I guess it’s the over 25s buying all those Switch 2s then?
I don’t need the 7th iteration of the same game dressed up with new graphics for the price they’re charging.
Funny how that happens when people don’t have any money.
And when so much of gaming is shit.
Honestly, this has been a great year for games. The past 5 years have been pretty great.
It’s a two part answer.
One, gamers have less money to spend, along with everyone else.
Two, expensive AAA title games these days tend to be shit, from a graphics, code, community, and content standpoint. If you want good games, cheaper is usually better.
Last AAA title game I bought was Borderlands 3, and I don’t see myself buying anymore in the next two years or so.
Don’t forget about microtransactions, they might be a significant portion of the decline.
Older games are better plus gamers can play all our existing games.
This is why publisher’s are trying to derail “Stop Killing Games.”
When they are done with a a game the don’t WANT you to continue to play and enjoy it…
…they want you to forget about it and buy the next product they have and financially engage with the microtransaction ecosystem
The hobby is getting more expensive while income left over after cost of living is going down. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
They’re charging more money for lower quality games. Glad less people are buying.
I love the constant onslaught of articles that are like “people aren’t spending money anymore!!!” Open your damn eyes. We all got smart and refuse to pay $80 (which is now the new forced norm for “AAA” garbage) and are replaying oldies and indies. Hell, I revamped my 3DS and have dumped a ton of games onto it. I can even play some of them online with people again via Pretendo.
Like all of the reasons are so obvious why people aren’t dumping money into this industry anymore. Capitalists fucked it all up and put profit over fun. We’re not all dipshits that fall for the constant micro transactions and grifts.
I legit don’t give a single shit about any of the new “AAA” games coming out. Give me a call when they’re in the bargain bin years from now.
Exactly this. The new game cycle these days is:
- Game is announced with shiny video showing all sorts of cool stuff.
- Release date is announced.
- Game is delayed.
- Reviewers/early access people get it, turns out it has none of the cool stuff form the announcement video.
- Game is delayed again.
- Game finally comes out, with 3 different tiers that are like $80, $100 and $120 CAD depending on if you want the version of the game that’s 30%, 40% or 50% complete.
- Game doesn’t work.
- After about two years and 10 DLC packs you have about 80% of the functional game, the other 20% being stuff they were supposed to add but just never bothered, what are you gonna do about it? By this point you no longer care about the game anyway.
- Sequel is announced with shiny video showing all sorts of cool stuff, devs promise they’ve fixed all the broken stuff this time for real.
- Company gets bought by EA or Epic, all devs are replaced.
- Game is delayed.
Like genuinely who wants to bother with that nonsense anymore TBH.
Give me a call when they’re in the bargain bin years from now.
If they’re still functional, thankfully there’s the Stop Killing Games movement.
I love the movement that has gotten. I’m cheering for it.
People are dumping money still, revenue isn’t shrinking
Yeah, I think the decline is a drop in a bucket considering. I know plenty of people still buying the Switch 2 etc. on launch day.
In addition to other’s comments, I think that we just have enough good games by now that a lot of people can find a game they enjoy enough to sink hundreds or thousands of hours into. Minecraft, Factory, Satisfactory, Hollow Knight, Elden Ring, etc.
I’m not young or American, but I can tell gaming has been changing. I can’t even remember what was the last “AAA” game I bought, because it must have been a couple of years ago.
Most games I buy are 40€ connoisseur titles or 20€ indie games. I don’t hear about any “must-play” AAA titles through the grapevine these days. I do hear about interesting indie stuff all the time, though. Most of the 60€+ games I hear about are kind of niche stuff.
Any AAA game I got in the last decade I waited till it was dirt cheap. Red Dead 2 was the last one I bought and played through was maybe 15-20 bucks or something?
Can’t afford a home, holiday and now videogames.
Can’t wait till the indie wave wakes up the realization that there is a goldmine of 90s games that were incredible. Star control 2 for one could probably be mistaken for a new indie hit nowadays.
I’ve been playing X-Wing. The mad lads who built XWVM have essentially modernized the game and got it working on and with modern hardware, while strictly preserving its feel. It’s amazing.
Depression has me not so interested in playing games anymore. Reading instead. Gaming is losing its magic for me. I’m 36.
It’s fun how when you could really most use a reliable distraction you start to not be able to find joy in things you used to.
That’s when you play PvP games that piss you off so much sadness goes to anger, which can be a nice distraction.
We can’t justify the price. The end. That’s it.
I was super interested in the Dune game, then they decided to not participate in the stream sale. Okay. Too bad. Life goes on. Get fucked, greedy devs.
Nitpick: It’s probably not the devs so much as the capitalist owners and management collaborators. I’d guess most of the people making the games would be happy to have someone play their game at all. It’s not like they typically get a cut of the profits (again: capitalism)
Eh. I know what all PvP centric games turn into unless you’re willing to devote a fuckton of hours into it and get into a great guild. I’ll pass.
greedy devs
Publishers, mostly.
I will say though, if you’re the kind of guy who likes MMOs and RPGs (like me) you’ll love dune.
I used to play a ton of RuneScape back in the day, and recently I’ve been playing Eve and Star Citizen but dune is just a better game in every possible way than those three. I’ve been so obsessed that I had to uninstall it this week so I could get to sleep on time for work haha
Maybe they can ask their AI to inspect the size of everyone’s nose? Maybe that’s the trick to get us to buy more AI chips in our games and TVs and phones and cars and in our fruit probably. There’s gotta be AI in our food somewhere.
We are ripe for another Luddite movement with this giant AI grift the Tech Bros are forcing on us.
I’m not young, but I know mine has gone down. I’m not playing less games, though. 🏴☠️
