I’m sure some of you will want to reply to this post and say “don’t you really mean single player games are dying ?” While that’s partially true I think there is more to it than that.
Games use to made with world building in mind. Characters , stories arcs maybe in some cases a message to share. Games did this with a combination of a story and a single player campaign to get you acquainted and a multiplayer component to keep you coming back. Yes in many cases multiplayer was just tacked on but in many cases it added value and further established world building. In the end you’ve at least experienced a cool story.
To me these days most games are made in service of a battle pass or an excuse to release a permanent “early access game”
Oh look a new battle royal survivor game with the unique twist of combining other games mechanics into one. You can play with your friends ! You can farm things and make things ! Does making these things really move any needle in any significant way? Does the farming open up new locations and enemies to fight ? Or better yet special story moments ? Most of The time nope. And the worst of times you just get a shiny new hat!
I see little value in investing time into another game when I can see bar move another 3 percent. I understand there a social aspects but I’d argue the games do little for them and those social aspects can be had without the game to begin with. Or everyone playing their own game. To me all you’re doing is killing time with yet another run of the mill game.
I’d like to see a resurgence of games made with a singular intent and purpose. In service of telling a story and building a world. And seeing profits come in from there. No battle pass no service …
No nothing was ever perfect and there was always junk games. To me now it just feels like it’s getting worse.
Any way I’ll go back into my retirement home now and stop yelling at that cloud…
4 good games doesn’t make up for 500 other absolute trash ones.
I did say it was a hot take didn’t I ?
You’re not playing 500 games per year. Realistically, you’re playing a dozen or so if you’re a real enthusiast. Focus on the ones you like, support them with your time and money, and the market makes more of them. There are so many good games coming out in a year that I can’t keep up with them; I’ve got a spreadsheet and something resembling an Agile planning methodology to get through them more efficiently, and I still don’t have a chance of playing everything that looks good. Hardly any of those have any microtransactions (I definitely don’t buy them in the ones that do), and none of them waste my time.
There’s something like 5000 releases on steam a year, mostly indie
Of course most are trash. It’s literally anybody and their mom releasing.
There’s also more amazing games coming out per year than ever. We’ve been in a golden age of releases for a few years now. Feels better than the 90s and early 00s.