Methinks some people in this comment section didn’t watch the video before commenting…
Neither did I, so here’s my opinion: I think a loss of confidence is the real issue. Why buy a new game when you don’t know if it’ll be a buggy mess on launch and those old games are available to play right now.
Look at sales for games legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where player know they will get a polished experience from day 1. It cost $70 dollars, was pirated before release, and is still a top 10 selling game on the switch despite releasing so late in the switch’s life.
Another reason is no more hype. They cancelled E3. Nintendo Power is gone. I only go on games radar for headphones reviews. I hear about most games from streamers nowadays, and then I’m just watching the full gameplay. No hype means no pressure to play early means that game releases go by and people just wait until a sale. Honestly not really a problem for the consumer but I do think it’s one of the reasons.
People are also starting to realise that most of these very expensive games don’t truly belong to them anymore. Up to date gaming has become more expensive than it ever has, except most of it is behind a server that can be shut down at a moment’s notice. Why pay that much for a something that will be taken away? Will I be able to access my steam library if Steam goes under? When I used to buy a physical Cartrage, it was mine. If I decided I didn’t like the game anymore, I could sell it.
You can’t do that as often anymore. Nintendo Switch has physical copies still, but most consoles are moving to digital only, and others are locking even physical copies to a single account so that you can’t resell. The new Playstation and Xbox have versions of their consoles that are digital only, and I assume Nintendo will follow eventually. And then you have the gaming companies that are trying to turn gaming into a Netflix style subscription based streaming service shudder, and if corporations want it, it will happen in time.
Rental stores aren’t a thing any more either. So basically, there are less and less ways the average non-wealthy person can access games. There is a reason why little kids today are all playing free to play mobile garbage these days, because it’s the only new games they can at least access without a credit card.
TLDR: Capitalism is destroying all media and art, emulation and piracy based retro gaming is the only thing preserving gaming.
Honestly I have to disagree. I don’t think people care so much if their games truly belong to them. I think a lot of people don’t really go back and play games they’ve already beaten very often. I really think it all comes down to confidence in the companies that make the games. Steam is objectively shitty but gamers still love it even if it going down means that they lose access to their games. It is the de facto game launcher on PCs because valve has a track record of treating their customers well. Everyone has confidence in valve, and by extension steam.
Keep in mind the video says that people are playing games that are on average 7 years old, and if we look at gaming around 2017, we still see gaming with battle passes, microtransactions, streaming, and all other anti-consumer behavior from devs. This really has nothing to do with emulated retro games, and if you consider the average, someone playing a game from 30 years ago Is being balanced out by four people. Playing games released one year ago.
Fully agree on capitalism destroying art and media though, absolutely true.
Why buy a new game when you don’t know if it’ll be a buggy mess on launch and those old games are available to play right now.
Yeah, like, I’m so sick of (particularly singleplayer or mostly singleplayer) games releasing and then needing a dozen patches to be in something close to a “final” state. Are companies just not playtesting anymore or what? I get it if there’s growing pains from not anticipating server loads, and maybe you need to do some adjustments if some very creative players find an overpowered strategy and it has to be nerfed, but there’s numerous times where I see issues that are patched and just go “There’s no way that you wouldn’t have found this if you’d used a small amount of your massive company profits to pay for a bunch of playtesters to go try and break the game and see if the balance is about right.”
I think I’m also just generally not a fan of the Early Access model of continuously releasing new updates. I understand all the reasons why they do this, but I’m very much somebody who enjoys buying a game and knowing that it is a full, complete experience which will not change and update while I’m playing it or after I’m done. Just a discrete thing I can pick up, play for a while, and then put down and be satisfied that there won’t be an update or DLC in a few months that adds fishing and 10 new bosses or whatever. I can put it out of my mind and not have to track a bunch of update release dates and play another game. No FOMO, just enjoying my time off.
It doesn’t help my mind to juggle caring about like a dozen games at once. Like “Okay, so this game will release in August, then there’s an update to this other game in early September. Then there’s the full release of this game in late September after five years of Early Access. Then this DLC comes out in mid-October, and my friends will probably want to play this with me in late October…” I could do all that with a dozen games, or I could just play an older game like Bloodborne and know exactly what I’m getting myself into with zero surprises or updates or DLCs or battlepasses or full releases or definitive editions to care about.
I’m honestly really excited to see what a socialist video gaming industry would look like. I hope it looks like relatively fewer games released per year due to no crunch time, but the games are very high-quality, have many fewer problems, don’t have exploitative practices like microtransactions, have more meaningful content, etc. I also hope that copyright for many current games is cast aside so we can get True Remasters of current and old games with all the features that were ditched due to time or resource constraints. Instead of having individuals or very small teams jankily modding things into games to fix some of the features, they would be re-developed in a more official sense. Kinda like what Bluepoint did with Demon Souls, but like five times as ambitious.
Methinks some people in this comment section didn’t watch the video before commenting…
Neither did I, so here’s my opinion: I think a loss of confidence is the real issue. Why buy a new game when you don’t know if it’ll be a buggy mess on launch and those old games are available to play right now.
Look at sales for games legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where player know they will get a polished experience from day 1. It cost $70 dollars, was pirated before release, and is still a top 10 selling game on the switch despite releasing so late in the switch’s life.
Another reason is no more hype. They cancelled E3. Nintendo Power is gone. I only go on games radar for headphones reviews. I hear about most games from streamers nowadays, and then I’m just watching the full gameplay. No hype means no pressure to play early means that game releases go by and people just wait until a sale. Honestly not really a problem for the consumer but I do think it’s one of the reasons.
People are also starting to realise that most of these very expensive games don’t truly belong to them anymore. Up to date gaming has become more expensive than it ever has, except most of it is behind a server that can be shut down at a moment’s notice. Why pay that much for a something that will be taken away? Will I be able to access my steam library if Steam goes under? When I used to buy a physical Cartrage, it was mine. If I decided I didn’t like the game anymore, I could sell it.
You can’t do that as often anymore. Nintendo Switch has physical copies still, but most consoles are moving to digital only, and others are locking even physical copies to a single account so that you can’t resell. The new Playstation and Xbox have versions of their consoles that are digital only, and I assume Nintendo will follow eventually. And then you have the gaming companies that are trying to turn gaming into a Netflix style subscription based streaming service shudder, and if corporations want it, it will happen in time.
Rental stores aren’t a thing any more either. So basically, there are less and less ways the average non-wealthy person can access games. There is a reason why little kids today are all playing free to play mobile garbage these days, because it’s the only new games they can at least access without a credit card.
TLDR: Capitalism is destroying all media and art, emulation and piracy based retro gaming is the only thing preserving gaming.
Honestly I have to disagree. I don’t think people care so much if their games truly belong to them. I think a lot of people don’t really go back and play games they’ve already beaten very often. I really think it all comes down to confidence in the companies that make the games. Steam is objectively shitty but gamers still love it even if it going down means that they lose access to their games. It is the de facto game launcher on PCs because valve has a track record of treating their customers well. Everyone has confidence in valve, and by extension steam.
Keep in mind the video says that people are playing games that are on average 7 years old, and if we look at gaming around 2017, we still see gaming with battle passes, microtransactions, streaming, and all other anti-consumer behavior from devs. This really has nothing to do with emulated retro games, and if you consider the average, someone playing a game from 30 years ago Is being balanced out by four people. Playing games released one year ago.
Fully agree on capitalism destroying art and media though, absolutely true.
Who is locking physical games to one console? There was a rescinded plan about that with the Xbox One, but that’s the last I’ve heard of it.
Yeah, like, I’m so sick of (particularly singleplayer or mostly singleplayer) games releasing and then needing a dozen patches to be in something close to a “final” state. Are companies just not playtesting anymore or what? I get it if there’s growing pains from not anticipating server loads, and maybe you need to do some adjustments if some very creative players find an overpowered strategy and it has to be nerfed, but there’s numerous times where I see issues that are patched and just go “There’s no way that you wouldn’t have found this if you’d used a small amount of your massive company profits to pay for a bunch of playtesters to go try and break the game and see if the balance is about right.”
I think I’m also just generally not a fan of the Early Access model of continuously releasing new updates. I understand all the reasons why they do this, but I’m very much somebody who enjoys buying a game and knowing that it is a full, complete experience which will not change and update while I’m playing it or after I’m done. Just a discrete thing I can pick up, play for a while, and then put down and be satisfied that there won’t be an update or DLC in a few months that adds fishing and 10 new bosses or whatever. I can put it out of my mind and not have to track a bunch of update release dates and play another game. No FOMO, just enjoying my time off.
It doesn’t help my mind to juggle caring about like a dozen games at once. Like “Okay, so this game will release in August, then there’s an update to this other game in early September. Then there’s the full release of this game in late September after five years of Early Access. Then this DLC comes out in mid-October, and my friends will probably want to play this with me in late October…” I could do all that with a dozen games, or I could just play an older game like Bloodborne and know exactly what I’m getting myself into with zero surprises or updates or DLCs or battlepasses or full releases or definitive editions to care about.
I’m honestly really excited to see what a socialist video gaming industry would look like. I hope it looks like relatively fewer games released per year due to no crunch time, but the games are very high-quality, have many fewer problems, don’t have exploitative practices like microtransactions, have more meaningful content, etc. I also hope that copyright for many current games is cast aside so we can get True Remasters of current and old games with all the features that were ditched due to time or resource constraints. Instead of having individuals or very small teams jankily modding things into games to fix some of the features, they would be re-developed in a more official sense. Kinda like what Bluepoint did with Demon Souls, but like five times as ambitious.