Why the video game industry feels smaller than ever

In 2023, the state of the video game market is, “big and getting bigger.” So why, from a player perspective, does it feel like the industry is… shrinking? Consolidation, game delays and increasingly powerful console hardware have created a sense of stagnancy in the industry, and it’s stemming from the AAA space.
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[@christill]

Sadly I think that’s a very accurate analysis of gaming right now.

[@javiej]

Regarding AAA gaming on PC this segment is just dormant, not dead. And the reason why it is dormant is because big companies like NVIDIA, Intel, Asus etc forgot that for us gamers this is not a "business" but a "hobby". As we don't need it for work we only upgrade when we want, our way. And they are simply not offering the products that we want to upgrade to: - First you have Nvidia: The 4090 is magnificent, but the cost is out of reach for most of us, (specially being this a "hobby", remember?). And the gap from the top model 4090 to the 4080 and lower modules is just ridiculous, several times bigger than ever. Note that gamers also follow Moore's law in our own way, basically we upgrade when we can get double performance at similar cost as the previous time (each one has a different budget , but the concept is the same). And to make it worst, Nvidia destroys the SFFPC segment with unnecessarily giant GPUs obligatory for no technical reason (just to protect their Pro segment). - Then you have Intel, AMD, etc bringing nothing special to the table, again this is not a business but a hobby, and as a difference to business users no gamer will upgrade for just 20% or 30% extra performance. Instead they give us useless features that nobody asked for, like "efficient cores" (wtf), more RGB lighting (we are not lamp collectionists!),. Rather than desirable things that we demand like thunderbolt 5 (true eGPU capable), extra PCIe slots (instead they are stealing them from us or concentrating them is stupid ways. We want 40 lanes gen4, but instead they gives 20 lanes gen5. Same bandwidth, but in useless form factor). - Then you have companies like Asus, Alienware and other big players launching aberrations like propietary GPU power connectors, non standard sizes, case monitors only compatible with their own motherboards for no good reason, modular PSUs with non standarized connectors and the Jurassic 24pin connector in the other side , new "high end" gaming monitors that are not even 4k and have weird pixel patterns that we can't use for work (most of us don't have space for both) ... They forgot that the essence of the enthusiast PC hobby is the opposite: To be able to repair and upgrade at our own, based on open standards at open market prices. But we are not dead, when they give us that we want then we will come back strong, because the hobby itself is very alive.

[@NeoShameMan]

Welcome to the end of moore's law and the end of the dennard scale, there is no more free performance to squizz on the technical size as the wire reach atom scale. Hobby or not, reality has a ceiling and we are slamming on it.

[@sowsow6677]

The industry feels like it's evolving slower. All the good companies are falling off and now it is becoming a pay-to-win type of thing

[@dickriggles942]

There used to be so many games to play. Now it's the same companies making the same games every year. It's a joke.

[@therealist2000]

FACTS!

[@wrighty338]

*unfinished games

[@ha231]

Okay but don't you want to play Skyrim again in 8K?

[@djpookie2000]

I 100% agree with your assessment. The AAA industry doesn't know what to do with the current hardware. Photo realistic graphics are shallow and need innovative gameplay to back it up.

[@kaiserrino8774]

This video is absolutely on point. Good job.

[@galadriusthemighty]

There's more focus on the industry than video games. More focus on promotional pushes and updates and trying to fix problems and billion dollar acquisitions and less excitement about the games themselves. The feeling from playing games back in the 80s and 90s has been replaced by marketing. Not that games aren't fun these days, but there's just more focus on business.

[@ha231]

Fair analysis. Better than most, in fact.

[@TonyTyga90]

The biggest issue with Video Game Industry is popular media only believes the industry are Microsoft and Sony. 2 companies whose sole focus is not video games. Sounds like another Atari bubble and we know who rebooted the industry after that.

[@nrXic]

This applies to social media as well. Many KZbinrs that aren't part of the mainstream media that cover videogames don't cover mobile games, PC, etc.

[@galadriusthemighty]

That's a shame, because the indie community is remarkable with its game offerings right now. They're on another level by themselves.

[@logicallydashing]

This was a great breakdown, and it certainly holds true 4 months later after the ABK acquisition by Microsoft went through. AAA gaming has been stagnant for a good while, but it has lately become blatantly more clear how this side of the industry is driven more by the whims of shareholders than the game developers. Indie studios are where you will find the best that gaming has to provide IMHO.

[@pizzaplanetalien5079]

Honestly this is a glass half empty point of view. There’s still pros in this games era. I loved the past but I wouldn’t want to go back

[@stevenguyen22]

Well said

[@wordsworthbklyn]

Great written video.

[@therealist2000]

There’s barely any new games coming out anymore

[@MLTAKOS]

there are many but the bar is high and the games are just cash grabs...

[@NeoShameMan]

There is barely good AAA games, we are flooding under games that are good on the AA and indie scale. You are missing out.

[@shawnbenjamin9636]

You say that but I'm sure that at the same time, you've accumulated a huge backlog that you've been neglecting.

[@ropro9817]

Sounds like the gaming industry has become Hollywood: rampant consolidation and rehashed, crappy output.

[@TheRCvie]

It would be nice to know about games we can own that won't be shut down if the numbers look bad or licensees to ip expire.

[@mysterio7807]

Put Jessica on more gaming videos!

[@speakez12]

corp greed. what makes the games we love so mememerable is the memories they create. Does not need to be AAA. just need to provide something immersive and creative. That is not what be been getting. Big corp is just focused on what can sale over and over again at asking price. And then how can we make more on the asking price. Im a hardcore xbox fan, but im kinda against them buying any more studios because there is nothing to show for it. Playstaion continues to make hits when the studio is focued on one platform, and now they are focusing away from that. Sad future of bloated worlds, yet pretty, all we can do is run and shoot.

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

It is the mergers that are leading to less games being released. Why would a company release a game that will directly compete with itself? It is the same thing that happened with the studio mergers in the movie industry.

[@mazzyycat]

Gaming is just too effin expensive. You're not getting the casuals on board when you're doing 600 euro consoles + 70 euro games. They're just gonna look at their 8 euro Netflix/HBO sub and say "nah". And if your remove the big games like FIFA and COD what are they even playing? Those days of casuals picking up games like Guitar Hero, Wipeout and Katamari feels long gone. Nintendo, I guess. But they're down to releasing 2-3 big games per console generations also, and almost always from very safe franchises there too. The rest feels like remakes or way smaller in scope compared to something like Odyssey. So yeah, gaming needs to reinvent itself, fast, or it's literally gonna be all GAAS games 10 years from now. Because saying its all gonna be fine is coping hard imo.

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

You shouldn't ignore King as an important motivator in the Activion/Blizzard/King acquisition by Microsoft. Corporate investors are likely to take that Candy Crush money and forget about all the other IPs, even popular and profitable ones.

[@United_Wings]

It may feel smaller but its bigger

[@matthewhardwick8208]

Microsoft is pushing for subscription because the more subscribers they get the more money they will earn to invest in studios and bigger projects.

[@jojoenathan]

Thos upper echelon wants gaming hardware to hv same lifecycles as mobile phones. It jusr wont work if the industry cant keep up. Good games takes time to be make

[@aelaan12]

Wow, you really hit the right spots. There is no creativity to drive competition. It started with Assassin's Creed - now it is nothing more than the same old in a different era. God of War, same deal. The Hogwarts game was the last one I finished. I have not finished games much lately, it is all the same old and boring. I miss the joy, the joy of going to shows, to go to gatherings or midnight launches. My last time going to a midnight launch was with the PS4 and that is many moons ago. I used to stand in line to get the latest games and enjoyed interacting. Today: I order my games online, they show up instantly and I miss the smell of opening boxes and the excitement to find codes that would give me lootz. My PS5 I bought when everyone was crying foul and I must have gotten extremely lucky or someone had mercy on me and I received mine on launch day from the delivery person at my front door, wearing masks and washing hands. This pandemic has destroyed more than we will understand. That is where it all started, 2020.... D4 is fabulous, TotK is awesome but the games are buggy. Prices are ever increasing, in Canada I pay now 113 Canadian dollars for an AAA game, I remember it was 49 bucks (PS3 times). I can only afford 1 game every three months, self inflicted limitations.

[@pdropm3352]

People forget about Hi-Fi Rush. An excellent game released this year by Bethesda, same publisher of RedFall. I think this should be mentioned.

[@SteadyAscension]

Before the purchase, ZeniMax greenlit Fallout 76, Wolfenstein Youngblood and RedFall all games with microtransactions and be online. Microsoft buying them would probably slow that down. If Microsoft cancelled Redfall or rebooted it, the PR from that would have been terrible-people would have brought up fable legends and Lionhead studios etc…

[@izsubs316]

So people are complaining that it’s the same companies making games, but when new companies release games, they don’t support them, which is funny. So do you suggest that Pokémon should end? Call of duty? Maybe final fantasy and street fighter or what about Tekken because they are ongoing series and not “new”? Btw gaming is more diverse than ever all the indie, AA and AAA are available on many platforms.

[@LionRafale]

Too much money, too little time, too little staff numbers When you have about all 15 studios in Activision just working on Call of Duty Microsoft is not just buying IP and games. They are buying man power

[@jeffg4686]

Who's going to be doing console when we have VR coming up? It will be ALL VR/AR going forward. Can't agree more with the lack of creativity. I saw the games out for the new headsets, and wasn't really interested in them.

[@AD-zc2ug]

Simply because smart people who used to develop video games got old and we are left with new lazy generation whom used to play video games only doing nothing and no productivity

[@domm6812]

Yep. People were saying if Microsoft buys Activision it will fix the terrible management and culture problems at Activision and Blizzard. But it won't. Microsoft has definitely said, they like to go with a "hands off approach" with their purchased studios. Meaning, "we bought it because it already appears to make money and that's enough". I say "appears" because of course Zenimax, the god awful parent company of Bethesda went out of their way to plan games that on paper looked profitable right before the acquisition to increase sale price, but of course they were poorly thought out, rushed garbage in reality (Fallout76, Redfall etc). I'm summary, Activision is being even more greedy and scummy as hell at the moment for the same price raising reasons, and Microsoft likes money. They won't "fix" anything if they buy Acti/Bliz.

[@baiisun]

AAA this year is already better than in the last 4-5 previous years : Hogwarts Legacy, Jedi Survivor, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy XVI, waiting for Starfield, Spiderman 2, Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar, that will be undoubtedly solid AAA successes, and that is without counting remakes and extensions (Dead Space, RE4, System Shock, Phantom Liberty, Forbidden West...), niche products like SF6, Tekken 8, Forza, Baldur's Gate III, Like a Dragon Gaiden, and potential surprises: Armored Core VI, Lies of P, Lord of the Fallen, Space Marine II, Banishers... A few AAA misses like Forspoken and Redfall, as well as some FPS and optimization issues is not a big deal in my opinion.

[@technicallyme]

Fall out 76 was started years before what you're discribing. This is shortsighted one dimensional take. It completely disreguardes how last gen started with the believe that gaming was going to mobile and all the gotcha mechanics like the super successful loot boxes that led into games as a services which lead to products like battlefront 2 and fallout 76

[@tramsgar]

You are correct, the omnipresent world-rot has spread its roots deep into the gaming industry for years now. Driving force is the decades-since fackinevil MS corp and greedy bureaucrats taking bribes instead of action against competition-killing buyouts. Not that gamers would take any off-screen action.

[@nrXic]

That is just crazy talk. There's no good reason to stop vertical integration in industries. MS should buy Activision and other publishers like Capcom and SEGA. As consumers, we need competition in the hardware space. Preventing that creates a monopoly at the hardware level which will hurt gamers more.

[@unvergebeneid]

Smaller than ever? I'm not sure you know what the word ever means.

[@Nekminute]

Long hair suits you better Jess

[@abccool1314]

Hot

[@mikejohnson8391]

that easy nothing good game wise and exclisity of playstation and Nintendo forcing people pick xbox who don't mind sharing xbox would win console war if only they can snatch marvel from playstation.

[@aurathedraak7909]

Not everyone can't afford 1-15k gaming laptops or computers nor lower end or midrange laptops that are 600 to 900 bucks.

[@erikmalmberg7319]

Gaming will die trust me

[@sillycoda1084]

ps5 out for 3 years, 1.5 years out of stock, but 3 years of nearly 0 good AAA games since release.

[@BashaarO.Tarabay]

To many Sony fanboy talking points , many of these assessments are purely opinionated and not factual

[@ha231]

I own an XSX, sub the subreddit... Where's the fanboyism? She's talking about all companies buying each other out. Obviously the focus is on Microsoft as their deal is huge. Are journalists just not supposed to talk about it? Grow up.

[@BashaarO.Tarabay]

@@ha231 I did say she was a fanboy, please read like an adult, I said her talking points are the same as the Sony fanboyism, take your head out of the sand for a second. Unfortunately acquisition is simply because the trend that she speaks of are unsustainable, single player content doesn't pay the bills when your development time of a product is 3-4 years, many studios are struggling and that why AA has taken off , because AAA single player experience is the fastest way to bankruptcy if you are independent. Her reasoning makes little sense and even seems like a contradiction here to be honest. Why would anyone build a single player experience if they run the risk of digging their own grave ? Market and demand has changed and we simply have to accept that.

[@ha231]

@@BashaarO.Tarabay I didn't say you said she was a fanboy. Maybe Take your own advice regarding reading?

[@dhruv9744]

Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Rockstar and FromSoftware are the only studios left without any credibility issues after the events of the last 2 years. On the other hand, Bethesda, CDProjektRed, Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard, EA and Bungie have ruined their reputation in the same timeframe. Weird how most of the successful ones are under sony, while most of the ruined ones are either Big Indies or under microsoft.

[@kb8570]

Go WOKE go BROKE.

[@mickael486]

Microsoft buys IP's because they're creatively bankrupt. Sony buys Talent.

[@nrXic]

This is why Microsoft needs to buy SEGA and Capcom. Get that talent.

[@mickael486]

@@nrXic Or they could just make their own fucking games since Sega and capcom games are already on xbox

[@nrXic]

@@mickael486 That's not how this industry works. Look at how Sony buys massive Japanese exclusives like Final Fantasy. If Microsoft wants to compete they need to buy SEGA and Capcom. As a huge SEGA fan, I'd really like to see them make arcade experiences again and Gamepass is the perfect outlet for that. They don't have to make $60 to $70 games every single time. They can make another small and tight Crazy Taxi game without having to worry about it offering $70 worth of value with useless features and padding their content.

[@mickael486]

@@nrXic You're comparing One exclusive game in a franchise to literally buying an entire corporation. Microsoft had done the same with one off games. that's just making a deal with "helping" to finance one game for exclusivity rights.

[@nrXic]

@@mickael486 I just gave one example. There are a ton of examples spanning various Japanese developers and various genres. But the point is that these publishers aren't taking a lot of risks but when you're backed by a larger company you're able to do so. It's also important for Microsoft to learn how to become a better publisher and Sony's best move when they enter the gamey industry was buying a publisher, Europe's largest at the time. It's how Sony quickly learned how to foster great relationships with developers like naughty dog and insomniac.

[@heartofdawn2341]

DONT. PRE-ORDER. GAMES. If people keep buying shitty products, they'll just keep making them.