3 ms·

The headline is a bit of a dogwhistle, capitalizing on deep held sentiment among gamers, that unfortunately doesn't bear out in the market. I think many have po

The headline is a bit of a dogwhistle, capitalizing on deep held sentiment among gamers, that unfortunately doesn't bear out in the market. I think many have pointed out that there are excellent smaller single player indies, but the risk to create an expensive single-player only game has become too great for most developers. It is very similar to the current state of cinema -- where people say they prefer different kinds of or better movies, but they only reliably turn out for sequels and superhero movies. I think the mistake being made is instead of opting to build a cheaper, higher quality single player games they opt to created an expensive, AAA live service (for a minute they were calling them Destiny killers) -- which is a tough landing to stick. You'll notice that the success stories took long investments Fortnite's pivot from a grindy co-op game to a genre defining battle royale or maybe even Apex's stealth development and launch. Not long ago the consultancy GameDiscoverCo released a study that most people were playing OLD games. So the toughest competition for new single player games are classics like Skyrim. So the question these studios have to ask is "can I make a game that will get people to put down Skyrim or Civ V." That's a big ask.

jerf 2y ago
"Not long ago the consultancy GameDiscoverCo released a study that most people were playing OLD games." I've long tried not to buy every console, because it gets expensive for no good reason. So as our Switch is aging, I metaphorically poked my head up and put my finger to the wind... and decided our "next console" is the Steam Deck I already owned. And a big part of that decision is new games are frankly not any better than old games. They look better, and that's it, and that often comes at the cost of the real interactivity of the game anyhow. I wouldn't put a specific date on it, but game tech basically plateaued 10-15 years ago, even if the numbers keep going up. The graphics were good enough, especially if strong art direction knew how to use them. The tech for creating great games was basically all in place, and we got to where having 10 times the polygons just wasn't important anymore. Games are a lot more like movies to me now... I don't sit there looking at "was this movie 2021 or 2023?" as if that's going to indicate an important difference in quality, and games are getting to be that way for me.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>Not long ago the consultancy GameDiscoverCo released a study that most people were playing OLD games. So the toughest competition for new single player games are classics like Skyrim you don't even need a study, just check out Steam's most played games as of this posting: - DOTA 2 is #3, PUBG is right under it. - Rust is 5.5 years old and #9. Apex is a bit newer but still #10. - Baldur's Gate 3 is a single player game over a year old (and AFAIK, it's major updates are finished), and today is still top 15. - and of course GTA V is still #11, a game that has now spanned 3 generations. When you make a big game, it captures people for a very long time. That's what companies are trying to do when they chase Fortnite.

jerf 2y ago

"Not long ago the consultancy GameDiscoverCo released a study that most people were playing OLD games." I've long tried not to buy every console, because it gets expensive for no good reason. So as our Switch is aging, I metaphorically poked my head up and put my finger to the wind... and decided our "next console" is the Steam Deck I already owned. And a big part of that decision is new games are frankly not any better than old games. They look better, and that's it, and that often comes at the cost of the real interactivity of the game anyhow. I wouldn't put a specific date on it, but game tech basically plateaued 10-15 years ago, even if the numbers keep going up. The graphics were good enough, especially if strong art direction knew how to use them. The tech for creating great games was basically all in place, and we got to where having 10 times the polygons just wasn't important anymore. Games are a lot more like movies to me now... I don't sit there looking at "was this movie 2021 or 2023?" as if that's going to indicate an important difference in quality, and games are getting to be that way for me.

johnnyanmac 2y ago

>Not long ago the consultancy GameDiscoverCo released a study that most people were playing OLD games. So the toughest competition for new single player games are classics like Skyrim you don't even need a study, just check out Steam's most played games as of this posting: - DOTA 2 is #3, PUBG is right under it. - Rust is 5.5 years old and #9. Apex is a bit newer but still #10. - Baldur's Gate 3 is a single player game over a year old (and AFAIK, it's major updates are finished), and today is still top 15. - and of course GTA V is still #11, a game that has now spanned 3 generations. When you make a big game, it captures people for a very long time. That's what companies are trying to do when they chase Fortnite.