6 ms·

Makes sense - the gaming industry, like Hollywood, has gone full monetization. A lot of the stuff is generic. Why attend? Many AAA games are basically just reh

Makes sense - the gaming industry, like Hollywood, has gone full monetization. A lot of the stuff is generic. Why attend? Many AAA games are basically just rehashes.

dingnuts 3y ago
This is a particularly weird take for me this year, when I've been absolutely snowed under with good games to play. There are more high quality gaming hours available to me, just from this year, than I have available to play them. It's hard for me to remember a better year for gaming in the last quarter century, as far as new releases are concerned
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  Yeah, same. There have never been this many good games coming out in a year. There also is more Call of Duty and FIFA garbage than ever, but I haven't found it hard to simply ignore it? I think The Game Awards is a good refutation of this argument. They showed off a ton of upcoming stuff, most of which wasn't just FIFA/CoD AAA shovelware. A good demonstration that you can advertise all the other stuff too. I think the real argument is that E3 was industry captured, had become a mouthpiece for the giants, and it was time for it to go.
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  It would be interesting for you to list titles, because I share the OP's sentiment that this year has been largely uninteresting for gaming. I've had exactly three games which I cared about: Like a Dragon Ishin, LaD Gaiden, and Baldur's Gate 3. Good games all, but not exactly a barn burning year.
  - coldpie 3y ago
    Sure, here's some highlights from this year for me: Street Fighter 6, Sea of Stars, Ghost Song (technically late 2022, but I'm counting it), Super Mario Wonder, Octopath Traveler 2, Void Stranger, Oxenfree 2, Age of Empires 2 (on Xbox).
    - bigstrat2003 3y ago
      Thanks for that. Looking at that list, I wonder if the reason that I've felt underwhelmed is because of my backlog. For example I actually kind of forgot about Sea of Stars and OT 2 (both games I do want to play), because I have so many JRPGs in my backlog already that I can't throw more onto the pile.
      - jerf 3y ago
        If by "backlog" you are referring to the mere brute fact that you have a bunch of games you haven't played, fine. If by "backlog" your mental model includes even a hint of obligation... drop it. You have no obligation to games. You have no obligation to play them, you have no obligation to finish them if you start. They're just sunk costs. If they happen to be what you want to do, great, but if what you really want to do tonight is drop $30 on some new (to you) game and go to town, all that is costing you is $30 and the relevant time. It is not costing you $30, the relevant time, and the moral failure of betraying your backlog, because the latter does not exist. It is not costing you any more because you "wasted" the money acquiring your backlog, because, again, it is sunk cost. Yes, it's obvious when I say it, but if you're anything like me (and most other people I see) it takes a few very deliberative passes at training your subconscious to really get this. The good news, breaking yourself of sunk cost fallacy can directly pay off in your job, too. It's a pernicious little mistake that can sneak up on you, and it's one of the things that divides the engineers from the business folk in your company... and I gotta tell you, even as an engineer and with all sympathy to engineers, the business folk are 100% in the right on this one. (Additionally, once you really internalize this, you'll also find yourself less inclined to buy something just because it's on a killer deal. The marginal value of adding one more game to my list of games I can play in the future for $0 may not be even $1 once I've already got a couple dozen such great $0 choices.)
        coldpie 3y ago
        Agree with all this. One additional thing for me is I think it's fun to be playing a game while it's hot and part of "the conversation", rather than after everyone has moved on to something else and I'm just playing catchup. Just another point in favor of forgetting the concept of a backlog entirely.
  - thereddaikon 3y ago
    The two big hits for me this year have been Baldur's Gate and Armored Core. Both are by devs with a good track record. But I can definitely see the argument that there is a lot of samey crap. Activision seems to be on an annual release cadence for Call of Duty now. Its already come full circle by remaking the modern warfare trilogy. Starfield was a disappointment, Bethesda seems stuck in 2003. There's the endless stream of sports titles which really should be their own category of entertainment. They are so divorced from the rest of the video game market.
  - averageRoyalty 3y ago
    Everyone seems to have forgotten Hogwarts: Legacy was this year too. Maybe not to your taste, but over 15m copies sold, second highest single player game of all time on Steam after Cyberpunk and very strong reviews (89% aggregate on opencritic).
fckgw 3y ago
2023 was the best year for gaming in decades, what are you talking about?
- coldpie 3y ago
  The OP got old. Happens to all of us. Some accept it better than others.
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  I guess it depends on the kind of games you like or follow. For example, the Elder Scrolls last release, Skyrim (2011), has been milked and re-released seven times, the last one in 2021. Meanwhile the fans keep expecting an Elder Scrolls VI soon(TM). There are good new games, but there is also a growing attitude in big game studios to low-risk cash in old franchises.
  - erulabs 3y ago
    I mean, the studio you're referring to just launched a huge new IP this year. It wasn't very good, but you can't accuse Bethesda of "low-risk cash in" when they just released a brand new title this year.
    - ASalazarMX 3y ago
      So it does both, right? As I said, it depends on the kind of games you like or follow.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  To each their own obviously, but look at the Game of the Year nominees - all sequels, and even a remaster. Baldurs Gate is good, but it’s really not that much different than Divinity original sin. Nothing is wrong with games being similar, same thing happened with movies. It’s just formulaic imo.
fidotron 3y ago
Indeed. I think it is even tempting to suggest video gaming may be in trouble, after a multi decade long technology advancement enabled cambrian explosion of possibilities, now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. The last time it was remotely like this was the brown first person shooter phase circa 2005, but yet another walkfest with super high production values is no more interesting. If you happen to be into that stuff it is a golden age, but that is like saying the Marvel era of cinematic domination was a great thing. The question really becomes if games were ever interesting to the mass market as games at all, or merely proxies for technological experimentation or storytelling, both of which can be done by other means.
- password54321 3y ago
  > now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. Funny, I just played a game where you carry worlds within worlds and leap between them. And that's the tip of the iceberg of the games coming out these days. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/
- dota_fanatic 3y ago
  > now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. That's a hot take. It's never been a better time to be a gamer. In addition to most of the gaming backlog being available via emulation, it's never been easier for a small number of people to build a great game. So long as you're not extremely picky there's more good games to play than time to play them.
  - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    Eh, I'd put an asterisk on the "never been easier for a small number of people to build a great game" comment. On one hand, what can be achieved by an individual with today's engines is indisputably incredible relative to what was possible in the past. On the other hand, expectations from players have also had a pretty huge runaway explosion as well, meaning the ability for a small team to achieve commercial success is more of a mixed bag. It obviously still happens. Lethal Company is a great example of that (1 developer, currently the top seller on Steam), but compared to the DOOM/Myst/etc era where ALL games were developed by small teams it's harder to establish a niche.
password54321 3y ago
Not really, The Game Awards just took over.
- gamblor956 3y ago
  TGA is full-on monetization. This year's TGA spent more time on paid game previews and advertisements than it did on the awards. Hideo Kojima was given more time to preview his upcoming game than all of the winners' speeches combined. The breakdown of the show: 1% announcing the nominees and winners 1% speeches by the winners 10% Hideo Kojima 10% other celebrities 78% ads and game previews
  - starburst 3y ago
    The award part is worst part of the game award and personally one of the reason I watch it is especially to see a Kojima premiere and I wasn't disappointed when he announced he was going to collaborate with Jordan Peele.
  - schlauerfox 3y ago
    I mean, E3 was a business tradeshow. That's why people like me who never went have rose colored glasses, because we didn't see how dry it was, just the press show excitement leaked to us. It was retailers and publishers making shelf space deals and some annoucement press conferences. A lot of the industry cross pollenation was taken up by GDC for devs, and I'm not sure how it is these days but I went to Penny Arcade Expo in 2015 and it felt very much like the indies and fan conventions. Pandemic changed things, but I"m not sure how these expos are these days.
thrillgore 3y ago
If they aren't rehashes, they're broken, unfinished, or underwhelming. BG3 was a welcome anomaly. The norm in Generation 8 has been that AAA releases just plain suck, or are buggy.
gopher2000 3y ago
That's not why. E3 lost out to the big game publishers doing their own events. And so it lacked purpose. I also don't think it adjusted well to COVID. The Game Awards has a similar but different format with a clearer purpose. And it is thriving and has largely replaced the games aspect of E3.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  I disagree - the game awards is just as much if not even more promotion than E3. Look at console sales, says it all.
klausa 3y ago
>Why attend? Many AAA games are basically just rehashes. This is a very funny line given that E3 for the longest time was an industry-only conference, and they only started selling passed to general public the last two years of the event.
throwaway29812 3y ago
> has gone full monetization What were they before, non-profit? The indy game scene is still going strong, what am I missing?

Makes sense - the gaming industry, like Hollywood, has gone full monetization. A lot of the stuff is generic. Why attend? Many AAA games are basically just rehashes.

dingnuts 3y ago

This is a particularly weird take for me this year, when I've been absolutely snowed under with good games to play. There are more high quality gaming hours available to me, just from this year, than I have available to play them. It's hard for me to remember a better year for gaming in the last quarter century, as far as new releases are concerned

Waterluvian 3y ago
Yeah, same. There have never been this many good games coming out in a year. There also is more Call of Duty and FIFA garbage than ever, but I haven't found it hard to simply ignore it? I think The Game Awards is a good refutation of this argument. They showed off a ton of upcoming stuff, most of which wasn't just FIFA/CoD AAA shovelware. A good demonstration that you can advertise all the other stuff too. I think the real argument is that E3 was industry captured, had become a mouthpiece for the giants, and it was time for it to go.
bigstrat2003 3y ago
It would be interesting for you to list titles, because I share the OP's sentiment that this year has been largely uninteresting for gaming. I've had exactly three games which I cared about: Like a Dragon Ishin, LaD Gaiden, and Baldur's Gate 3. Good games all, but not exactly a barn burning year.
- coldpie 3y ago
  Sure, here's some highlights from this year for me: Street Fighter 6, Sea of Stars, Ghost Song (technically late 2022, but I'm counting it), Super Mario Wonder, Octopath Traveler 2, Void Stranger, Oxenfree 2, Age of Empires 2 (on Xbox).
  - bigstrat2003 3y ago
    Thanks for that. Looking at that list, I wonder if the reason that I've felt underwhelmed is because of my backlog. For example I actually kind of forgot about Sea of Stars and OT 2 (both games I do want to play), because I have so many JRPGs in my backlog already that I can't throw more onto the pile.
    - jerf 3y ago
      If by "backlog" you are referring to the mere brute fact that you have a bunch of games you haven't played, fine. If by "backlog" your mental model includes even a hint of obligation... drop it. You have no obligation to games. You have no obligation to play them, you have no obligation to finish them if you start. They're just sunk costs. If they happen to be what you want to do, great, but if what you really want to do tonight is drop $30 on some new (to you) game and go to town, all that is costing you is $30 and the relevant time. It is not costing you $30, the relevant time, and the moral failure of betraying your backlog, because the latter does not exist. It is not costing you any more because you "wasted" the money acquiring your backlog, because, again, it is sunk cost. Yes, it's obvious when I say it, but if you're anything like me (and most other people I see) it takes a few very deliberative passes at training your subconscious to really get this. The good news, breaking yourself of sunk cost fallacy can directly pay off in your job, too. It's a pernicious little mistake that can sneak up on you, and it's one of the things that divides the engineers from the business folk in your company... and I gotta tell you, even as an engineer and with all sympathy to engineers, the business folk are 100% in the right on this one. (Additionally, once you really internalize this, you'll also find yourself less inclined to buy something just because it's on a killer deal. The marginal value of adding one more game to my list of games I can play in the future for $0 may not be even $1 once I've already got a couple dozen such great $0 choices.)
      - coldpie 3y ago
        Agree with all this. One additional thing for me is I think it's fun to be playing a game while it's hot and part of "the conversation", rather than after everyone has moved on to something else and I'm just playing catchup. Just another point in favor of forgetting the concept of a backlog entirely.
- thereddaikon 3y ago
  The two big hits for me this year have been Baldur's Gate and Armored Core. Both are by devs with a good track record. But I can definitely see the argument that there is a lot of samey crap. Activision seems to be on an annual release cadence for Call of Duty now. Its already come full circle by remaking the modern warfare trilogy. Starfield was a disappointment, Bethesda seems stuck in 2003. There's the endless stream of sports titles which really should be their own category of entertainment. They are so divorced from the rest of the video game market.
- averageRoyalty 3y ago
  Everyone seems to have forgotten Hogwarts: Legacy was this year too. Maybe not to your taste, but over 15m copies sold, second highest single player game of all time on Steam after Cyberpunk and very strong reviews (89% aggregate on opencritic).

fckgw 3y ago

2023 was the best year for gaming in decades, what are you talking about?

coldpie 3y ago
The OP got old. Happens to all of us. Some accept it better than others.
ASalazarMX 3y ago
I guess it depends on the kind of games you like or follow. For example, the Elder Scrolls last release, Skyrim (2011), has been milked and re-released seven times, the last one in 2021. Meanwhile the fans keep expecting an Elder Scrolls VI soon(TM). There are good new games, but there is also a growing attitude in big game studios to low-risk cash in old franchises.
- erulabs 3y ago
  I mean, the studio you're referring to just launched a huge new IP this year. It wasn't very good, but you can't accuse Bethesda of "low-risk cash in" when they just released a brand new title this year.
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    So it does both, right? As I said, it depends on the kind of games you like or follow.
endisneigh 3y ago
To each their own obviously, but look at the Game of the Year nominees - all sequels, and even a remaster. Baldurs Gate is good, but it’s really not that much different than Divinity original sin. Nothing is wrong with games being similar, same thing happened with movies. It’s just formulaic imo.

fidotron 3y ago

Indeed. I think it is even tempting to suggest video gaming may be in trouble, after a multi decade long technology advancement enabled cambrian explosion of possibilities, now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. The last time it was remotely like this was the brown first person shooter phase circa 2005, but yet another walkfest with super high production values is no more interesting. If you happen to be into that stuff it is a golden age, but that is like saying the Marvel era of cinematic domination was a great thing. The question really becomes if games were ever interesting to the mass market as games at all, or merely proxies for technological experimentation or storytelling, both of which can be done by other means.

password54321 3y ago
> now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. Funny, I just played a game where you carry worlds within worlds and leap between them. And that's the tip of the iceberg of the games coming out these days. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/
dota_fanatic 3y ago
> now it has settled into the narrowest field ever seen. That's a hot take. It's never been a better time to be a gamer. In addition to most of the gaming backlog being available via emulation, it's never been easier for a small number of people to build a great game. So long as you're not extremely picky there's more good games to play than time to play them.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  Eh, I'd put an asterisk on the "never been easier for a small number of people to build a great game" comment. On one hand, what can be achieved by an individual with today's engines is indisputably incredible relative to what was possible in the past. On the other hand, expectations from players have also had a pretty huge runaway explosion as well, meaning the ability for a small team to achieve commercial success is more of a mixed bag. It obviously still happens. Lethal Company is a great example of that (1 developer, currently the top seller on Steam), but compared to the DOOM/Myst/etc era where ALL games were developed by small teams it's harder to establish a niche.

password54321 3y ago

Not really, The Game Awards just took over.

gamblor956 3y ago
TGA is full-on monetization. This year's TGA spent more time on paid game previews and advertisements than it did on the awards. Hideo Kojima was given more time to preview his upcoming game than all of the winners' speeches combined. The breakdown of the show: 1% announcing the nominees and winners 1% speeches by the winners 10% Hideo Kojima 10% other celebrities 78% ads and game previews
- starburst 3y ago
  The award part is worst part of the game award and personally one of the reason I watch it is especially to see a Kojima premiere and I wasn't disappointed when he announced he was going to collaborate with Jordan Peele.
- schlauerfox 3y ago
  I mean, E3 was a business tradeshow. That's why people like me who never went have rose colored glasses, because we didn't see how dry it was, just the press show excitement leaked to us. It was retailers and publishers making shelf space deals and some annoucement press conferences. A lot of the industry cross pollenation was taken up by GDC for devs, and I'm not sure how it is these days but I went to Penny Arcade Expo in 2015 and it felt very much like the indies and fan conventions. Pandemic changed things, but I"m not sure how these expos are these days.

thrillgore 3y ago

If they aren't rehashes, they're broken, unfinished, or underwhelming. BG3 was a welcome anomaly. The norm in Generation 8 has been that AAA releases just plain suck, or are buggy.

gopher2000 3y ago

That's not why. E3 lost out to the big game publishers doing their own events. And so it lacked purpose. I also don't think it adjusted well to COVID. The Game Awards has a similar but different format with a clearer purpose. And it is thriving and has largely replaced the games aspect of E3.

endisneigh 3y ago
I disagree - the game awards is just as much if not even more promotion than E3. Look at console sales, says it all.

klausa 3y ago

>Why attend? Many AAA games are basically just rehashes. This is a very funny line given that E3 for the longest time was an industry-only conference, and they only started selling passed to general public the last two years of the event.

throwaway29812 3y ago

> has gone full monetization What were they before, non-profit? The indy game scene is still going strong, what am I missing?