3 ms·

it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now" All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgita

it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now" All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgitation. Basically going through the same problems as Hollywood is with major films. You get a massive banger of a production every few years, and the rest is just endless money burning and developer harm. Meanwhile the good indie devs are a dice roll on if they are gonna get recognized by the world at large and find success, just like small budget films. My game library gets older by the day and I prefer it that way, but love it when an indie game bubbles to the surface and gets beloved by enough fans to break into the news cycle. Itch.io is the only place I look for games anymore unless something I need for the collection hits GoG finally.

LarsDu88 2mo ago
This is a very rose tinted take. AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s. Go look up the development of Sonic Xtreme in the 90s. A brutal development process in the 90s that led to more thsn half the development team camping out in Redwood City Sega office building for months until they all got so sick half the team went on medical leave. Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team.
- officeplant 2mo ago
  >Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team. Going by interviews with the team over the decades, they had clashing personalities and poor leadership. > AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s. Honestly it's probably always been brutal going back even to the early days of Atari. Companies like EA have spent three decades destroying beloved studios for profit, only to now be chewed up and spit out by PE/VC bastards themselves. A fitting end really.
- inigyou 2mo ago
  But they released the game and the game was good. Unlike today.
  - pjmlp 2mo ago
    There were plenty of bad games back then, and worse, you only had the cover to guess what the game was all about, if you were lucky maybe some computer magazines with a proper review, and if even more lucky maybe a demo on a cover tape/floppy/CD. Today you have dozens of influencers doing play through, videos of complete games, everyone and their dog writing blog posts. You would go out, give you hard earned money as kid, regardless of pirated or original copy, and then get a garbage game with no money back.
zuzululu 2mo ago
Main issue with AAA gaming was studios consulting people who wanted to tell gamers what they should want, using their capital on paying influencers and media to demonize said gamers for rejecting their games and so on. That's what pisses off the mostly straight hetrosexual male crowd that make up most of the gaming market. A big reason why many east asian game studios are doing so well by rejecting that tried and failed formula from the West.
- ifjeicjwidj 2mo ago
  > That's what pisses off the mostly straight hetrosexual male crowd that make up most of the gaming market. Honestly, the hell kinda remark is that? It’s nothing to do with sexuality or “companies telling you what you want” but everything to do with companies putting out complete and utter slop and people ACTUALLY buying it all. They wouldn’t waste all that time and investment money if they knew there wasn’t a market for it, but guess what? There is. Gamers seem to have the memory span of a goldfish. Horse armour? Bad. GTA VI at 80 bucks and no physical release on consoles? OMG YAAAAAASSSS GIVE ME MORE OF THE SAME HOOKER-SEX SIMULATOR WITH CRIMINAL ACTS SPRINKLED ON TOP!!! Don’t complain about gaming companies’ behaviour if you keep giving your money to them.
- officeplant 2mo ago
  You don't have to go full GamerGate non-sense to find plenty of issues that are hurting the AAA market. Private equity, shareholders, and greed have been far more damaging to gaming.
  - zuzululu 2mo ago
    why can't you see that their greed has enabled the dynamics that brought AAA market to its where it is ? you dont think PE has influence on media with their vast resources ?
    - inigyou 2mo ago
      PE wants profit, why would they hurt profit?
pizza234 2mo ago
> it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now" > All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgitation. Basically going through the same problems as Hollywood is with major films. You get a massive banger of a production every few years, and the rest is just endless money burning and developer harm. The production ethics and the product are two distinct aspects. Regarding the product itself, definitely the AAA gaming industry is, like Hollywood, a dysfunctional production model, but that doesn't mean that it's dead in terms of quality - some franchises do maintain high quality (Doom has been exceptional in this sense) but even in terms of new IP, in average, there at least couple of high quality entries in average, every year. Things could go better, but they're certainly far from "dead".
mlindner 2mo ago
The problem with AAA gaming is the type of people they hire as game devs, especially writers. Everyone's too concerned with not offending anyone and so AAA games are focus grouped to death. They're all perfectly average with nothing cool or interesting about them.

LarsDu88 2mo ago

This is a very rose tinted take. AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s. Go look up the development of Sonic Xtreme in the 90s. A brutal development process in the 90s that led to more thsn half the development team camping out in Redwood City Sega office building for months until they all got so sick half the team went on medical leave. Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team.

officeplant 2mo ago
>Or Quake, where the game development process literally broke the team. Going by interviews with the team over the decades, they had clashing personalities and poor leadership. > AAA game development was far more brutal in the 90s. Honestly it's probably always been brutal going back even to the early days of Atari. Companies like EA have spent three decades destroying beloved studios for profit, only to now be chewed up and spit out by PE/VC bastards themselves. A fitting end really.
inigyou 2mo ago
But they released the game and the game was good. Unlike today.
- pjmlp 2mo ago
  There were plenty of bad games back then, and worse, you only had the cover to guess what the game was all about, if you were lucky maybe some computer magazines with a proper review, and if even more lucky maybe a demo on a cover tape/floppy/CD. Today you have dozens of influencers doing play through, videos of complete games, everyone and their dog writing blog posts. You would go out, give you hard earned money as kid, regardless of pirated or original copy, and then get a garbage game with no money back.

zuzululu 2mo ago

Main issue with AAA gaming was studios consulting people who wanted to tell gamers what they should want, using their capital on paying influencers and media to demonize said gamers for rejecting their games and so on. That's what pisses off the mostly straight hetrosexual male crowd that make up most of the gaming market. A big reason why many east asian game studios are doing so well by rejecting that tried and failed formula from the West.

ifjeicjwidj 2mo ago
> That's what pisses off the mostly straight hetrosexual male crowd that make up most of the gaming market. Honestly, the hell kinda remark is that? It’s nothing to do with sexuality or “companies telling you what you want” but everything to do with companies putting out complete and utter slop and people ACTUALLY buying it all. They wouldn’t waste all that time and investment money if they knew there wasn’t a market for it, but guess what? There is. Gamers seem to have the memory span of a goldfish. Horse armour? Bad. GTA VI at 80 bucks and no physical release on consoles? OMG YAAAAAASSSS GIVE ME MORE OF THE SAME HOOKER-SEX SIMULATOR WITH CRIMINAL ACTS SPRINKLED ON TOP!!! Don’t complain about gaming companies’ behaviour if you keep giving your money to them.
officeplant 2mo ago
You don't have to go full GamerGate non-sense to find plenty of issues that are hurting the AAA market. Private equity, shareholders, and greed have been far more damaging to gaming.
- zuzululu 2mo ago
  why can't you see that their greed has enabled the dynamics that brought AAA market to its where it is ? you dont think PE has influence on media with their vast resources ?
  - inigyou 2mo ago
    PE wants profit, why would they hurt profit?

pizza234 2mo ago

> it should instead say "AAA gaming is dead now" > All we see out of mainstream AAA gaming is abused devs, private equity scalping, and mindless remaster regurgitation. Basically going through the same problems as Hollywood is with major films. You get a massive banger of a production every few years, and the rest is just endless money burning and developer harm. The production ethics and the product are two distinct aspects. Regarding the product itself, definitely the AAA gaming industry is, like Hollywood, a dysfunctional production model, but that doesn't mean that it's dead in terms of quality - some franchises do maintain high quality (Doom has been exceptional in this sense) but even in terms of new IP, in average, there at least couple of high quality entries in average, every year. Things could go better, but they're certainly far from "dead".

mlindner 2mo ago

The problem with AAA gaming is the type of people they hire as game devs, especially writers. Everyone's too concerned with not offending anyone and so AAA games are focus grouped to death. They're all perfectly average with nothing cool or interesting about them.