Is gaming dying?

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

We know retro gaming is never going to die, but is the gaming industry dying? I don't see any evidence of demand for games lowering but AAA gaming is having issues. If demand is still high but gaming companies are having layoffs and lowered sales, seems to me like the problem is with the games they are making. But what I do I know, I'm not an MBA suit. What do you all think about this?

 

[Tonberry]

It's not dying, but it's reached a plateau of sorts I'm not sure we've seen before. Too much money is involved, and its hurting the entire industry, but stuff can't just decide to "stop growing". Monolithic, ballooning budgets stifle creativity and risk-taking, leading to safe, samey experiences many have seemingly grown tired of.

It's not all bad of course, but to me that's the biggest problem.

 

[RageBurner]

Dying? I'd say no, but it is reaching a point of implosion that will require a mindset redesign.

I think I mentioned this before but the public is partially responsible for this. Excessive focus on graphics, overhyping, shattered expectations, increasingly unsustainable AAA prices (which are are a direct result of said overfocus on graphics and scope), incredible long development times (which, again, trace back to all of the above).

I'm not saying the quality bar should lower, but people need to refocus on what matters: gameplay. Nowadays AAA efforts became mostly bland, empty open world slop that is only midly interactive; hollywood budgeted games that are more akin to films, rather than a proper game.

The public in general signals that this is what they want, and then disappointment and low review scores abound when companies actually try to deliver these lofty expectations, however haphazardly they can.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I think gamers are smarter than what companies give them credit for, and that they are getting fed up with paying full price for essentially rentals. Demand is low? Of course it is! We want to own what we buy.

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

Monolithic, ballooning budgets stifle creativity and risk-taking, leading to safe, samey experiences many have seemingly grown tired of.

This tbh. Ain't nobody willing to take risks anymore, at least in big companies. Now that there's so much money involved, the instant something is deemed not profitable it's thrown in the trash.

I grieve for the future gamers growing up who's childhood games will be *insert live service game here*.

 

[MasterEn]

it's more or less like the tides of the ocean. it comes and goes. it gets high, then it gets low.
there are a ton of factors involved in this. production costs, marketing, the reputation of the companies involved, a continuous march of moving forward when it's not advisable or feasible, terrible mismanagement, copy-right issues, and more.
a crash is inevitable in any industry.
just ask the automotive industry.

 

[Clippy]

I hope so. AAA space adopted or introduced way too many hostile, anti-consumer practices for me to root for its survival and it's been going on for years now. Overpriced cosmetic DLCs, day 1 DLCs that should've been in the base game, lootboxes, microtransactions, not owning what you purchase, 50 different storefronts that require registering an account, stupid overpriced deluxe editions, DRM that lowers performance and is borderline malware. All of that off the top of my head, there's more garbage that I can't think of at the moment. Not to mention all of it is perpetrated in fully-priced games which are basically barely functional betas on release that somehow became more expensive than ever before despite the fact that we were promised the complete opposite back when digital was still in its infancy.

If a crash is needed to get rid of all of that then so be it, I won't shed a tear for the EAs and Bethesdas of this world. May the holy flames of deserved bankruptcy claim them for the greater good. Beatings will continue until quality returns to what we had in 2004.

 

[bjork]

I don't think it's dying, it's just as gaming has gotten bigger, there's more room for spectacular failures to get the spotlight. The most recent one I can think of is... I don't even remember the name, but that bootleg Guardians of the Galaxy thing that got shut down. Who really looked at that and thought it was going to set the world on fire? I'm glad people got to work on it for awhile, but at some point you gotta bail out and start a new idea, at least then it's only a partial loss and maybe never makes the light of day.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

We know retro gaming is never going to die, but is the gaming industry dying? I don't see any evidence of demand for games lowering but AAA gaming is having issues. If demand is still high but gaming companies are having layoffs and lowered sales, seems to me like the problem is with the games they are making. But what I do I know, I'm not an MBA suit. What do you all think about this?

Gaming is dead and the west has fallen. It's gameover (meant to be a joever joke but I forgot Game Over was an actual thing)
Ok but fr, anyone who unironically says "Gaming is dead" or "Gaming isn't fun anymore" needs to play something else for once. Baroque got fan translated, Ultrakill exists, Mega Man has been porting it's games to modern consoles since 2015, Multiple unknown games are getting localised and remade, Princess Crown (and Vanillaware as a whole) are hidden gems, the most irrelevant and unknown games of all time have at least one hour long video essay dedicated to them and you're STILL telling me you don't think gaming is fun anymore or there's nothing to play?! Though admittedly, 2024 was kinda middle of the road when it came to new releases, even for hidden gems.

Shoutouts to the many videos telling those people to stfu, it annoys me SO much

 

[Tonberry]

Gaming is dead and the west has fallen. It's gameover (meant to be a joever joke but I forgot Game Over was an actual thing)
Ok but fr, anyone who unironically says "Gaming is dead" or "Gaming isn't fun anymore" needs to play something else for once. Baroque got fan translated, Ultrakill exists, Mega Man has been porting it's games to modern consoles since 2015, Multiple unknown games are getting localised and remade, Princess Crown (and Vanillaware as a whole) are hidden gems, the most irrelevant and unknown games of all time have at least one hour long video essay dedicated to them and you're STILL telling me you don't think gaming is fun anymore or there's nothing to play?! Though admittedly, 2024 was kinda middle of the road when it came to new releases, even for hidden gems.

Shoutouts to the many videos telling those people to stfu, it annoys me SO much

My main advice I give to people when this "dying" thing comes up is always that they should broaden their horizons, but sometimes you can't help but end up lamenting that it's sometimes hard to feel excited about the next big thing.

 

[Jeanfranc]

We know retro gaming is never going to die, but is the gaming industry dying? I don't see any evidence of demand for games lowering but AAA gaming is having issues. If demand is still high but gaming companies are having layoffs and lowered sales, seems to me like the problem is with the games they are making. But what I do I know, I'm not an MBA suit. What do you all think about this?

No

 

[Octopus]

I don't think 'gaming is dead' because as numerous replies here have said that just means you only play AAA games or something as there's still plenty of good shit out there. The industry is having some serious issues obviously though, but it's not dead or anything clickbait-y and dramatic like that. Like @Tonberry and @jiyuuboyetsvi pointed out I really think it comes down to the inflated money and business aspect of the AAA world and the technology chase that spawned it.

People like to throw around the "incoming game market crash" line a lot too which I think is also a little silly. A part of the reason the game market famously crashed in the mid 80's was there was no other real alternatives or options available at the time, and we definitely have them now which makes me think there won't be a complete crash again; when Atari went under, you couldn't really go anywhere else as they were both dev and system manufacturer. I think the AAA bubble will burst eventually, but there's plenty of other gaming spheres that will be largely unaffected I think; game companies maybe flounder for a bit but will eventually adapt like business and the market always does.

 

[Num]

not dying at all its just been kidnapped locked behind a paywall and held hostage by corporate overlords demanding 70 dollars for early access to its funeral

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Gaming Industry isn’t it’s just in a point where there were more frequent bad releases here and there. It’s in the same state as Hollywood is experiencing at the moment.

 

[Clippy]

I don't think 'gaming is dead' because as numerous replies here have said that just means you only play AAA games or something as there's still plenty of good shit out there. The industry is having some serious issues obviously though, but it's not dead or anything clickbait-y and dramatic like that. Like @Tonberry and @jiyuuboyetsvi pointed out I really think it comes down to the inflated money and business aspect of the AAA world and the technology chase that spawned it.

People like to throw around the "incoming game market crash" line a lot too which I think is also a little silly. A part of the reason the game market famously crashed in the mid 80's was there was no other real alternatives or options available at the time, and we definitely have them now which makes me think there won't be a complete crash again; when Atari went under, you couldn't really go anywhere else as they were both dev and system manufacturer. I think the AAA bubble will burst eventually, but there's plenty of other gaming spheres that will be largely unaffected I think; game companies maybe flounder for a bit but will eventually adapt like business and the market always does.

In all fairness, the '83 crash only affected North America. In Europe and Japan it was business as usual. In a way I think that if another crash were to happen it would play out similarly. AAA might die for a few years but indies will truck along as they've always done. One thing I'm happy about is that indies are no longer stuck in 8-bit nostalgia and have made strides in making games that are stylish and advanced technologically on top of having great gameplay. Can you imagine gaming if we had to contend with AAA dying and all new releases being UwU NES-style platformers? It would get old fast.

 

[Zooey]

Gaming is more popular than ever.

However i dont like how much contact with game devs the community has. Seems like every dev now has a Twitter, a Discord, etc, being able to give feedback is nice, but its reached a point where its created this culture of harassment, smear campaigns, and death threats. Individual devs getting put in the crosshairs of an unruly mob of angry gamers

 

[Jeanfranc]

not dying at all its just been kidnapped locked behind a paywall and held hostage by corporate overlords demanding 70 dollars for early access to its funeral

Unrelated but I love that signature

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Western AAA is slowly imploding in on itself, but there's still good if you're willing to dig a little deeper.

No
View attachment 21691

Based.

 

[Clippy]

Gaming is more popular than ever.

However i dont like how much contact with game devs the community has. Seems like every dev now has a Twitter, a Discord, etc, being able to give feedback is nice, but its reached a point where its created this culture of harassment, smear campaigns, and death threats. Individual devs getting put in the crosshairs of an unruly mob of angry gamers

No-one's putting a gun to their heads and forcing them to make social media accounts. No-one is forcing them to list their workplaces. And most certainly no-one is forcing them to attack the potential audience. I get what you're saying. Quite a few devs who did nothing wrong other than working on a game that turned out bad (if that's even wrong to begin with) get caught in the crossfire of eternal social media raging and bile-spewing but some of them are really asking for it and getting their just deserts. Phil Fish comes to mind. I wonder what he's doing these days.

 

[CaptainToad]

A lot of the "(blank) is dying" or "a crash is coming" talk, especially from views-centric YouTubers is just wish-casting. It's not gunna' crash, as much as one may want it to. People would have to actually stop gaming and stop buying stuff for that to happen, which isn't going to happen considering how consumerist the general population is tricked into being.

 

[PrismRed]

not dying at all its just been kidnapped locked behind a paywall and held hostage by corporate overlords demanding 70 dollars for early access to its funeral

Then they blame us as killers during procession for letting all this happen.

 

[dropsmegamega]

AAA is dying... but gaming as a whole will only die when society begins to fall apart.

 

[JackNoir413]

I hope so. AAA space adopted or introduced way too many hostile, anti-consumer practices for me to root for its survival and it's been going on for years now. Overpriced cosmetic DLCs, day 1 DLCs that should've been in the base game, lootboxes, microtransactions, not owning what you purchase, 50 different storefronts that require registering an account, stupid overpriced deluxe editions, DRM that lowers performance and is borderline malware. All of that off the top of my head, there's more garbage that I can't think of at the moment. Not to mention all of it is perpetrated in fully-priced games which are basically barely functional betas on release that somehow became more expensive than ever before despite the fact that we were promised the complete opposite back when digital was still in its infancy.

If a crash is needed to get rid of all of that then so be it, I won't shed a tear for the EAs and Bethesdas of this world. May the holy flames of deserved bankruptcy claim them for the greater good. Beatings will continue until quality returns to what we had in 2004.

"i hope so"
THE RIGHT ANSWER. we can only hope we live to see the crash.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Nope, but the AAA industry is going to have a crash in the upcoming years thanks to the production costs and their anti consumer practices, but thanks to old games and the indie industry interest in gaming is always going to be there. People who says that gaming is dying only plays online shooters and FIFA yearly.

 

[Octopus]

In all fairness, the '83 crash only affected North America. In Europe and Japan it was business as usual.

That's fair, I often forget that the Amiga and a whole line of consoles I've never seen was selling out in Europe during the crash.

AAA might die for a few years but indies will truck along as they've always done.

Ye that's more or less my point; there's more to gaming than just the AAA sphere, so if that bursts it won't be the end of gaming or anything. I hope if it does go down that we see a return to AA be the standard, games with decent budgets untied to major publishers who usually are making games they want to make.