4 ms·

Videogame sales set to fall 4 first time in years as industry braces 4 recession

4 points by thesecretceo 4y ago

maerF0x0 4y ago
my 2c, I grew up playing video games. I've had a hard time finding content I actually enjoy. And yes I did play more in 2019-2021 for obvious reasons, but the platforms havent kept me entertained... A lot of games I've tried tend to have a few issues for my use case 1. They're not usually casual friendly - I want to play for about 1 hour a week, and feel like I'm not entirely not progressing or left behind by friends (eg: why couldn't my wow character be locked to another character and I can play along for the ride without the level grind? And I'd even be fine with it if I couldnt play without my friend) 2. Frequently they come with timers that suck eg: games where you build a building and come back in 1 minute to 30 days with exponential scaling of levels. But pay gems to speed it up! 3. They lack familiar mechanisms, but with updated content. I really wish C&C Generals 2 got built. I really liked the first one. I wish they'd make a Grand Turismo that brought back the crappy starter car and race to earn money for upgrades or buy cars. I'd love to play a C&C style MMORTS where its 2 big teams vs 2 big teams and I can harvest Tiberium, pump out troops, send them to the front lines like creeps of ants, and eventually lose to someone who sinks more time... but just feel like I'm part of a team w/o it being a total let down that I'm a casual. Also this same idea for a MOBA, where it's not like "we 100% lose because we have a newb on our team" ... 4. They require an extreme level of skill (ie time commitment) to have a decent experience. I can wander around a battlefield in CoD, but if I encounter a skilled player the battle takes around 3 seconds and I'm dead. I dont mind a 99% death rate, but it'd feel more fun if it took, say 3 minutes of battle so my 10 minutes of wandering to 3 seconds of action ratio was better?
- goosedragons 4y ago
  5. I'm getting pretty sick of big publishers cramming microtransactions, literal commericals, ridiculous online DRM, etc. into $80-90 CAD games. I don't even remotely think about buying games from EA, Ubisoft,2K, etc. day one anymore because of it. I picked up Diablo II Resurrected on Switch recently and for some god awful reason this port of a TWENTY+ year old game has online DRM that requires you to go online every 30 days (the PC original for those that don't know could be used entirely offline). For a console game too. Oh, and apparently hackers have already removed it so it's just punishing people that actually paid. Garbage tactics like this are pushing me away.
- boojums 4y ago
  I recommend giving Deep Rock Galactic (mine ore and shoot alien bugs as a scifi dwarf) a try.There is a progression ramp early on as you unlock mechanics that quickly levels off to purely cosmetic rewards. Missions take ~30min to 1 hr to complete and can be done co-op or solo. I played my first mission with a friend that had 100+ hours and we both had fun.
  - maerF0x0 4y ago
    This is a good suggestion! and actually I already have tried it. It's a great game, but for my tastes a touch repetitive for someone who likes story arcs...
musicale 4y ago
It may not be fully recession-proof, but as I recall during recessions people tend to buy things (like candy) that make them happier. > "Even so, the year will end well ahead of pre-pandemic performance, and the outlook for the sector as a whole remains positive, with growth forecast to return in 2023," he added. "Well ahead of pre-pandemic performance" sounds pretty good.
etempleton 4y ago
The game industry is in a weird place. It always is, but this is the weirdest I have seen. A few examples: 1. Studios, in part because of the pandemic, but also because of the sheer scale of games are having trouble getting games out the door and when studios do pull a game out the door kicking and screaming they are more broken then usual. 2. Users have spent the last two years unable to buy the hardware to play games on. You still can’t walk into a store and buy a PS5. 3. The big publishers all seem to be completely lost on how to move forward. With all that said I am optimistic. When the game industry goes through a weird patch it usually comes out of it stronger than before and we get some really great stuff.
joeframbach 4y ago

4 points by thesecretceo 4y ago

my 2c, I grew up playing video games. I've had a hard time finding content I actually enjoy. And yes I did play more in 2019-2021 for obvious reasons, but the platforms havent kept me entertained... A lot of games I've tried tend to have a few issues for my use case 1. They're not usually casual friendly - I want to play for about 1 hour a week, and feel like I'm not entirely not progressing or left behind by friends (eg: why couldn't my wow character be locked to another character and I can play along for the ride without the level grind? And I'd even be fine with it if I couldnt play without my friend) 2. Frequently they come with timers that suck eg: games where you build a building and come back in 1 minute to 30 days with exponential scaling of levels. But pay gems to speed it up! 3. They lack familiar mechanisms, but with updated content. I really wish C&C Generals 2 got built. I really liked the first one. I wish they'd make a Grand Turismo that brought back the crappy starter car and race to earn money for upgrades or buy cars. I'd love to play a C&C style MMORTS where its 2 big teams vs 2 big teams and I can harvest Tiberium, pump out troops, send them to the front lines like creeps of ants, and eventually lose to someone who sinks more time... but just feel like I'm part of a team w/o it being a total let down that I'm a casual. Also this same idea for a MOBA, where it's not like "we 100% lose because we have a newb on our team" ... 4. They require an extreme level of skill (ie time commitment) to have a decent experience. I can wander around a battlefield in CoD, but if I encounter a skilled player the battle takes around 3 seconds and I'm dead. I dont mind a 99% death rate, but it'd feel more fun if it took, say 3 minutes of battle so my 10 minutes of wandering to 3 seconds of action ratio was better?

goosedragons 4y ago
5. I'm getting pretty sick of big publishers cramming microtransactions, literal commericals, ridiculous online DRM, etc. into $80-90 CAD games. I don't even remotely think about buying games from EA, Ubisoft,2K, etc. day one anymore because of it. I picked up Diablo II Resurrected on Switch recently and for some god awful reason this port of a TWENTY+ year old game has online DRM that requires you to go online every 30 days (the PC original for those that don't know could be used entirely offline). For a console game too. Oh, and apparently hackers have already removed it so it's just punishing people that actually paid. Garbage tactics like this are pushing me away.
boojums 4y ago
I recommend giving Deep Rock Galactic (mine ore and shoot alien bugs as a scifi dwarf) a try.There is a progression ramp early on as you unlock mechanics that quickly levels off to purely cosmetic rewards. Missions take ~30min to 1 hr to complete and can be done co-op or solo. I played my first mission with a friend that had 100+ hours and we both had fun.
- maerF0x0 4y ago
  This is a good suggestion! and actually I already have tried it. It's a great game, but for my tastes a touch repetitive for someone who likes story arcs...

musicale 4y ago

It may not be fully recession-proof, but as I recall during recessions people tend to buy things (like candy) that make them happier. > "Even so, the year will end well ahead of pre-pandemic performance, and the outlook for the sector as a whole remains positive, with growth forecast to return in 2023," he added. "Well ahead of pre-pandemic performance" sounds pretty good.

etempleton 4y ago

The game industry is in a weird place. It always is, but this is the weirdest I have seen. A few examples: 1. Studios, in part because of the pandemic, but also because of the sheer scale of games are having trouble getting games out the door and when studios do pull a game out the door kicking and screaming they are more broken then usual. 2. Users have spent the last two years unable to buy the hardware to play games on. You still can’t walk into a store and buy a PS5. 3. The big publishers all seem to be completely lost on how to move forward. With all that said I am optimistic. When the game industry goes through a weird patch it usually comes out of it stronger than before and we get some really great stuff.

joeframbach 4y ago