secretly a sweatshop it's absolutly unexcusable.
In some ways, it is gamers' fault. We've let these companies get away with far too much for far too long. It's the same thing with people, if you let enough crap slide, that becomes the expectation. Gamers have bought games despite what you mention so game companies expect that you SHOULD.
Correcting AAA games would require admitting that western corporate culture and the promotion of incompetent people into management is the problem and that would mean that said management would need to admit they are incompetent. That's not happening. AAA studios failing is good for the industry. It means the passionate and talented studios will replace the companies that got too big to change course.
>AAA studios failing is good for the industry I agree, after the Video game crash of 1983/ Atari shock, Nintendo swept the rot away and rebuilt the NA gaming industry. The western gaming industry needs another crash, they cannot help themselves.
@Miguel-the-Moth true, but that can only go on for so long. The projects they gobble up usually fail, which means less profit, which angers shareholders Its a bit paradoxical in nature. Companies tunnel vision on appeasing shareholders, in the process they make dumb decisions founded only in greed, as a consequence they make less money and shareholders are even more upset. But the downwards spiral ends at some point
@@Miguel-the-Moth There are new indie-studios and new passion projects all over the world. People with talent, passion and a vision will always create art. These AAA studios will learn the hard way that customers can’t be exploited. People are so fed up with BS that everyone became extremely cautious. There are also some studios led by people with integrity and morals and values. For example WarhorseStudios who currently work on KingdomeComeDeliverance2. The lead there is a strong dude who won’t give in to soulless investors or that insane brainwashing-attempt called wokeness.
I'm old enough to remember when seeing someone in-game with awesome equipment meant they'd accomplished something. Now I default to "They bought it". That's why I hate the "It's only cosmetics" argument in favor of micro-transactions.
Bro I've never seen a more true sentence. It's insane to see how much games have changed throughout the years. Like remember when fighting games didn't have dlc but hidden locked fighters in which you had to do challenges just to get a chance at unlocking the character. Now it's I'll just buy the expansion which unlocks the full fighter list and all the op dlc characters
Yup and cause of that there's no progression at all too. You can't earn anything by playing, only by paying. But "oh its fine, its free to play" BS doesn't work.
I'm old enough to remember when companies would have a statement at the start of the game saying "X proudly presents"....and then the game title. People who care about games, care to make good games. I miss Westwood...
I came here just to say that. 💯 I think people are getting tired of GaaS because it feels like you're spending your time and money to get dunked on by whales.
@@WilliamBurns-ip9bn Sony did move their main HQ from Japan to the west (California I believe) awhile back so in a sense it is 'now' a western studio or conglomerate
@@NotRealJustSchizo The Sony Group HQ is still in Tokyo. Their HQ in New York is just for their American branch. Is Nintendo a "western" studio because they have and American branch? Is Epic Games an Eastern Studio because of TenCent's stake in the company? Is SNK a middle-eastern company because it's owned by a Saudi prince?
@WilliamBurns-ip9bn Well clearly I was mistaken then but there was no need for such a passive aggressive response now was there? A simple "No you are mistaken" would have sufficed
If only. The dellusional side more likely. Because how does it make business sense to insult customers, push unpopular politics and mix crappy derrivative gameplay with overprized micro transactions galore? It's greedy, yes, but not at all business savvy. If a restaurant decided to charge 50 dollars for a shitty and small meal because that way they save on costs and make lots of money, that restaurant would quickly go out of business. Even quicker if they also insult the potential customers or customers who complain about it all. This is more analogous to what western AAA game companies are doing. There is 0 business savvy to it. Just greed and dellusions of grandure.
@@sirazazeloflowkey6424I think you're missing the point. The business side is delusional. They are not in the business of making good games, they want to make the most money. That means taking as little risk as possible, which severely dampens creativity. Its why these companies keep reusing old mechanics and engines for games, it costs a shit ton of money to make a new one, and unlike the previous engines/mechanics, there's no guarantee people will like it. Its why they chase trends, like the battle royale trend, or the live service trend, where companies have completely shed their identities to chase them. COD is a great example of this.
@@sirazazeloflowkey6424 Yeah. These "financial experts" still haven't explained how their genius plan of reducing their customerbase to triple digits - while keeping operating costs of the company the same might I point out - is supposed to work out mathematically in the long run. It doesn't take 20 business degrees for me to see a problem there...
Spot on! However, this would open up Japanese, Korean and Chinese studios and more importantly the creativity of indie titles will only shine brighter!
I think one thing you forgot to touch on is the mass purging of talent from AAA studios. A lot of those people responsible for some of the best games of the last 15 years are starting new indie studios. Hopefully there's a huge wave of really good stuff coming soon.
A polite request. When you show clips of games, please put the name of the game in small words in the top corner. I saw a few games here today that i liked the look of but haven’t a clue what they are. Thank you.
I agree with Mugthief on live services. There is no problem with the concept itself. World of Warcraft was essentially a life service , all MMO's are. The problem is with the intent, because the intent is manipulating you into spending rather than giving you fun and value that makes you want to spend. Rather than make focus on providing value, they focus on FOMO, competitive thinking and creating a patern of addictive repetition. Basicly copying casinos rather than good games.
Most of the lessons could and should have been learned from MMORPGs as well. So many MMOs launched with some numbers, then saw plummeting player base, and dropped into F2P obscurity. WoW, for example, is one of the exceptions. It dethroned the king and took its place. But beyond that, that just doesn't happen. FFXIV is right up there with WoW, but again, exception. Meanwhile, very few went the route of EVE, of launching smaller and aiming for an under-served market niche. Still a bit of a gamble there, of course, as you do need the right niche where it works. PvP games mostly fail, for example, because PvP wants a level playing field, while MMORPGs want leveling systems. Not a good mix, so any time an MMO focuses on that, it is likely in for a bad time.
Yeah, look at path of exile 1 and 2, poe 1 is a great game with no fomo, you just chill for a few weeks every league. Path of exile 2 is looking like a masterpiece incomming. I actually prefer to spend my time in live services.
About Shift Up and the decision of Kim Hyung Tae to make a real video game on console (Stellar Blade) it was not only a smart decision but also a risky move. The market in Korea is massively about mobile games, so much that when Kim Hyung Tae decided to make Stellar Blade a game for consoles, some people thought it was crazy. And now, with the success of the game, that exceeded both Shift Up's and Sony's expectations, apparently Seoul took notice of it. With Stellar Blade, Korea realized there is a market in the West for their non-mobile, non-gacha products. Stellar Blade might be a more important game than we believe.
@@gabrield4892 Yes. That. I hate that. I'm fine with it as long as they give us the choice. When they don't, I hate it. Veilguard is currently on hot waters because of it. People said Baldur's Gate 3 was doing the same thing. BG3 did not. They don't force you to agree. You can go against your own friends. Even kill them. That's important. Your choice as a player. That's fun, to me. I get to kill the annoying teammate in my single-player game. I was given a choice. BG3 also didn't make an entire story for that thing like Veilguard did. There's nuance there. That's where I think it should be. Giving player choices.
Western game companies will never figure out the most sustainable business model of all is building a game catalogue NOT DESIGNED TO BE EVENTUALLY SHUT DOWN and just keep selling them forever. That's your passive, recurring revenue to fund your next projects to add even more to that catalogue, right there.
@@luske2 Eh... Not quite. Nintendo's planned obsolescence of their hardware means they don't sell their games forever either. Their games die with the hardware. Remember Fire Emblem Awakening and other Fire Emblem games on the 3DS? Yeah, Nintendo no longer sell them. All 3DS models are out of production, all of their 3DS games are out of print and the 3DS eShop shut down permanently. That was not that long ago. You cannot make this model work on hardware platforms with planned obsolescence.
@@aquapendulum sure Nintendo does plenty of scummy things, and you're correct that they treat many of their older titles like crap, BUT, Nintendo are experts at reselling their games for full price with minimal effort. Look at all the switch ports that we've seen in just the last few years. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Metroid Prime, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi, remasters of both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, a remake of Link's Awakening, Xenoblade Chronicles, remasters of nearly everything for Wii U like Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Super Mario Bros. U, etc etc etc. So I'd still say that's the Nintendo business model. That's the very reason they hold off on certain titles; to resell them later.
@@luske2 Not making an ethical judgement of Nintendo, just sustainability, but any publisher on PC is a better example of a sustainable business model than Nintendo. Did you know that Stardock still sells The Corporate Machine? That's a game that launched 20+ years ago, longer than any of Nintendo's hardware generations. Every StarDock games after TCM can still be bought today. Their classic games cost nothing to maintain, not even porting cost, and bring in passive income for the company. StarDock has never made a live-service game. That's a rare Grade-A sustainable business on the Western side.
@@aquapendulumThey actually talked about that issue early into the Switch's lifespan. They're working on making it their "forever console," or at least makes sure they don't have to restart the digital library every time they make new hardware.
I refuse to play a game if it’s live service, has a battle pass, has micro transactions, or all of the above. I’ll stick to good single player games. I’m sick of all the cash grabs
What about games like Warhammer I, II, and III with all their expensive DLCs? Do you pay the prices, or do you only get single player games and no DLC?
I backed Temtem on kickstarter and that wasn't a AAA. Yet they ended up calling themselves and MMO while having every costmetic locked behind the shop or battlepass, leading to the community to revolt over time and it made the reviews waver between positive and mixed. It's annoying that even a normal group of devs not backed by shareholders can still be so head over heels for profit that they ruin the good will given to them by the people who supported them before there was a game. Burned me on kickstarters
Hopefully with the success of Black Myth: Wukong and Stellar Blade, China & South Korea will try their hands at making more premium offline singleplayer non-live service games. I'd especially love to see MiHoYo take a crack at it! I guarantee you it'd do incredibly well!
I had this topic with a couple of friends just a few days ago and it made me look into my games library and what I played over the last years. Only then did I realise how many more eastern made games I play over western ones. To be fair, one of the biggest portions was just basically every Souls game ever made, so the count was already going heavily in one direction (please Sony, leave FromSoft alone). But still, outside of Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3, all the games made by bigger companies I played in recent time were made by asian studios.
@@azdartI played both Conan Exiles and No Man's Sky, but that was a few years ago, so they weren't included in my comment. I specifically talked about games I (re)played recently and that were made by bigger studios. Many games I played this year were indie titles. Helldivers 2 is definitely still on my list, but my best buddy doesn't have much time to play lately, so I'm waiting for him to have a free schedule. I won't protect Super Earth without my homie. 😂
@@princemwamba5230Thanks for the suggestion. BG3 finally managed to get me into CRPG's, so now I'm looking forward to seeing what other devs do with this genre.
I'm glad the companies visions of the "live service" game is finally being topped as games that dont feature any microtransactions are completely and utterly blowing them out of the water. I do not care for the faliure of the companies making the live service slop as they have done this to themselves. Finally the rug is being pulled out from underneath them and they have no clue what to do. And that makes me so happy for the future of gaming as both innovation and features that benefit players are finally taking the forefront over corporate greed in this industry.
@NewMitchell-wh3fj as much as I don't agree with a dlc being counted as a new game, I'd rather it go to that than a live service slop game, or a single player game with microtransactions lmao
@@jjojon7072 they're not. The main ones like fortnite, cod, league etc are. But almost all the new ones that I can think of have failed in recent months. Think the new multiversus, suicide squad, concord etc. People are waking up to the fact that these games sole purpose is to exploit people into spending money rather than delivering a great experience, and it has the companies making them shit scared. Like ubisoft.
@@kieran5476 Fortnite wasn't even made as a live service game It was an early access single player game they tacked a battle royale mode onto because the genre was hot and it only took them a few weeks to do it
I felt the entire roster of titles shown in the Awards tiers was weirdly small and repetitive. Forget worrying about Wukong potentially getting snubbed; many other games were too, imo. Of course, the fact that they admit it's 90% Industry Circle Jerk Votes with only 10% input from actual players says it all.
No, Veilguard is not and will never be a "good move" by EA, the fact that they don't try to rob players with micro transactions in that game is simply because they know they wouldn't be able to please people enough for them to pay any extra.
@LimC.A I was specifically talking about the mention of Veilguard, not the other EA trashes, I obviously know why they are considered one of the worst companies in America.
@@KurausuEddy they are also known as the most cold-blooded killer of studio that perform "averagely" are also killed dunno why Bioware still alive lol.
@@LimC.A Bioware is still alive because the name still has value. Though Veilguard did obviously do very serious damage to it. Most of the previous weaker titles we gamers tended to write off as "EA is the reason"... the rushed schedule of DA2, the Frostbyte use of Andromeda, the live service of Anthem... Of course, the people that loved to make great RPGs, where choice matters, where writing really mattered, well, they aren't going to stick around in an environment where that culture has died, where the corporation is selling the souls of the project for the latest trend or something some executive thinks is the smart thing to do. But the short of it, company names like BioWare, Bethesda, and Blizzard are essentially IPs, with all the brand recognition that goes with that. You put that name on the box, and interest goes up.
One great trend that's been happening is the death of console exclusives. There are still a couple out there, but it's nothing like the past. Making games playable on open platforms like Linux is on the rise, and that's amazing for consumer choice.
With that, the question must be asked: What is even the point of consoles anymore? The old reason was ease of use and being the only way to play certain titles. With consoles now just being hobbled PCs with none of the upsides of a PC, why bother?
@@Roggor Consoles will always have a place as a living room media box. You can obviously set up a PC to do the same things and more but not everyone has the knowledge to even know where to begin.
They get infested by people who hate, dread and despise men and their hobbies and give it to them, people like Alyssa Mercante, Jason Schrier and developers like Kim Bellair.
As bad as it is you need to make mistakes to learn from them, The problem is they don't wont to learn from them and use the backlash of identity politics as an excuse
It's a little disheartening to be treated like lower wage staff of [insert corporation here] by the video game companies that I once wanted to work for... as a customer.
Shockingly, it's hard for a modern triple-A company to still exist with only 200 customers. If only there was some sort of thing they could do, which would entice customers to give these companies money in exchange for goods and services. 🤔
One thing I love about your channel is the sense of positivity and optimism despite having a critical eye for games. I think it's easy to sink into negativity and anger when seeing the state of games online. Gaming looks really depressing if you look at places like Reddit or Twitter for the state of games. While it is important to criticize the stuff in the industry that is bad, you shouldn't lose sight of the fun stuff in gaming. I really appreciated your 3rd section starting at 23:00 talking about all the good games you've experienced this year. It really helps show that there's a lot of good being done in gaming too!
I'm increasingly relaxed about the video game crisis. Sure, it's bad, but it's not bad in ways that actually matter. A bunch of big companies collapse under their own weight of buzzwords and PowerPoints; what does it matter? I game for a few hours every day, and there are far more good games coming out than I could ever play, not to mention the older catalogue I never got around to. Our cups are flowing over in terms of the quality availible to play at any given time, and the pillars of gaming- Steam, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo- show no signs of wobbling. So all of this stuff is just a very riveting soap opera, not an actual crisis of the hobby.
Not sure about Microsoft, they haven't put out a first party title worth a damn in quite a while, and seem desperate to push cloud gaming instead of trying to make something that can move Xboxes. Sony, I imagine, will course-correct eventually, even if it means the mothership in Japan moving the games division out of California and back to Tokyo, and you're right that Nintendo isn't going anywhere anytime soon... Or really ever, so long as the Yamauchi family continues to have majority power in the company. Steam's really more of a marketplace, and sadly a monopoly that I expect will become an albatross around the neck of PC gaming once Gabe Newell dies or retires. Not sure there's any real successor there that can match that man's understanding of the industry, and we don't hear anything about that anywhere.
I have more than one job and a daughter on the way. There's no way in hell I'll get into a live service game. I'm not a teen with lots of free time, anymore. If I play, I want a single player, cohesive and worthwhile experience. Good thing that there is some options, and very few of them are AAA
Live service games aren't just that, though. Yes, some want to control your life, and those you should avoid. But others offer a much more chill experience. Genshin Impact, for example, is a game that offers very little worthwhile content to do daily. You can basically log in for 10-15m and be done. If there's an event, 5m or less added to that, daily, for typically less than a week. It has a problem on the opposite side... when you do have free time, there's nothing worthwhile to do if you're caught up. The game is, essentially, heavily designed to appeal to China's 996 crowd (people who work 9 to 9, 6 days a week)... people who just want a little bit of non-demanding brain dead entertainment. Of course, you can get that type of experience in a single player game as well. Starfield, for example, I think offers that sort of appeal on Gamepass... when you can't decide what you really want to play, people settle for it. But the short of it, live services exist to appeal to all sorts of niches.
I feel like I barely have time for games anymore period, live service or not. I pretty much only play games now on my Switch or Steam Deck while on the exercise bike at the gym.
The problem with live-service is that 70% of the gaming studios are using it the wrong way. Give Deep Rock Galactic or even Genshin a try if you want to see a live-service game done well
Western AAA games have long stopped focusing on GAMEPLAY and gameplay systems in favour of cinematic and graphical prowess. This is a fundamental and critical failure that results in shallow unengaging games no matter how great they look or how big their open worlds are. If you aren't building a game based on a compelling gameplay loop you've failed utterly. It's just taken the dumb masses way too long to realise this and they are slowly waking to it. Japanese games (including those from Nintendo, FromSoft and most JRPG developers) and indie games still value gameplay above all else and therefore their games are the only ones worth playing today with very few exceptions from the west.
Not only gameplay they care about the story music and the character as well and now chinese and korean dev just gave more oppertunityor eadtern game developerto grow but it is a bit sad that some of Japanese dev start to "westernized" again they should learn from capcom that how westernized thier game is a receipe of failure but Capcom made a come back by just be themselve and made a game that fun again
Another good game to list is Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. An old school CRPG done by a small AA team that has received new content support and patches for the past years with it now being considered content complete. The amount of support that game got from the developers Owlcat and how receptive they were to feedback deserves praise. Then there is Romancing Saga 2 with all of it's innovations to the JRPG genre.
Just a little contect, Space Marine 2 was made by Sabre Russia Team, however the studio was relocated to Armenia due to the invasion. Anyway, I completely agree with the video, there was a point where I was loosing all hopes but then BG3 happened. And since then it´s starting to feel like gaming will heal again.
Exactly. As a year long XBox player i finally switched sides, at least when it comes to console gaming. I could not support this development any longer, for years playing western games i always had this odd feeling in my guts and i didn't understand why. That's how far indoctrination can take you. Sony at least offers some decent eastern gaming experiences, having left most JRPGs aside for at least ten years, i now come to enjoy games like Metaphor ReFantazio and i'm having a blast with it enjoying a still traditional gaming experience. Thanks, Mug!
As both a PS and Xbox player, Sony doesn't really "offer" eastern games anymore, they moneyhat them. Their first party this generation are remakes and disappointing sequels. If I had waited another year I'd just gone with a new gaming PC, which seems to offer the best of both worlds without the restrictions, but there's plenty of great games on both to Enjoy, thankfully. Visions of Mana is actually one of my favorites this year and eventually gonna try Metaphor, too. :)
Non competence based hiring, these become new recruiters and so more non competence based hiring, no ones competent and theyre insecure about it so toxic positivity forms, game then releases in horrible state because criticism is never allowed ever and everyone gets a hard wakeup call
Most stuff made by companies that are in the open market ( stock shares) tends to become trash, cash grab. Games, movies, music apps, airbnb, etc. The focus turns into bringing revenue to shareholders sacrificing everything else.
Not bothered by this since I can get games from other parts of the world. Let the western games cycle through through their "little world" and get back to reality.
You've quickly become one of my fav youtube channels to watch. These topics are well presented and researched EDIT: Also that outro was amazing, that list of great games and I could have added my own that you didn't mention. Made me reminisce of the great gaming experiences I've had this year
Western games aren’t failing, western studios are failing. If they continued on the path they used to have it wouldn’t be the case but the studios have put their priorities into other places that don’t align with consumers and won’t correct their course
So unfortunately I think it’s way too late to course correct for western game devs. We’ve got years of this stuff still down the pipeline and everyone hates it now. I think the crash is necessary and I kind of look forward to playing more of what the world has to offer than our western slop
What gets me is that they have no concern for the time and money we invest in all of the failed ones. Not only do they only care about money, but they equally don't care about us; their customers.
I can't emphasize how much I loved the segment of this talking about all of the wonderful games you played this year. I felt like a kid listening to the magic and wonder of all of the amazing things you did and hope to do. It was beautifully delivered. Thank you so much for the reminder of the magic of gaming!
Yes, you, “explained it in an entertaining way.” Thanks for that slice of positivity. It is so important to remember the good stuff occasionally and I appreciate that you took a moment to encourage the gaming community. You’re a thoughtful, dare I say, “smart,” man. So glad you didn’t wind up at IGN. What you’re doing now is way better, because you are way better. You are the active alternative to the, “client media,” of IGN and their ilk, which I and many others seek out as an honest alternative to the hackery of access media.
'AAA" is to videogames what Hollywood is to cinema. Sure there might be a handful of blockbuster hits, but the real meat and potatoes of the artform will always lie in independent development.
it really hit me in the heart when you said as a kid you wanted to work at IGN (type of thing) to play, test, review games and such as i’ve always wanted to do the same thing as a kid but growing up I see I want to be able to experience them and enjoy them rather than working for a company trying to make deadlines and staying on the right “topics” and all the shanagins they’re all involved in ect ect. but it’s really wholesome to you see finally achieve what you wanted and i’m happy for you man! enjoy it!
I'd like to give a mention to tear ring saga an absolutely amazing game no one talks about, it was made by the same developer as fire emblem and is a fire emblem game in all ways outside of the name, it's an obscure ps1 game that's hard to even begin to play but it has so many events and choices to be made that it truly feels like my play through is MY play though all of it is organic to the game itself and not side quests your going on it's all integrated into the main play though and some of the things there is to be found is absolutely hilarious and silly it isn't the most "fair" game but it is a heck of a lot of fun, it is kinda really slow and there's a LOT of reading (like way more than most jrpgs) but it is a very unique and interesting game that is very underrated
Cannot disagree more about the outlook. A gaming crash is coming. In the last 18 months over 23,000 jobs in the gaming industry have been eliminated. More than 19 game studios have closed in that same amount of time. This isn't just fat cutting either. Netflix closed it's only game studio before it could produce a single game. If a company that is cash rich (roughly 9 billion) and streaming and distribution networks already built in decides to get out before the paint dries, it doesn't bode well for gaming. The overall quality of games is way down, and we can't rely on China to dig us out of this hole. I know their respective fan clubs don't want to hear this, but PS5 and Xbox 1/S are both considered disappointments to their producers. Population increases alone should have sold more units than their predecessors, and they HAVENT. Microsoft will likely NOT make another console. This will get worse before it gets better.
Of course it will get worse. This year, so much failed. But development time on the big games isn't short. And you can't just change the direction of a game easily without it still impacting the quality. So we're going to get more games over the next few years still based on the failed model. As the sales fall short, those companies are going to look to cut costs. And beyond that, the companies are going to need to adapt internally, so that the people inside the company who know the game is going to be crap can say so and be listened to. But for those studios that close, for those laid off, some of the ex-employees will form new companies. And they'll be based on passion, on an idea of a game, rather than a product. They likely won't be AAA, with smaller teams, budgets, and dev cycles, but these companies will be the ones that have the potential to revive things. Most will fail or sort of stumble on. A few will succeed. Those will grow, and finally be able to make a nice big budget game. It'll all takes years, probably a decade, to play out, though.
Really felt the ending monologue. During 2024, I beat fantastic games as well. Phantasy Star on my Sega Master System; Sonic 1, Streets of Rage 2, and Revenge of Shinobi on my Genesis; Lunar 2 and Snatcher on my Sega CD; Sakura Wars, Clockwork Knight, Nights Into Dreams, Policenauts, Guardian Heroes, Grandis, Vandal Hearts, and Panzer Dragoon on my Sega Saturn; Sonic 1, GG Shinobi, Streets of Rage 2, and Shining 2 on my Game Gear; Defender and Fire Emblem Path of Radiance on my GameCube; Little Kings Story on my Wii; Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor Refantazio on my PS5. As far as fun in gaming goes, I've had a blast this year.
It didn't get any nominations but, don't forget Robocop Rogue City, made by a (indie?) studio called Teyon and is just a good old fashioned fun video gaming..
I just rewatched the History of RPGs and it looks like this might be cyclical, studio is formed by passionate gamers, studio becomes successful, studio becomes bigger, studio starts to make less successful titles, studios get even bigger and less and less competent and bam studio is failing at what it used to do so great. It happened to Origin, Sir Tech and Sierra and it's happening now with BGS, Bioware and Ubi. They'll die from their own weight and newer, more agile companies, like Larian, will replace them.
AAA use to be defined by games who's development was linked directly to a state of the art in house game engine. Now that AAA, AA, and even indie games all use UE5 if they want to achieve high graphical fidelity, the distinction is now just whether 500 people worked on the game or 50. The amount of "A"s doesn't really mean anything anymore.
Game dev has become more corporatized than it has already been in the past and the terrible labour practices are draining the skills out of the industry. Between business guys getting the priority in game design (yes the store front insurance game, micro transactions, etc. Are all affecting game design) it is negatively affecting the quality of games. In addition to the stupid recruiting requirements being too high like other industries ( they expect you to know multiple programming languages and skills along with a few years of experience for a freaking entry position), new and eager to learn talent is gatekept from being nurtured in the industry. That is to say, its not about creating the best game, but the most profitable. And if the higher ups believe that compromising on the quality of the game can lead to more profits, they would.
I find it immensely funny that one of the most sustainable and solid games ive EVER seen.... is Terraria. Its consistently in the top steam games and has been out (And updating) since 2011. Its a 2D minecraft like (not even close to mincraft actually) pixel game mostly about digging, base building and beating bosses... and constantly beats AAA games on steam. and the Studio, Re-Logic, is great too, very community and player friendly.
Square enix does however have one of the most succesful liver service games with FF14 so their attempt at more is going to be hampered when alot of their fans of final fsntasy already have somwhere to go
4:01 Why the heck are people losing their shit over this category? Making games playable for those who are colour blind or have some form of physical disability is only a plus. The awards bringing awareness to this is is only a good thing.
He literally explained it. A good game made accessible is great, but a poor game that’s only redeeming factor is how accessible it is shows that those developers just see everyone as equally dupable. They want as much money from as much people with minimal effort involved, and if they can look like goody goodies when they do it, all the better.
@@Poopustheclown A game's accessability has nothing to do with its quality, it's not either/or, you don't have to choose one or the other. The category itself doesn't care about what the game is, only how accessable it is. Blizzard made some really big strides with this in Diablo 4 helping players who are visually impaired play the game much easier with the help of a screen reader among other things, so it being on the awards is completely fair. I think gamers are overly cynical and sees anything positive like this to be virtue signaling, when in fact the dev team is made up of regular people like you and me. Not everything is made with malicious intent.
@@Kyrkby oh I don’t protest it at all being a category, I protest some studios using inclusivity as a get out of jail free card for an overall lackluster product and a means to tap other market demographics. But of course, I don’t determine how a games accessibility lands beyond my own color blindness. EXCELLENT point you bring up though, I definitely agree (and am guilty of at times) that there’s a shift in maliciousness towards anything unorthodox, EVEN if it’s nuanced.
If there are better games somewhere other than in the West, it is not my responsibility to prop up the AAA industry. I will spend this weekend playing a game developed in Poland (Medieval Dynasty, developed by Warsaw-based Render Cube.) I will pick up the Greece DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 (developed in Czechia by SCS Software) when it comes out on Dec. 4. And when the next patch comes out and hopefully cleans up some of the launch jank, another Polish studio (Superkami Games) will get my time and mental energy as I play some Sengoku Dynasty. I backed a Kickstarter earlier this fall for another of my favorite developers, Chongqing, China-based Pathea Games. Their masterpiece My Time At Sandrock was my 2023 Game of the Year, and I look forward to the Kickstarter-backed My Time at Evershine. Elsewhere in my collection are games developed in Spain (Travellers Rest), South Korea (Motor Town: Behind the Wheel), Bulgaria (Knights of Honor II: Sovereign), and Turkey (Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord, the biggest-budget game out of every one I've mentioned in this comment. Gaming isn't just the US, Japan, and western Europe anymore (well, Spain is western Europe but it's not a traditional game development country.) And that's fantastic.
I'm not gonna lie, I divorce the AAA game industry long ago, just hope that people can go back to the crazy idea of having fun with the game that you just buy
I don't want to be rude or anything but your videos really looks samey to me with the same arguments each time on the same subjects. I think you already said everything on the AAA industry at least the most important things to know.
It won't get on any of the actual game award. But my personal GOTY belongs to Elin, an open world sandbox rougelike game made by a small team helmed by a guy who previously made another open world sandbox rougelike Elona by himself that's completely free to play and has no microtransaction. Yeah, A(ss)A(ss)A(ss) video game companies is all about cheating money out of your pocket while getting high of their own moral highground fart. Indie games are the only game worth playing now.
Regarding sustainability i've never understood the idea that games need to push for absolutely ridiculous extreme photorealistic graphics that push the budgets into the hundreds of millions because "that's what attracts buyers", for one there's never been evidence of that because AAA has never tried it doing the opposite, only incidentally when using a graphics style or doing a small experiment like Ubisoft did with Grow Home, but also now they're in the awkward position of making these free to play live services games which require as many people can run them as possible... so they're usually very scalable to run on older systems... what? So they're willing to push out gamers who don't have the latest hardware when selling $300m games, but invite everyone when selling free games :P, get a grip. Back in the day there was 1 Crysis, a game few could play because they didn't have the hardware, now every new AAA photorealistic game is Crysis and that's just silly, car makers don't survive on hypercars they need to sell hatchbacks. Yes that's more of a PC problem and your console plays all the games, but now you have to consider buying even more expensive upgrade consoles so that you can play them _better,_ except despite the budget the technical demands of delivering something so extreme means the games come out broken anyway as we're seeing time and time again, the requirements of consumers and developers in this industry is bizarre.
Hot take : any game whether indie or AAA regardless if it's console or pc regardless of genre, if it has micro transactions it should be classified as a gambling mobile game sim, i said what I said
A lot of transactions aren't gambling, though. The costume costs X. You pay X, you get it, 100% of the time. That said, the term micro-transaction is something that needs to die as well. If the transaction costs more than a meal, even a fast food one, that's not micro.
If your product is games and your customers are gamers, you make games for gamers. If your product is gamers and your customers are shareholders, the games are just another operating expense. And you don't lavish care and attention on operating expenses. You try to minimize their impact on your profits.
Excellent video as always! I wholeheartedly agree with you. If they don't learn their lesson and fail, we won't miss them that much as AA, indie and Eastern companies pick up the slack. I was touched by your closing thoughts on this one. Although I'm not a Patreon supporter, I've watched all your videos since I discovered your channel as I really love your content. Congratulations on your success and thank you for the amazing content! May you soon reach the point where you can pivot to full-time content creator.
Personally, I play video games to get away from other people and their, “communities.” I can’t think of anything worse than establishing an ongoing, “relationship,” with a games company. I long to be able to buy a disc a play my Red Dead in private. But that’s just me and I understand why people like to play together. Each to their own, right.
Fair point, as continuous growth stems from the promise to shareholders, but in most cases they don't know enough about games to tell about their market feasibility. Corporations have focus groups for that, they just chose to believe new ones, and it turned out to be smoke and mirrors.
My favorite games that I’ve played this year are Elden Ring SOTE, Lies of P, and Black Myth Wukong. All eastern games. Thinking about picking up Stellar Blade next. 😂
The wholesome ending to this video made my day, thank you! ❤ We have enough hate and awful things happening in this world and your videos are a great example of how you can criticize the gaming industry without spreading more hate.
Love this video, especially the ending! It's not worth being a doomer about videogames. I still remember when people said japan was done with gaming. I was here when people mocked Armored Core 4 and Demon Soul on the PS3 or thought Nintendo would never recover from the WiiU. Look at asian devs now! They literally make too much good stuff. We're even winning against censorship and wokism! I love videogames and gamers.
I haven't bought one game all year this year. I've been sick and tired of the greed since 2020. Nothing seems to interest me anymore. The last thing that did was Eldon ring. I guess the only thing I'm kind of looking forward to is Borderlands 4 if they don't completely ruin that. I truly hope not. Borderlands has always been one of my favorite franchises. It's gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life. I guess all we can do is hope while staying informed.
@jampine8268 is true, but everyone that puts out a woke game nowadays it's like an absolute death sentence. People are sick and tired of live service incomplete uninspired woke nonsense. And it's about time that people start having some damn standards. I understand where you are coming from and why you're nervous. I am aswell. But I'm going to hold on to hope. If the game isn't what I hoped it would be when I see trailers and streamers check it out, then I will not be buying it.
haven't watched yet but my thoughts are that the main problem is structural. These huge studios and the corporate structure of the publishers diminishes creativity and flexibility in an era of gaming that demands both
Since I forgot to say it in the video...remember to subscribe! It's free and you get cool new videos all the time! There's reviews, news and retrospectives, as well as stuff like this. And thanks.
Also, I'm waiting for someone to recognize the second to last song in the video. It's a personal favorite.
unless western developers can properly deal with those "image consultant" agencies and their game media journalists, it won't get better while non-western developers, those that don't bow to the same detriments, will just get better and better and take over the gaming market.
Bounced into you with the algorihm, you give good analysis. Happy to subscribe.
this is just caused by the (over)financialization of the industry, as sooner or later happens to all industries. it's capitalism, baby!
@@prastagus3"image consultants" is missing the forest for the trees. All of this is caused by the overfinancialization of the games industry.
@@numberonedad Overfinancialization only caused western gaming industry to become like this. The underlying cause is because someone is pushing a social political cause in all western culture in the past 4 years. I wonder who .......
There’s a huge lack in creativity in the AAA industry. The constant and higher and higher pushes for graphics over style and gameplay. The sheer push for profit over "just make a good game and people will buy it" is all over with the absolutely insane amount of remasters and remakes.
@@TheSpongyMallard it's so annoying when companies thing "good graphics" just means "lifelike". The problem is that we aren't getting many stylised AAA games. They all have the same realistic lighting, lifelike characters etc. It looks good, for sure, but so do stylised games like breath of the wild, okami etc.
I genuinely wouldn't mind going back to 7th gen / early 8th gen graphics if it meant one game didn't eat up 20% of my hard drive space and didn't require a gosh dang 4060 for medium settings. I hope the market for handheld PCs (i.e. Steam Deck, Legion GO) grows to a point that developers can't ignore it anymore and are forced to start optimizing their games for low spec hardware.
I think that it's a lack of creativity in general. Everything is curated by algorithms, everyone is chasing trends, original content is hard to come by.
Eventually we will get there, but things will probably get worse before they get better
@ Realism has begun to stagnate. It’s no longer, “This looks like an actual human now.” It’s, “WOW look at this 4k RTX peach fuzz on this character’s face!” and “Look, the slightly better lighting on this character’s ear is a better shade while under a tree!”.
Another problem in today's AAA industry is that nobody is willing to take risks anymore like they used to. They always go with the safe route.
One thing that really pisses me off with these AAA developers is how they actually have the gall to blame gamers for why they are failing saying they are entitled and the expectations are "to high" When they half-ass their games and force toxic and aggressive micro-transactions and intrusive kernel level DRMs. Like how dare people chose not to spend their money on crap.
Yea, too many of them are resting on their laurels, especially the ones who've been around for a while and just expect people to shower them with praise despite their games lacking ingenuity compared to games a few generations ago that constantly pushed the envelope.
Total game developer layoff
They're the ones who say "if you don't like it, don't buy it" and then when exactly that happens they wonder what went wrong.
Textbook definition of Gazlighting. once you know how to spot it, you realise of full of sh!t those devs are.
Starfield is the perfect exemple, it would have genuinely have been a better game if it had been a mod for fallout 4 made in a couple years by amateurs.
and i genuinely wish i was joking. when you see the man hours spent, and the result, unless Besthesda is secretly a sweatshop it's absolutly unexcusable.
In some ways, it is gamers' fault. We've let these companies get away with far too much for far too long. It's the same thing with people, if you let enough crap slide, that becomes the expectation.
Gamers have bought games despite what you mention so game companies expect that you SHOULD.
Correcting AAA games would require admitting that western corporate culture and the promotion of incompetent people into management is the problem and that would mean that said management would need to admit they are incompetent. That's not happening.
AAA studios failing is good for the industry. It means the passionate and talented studios will replace the companies that got too big to change course.
>AAA studios failing is good for the industry
I agree, after the Video game crash of 1983/ Atari shock, Nintendo swept the rot away and rebuilt the NA gaming industry.
The western gaming industry needs another crash, they cannot help themselves.
@Spud ,best comment 👍
Yes.
@Miguel-the-Moth true, but that can only go on for so long. The projects they gobble up usually fail, which means less profit, which angers shareholders
Its a bit paradoxical in nature. Companies tunnel vision on appeasing shareholders, in the process they make dumb decisions founded only in greed, as a consequence they make less money and shareholders are even more upset. But the downwards spiral ends at some point
@@Miguel-the-Moth
There are new indie-studios and new passion projects all over the world. People with talent, passion and a vision will always create art.
These AAA studios will learn the hard way that customers can’t be exploited. People are so fed up with BS that everyone became extremely cautious.
There are also some studios led by people with integrity and morals and values. For example WarhorseStudios who currently work on KingdomeComeDeliverance2.
The lead there is a strong dude who won’t give in to soulless investors or that insane brainwashing-attempt called wokeness.
I'm old enough to remember when seeing someone in-game with awesome equipment meant they'd accomplished something. Now I default to "They bought it". That's why I hate the "It's only cosmetics" argument in favor of micro-transactions.
Bro I've never seen a more true sentence. It's insane to see how much games have changed throughout the years. Like remember when fighting games didn't have dlc but hidden locked fighters in which you had to do challenges just to get a chance at unlocking the character. Now it's I'll just buy the expansion which unlocks the full fighter list and all the op dlc characters
Yup and cause of that there's no progression at all too. You can't earn anything by playing, only by paying. But "oh its fine, its free to play" BS doesn't work.
I'm old enough to remember when companies would have a statement at the start of the game saying "X proudly presents"....and then the game title. People who care about games, care to make good games. I miss Westwood...
I came here just to say that. 💯 I think people are getting tired of GaaS because it feels like you're spending your time and money to get dunked on by whales.
Anyone old enough to remember when cheat codes weren't paid dlc?
That's why I'm not optimistic for CDPR after moving a lot of their development to America....
It's not like there's a lack of good talent in Poland-plenty of good indie games coming out of there.
Corporate culture tends to act cultist, and yeah moreso in the States.
I think CDPR should have stayed with their roots.
Yes, Poland has much better values than degenerate America
There's already alot of "evidence".
Funny thing is, most of Europe is equally incapable with Poland being one of the few exceptions.
They die 3-4 years ago
It'll never not be funny to me how Sony had the Hybris to think they could get enough players to sustain 12 live services.
The fact that "Sony" is considered a western company shows how stupid the premise of this video is.
@@WilliamBurns-ip9bn Sony did move their main HQ from Japan to the west (California I believe) awhile back so in a sense it is 'now' a western studio or conglomerate
@@NotRealJustSchizo The Sony Group HQ is still in Tokyo. Their HQ in New York is just for their American branch. Is Nintendo a "western" studio because they have and American branch? Is Epic Games an Eastern Studio because of TenCent's stake in the company? Is SNK a middle-eastern company because it's owned by a Saudi prince?
@@WilliamBurns-ip9bnyou are braindead sony is very westernized much moreso than nintendo
@WilliamBurns-ip9bn Well clearly I was mistaken then but there was no need for such a passive aggressive response now was there? A simple "No you are mistaken" would have sufficed
The business side has pushed out the creative side in the videogame industry.
If only. The dellusional side more likely. Because how does it make business sense to insult customers, push unpopular politics and mix crappy derrivative gameplay with overprized micro transactions galore?
It's greedy, yes, but not at all business savvy.
If a restaurant decided to charge 50 dollars for a shitty and small meal because that way they save on costs and make lots of money, that restaurant would quickly go out of business. Even quicker if they also insult the potential customers or customers who complain about it all. This is more analogous to what western AAA game companies are doing.
There is 0 business savvy to it. Just greed and dellusions of grandure.
@@sirazazeloflowkey6424I think you're missing the point. The business side is delusional. They are not in the business of making good games, they want to make the most money.
That means taking as little risk as possible, which severely dampens creativity. Its why these companies keep reusing old mechanics and engines for games, it costs a shit ton of money to make a new one, and unlike the previous engines/mechanics, there's no guarantee people will like it.
Its why they chase trends, like the battle royale trend, or the live service trend, where companies have completely shed their identities to chase them. COD is a great example of this.
@@sirazazeloflowkey6424 Yeah. These "financial experts" still haven't explained how their genius plan of reducing their customerbase to triple digits - while keeping operating costs of the company the same might I point out - is supposed to work out mathematically in the long run. It doesn't take 20 business degrees for me to see a problem there...
Spot on!
However, this would open up Japanese, Korean and Chinese studios and more importantly the creativity of indie titles will only shine brighter!
I think one thing you forgot to touch on is the mass purging of talent from AAA studios. A lot of those people responsible for some of the best games of the last 15 years are starting new indie studios. Hopefully there's a huge wave of really good stuff coming soon.
Didn't know that, very hopeful, thanks for sharing!
A polite request. When you show clips of games, please put the name of the game in small words in the top corner. I saw a few games here today that i liked the look of but haven’t a clue what they are. Thank you.
I will add all the games to the description in a bit.
Another olden timey gamer here, google lens works pretty good if you pause on the game you like if you can't wait.
@@Mugthief Where the games in the description, mug
I agree with Mugthief on live services. There is no problem with the concept itself. World of Warcraft was essentially a life service , all MMO's are.
The problem is with the intent, because the intent is manipulating you into spending rather than giving you fun and value that makes you want to spend. Rather than make focus on providing value, they focus on FOMO, competitive thinking and creating a patern of addictive repetition. Basicly copying casinos rather than good games.
Most of the lessons could and should have been learned from MMORPGs as well. So many MMOs launched with some numbers, then saw plummeting player base, and dropped into F2P obscurity. WoW, for example, is one of the exceptions. It dethroned the king and took its place. But beyond that, that just doesn't happen. FFXIV is right up there with WoW, but again, exception.
Meanwhile, very few went the route of EVE, of launching smaller and aiming for an under-served market niche. Still a bit of a gamble there, of course, as you do need the right niche where it works. PvP games mostly fail, for example, because PvP wants a level playing field, while MMORPGs want leveling systems. Not a good mix, so any time an MMO focuses on that, it is likely in for a bad time.
Yeah, look at path of exile 1 and 2, poe 1 is a great game with no fomo, you just chill for a few weeks every league. Path of exile 2 is looking like a masterpiece incomming. I actually prefer to spend my time in live services.
@joelhodoborgas If it's good it's good, that's the point, yeah.
About Shift Up and the decision of Kim Hyung Tae to make a real video game on console (Stellar Blade) it was not only a smart decision but also a risky move. The market in Korea is massively about mobile games, so much that when Kim Hyung Tae decided to make Stellar Blade a game for consoles, some people thought it was crazy.
And now, with the success of the game, that exceeded both Shift Up's and Sony's expectations, apparently Seoul took notice of it. With Stellar Blade, Korea realized there is a market in the West for their non-mobile, non-gacha products.
Stellar Blade might be a more important game than we believe.
Agreed. Stellar Blade, Wukong, and Space Marine 2 are showing game devs how not to fail. Make games fun instead of pushing woke propaganda
Yeah it's a shame Sony's incompetence slaughtered the golden goose on that one.
If this piece is true, then I hope we get more good games from Korea.
@@gabrield4892
Yes. That. I hate that. I'm fine with it as long as they give us the choice. When they don't, I hate it. Veilguard is currently on hot waters because of it. People said Baldur's Gate 3 was doing the same thing. BG3 did not. They don't force you to agree. You can go against your own friends. Even kill them. That's important. Your choice as a player. That's fun, to me. I get to kill the annoying teammate in my single-player game. I was given a choice. BG3 also didn't make an entire story for that thing like Veilguard did. There's nuance there. That's where I think it should be. Giving player choices.
He also did it for one very simple, very human reason. He loved Nier: Automata, and was inspired by it.
There's no creativity in western games atm, too much corporate greed and a fear of doing something "new".
Western game companies will never figure out the most sustainable business model of all is building a game catalogue NOT DESIGNED TO BE EVENTUALLY SHUT DOWN and just keep selling them forever. That's your passive, recurring revenue to fund your next projects to add even more to that catalogue, right there.
Also known as "the Nintendo model".
@@luske2 Eh... Not quite. Nintendo's planned obsolescence of their hardware means they don't sell their games forever either. Their games die with the hardware.
Remember Fire Emblem Awakening and other Fire Emblem games on the 3DS? Yeah, Nintendo no longer sell them. All 3DS models are out of production, all of their 3DS games are out of print and the 3DS eShop shut down permanently. That was not that long ago. You cannot make this model work on hardware platforms with planned obsolescence.
@@aquapendulum sure Nintendo does plenty of scummy things, and you're correct that they treat many of their older titles like crap, BUT, Nintendo are experts at reselling their games for full price with minimal effort. Look at all the switch ports that we've seen in just the last few years. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Metroid Prime, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi, remasters of both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, a remake of Link's Awakening, Xenoblade Chronicles, remasters of nearly everything for Wii U like Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Super Mario Bros. U, etc etc etc. So I'd still say that's the Nintendo business model. That's the very reason they hold off on certain titles; to resell them later.
@@luske2 Not making an ethical judgement of Nintendo, just sustainability, but any publisher on PC is a better example of a sustainable business model than Nintendo.
Did you know that Stardock still sells The Corporate Machine? That's a game that launched 20+ years ago, longer than any of Nintendo's hardware generations. Every StarDock games after TCM can still be bought today. Their classic games cost nothing to maintain, not even porting cost, and bring in passive income for the company. StarDock has never made a live-service game. That's a rare Grade-A sustainable business on the Western side.
@@aquapendulumThey actually talked about that issue early into the Switch's lifespan. They're working on making it their "forever console," or at least makes sure they don't have to restart the digital library every time they make new hardware.
I refuse to play a game if it’s live service, has a battle pass, has micro transactions, or all of the above. I’ll stick to good single player games. I’m sick of all the cash grabs
What about games like Warhammer I, II, and III with all their expensive DLCs? Do you pay the prices, or do you only get single player games and no DLC?
Ahem, play Deep Rock Galactic
I backed Temtem on kickstarter and that wasn't a AAA. Yet they ended up calling themselves and MMO while having every costmetic locked behind the shop or battlepass, leading to the community to revolt over time and it made the reviews waver between positive and mixed. It's annoying that even a normal group of devs not backed by shareholders can still be so head over heels for profit that they ruin the good will given to them by the people who supported them before there was a game. Burned me on kickstarters
@@Miraak1868 Dawn of War? Total War? Battlefleet Gothica? Clarify, as there's a lot of warhammer games.
I am playing The First Descendant and I have not spent any money, and I am having so much fun with it.
Hopefully with the success of Black Myth: Wukong and Stellar Blade, China & South Korea will try their hands at making more premium offline singleplayer non-live service games. I'd especially love to see MiHoYo take a crack at it! I guarantee you it'd do incredibly well!
Lies of P was from South Korea, wasn’t it? Stellar game!!!
I had this topic with a couple of friends just a few days ago and it made me look into my games library and what I played over the last years. Only then did I realise how many more eastern made games I play over western ones.
To be fair, one of the biggest portions was just basically every Souls game ever made, so the count was already going heavily in one direction (please Sony, leave FromSoft alone). But still, outside of Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3 and Baldur's Gate 3, all the games made by bigger companies I played in recent time were made by asian studios.
No Man sky, helldivers 2, Alan wake 2, Stalker 2, Conan exiles, deathlock, disco elysium, (naming old.games just because u added Witcher)
Pathfinder wrath of the to righteous is a lower budget BG3 if you want to try it
Alan Wake 2 is a Flop. And I say this as a fan of control@@azdart
@@azdartI played both Conan Exiles and No Man's Sky, but that was a few years ago, so they weren't included in my comment. I specifically talked about games I (re)played recently and that were made by bigger studios. Many games I played this year were indie titles.
Helldivers 2 is definitely still on my list, but my best buddy doesn't have much time to play lately, so I'm waiting for him to have a free schedule. I won't protect Super Earth without my homie. 😂
@@princemwamba5230Thanks for the suggestion. BG3 finally managed to get me into CRPG's, so now I'm looking forward to seeing what other devs do with this genre.
I'm glad the companies visions of the "live service" game is finally being topped as games that dont feature any microtransactions are completely and utterly blowing them out of the water. I do not care for the faliure of the companies making the live service slop as they have done this to themselves. Finally the rug is being pulled out from underneath them and they have no clue what to do. And that makes me so happy for the future of gaming as both innovation and features that benefit players are finally taking the forefront over corporate greed in this industry.
Shadow of the Erdtree up for Best Game because it has no MTX more than anything lol
@NewMitchell-wh3fj as much as I don't agree with a dlc being counted as a new game, I'd rather it go to that than a live service slop game, or a single player game with microtransactions lmao
Live service games are still big, just similarly to the non-live service games the western ones tend to fail more.
@@jjojon7072 they're not. The main ones like fortnite, cod, league etc are. But almost all the new ones that I can think of have failed in recent months. Think the new multiversus, suicide squad, concord etc. People are waking up to the fact that these games sole purpose is to exploit people into spending money rather than delivering a great experience, and it has the companies making them shit scared. Like ubisoft.
@@kieran5476 Fortnite wasn't even made as a live service game
It was an early access single player game they tacked a battle royale mode onto because the genre was hot and it only took them a few weeks to do it
I'm so glad I found this channel this year.
I felt the entire roster of titles shown in the Awards tiers was weirdly small and repetitive. Forget worrying about Wukong potentially getting snubbed; many other games were too, imo. Of course, the fact that they admit it's 90% Industry Circle Jerk Votes with only 10% input from actual players says it all.
How old are you, just now learning how awards shows work?
@@effortlessfury The voting is not surprising, it's how small each entry is and how it's like the same five games in each one.
No, Veilguard is not and will never be a "good move" by EA, the fact that they don't try to rob players with micro transactions in that game is simply because they know they wouldn't be able to please people enough for them to pay any extra.
EA Sports:Have u heard of me?
@LimC.A I was specifically talking about the mention of Veilguard, not the other EA trashes, I obviously know why they are considered one of the worst companies in America.
@@KurausuEddy they are also known as the most cold-blooded killer of studio that perform "averagely" are also killed dunno why Bioware still alive lol.
@@LimC.A Bioware is still alive because the name still has value. Though Veilguard did obviously do very serious damage to it. Most of the previous weaker titles we gamers tended to write off as "EA is the reason"... the rushed schedule of DA2, the Frostbyte use of Andromeda, the live service of Anthem... Of course, the people that loved to make great RPGs, where choice matters, where writing really mattered, well, they aren't going to stick around in an environment where that culture has died, where the corporation is selling the souls of the project for the latest trend or something some executive thinks is the smart thing to do.
But the short of it, company names like BioWare, Bethesda, and Blizzard are essentially IPs, with all the brand recognition that goes with that. You put that name on the box, and interest goes up.
One great trend that's been happening is the death of console exclusives. There are still a couple out there, but it's nothing like the past. Making games playable on open platforms like Linux is on the rise, and that's amazing for consumer choice.
It's it's first party exclusives I generally don't care, the 2nd and especially third party exclusives are where I draw the line
If it doesnt run on Steam Deck and as a result, the MOST linux distros, is it even worth playing? :D
With that, the question must be asked: What is even the point of consoles anymore?
The old reason was ease of use and being the only way to play certain titles.
With consoles now just being hobbled PCs with none of the upsides of a PC, why bother?
@@Roggor Consoles will always have a place as a living room media box. You can obviously set up a PC to do the same things and more but not everyone has the knowledge to even know where to begin.
Billions of lost revenue for companies who either get greedy, political, or both hurts them not us.
They get infested by people who hate, dread and despise men and their hobbies and give it to them, people like Alyssa Mercante, Jason Schrier and developers like Kim Bellair.
@@Saint_Wolf_ what the hell is wrong with jason lol
@@soppo_404 woke advocate, militant of studio bankruptcy, self hating man.
@@Saint_Wolf_ u mad bro? It's just a game
@@Anonihmus2567 "It's just a game" reduction fallacy, then why does it need it represent everyone, it's just a game, let the chudzoids have it.
couldn't happen to a better sector - here's to the rebirth of game development and to what will rise from the ash - the coming golden age
Yeah well the golden age needs to hurry up here, I'm getting old. I hope these games are released in the afterlife 😂
@@Just4Now-x1z same lol
As bad as it is you need to make mistakes to learn from them, The problem is they don't wont to learn from them and use the backlash of identity politics as an excuse
The backlash about the forced identity politics are why they are failing.
> If nine liveservices fail but one succeed, it will be worth it
And that why Sony has trimmed their development in half. Lol
The stupidest part is that Sony HAS a successful live service game, Helldivers 2, and their direct interference almost destroyed that Golden Goose.
It's a little disheartening to be treated like lower wage staff of [insert corporation here] by the video game companies that I once wanted to work for... as a customer.
Somehow they completely removed "games" from video games. The industry wants customers not fans.
Shockingly, it's hard for a modern triple-A company to still exist with only 200 customers.
If only there was some sort of thing they could do, which would entice customers to give these companies money in exchange for goods and services. 🤔
One thing I love about your channel is the sense of positivity and optimism despite having a critical eye for games. I think it's easy to sink into negativity and anger when seeing the state of games online. Gaming looks really depressing if you look at places like Reddit or Twitter for the state of games. While it is important to criticize the stuff in the industry that is bad, you shouldn't lose sight of the fun stuff in gaming. I really appreciated your 3rd section starting at 23:00 talking about all the good games you've experienced this year. It really helps show that there's a lot of good being done in gaming too!
I'm increasingly relaxed about the video game crisis. Sure, it's bad, but it's not bad in ways that actually matter. A bunch of big companies collapse under their own weight of buzzwords and PowerPoints; what does it matter? I game for a few hours every day, and there are far more good games coming out than I could ever play, not to mention the older catalogue I never got around to. Our cups are flowing over in terms of the quality availible to play at any given time, and the pillars of gaming- Steam, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo- show no signs of wobbling.
So all of this stuff is just a very riveting soap opera, not an actual crisis of the hobby.
Not sure about Microsoft, they haven't put out a first party title worth a damn in quite a while, and seem desperate to push cloud gaming instead of trying to make something that can move Xboxes. Sony, I imagine, will course-correct eventually, even if it means the mothership in Japan moving the games division out of California and back to Tokyo, and you're right that Nintendo isn't going anywhere anytime soon... Or really ever, so long as the Yamauchi family continues to have majority power in the company. Steam's really more of a marketplace, and sadly a monopoly that I expect will become an albatross around the neck of PC gaming once Gabe Newell dies or retires. Not sure there's any real successor there that can match that man's understanding of the industry, and we don't hear anything about that anywhere.
I have more than one job and a daughter on the way. There's no way in hell I'll get into a live service game. I'm not a teen with lots of free time, anymore. If I play, I want a single player, cohesive and worthwhile experience. Good thing that there is some options, and very few of them are AAA
Live service games aren't just that, though. Yes, some want to control your life, and those you should avoid. But others offer a much more chill experience.
Genshin Impact, for example, is a game that offers very little worthwhile content to do daily. You can basically log in for 10-15m and be done. If there's an event, 5m or less added to that, daily, for typically less than a week. It has a problem on the opposite side... when you do have free time, there's nothing worthwhile to do if you're caught up. The game is, essentially, heavily designed to appeal to China's 996 crowd (people who work 9 to 9, 6 days a week)... people who just want a little bit of non-demanding brain dead entertainment. Of course, you can get that type of experience in a single player game as well. Starfield, for example, I think offers that sort of appeal on Gamepass... when you can't decide what you really want to play, people settle for it.
But the short of it, live services exist to appeal to all sorts of niches.
I feel like I barely have time for games anymore period, live service or not.
I pretty much only play games now on my Switch or Steam Deck while on the exercise bike at the gym.
2:20 Does anyone know what song this is or what game it's from? Can't remember
Balatro. lol
Balatro
Modern gaming companies are gluttons who could not be satisfied with all the riches in heaven.
The problem with live-service is that 70% of the gaming studios are using it the wrong way. Give Deep Rock Galactic or even Genshin a try if you want to see a live-service game done well
Western AAA games have long stopped focusing on GAMEPLAY and gameplay systems in favour of cinematic and graphical prowess. This is a fundamental and critical failure that results in shallow unengaging games no matter how great they look or how big their open worlds are. If you aren't building a game based on a compelling gameplay loop you've failed utterly. It's just taken the dumb masses way too long to realise this and they are slowly waking to it.
Japanese games (including those from Nintendo, FromSoft and most JRPG developers) and indie games still value gameplay above all else and therefore their games are the only ones worth playing today with very few exceptions from the west.
Not only gameplay they care about the story music and the character as well and now chinese and korean dev just gave more oppertunityor eadtern game developerto grow but it is a bit sad that some of Japanese dev start to "westernized" again they should learn from capcom that how westernized thier game is a receipe of failure but Capcom made a come back by just be themselve and made a game that fun again
Another good game to list is Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. An old school CRPG done by a small AA team that has received new content support and patches for the past years with it now being considered content complete. The amount of support that game got from the developers Owlcat and how receptive they were to feedback deserves praise.
Then there is Romancing Saga 2 with all of it's innovations to the JRPG genre.
Too many MBAs in management instead of gamedevs, artists, or story tellers
Just a little contect, Space Marine 2 was made by Sabre Russia Team, however the studio was relocated to Armenia due to the invasion. Anyway, I completely agree with the video, there was a point where I was loosing all hopes but then BG3 happened. And since then it´s starting to feel like gaming will heal again.
Exactly. As a year long XBox player i finally switched sides, at least when it comes to console gaming. I could not support this development any longer, for years playing western games i always had this odd feeling in my guts and i didn't understand why. That's how far indoctrination can take you. Sony at least offers some decent eastern gaming experiences, having left most JRPGs aside for at least ten years, i now come to enjoy games like Metaphor ReFantazio and i'm having a blast with it enjoying a still traditional gaming experience. Thanks, Mug!
Sony is just as bad as Microsoft - both platforms are garbage that are well pas their prime.
As both a PS and Xbox player, Sony doesn't really "offer" eastern games anymore, they moneyhat them. Their first party this generation are remakes and disappointing sequels.
If I had waited another year I'd just gone with a new gaming PC, which seems to offer the best of both worlds without the restrictions, but there's plenty of great games on both to Enjoy, thankfully. Visions of Mana is actually one of my favorites this year and eventually gonna try Metaphor, too. :)
@Andrew_TS agreed 💯✔️
LMFAO should've switched to PC and got everything.... old and new, western or eastern, Switch games PS games etc.
Non competence based hiring, these become new recruiters and so more non competence based hiring, no ones competent and theyre insecure about it so toxic positivity forms, game then releases in horrible state because criticism is never allowed ever and everyone gets a hard wakeup call
Most stuff made by companies that are in the open market ( stock shares) tends to become trash, cash grab.
Games, movies, music apps, airbnb, etc.
The focus turns into bringing revenue to shareholders sacrificing everything else.
Not bothered by this since I can get games from other parts of the world.
Let the western games cycle through through their "little world" and get back to reality.
You've quickly become one of my fav youtube channels to watch. These topics are well presented and researched
EDIT: Also that outro was amazing, that list of great games and I could have added my own that you didn't mention. Made me reminisce of the great gaming experiences I've had this year
They're boring, ugly, and lack any originality.
Thanks!
I genuinely forgot Skull and Bones released this year. It truly is quadruple A quality.
Western games aren’t failing, western studios are failing. If they continued on the path they used to have it wouldn’t be the case but the studios have put their priorities into other places that don’t align with consumers and won’t correct their course
So unfortunately I think it’s way too late to course correct for western game devs. We’ve got years of this stuff still down the pipeline and everyone hates it now. I think the crash is necessary and I kind of look forward to playing more of what the world has to offer than our western slop
You’ve been a bright spot in my gaming year, RUclips-wise. Let the good times roll!
What gets me is that they have no concern for the time and money we invest in all of the failed ones. Not only do they only care about money, but they equally don't care about us; their customers.
27:42 name of the game?
Earth Defense Force 6
@@Mugthief thank you
What is the game at 32:26 that looks like dark souls but with anime girls?
What's the name of the game at 23:30 ?
Can anyone tell me what game is on screen at 23:38? Thanks!
Ballionaire
@Mugthief Ah, it's on my wishlist and hasn't released yet, that explains a lot, thanks.
I can't emphasize how much I loved the segment of this talking about all of the wonderful games you played this year. I felt like a kid listening to the magic and wonder of all of the amazing things you did and hope to do. It was beautifully delivered. Thank you so much for the reminder of the magic of gaming!
What is the game at 23.50 min ?
Yes, you, “explained it in an entertaining way.” Thanks for that slice of positivity. It is so important to remember the good stuff occasionally and I appreciate that you took a moment to encourage the gaming community. You’re a thoughtful, dare I say, “smart,” man. So glad you didn’t wind up at IGN. What you’re doing now is way better, because you are way better.
You are the active alternative to the, “client media,” of IGN and their ilk, which I and many others seek out as an honest alternative to the hackery of access media.
'AAA" is to videogames what Hollywood is to cinema. Sure there might be a handful of blockbuster hits, but the real meat and potatoes of the artform will always lie in independent development.
it really hit me in the heart when you said as a kid you wanted to work at IGN (type of thing) to play, test, review games and such as i’ve always wanted to do the same thing as a kid but growing up I see I want to be able to experience them and enjoy them rather than working for a company trying to make deadlines and staying on the right “topics” and all the shanagins they’re all involved in ect ect. but it’s really wholesome to you see finally achieve what you wanted and i’m happy for you man! enjoy it!
Wait.. where did all that hair come from? :D
its been a turbulent year for video games, i never thought id be glad to see so many failures yet here we are
theyve gotta learn somehow
I appreciate the use of Balatro music in the background
I'd like to give a mention to tear ring saga an absolutely amazing game no one talks about, it was made by the same developer as fire emblem and is a fire emblem game in all ways outside of the name, it's an obscure ps1 game that's hard to even begin to play but it has so many events and choices to be made that it truly feels like my play through is MY play though all of it is organic to the game itself and not side quests your going on it's all integrated into the main play though and some of the things there is to be found is absolutely hilarious and silly it isn't the most "fair" game but it is a heck of a lot of fun, it is kinda really slow and there's a LOT of reading (like way more than most jrpgs) but it is a very unique and interesting game that is very underrated
Cannot disagree more about the outlook.
A gaming crash is coming.
In the last 18 months over 23,000 jobs in the gaming industry have been eliminated.
More than 19 game studios have closed in that same amount of time.
This isn't just fat cutting either. Netflix closed it's only game studio before it could produce a single game.
If a company that is cash rich (roughly 9 billion) and streaming and distribution networks already built in decides to get out before the paint dries, it doesn't bode well for gaming.
The overall quality of games is way down, and we can't rely on China to dig us out of this hole.
I know their respective fan clubs don't want to hear this, but PS5 and Xbox 1/S are both considered disappointments to their producers. Population increases alone should have sold more units than their predecessors, and they HAVENT. Microsoft will likely NOT make another console.
This will get worse before it gets better.
Of course it will get worse. This year, so much failed. But development time on the big games isn't short. And you can't just change the direction of a game easily without it still impacting the quality. So we're going to get more games over the next few years still based on the failed model. As the sales fall short, those companies are going to look to cut costs. And beyond that, the companies are going to need to adapt internally, so that the people inside the company who know the game is going to be crap can say so and be listened to.
But for those studios that close, for those laid off, some of the ex-employees will form new companies. And they'll be based on passion, on an idea of a game, rather than a product. They likely won't be AAA, with smaller teams, budgets, and dev cycles, but these companies will be the ones that have the potential to revive things. Most will fail or sort of stumble on. A few will succeed. Those will grow, and finally be able to make a nice big budget game.
It'll all takes years, probably a decade, to play out, though.
Really felt the ending monologue. During 2024, I beat fantastic games as well. Phantasy Star on my Sega Master System; Sonic 1, Streets of Rage 2, and Revenge of Shinobi on my Genesis; Lunar 2 and Snatcher on my Sega CD; Sakura Wars, Clockwork Knight, Nights Into Dreams, Policenauts, Guardian Heroes, Grandis, Vandal Hearts, and Panzer Dragoon on my Sega Saturn; Sonic 1, GG Shinobi, Streets of Rage 2, and Shining 2 on my Game Gear; Defender and Fire Emblem Path of Radiance on my GameCube; Little Kings Story on my Wii; Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor Refantazio on my PS5. As far as fun in gaming goes, I've had a blast this year.
It didn't get any nominations but, don't forget Robocop Rogue City, made by a (indie?) studio called Teyon and is just a good old fashioned fun video gaming..
I just rewatched the History of RPGs and it looks like this might be cyclical, studio is formed by passionate gamers, studio becomes successful, studio becomes bigger, studio starts to make less successful titles, studios get even bigger and less and less competent and bam studio is failing at what it used to do so great. It happened to Origin, Sir Tech and Sierra and it's happening now with BGS, Bioware and Ubi. They'll die from their own weight and newer, more agile companies, like Larian, will replace them.
Unprompted, my top 5 games this year (so far): Daybreak, Reload, Relink, Stellar Blade, Rebirth. Just about to start Metaphor
can some one please tell me what game is at 17:30 and if its good?
Forspoken. Not really.
AAA use to be defined by games who's development was linked directly to a state of the art in house game engine. Now that AAA, AA, and even indie games all use UE5 if they want to achieve high graphical fidelity, the distinction is now just whether 500 people worked on the game or 50. The amount of "A"s doesn't really mean anything anymore.
THE HAIR GREW BACK: MUGTHIEF UNCUT 😂
You should mention infinity nikki having 30M pre register, and love and deep space topping chart 📈 ❤
Game dev has become more corporatized than it has already been in the past and the terrible labour practices are draining the skills out of the industry. Between business guys getting the priority in game design (yes the store front insurance game, micro transactions, etc. Are all affecting game design) it is negatively affecting the quality of games.
In addition to the stupid recruiting requirements being too high like other industries ( they expect you to know multiple programming languages and skills along with a few years of experience for a freaking entry position), new and eager to learn talent is gatekept from being nurtured in the industry.
That is to say, its not about creating the best game, but the most profitable. And if the higher ups believe that compromising on the quality of the game can lead to more profits, they would.
Inside* not insurance auto correct things
I find it immensely funny that one of the most sustainable and solid games ive EVER seen.... is Terraria. Its consistently in the top steam games and has been out (And updating) since 2011. Its a 2D minecraft like (not even close to mincraft actually) pixel game mostly about digging, base building and beating bosses... and constantly beats AAA games on steam. and the Studio, Re-Logic, is great too, very community and player friendly.
Indie is where it's at.
Square enix does however have one of the most succesful liver service games with FF14
so their attempt at more is going to be hampered when alot of their fans of final fsntasy already have somwhere to go
4:01
Why the heck are people losing their shit over this category? Making games playable for those who are colour blind or have some form of physical disability is only a plus. The awards bringing awareness to this is is only a good thing.
He literally explained it. A good game made accessible is great, but a poor game that’s only redeeming factor is how accessible it is shows that those developers just see everyone as equally dupable. They want as much money from as much people with minimal effort involved, and if they can look like goody goodies when they do it, all the better.
@@Poopustheclown A game's accessability has nothing to do with its quality, it's not either/or, you don't have to choose one or the other. The category itself doesn't care about what the game is, only how accessable it is. Blizzard made some really big strides with this in Diablo 4 helping players who are visually impaired play the game much easier with the help of a screen reader among other things, so it being on the awards is completely fair.
I think gamers are overly cynical and sees anything positive like this to be virtue signaling, when in fact the dev team is made up of regular people like you and me. Not everything is made with malicious intent.
@@Kyrkby oh I don’t protest it at all being a category, I protest some studios using inclusivity as a get out of jail free card for an overall lackluster product and a means to tap other market demographics. But of course, I don’t determine how a games accessibility lands beyond my own color blindness. EXCELLENT point you bring up though, I definitely agree (and am guilty of at times) that there’s a shift in maliciousness towards anything unorthodox, EVEN if it’s nuanced.
Wonderfully positive video Mugthief, I wonder though what was the game at 23:26?
Slip and Slide Squad...
Sorry, Imma steal that
If there are better games somewhere other than in the West, it is not my responsibility to prop up the AAA industry. I will spend this weekend playing a game developed in Poland (Medieval Dynasty, developed by Warsaw-based Render Cube.) I will pick up the Greece DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 (developed in Czechia by SCS Software) when it comes out on Dec. 4. And when the next patch comes out and hopefully cleans up some of the launch jank, another Polish studio (Superkami Games) will get my time and mental energy as I play some Sengoku Dynasty.
I backed a Kickstarter earlier this fall for another of my favorite developers, Chongqing, China-based Pathea Games. Their masterpiece My Time At Sandrock was my 2023 Game of the Year, and I look forward to the Kickstarter-backed My Time at Evershine.
Elsewhere in my collection are games developed in Spain (Travellers Rest), South Korea (Motor Town: Behind the Wheel), Bulgaria (Knights of Honor II: Sovereign), and Turkey (Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord, the biggest-budget game out of every one I've mentioned in this comment.
Gaming isn't just the US, Japan, and western Europe anymore (well, Spain is western Europe but it's not a traditional game development country.) And that's fantastic.
I'm not gonna lie, I divorce the AAA game industry long ago, just hope that people can go back to the crazy idea of having fun with the game that you just buy
I don't want to be rude or anything but your videos really looks samey to me with the same arguments each time on the same subjects. I think you already said everything on the AAA industry at least the most important things to know.
I wish you'd display the game names on screen so we know which ones we're looking at
Every time I want to try assassin’s creed, I remember the exp boost behind a pay wall.
It won't get on any of the actual game award. But my personal GOTY belongs to Elin, an open world sandbox rougelike game made by a small team helmed by a guy who previously made another open world sandbox rougelike Elona by himself that's completely free to play and has no microtransaction. Yeah, A(ss)A(ss)A(ss) video game companies is all about cheating money out of your pocket while getting high of their own moral highground fart. Indie games are the only game worth playing now.
What is a Video Game?
Regarding sustainability i've never understood the idea that games need to push for absolutely ridiculous extreme photorealistic graphics that push the budgets into the hundreds of millions because "that's what attracts buyers", for one there's never been evidence of that because AAA has never tried it doing the opposite, only incidentally when using a graphics style or doing a small experiment like Ubisoft did with Grow Home, but also now they're in the awkward position of making these free to play live services games which require as many people can run them as possible... so they're usually very scalable to run on older systems... what? So they're willing to push out gamers who don't have the latest hardware when selling $300m games, but invite everyone when selling free games :P, get a grip.
Back in the day there was 1 Crysis, a game few could play because they didn't have the hardware, now every new AAA photorealistic game is Crysis and that's just silly, car makers don't survive on hypercars they need to sell hatchbacks.
Yes that's more of a PC problem and your console plays all the games, but now you have to consider buying even more expensive upgrade consoles so that you can play them _better,_ except despite the budget the technical demands of delivering something so extreme means the games come out broken anyway as we're seeing time and time again, the requirements of consumers and developers in this industry is bizarre.
I’d add: mo-cap that’s become ubiquitous. I don’t think it’s really necessary outside of lip-synching dialogue.
Hot take : any game whether indie or AAA regardless if it's console or pc regardless of genre, if it has micro transactions it should be classified as a gambling mobile game sim, i said what I said
A lot of transactions aren't gambling, though. The costume costs X. You pay X, you get it, 100% of the time.
That said, the term micro-transaction is something that needs to die as well. If the transaction costs more than a meal, even a fast food one, that's not micro.
If your product is games and your customers are gamers, you make games for gamers. If your product is gamers and your customers are shareholders, the games are just another operating expense. And you don't lavish care and attention on operating expenses. You try to minimize their impact on your profits.
Excellent video as always! I wholeheartedly agree with you. If they don't learn their lesson and fail, we won't miss them that much as AA, indie and Eastern companies pick up the slack.
I was touched by your closing thoughts on this one. Although I'm not a Patreon supporter, I've watched all your videos since I discovered your channel as I really love your content.
Congratulations on your success and thank you for the amazing content! May you soon reach the point where you can pivot to full-time content creator.
Personally, I play video games to get away from other people and their, “communities.” I can’t think of anything worse than establishing an ongoing, “relationship,” with a games company. I long to be able to buy a disc a play my Red Dead in private. But that’s just me and I understand why people like to play together. Each to their own, right.
It’s because they keep remaking the same 5 games endlessly and it’s getting boring. They milked the cow so dry it’s basically desiccating
Sustainability > Profit
Fair point, as continuous growth stems from the promise to shareholders, but in most cases they don't know enough about games to tell about their market feasibility. Corporations have focus groups for that, they just chose to believe new ones, and it turned out to be smoke and mirrors.
My favorite games that I’ve played this year are Elden Ring SOTE, Lies of P, and Black Myth Wukong. All eastern games. Thinking about picking up Stellar Blade next. 😂
I got my youtube review thingy and apparently i am in top 0.1% of your fans based on watch time. Thank you for the content i guess :D
WAIT THERE'S A RUclips WRAPPED!?!? Also, thank you for the support. Sounds wierd to have fans, but if I do, I'm glad you're here.
The wholesome ending to this video made my day, thank you! ❤ We have enough hate and awful things happening in this world and your videos are a great example of how you can criticize the gaming industry without spreading more hate.
Love this video, especially the ending! It's not worth being a doomer about videogames. I still remember when people said japan was done with gaming. I was here when people mocked Armored Core 4 and Demon Soul on the PS3 or thought Nintendo would never recover from the WiiU. Look at asian devs now! They literally make too much good stuff. We're even winning against censorship and wokism! I love videogames and gamers.
I haven't bought one game all year this year. I've been sick and tired of the greed since 2020. Nothing seems to interest me anymore. The last thing that did was Eldon ring. I guess the only thing I'm kind of looking forward to is Borderlands 4 if they don't completely ruin that. I truly hope not. Borderlands has always been one of my favorite franchises. It's gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life. I guess all we can do is hope while staying informed.
Given the grease lord is still in charge of Gearbox, I don't have high hopes.
@jampine8268 is true, but everyone that puts out a woke game nowadays it's like an absolute death sentence. People are sick and tired of live service incomplete uninspired woke nonsense. And it's about time that people start having some damn standards. I understand where you are coming from and why you're nervous. I am aswell. But I'm going to hold on to hope. If the game isn't what I hoped it would be when I see trailers and streamers check it out, then I will not be buying it.
haven't watched yet but my thoughts are that the main problem is structural. These huge studios and the corporate structure of the publishers diminishes creativity and flexibility in an era of gaming that demands both