The transition of gaming from a nerdy, niche hobby to a mainstream multi-billion dollar industry has led to this cycle of destruction taking hold all across the board: studios founded and run by creative people with a passion for games get bought out by the money side of the business. The creatives get pushed out, and what's left is a money machine to be bought, sold, and inevitably destroyed by the higher-ups in the larger tech industry as a whole.
Exactly and all of this adds up to why people are playing Retro and Old Fashioned Videogames and of course Indie games because remember they are the future, that’s also why Toys for Bob (the creators of Spyro and Crash) and Notch (the creator of Minecraft) had both became indie which is also why the CEO of the game company that did Ori and the secrets of the forest had sided with us gamers.
Infinite growth is unsustainable for every industry. Those AAA companies think they live in a perfect utopia. They just hated the cyclical nature of life, the way things are.
i feel like this has always been obvious, but these suits are too proud to admit their livelihoods will eventually collapse if they aren’t careful biting the hand(in this case, gamers) that feeds them
I think our fathers said long ago that if you enjoy doing something, never do it for money because then it will become a job. Something to that effect. I love to make gourmet burgers for my family on occasion, everyone says I should try opening a small spot and sell them. I always say nope.
@@NikephorosCaesar Unfortunaely for gaming and 40K all the blame still falls on the fans and it sucks. So it's a never ending loop of people bitching and moaning and then immediately forgetting and throwing thousands of dollars at whatever the new product is
But Nintendo is a public traded company, and still the best in developing and publishing videogames. There is no way I'm staying away from them. At least, not until they screw up. Bad advice, I think.
In the gaming industry, it's possible Nintendo might be the exception to the rule. Capcom might be another. But oddly enough, with Nintendo being an exception, this same "exception" was the same company that pulled the gaming industry out of the crash back in the 80's. It sounds like Nintendo is needed again, to pull the gaming industry out of the "AAA crash".
To quote South Park Minister: "And so in conclusion, the successful premium game is based on five principles: entice the player with a simple game loop, use lots of flashing cha-chings and compliments to make the player feel good about themselves, train the players to spend your fake currency, offer the player a way to spend real currency for your fake currency-" Prince: "So they'll forget they're spending money." Minister: "-and make the game about waiting. But let the player pay not to wait. It's a surefire way to make lots of money." Phillip: "We understand micropaying, but can't the game hidden inside the charade it- just at least be fun?" Minister: "No no! It has to be just barely fun. If the game were too fun, then there would be no reason to micropay in order to make it more fun." This episode came out in 2014 and was likely made to make fun of Candy Crush and Clash of Clans but it even more relevant now
Word of sh. Who even wants to live anymore in such a world. Everything is like that. A true dystopia, and everything will get a LOT WORSE. Me, I'm loosing the will to actually live, slowly but surely. What's even the point anymore? Life can't be fun anymore, in any way. Everything at all is controlled by the same sad clowns.
I'm not saying all of the blame is on the consumer because it isn't, but the only reason it's gotten like this is because people keep buying games that do all of this. I implore anyone who does this to realize there's decades of games that have already released that you can enjoy right now and a good amount of them you can enjoy for next to free due to price drops and sales. Ask your friends about older games they like, maybe seek out other peoples favorite games of their childhood or titles you already own but never played. Give more games a chance especially ones that respect your money and time.
These people are reliant on their paypigs. Same mentality anyway, give a price and expect that to be accepted. If it isn't, call your customers names and make up a reason they didn't buy it, something to keep the blame away from the quality of the product.
I agree. I keep saying that us gamers are more to blame since we often support these bad games and practices. I'm not saying all of us are to blame, but for the most part we have partaking in some of these things.
Cant implore or expect anything from the general population, the general audience r dumbasses lets be honest, just look at test groups n see how streamers fumble thru the most basic things that dont have glowing, floating markers pointing to everything, hence the average consumer is brain dead, so ofc theyll buy all the corportae slop wit a fresh coat of brown paint
Laying off Tango has the same energy as when a math teacher tells you have the correct answer (Hi-Fi Rush), but you didn't follow the formula exactly as he wants you to (No microstransactions) and thus is giving you a 0 on the assignment (Laying off)
@ElDaumo that DOES, actually. There are devs saying that if even if you have a great game, if it doesn't pull in the numbers like Fortnite or COD, you aren't safe. HiFi Rush was and is an AMAZING game, and I'd of liked a sequel, but because the game didn't make a massive splash in terms of how much it made compared to other games, Microsoft gave Tango the axe. So yeah, the metaphor fits
@@aiodensghost8645 The reason for the shutdown is that they had nothing in delvelopment at the time when the shareholders needed a short term solution. they were actually in the process of getting their next project greenlit - In this case it was unfortunate timing.
@@aiodensghost8645 I dont know why my reply gets removed again an again... i´ll try once more: The reason for the shutdown is that they had nothing in delvelopment at the time when the shareholders needed a short term solution. they were actually in the process of getting their next project greenlit - In this case it was unfortunate timing.
It's all a side effect of video games skyrocketing to become the biggest entertainment industry this quickly. You get a lot of money men that see games as nothing more than an investment.
The killing off of Tango was so pointless and out of left field. It was a studio that actually had people's attention and interest, and whatever game they came out with next would have instant free press and popularity.
Probably because the game didn't make money. I keep trying to explain this to everybody. That game had a lot of licensed music that cost a lot of money. Everybody sucks that game off, but nobody supported it. And when it was ported PC and PS5 , again nobody supported it. It's sad but true.
@@metpach mate if you think the decision to shut down the studio wasn't made before they released it on PS5, you're delusional. They were gonna get shut down if they sold 5 or 5 million copies on the PS5
First of all I genuinely can't wait to see the corpos try to create a game that is just raw AI output. It's going to be fucking hilarious. You ultimately need skilled humans to make products comprehensible, because AI cannot judge or curate its own output. It doesn't have reasoning to determine whether something is unplayable or not. You don't need to check out of games entirely, just check out of AAA games. They're not interested in making fun games anyways and more ex-AAA employees are going indie and making real games. Let the big blimps crash down in a big fireball, because games themselves aren't going anywhere. Support more indies.
Yeah, you've had instances of games made heavily with AI and they're all garbage. With AAA stuff, that's what I meant when I said check out, indies are really the only reliable avenue for games nowadays.
AAA games already feel like AI generated trash, when you take a look at the decision making it honestly looks like the executives are asking a shitty AI chatbot what kind of games they should make, get the most random, nonsensical replies and then slap live service at the end and spend millions creating it.
Well....i went into indie games back in 2012, and modern news tells me i made the right choice. only getting company games on occasion when a worthwhile one shows up. indie is cheaper and free of various issues these companies have. and i have plenty of fun.
This is why I didn't want to upgrade my graphics card, I have very little interest to the current state of AAA gaming... So many things wrong, while indies are MUCH more varied and much less predatory (worst case scenario, I burn less money than a full priced game). I'd also rather support smaller companies in general, not just in gaming. I replaced my GTX950 for an RX6600 a bit after that GPU crypto storm lmao... And with that I could play Psychonauts 2 above 100fps (bought a high refresh monitor a few months later), so I'd say it still was totally worth it lmao
that is insane... they claim they want smaller prestigious games yet they close their only japanese studio which did nothing wrong and produced a hit?? someone explain this to me!
Tango was doing fine even prior to Hi-Fi Rush as well, The Evil Within series and Ghostwire Tokyo weren't mega hits but they were fine games. Then they release a genuine banger and are rewarded with the axe, it's ridiculous.
@@CiggySnakeBecause money. That game had a lot of licensed music. It being on gamepass hurt it. But, then when it launched on PS5, nobody bought it. The fact is, gaming budgets are outrageous. It's impossible for some of these studios to make a profit, let alone break even.
While I fully agree that game budgets are absurd and unsustainable nowadays, the anticipation and desire for a sequel to Hi-Fi Rush (or just another Tango title) was massive and would translate to even better performance on such a game. Rather than bank on that, MS just squandered it all.
I still find it insane they thought of this but kept 343... A banger IP with 3 generally disliked titles they obviously don't understand how to run and yet you bet everything on them pulling off a 4th when they aren't even using the old engine anymore? Like seriously why wouldn't you axe it now?
I find it ridiculous that people who don’t do something, weasel into that something, then destroy it for people that actually care about it and walk away with the decades of effort and profit that went into the thing to begin with. How many of us has had that cousin who comes over, screws over the entire dynamic of your house, then goes home and says he never likes being at your house anyways and he only comes by because he wants to play with your toys instead of his.
Lets change what AAA games mean then. From soft is now the example of a AAA game and If it goes to MONEY PIT levels we lable it as TRASH GAMES because that is all they are going to be. Spiderman 2 fits the bill of a TRASH GAME Same with POKEMON S/V and Halo infinite.
One thing - the "vote with your wallet" mantra doesn't work and never worked. The publishers today are targeting specifically people with a gambling addiction and western gaming whales with a lot of $ to burn (I was called "just mad and broke" for telling people that buying a scalped PS Portal is nonsensical with the handhelds we have available today, and I literally sell these electronics and had a PS5 and VR2). One of these people pays for.. what? 500+ of "normal" players? You can't win against this.
THANK YOU, I’ve been saying this for YEARS and I feel crazy whenever I see “guys remember to vote with your wallets” as if that makes any kind of sense at all, like if I don’t like games being a certain way, me not buying a thing isn’t gonna do shit when some 12 y/o with moms credit card is buying every skin in the game, like it’s not equal and people acting like it’s our fault this kind of monetization don’t actually understand the nature of how these things work. They will keep doing these business practices no matter what, if everyone actually agreed and managed to not engage in these practices these companies wouldn’t go back to the old model, they’d develop something even MORE predatory and addictive, and you’d still have people being like ‘it’s our fault because we voted with our wallets wrong’
yeah I learned this the hard way when I was kid, I was playing so much cod and over watch and I didn’t realize I was getting screwed over into a gambling addiction by buying a shit ton of loot boxes
That's part of the reason I recommend just checking out. The AAA industry has refined its monetization systems such that its success is contingent less so on direct sales and moreso on whaling. From that, the influence regular consumers (actual gamers) can exercise on these corporations is minimal and shrinking. I also directly talk about this in my Gaming Isn't Fun Anymore video, so check that out if you want.
There are *solutions* Encourage for more and support Independent studios. No Shareholders. - Worker owned - staff have more control over their work - better direct relations with consumers (gamers) - support open source/public domain over corporate I. E. Godot >> Unity - Push for public funding to upstart businesses. - investment in the company and staff within NOT the stocks. - in the long run Workers can and will get more earnings. - games will be made for gamers by gamers not shareholders.
-be a developer for a big studio -get assigned a shitty project -leave and start your own studio -make successful indie game -grow your studio -get bought by a multibillion $ company -back to step 1
@@tobyzilla Spend the rest of your best years working hard every day hoping your next project won't flop and deal with stress and anxiety. Or Take the money, go live in your dream house in a beautiful location and never work another day in your life. Very few people will chose the former, and honestly, I don't blame them.
A huge reason we’re seeing mass layoffs now is because of the exorbitantly high amount of people hired and studios merged during the pandemic which was always bound to fall back down to normal meaning a lot of people suddenly became redundant
I feel like you’re looking at the 80s and 90s industry with rose tinted glasses, as there were plenty of shovelware games intended for grandparents to buy and tie-in games with a guaranteed minimum sale quantity despite everyone knowing they sucked. That said, loot box and season pass addictions are definitely more exploitative than quarter-sucking arcade cabinets; but the difference is one of degree rather than of kind. I don’t know if I’d ever agree there was a true symbiotic relationship between publisher and customer. Especially given that when cartridge games were the norm, the console’s company exerted more influence on the games than in the old Studio System of Hollywood! It wasn’t quite pure vertical integration, but it was close with yearly maximum quotas and so on; it wasn’t until CD-based systems came along that developers had the freedom to set their own game-content goals and production quantities. From that one could maybe argue the late-90s and 00s were the only truly competitive market, I suppose. But that newfound freedom for developers and publishers also led to even more shovelware, and slightly-tweaked re-releases with a little bit of changed content. (The latter of which annoyed many people even more than DLC adding 20-50% on the price, because it would be the price of an entirely new game or even slightly inflated for the special edition! In fact that’s part of why people reluctantly accepted DLC in the first place!) The practice existed before CD dominance, just look at all the Street Fighter 2 editions, but CDs made sure every publisher could join in if they wanted to. But yeah, your analysis of the late-00s DLC era leading into micro-transaction hell is definitely accurate. Most of this video is a perfectly scathing and accurate analysis of the current industry. I just think there’s a little too much nostalgia in the intro.
Hi-Fi Rush is a little indie-like beat-em-up with a short campaign, they made it a Game Pass exclusive for over a month. No surprise on it didn't "turn a profit" on paper, it all went to Game Pass! They axed the goose and smashed it's golden eggs in sacrifice to King GaaS, yet were surprised when the corpse didn't keep laying golden eggs.
Fantastic video. I went back to school in 2011. One of the last times I could still be considered a "gamer" was around the release of HALO: REACH. By the time I eventually got a job as a game tester I barely recognized the industry. Everything had some kind of bizarre table top card game aspect to it and was RIFE with micro transactions and scumbag DLC. I might be an old man but for me, pure oldschool gaming died when the war with the Covenant ended in Halo 3.
Video games will never die even if the AAA Studios fail us. We will just want games enough eventually to learn to make our own. also known as Indie gaming, which is consistently better than most AAA games not that there are all bad AAA games, some Triple AAA modern games are legendary (Helldivers 2 kicks ass) but the ratio of good AAA games versus the bad AAA games its clearly favoring the bad side compared to Indie developers, which favor community, driven gaming passion projects, most of the projects are always quality.
You just voiced exactly all the reasons I haven't played a single new 3xA game on my own since 2017. This is also one of the reasons why I keep a bunch of old computers and consoles, I love my NES and my Genesis , they just work, you get what you get, no microtransactions, no day 1 patches, no ingame gambling (besides actual gambling games), it's perfect. Mainstream gaming is in the final stages of enshitification, it's a fact.
Chilling stuff, and hard to fix. We could, as gamers, start supporting the indie game developers to the exclusion of the AAA publishers, but that is hardly likely to make the publishers sack _fewer_ people or _drop_ prices. Gravity is a law - what goes up must, ultimately, come down - and the present pricing and gouging is unsustainable, but there will be a lot of collateral damage while it corrects. Arguably there already is.
The issue is that many of these major publishers aren't necessarily targeting gamers. A more normie audience has been cultivated and is now heavily targeted mostly through MTX ridden apps and the like. At least the indie scene remains strong, they're the only reason gaming isn't as culturally stagnant and decayed as TV/cinema.
I've previously worked in games so I can shed some light on the rampant monetization which is happening right now. Game studios 100% know what percentage of players will buy micro transactions. If everyone actually banded together to reject this shit price gouging it flat out wouldn't exist. It really is that simple.
I will be the first to admit to having supported N00bieSuck, Bugthesda, Active-Shittard. But that was unfortunatly before I realized the true reality. And boy do I regret that... hell fucking yeah I regret that... the worst thing is I can't make it undone... Yes... you are allowed to spit on me... :-)
cigman returns with another great video, i'm glad i wasn't the only one who saw major red flags when publishers started mentioning integrating AI into video game production
Yeah, the jokes would kinda just write themselves at that point. I think AI could be legitimately beneficial if used for some of the more manual or time consuming aspects of game development, but at present it'll just be used to replace any of the actual fun, artistic elements of game design.
AI has been used in the gaming industry long before the current boom of gen-AI programs, just that they were in different forms. NPC's run off of AI algorithms. Terrains & textures are done procedurally, which again is another form of AI. It's only the legal bounds of the neural networks that needs to be discussed & finalized upon by all major countries' governments by taking help of ACTUAL industry experts & not money hungry sharks.
Its only a matter of time till game publishers force updates on older games to include adverts and the only escape will be a 1.0 version on disc. As well as relying on soneone to mod them out of a decade old or longer game.
Great video, friend 👍 As someone who has been casually gaming since my childhood in Nigeria, i am very fascinated with the history of the industry and hobby. I mainly started with the PS2 in 2006 and only recently did i build ny own PC for gaming. I have come to hate the new phase of excessive monetization in the industry a d mainly stick to single player games😢 Hope things get better
you're just a front row viewer of the famous Microsoft "lose money" strategy >find a studio >spend a ton of money to buy it >make a game no one wants >close the studio >repeat it's a good strategy you just don't have the brain power to understand the benefits of losing money
Every Time read somthing about the " 360 Golden Age"😂I remeber the Red Ring of Dead Desaster...know the the " golden age" 360 has the same sale number s like the PS3 and the 360 lounched like one year earlier then the PS3😂In Reallity it was the Golden Age Again for Nintendo with the Wii not the 360 😮
3:59 This is actually untrue, in regards to Nintendo. They still have some people employed that have been there near the start of them shifting to video games, and the reviews of the company from previous employees is actually 90%+ positive. I cant speak for any other publisher, but Nintendo is actually a great company to work for, apparently.
I didn't really touch on it, but the issues I discussed here don't apply (at least as much) to Nintendo, they're kind of an anomaly in the AAA space. The reason I included them in that scene was regarding their general mismanagement of AlphaDream (the devs of the Mario & Luigi series), as the loss of them really sucks.
I will definitely give you that one. The loss of that series of games is nothing short of criminal. Just as good as, if not better than imo, old Paper Mario.
What makes you say that about Furukawa? The only real critique of the guy is that he hasn't really been "tested" in his position as CEO. He was handed Nintendo at a major high point, the Switch has been a worldwide success, and Nintendo's ventures in other media (mobile gaming, film) have been modest successes all without detracting from their main focus on video games.
I wonder why a company like Microsoft wouldn't try to at least sell off a studio like Tango, when they don't want them anymore, instead of just shutting them down. They could at least make some money back that way... and an existing studio with a great creative team would not just be destroyed.
Most the good people at Tango left with Shinji Mikami when he left only leaving newer developers so it's hard to say what they would have came out with next or if it would have even been any good Combine that with Tangos low sales of every title they produced It was a no Brainer for them to be shut down
@@CiggySnake It's almost like there is a fundamental sickness at the heart of the modern global economy, where expecting infinite growth from finite resources leads to increasing abuse and exploitation of workers and customers in order to wring every last drop of profit from a company until the only thing left is toxic reviled brand a broken withered husk of a workforce. I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book about why this system is broken and if there is a better alternative...
In my opinion instead of lamenting the death of the suicidal the gaming community should focus on the preservation and optimization of old games and emulators, the translation of untranslated games and the support of indie games. They need us not the other way around.
Nintendo isn't perfect, but they're easily the least bad/nakedly greedy put there in. Their biggest sin is just their treatment of fans, not necessarily the games.
💯Strangulation, Stagnation, and general enShittification. It's never been about the cost of making games, and always been about exploiting people that make games for the profit of the elite few.
@@PromisedTriggeringExcalibait Yes - Socialism. BIG scary Socialism!!! I.e. get studios under the control and ownership of the workers and/or public owned not publicly traded by shareholders or owned by corporate publisher like E.A., Ubisoft, Embracer group, Microsoft etc... Hence workers begin to organize like then form Unions like UAW does against giant auto corporations. Sega workers are one of the first workers to Unionize. Socialize - Independent studios, public funded/owned studios or in the case of giant corporations be Nationalized like calls for airlines Boeing to be. All these corporate exploits is not just happening in the games industry, it's everywhever and workers are fighting back with those outlined approaches.
@@PromisedTriggeringExcalibait Dude, the unions ALWAYS collude with the corpos in the end. Just look at Hollywood and the GARBAGE they make. Unions are trash for creative arts, only through an independent non hive mind, nonconforming avenue can art be made. Besides union bosses only care about getting union dues in artistic professions. No unions in art. Viva la freedom.
Sorry, momentarily forgot Americans have 70 years of propaganda shoved up their ass. Okay, so. Outside of the US, socialism is not a slur. And if you look closely, things like social saftey nets, social services, pensions and public education ARE SOCIALIST policies. That said i have no idea what op is on about, socialize games? What?
i wish people had my mentality of never buying something from a game that you already paid for, you went to a concert, you paid the ticket to enter, then you pay more for shirts and for food, but at least on a concert you can take the items that you brought back home.
That's why I don't buy games anymore, I don't watch new movies and shows I stick to old games, books, and shows from another time and if a new game or a remaster of an old game is deemed good then I'll find other means of playing it
My theory is that the costs of production and distribution of a modern AAA game has outstripped the profitability of a $60 game, thus forcing them to resort to services and microtransactions. In that case they need to lower their scope and shoot for AA to be more consistantly productive and profitable.
It's the equivalent of Hollywood studios saying they need 200-250 million dollars to make movies like batman V superman, while a Japanese studio makes a godzilla film for 12.5 million dollars and wins Oscar for visual effects. They don't need outlandish money, they need better management of where the money is flowing. That's all
@@A1stardan I agree. Though I'd argue that Godzilla Minus One a smaller scope of movie compared to Hollywood films due to its emphasis on drama and being more of a Jaws like movie on the seaside over being a Kaiju city stomper (which I'd think is more cost effective) for the majority of the suspense. Although its director is also the special effects coordinator which eliminated much of the overhead and that goes into the factor you brought up. With a mix of managing scope and production process there can be a reasonable tradeoff between cost, quantity amd quality.
The top shareholders who are also at the top of *every* publicly traded major tech/gaming platform pushing for these in-game ads/stores to buy real merch from in-game, predatory monetization, avatar-glopping, AI game development, merging game and social media, per-game subscriptions in addition to account subscriptions, is something that has been tested already for a few years on another platform. One that showed the shareholders so much promise that they decided to shift other platforms they control to that same testing model over time. Roblox. I kid you not. The success they saw on that is behind the direction you are seeing other gaming platforms take. The testing and platform shift of Roblox went largely unnoticed but not to people who develop and play on the platform. If you want to see the investors' vision for the future of gaming, look at the platform they've been testing it on. Its insane.
I’d recommend the book _Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business_ if you want to see where these practices and methodologies came from.
The sheer folly of infinite growth generated via finite resources indicates how worthless capitalism truly is. It's literally based on magical thinking.
The worst part is that this affects the production of games so deeply as well. Baldur´s Gate 3 comes to mind, if only because other developers considered it an ´anomaly´ in a twitter thread. Imagine, a good single player game with optional co-op and without microtransactions is considered something almost impossible now. No wonder people inmediately piled up on the guy, we simply want fun games without the micro stuff added.
dragons dogma isnt "riddled with microtransactions", yes it has them but the player still has a complete and finished game. Capcom uses this monetisation strategy for all of their games. in DMC, you can buy every single type of orb in the game but there is more than enough in the main game so you dont have to buy buy anything. Its the same with DD2, you get a steady supply of RC throughout the game, and it is used to hire new pawns (many of which are free) and it can also be used to get some other cosmetic items that dont affect gameplay.
A rational person who understands art and creativity is forced to recognize that DEI pushed by corporations also weakens the final quality of a game. Hiring for anything of than skill, talent, merit deludes the final recipe by hiring less competent creatives. Art is hard and almost nobody can create something the masses can enjoy. Do you wish to address this too?
@@BillRizer-we4iq the developers will lose $$$ and benefits obtained by investment firms. Freeing companies from DEI (in both hiring practices and the restrictions DEI places on story telling) along with progressive activists will be the only way we'll get great games from western AAA studios. This is unlikely to happen so gamers will move on to indie games now
The issue isn't companies being too greedy, and they need to slow down their greed to make better games; the problem is the profit motive itself and how it destroys all forms of art and entertainment.
Deregulation ruined it. Some franchises like Call of Duty were doomed to fail, because it brought too much income every year, but the entire industry fell victim to our predatory economy.
I don't know if it's a matter of deregulation, but rather a general lack of regulation for the sector. We don't have major publishers merging (outside of maybe the acquisition of ActiBliz by Microsoft), so it's not a matter of antitrust, and the issues arising from MTX and such predatory, pseudo-gambling systems are fairly novel. With that, the games industry definitely needs greater regulation, like cooling off periods for purchases (it's something I cover in the gacha vid I mentioned here).
If you really think that introducing advertising into games isn't "patricularly objectionable", you should reflect deeper on how advertising in public spaces affects the mind. It's literally pollution and brainwashing. I live in Europe and the trend is actually to remove advertising from public spaces. There is scarcely any allowed in my city, and I can tell you it has been doing wonders to my psychological wellbeing.
Also indie games that are boght by big studio are always enshittified, it's begun with minecraft very notably, every other moth there's an update to the terms of service that everyone hates, and I think we are inching closer and closer to the death of official Java support for minecraft meaning the death of thousands of mods and almost 2 decades of the games history. Mark my words, they will try it, that's why bedrock edition has a store and java doesn't.
At this point, i think playing an old Play Station game with a split screen is way more entertaining than this shit, i remember how my brother and i would fight to select the best and coolest looking character, and even fought for who gets to use the freshest controller, i think thats the real nostalgia not the featuring characters that fornite does
ikr 😂 and they act like it’s this profound thing that only they are realizing as if this hasn’t been an obvious spiral for like a decade. it’s gamer’s complacency that has partially allowed this reality to come true
I was about to say... Video has a fundamental misunderstanding of how market capitalism works. I don't have a problem with capitalism, it's the worst system that works. But it's undeniable that market capitalism can at times be incompatible with entertainment.
Aside from the hyperbolic critique of capitalism in the game itself, its music inspires a certain dread and alienation, perfect for topics such as this.
Well with Stellar Blade we got no microtansactions, tons of free cosmetics, great gameplay, and had so much of what gamers say they want and it flops harder than Skull and Bones and Suicide Squad. So we are getting more Skull and Bones and Suicide Squad treatment and less Stellar Blade treatment in the future.
@@Walamonga1313No they are lying, Stellar Blade topped the charts in multiples country such as the US UK France Switzerland Japan and others it's the most sold game in april infront of Helldivers 2 which is a multiplatform release, so yeah they are talking out of their ass.
The root issue of why our favorite franchises and devs have degraded can boiled down to the average consumer. We constantly complain of these scummy practices yet eventually give in and purchase the game, or whatever microtransactions. We're basically telling these devs and publishers that what they're doing is acceptable and they will make money regardless of public opinion. I've had this sentiment for ages and it feels like more people are finally beginning to realize how bad things have gotten in the gaming industry. Blame publishers all you want, blame the devs, blame the shareholders, the CEOs, but it's ultimately us, the consumer, that is to blame. We vote with our wallets and until the larger scene of consumers realizes this, things are only gonna get worse
The irony of the "informed consumer" movement of the late 90's is genuinely hilarious. With the advent of the Internet customers of a product was supposed to have easier access to information thus, be better informed about the product they bought and put corporations to task if anything was awry. However, what has happened instead is customers have gotten lazier and corporations use the Internet to be able to reach in our pockets without us not even getting up from our couches. The corporations can get away with murder because someone can swipe their credit card from home long before they do any research on a product. Technology is always posed as a benefit to people but it always becomes the ultimate tool for the powerful.
Oh 100%, the underlying issues discussed here have already infected and killed nearly every other form of art and entertainment (Film, TV, music, etc.). I'm just more involved in the gaming scene and there were some infuriating events therein as of late, hence the coverage here.
This is why I consider myself semi-retired from gaming and whatever gaming I still do is mostly regulated to daily physical/mental training and playing with my esports team. These days I’m more into manga and anime, and I’m trying to come up with my own stories!
I'm not tryna play no indie games they just don't do it for me that's why I play the good AAA games because I like my games with a little money behind them with a great story, graphics, gameplay, and voice acting. I'm not interested in playing games that look like they were made on a $10 budget.
I'm just glad key sellers exsist if i really wanna buy a new game, which rarely happens nowadays. I dont see a point in forking over 70-80 bucks to a company that wont use the money to improve game quality but rather puts it in some overpaid Ceo's / shareholders pocket.
I remember playing a game named Zula in my childhood (and i think its still up and running with players) the game had very predatory monetization practices and questionable design choices for example the loadout and gunplay mechanics of call of duty but with the movement (and many game modes) of counterstrike and almost all of the weapons were behind a paywall with the free weapons being garbage and the weapons weren't bought, they were "rented" meaning that you used real money to use a weapon temporarily and it had most of its maps ported from call of duty or counterstrike with a paint job
Aside from the sheer absence of vision or inspiration based on this description, the blatant rent-seeking behavior in what is supposed to be fun entertainment is just gross.
@@CiggySnake Apparently the original version (currently known as Zula Global on steam) was made by madbyte games and either localized or stolen by sorena games for iranian players (which is the version I played and that one is also still up and running)
Do anyone recall time when Humble Bundle was released with Trine in it? I recall people playing it on UA-cam for reviews and many was like "Holy crap, its beautiful, why do we need AAA with this indie devs?". And i still feel same way. Yes, there was a lot of new developers joining hype trend, a lot of crappy sloppy made indie games for quick buck, many underdeveloped products(good idea and intentions, underwhelming execution), but goddamn its still better then those battlepass microtransaction boolshit.
I've had this feeling this state of the industry will end like a forest fire. All the horrible things about modern triple a gaming will reach a boiling point. It'll get ugly, but maybe something better will come out in the aftermath of it all. I'm not sure if I'd call this optimism or pessimism, but I do get that feeling things are gonna go through an almost sort of reset once shit hits the fan. I could be wrong though, so who knows really.
Anything can be addictive if you give an addict enough time. Smoking was made to be addictive, but intelligent modern people realize it’s unsafe and don’t do things they know are built to be addictive especially if they know they have an addictive personality. Every idiot knows many of these video games are built with predatory practices, it’s your job as a consumer to not be a total idiot and have some standards and brain. It’s up to adults to act with responsibility and standards, and If they don’t have standards then tbh it was all our faults that we allowed society to erode and brain rot to this extent, our morality has fallen so ofc standards have too. I hate people infantilizing adults, if companies are making money off dumb people ok, people have been slowly getting dumber and dumber we all know this was bound to happen. Focus on supporting indie games and other games worth supporting instead of trying to force these companies to make games they have no creative interest in making anymore
With smoking, not only is nicotine a chemically addictive substance, but cigarette companies purposefully added additional chemically addictive substances to their product to ensure people got hooked. In the world of video games, while gaming can be addictive itself, the added addictive systems are of a more subtle and psychological nature. It's gambling (at least on a psychological level), but it's obscured; the understanding that it's designed to be addictive is not as widespread as the knowledge of cigarettes. Furthermore, the companies implementing these systems do so knowingly and do so solely to maximize profits (in lieu of making just regular games with regular profits). Consumers, of course, need to be educated on how addictive gaming can be and make educated decisions around it, but these companies are the ones ultimately (and unethically) putting in these addictive systems.
Ultimately many of the old games are still playable and many are in better shape than modern games. They can also expand (if they received an influx of players) to accommodate large player bases. So play some quakeworld or unreal tournament.
We don’t harass Pepsi or Coca Cola for implementing addicting ingredients in their products. We should not be upset with addictive micro transactions from game devs. It’s about self control.
This isn't the counter you think it is. It was gross when Marlboro and other tobacco companies intentionally put addictive additives in their products, it's gross when coke, pepsi, and all other sugar peddlers continue to put addictive additives in their products, and it's gross when the games industry does the same. Yes, people need to exercise self control, but the simple fact that they need to is a product of these companies' deliberate actions. If anything there just needs to be greater regulation of these addictive systems.
Profitable ENOUGH, that is the key word, because is never enough for a industry that seek profits in a predatory and irracional way, following a virus mentality, that only stops when the host is dead, then search another one to repeat the process!
Well, I did check out, sadly the gaming landscape is not what it used to be. I recently jumped into Action Figure collecting, mainly Figmas, and I've been quite please with the stuff I've gotten so far.
Sony raising the bar and making 2-300 million dollar games also helped ruining the industry, and now Sony can't earn the money back. Something is wrong when Spiderman 2 had the same budget as the most expensive movies ever made.
Ive been saying for the last 10 years it would take a second great video game crash to set things right, and it looks like it's finally here. Buckle up boys, video games are about to get good again
If it crashes again, great, it absolutely deserves it. However, i feel the industry is sufficiently leviathan and has enough tricks up its sleeve/stupid consumers enthralled to it that it can weather circumstances that in prior decades would have resulted in a crash.
I mean, it's not like these people have tremendous job security at the moment to begin with. Furthermore, if they're producing vapid garbage that is only profitable because it is exploitative and incurs pseudo-gambling addictions, then the decline of their industry may be personally tragic/unfortunate but beneficial more broadly.
I’m just glad indie games are doing very well their are a lot good indie and double AA games like helldivers 2, roboquest, risk of rain 2, deep galactic and ultrakill.
The transition of gaming from a nerdy, niche hobby to a mainstream multi-billion dollar industry has led to this cycle of destruction taking hold all across the board: studios founded and run by creative people with a passion for games get bought out by the money side of the business. The creatives get pushed out, and what's left is a money machine to be bought, sold, and inevitably destroyed by the higher-ups in the larger tech industry as a whole.
Precisely
Then it’s time to show the companies the gamers are in control, tighten your wallets boys and girls
Trye most gamers are Normies and not even nerds.
"May your favourite hobbies never go mainstream" should be the new polite way to say goodbye to somebody
Exactly and all of this adds up to why people are playing Retro and Old Fashioned Videogames and of course Indie games because remember they are the future, that’s also why Toys for Bob (the creators of Spyro and Crash) and Notch (the creator of Minecraft) had both became indie which is also why the CEO of the game company that did Ori and the secrets of the forest had sided with us gamers.
Infinite growth is unsustainable for every industry. Those AAA companies think they live in a perfect utopia. They just hated the cyclical nature of life, the way things are.
Infinite growth is COMPLETLY impossible.... both mathematically and physically...
i feel like this has always been obvious, but these suits are too proud to admit their livelihoods will eventually collapse if they aren’t careful biting the hand(in this case, gamers) that feeds them
The reticence to simply accept slow and steady growth is beyond me.
@@ytmld dude, suits only change their money on other projects, THEY NEVER LOSE!
One of the worst parts of capitalism not all investments should bear fruit you win some you lose some
One of the worst curses you can put on someone is to wish that their hobbies become mainstream.
💯
@@softsilkentofu Wow/ look at this normie trying to sound smart lol /s
Warhammer 40K is already experiencing this
I think our fathers said long ago that if you enjoy doing something, never do it for money because then it will become a job.
Something to that effect. I love to make gourmet burgers for my family on occasion, everyone says I should try opening a small spot and sell them. I always say nope.
@@NikephorosCaesar Unfortunaely for gaming and 40K all the blame still falls on the fans and it sucks. So it's a never ending loop of people bitching and moaning and then immediately forgetting and throwing thousands of dollars at whatever the new product is
A good rule of thumb, simply stay away from any public traded companies
And publishers as well
But Nintendo is a public traded company, and still the best in developing and publishing videogames. There is no way I'm staying away from them. At least, not until they screw up.
Bad advice, I think.
@stripedrajang3571 can you think of any other Public Traded company like Nintendo? Or are they simply just an exception to the rule?
In the gaming industry, it's possible Nintendo might be the exception to the rule. Capcom might be another.
But oddly enough, with Nintendo being an exception, this same "exception" was the same company that pulled the gaming industry out of the crash back in the 80's. It sounds like Nintendo is needed again, to pull the gaming industry out of the "AAA crash".
So almost all of them
To quote South Park
Minister: "And so in conclusion, the successful premium game is based on five principles: entice the player with a simple game loop, use lots of flashing cha-chings and compliments to make the player feel good about themselves, train the players to spend your fake currency, offer the player a way to spend real currency for your fake currency-"
Prince: "So they'll forget they're spending money."
Minister: "-and make the game about waiting. But let the player pay not to wait. It's a surefire way to make lots of money."
Phillip: "We understand micropaying, but can't the game hidden inside the charade it- just at least be fun?"
Minister: "No no! It has to be just barely fun. If the game were too fun, then there would be no reason to micropay in order to make it more fun."
This episode came out in 2014 and was likely made to make fun of Candy Crush and Clash of Clans but it even more relevant now
Word of sh. Who even wants to live anymore in such a world. Everything is like that. A true dystopia, and everything will get a LOT WORSE. Me, I'm loosing the will to actually live, slowly but surely. What's even the point anymore? Life can't be fun anymore, in any way. Everything at all is controlled by the same sad clowns.
I'm not saying all of the blame is on the consumer because it isn't, but the only reason it's gotten like this is because people keep buying games that do all of this. I implore anyone who does this to realize there's decades of games that have already released that you can enjoy right now and a good amount of them you can enjoy for next to free due to price drops and sales. Ask your friends about older games they like, maybe seek out other peoples favorite games of their childhood or titles you already own but never played. Give more games a chance especially ones that respect your money and time.
Some Remasters and Remakes are good
These people are reliant on their paypigs. Same mentality anyway, give a price and expect that to be accepted. If it isn't, call your customers names and make up a reason they didn't buy it, something to keep the blame away from the quality of the product.
I agree. I keep saying that us gamers are more to blame since we often support these bad games and practices.
I'm not saying all of us are to blame, but for the most part we have partaking in some of these things.
Cant implore or expect anything from the general population, the general audience r dumbasses lets be honest, just look at test groups n see how streamers fumble thru the most basic things that dont have glowing, floating markers pointing to everything, hence the average consumer is brain dead, so ofc theyll buy all the corportae slop wit a fresh coat of brown paint
@TechnoBear2099 All the more reason they deserve support
Laying off Tango has the same energy as when a math teacher tells you have the correct answer (Hi-Fi Rush), but you didn't follow the formula exactly as he wants you to (No microstransactions) and thus is giving you a 0 on the assignment (Laying off)
Yeah… that has nothing to do with the closing
@ElDaumo that DOES, actually. There are devs saying that if even if you have a great game, if it doesn't pull in the numbers like Fortnite or COD, you aren't safe. HiFi Rush was and is an AMAZING game, and I'd of liked a sequel, but because the game didn't make a massive splash in terms of how much it made compared to other games, Microsoft gave Tango the axe. So yeah, the metaphor fits
@@aiodensghost8645 The reason for the shutdown is that they had nothing in delvelopment at the time when the shareholders needed a short term solution. they were actually in the process of getting their next project greenlit - In this case it was unfortunate timing.
@@aiodensghost8645 I dont know why my reply gets removed again an again... i´ll try once more:
The reason for the shutdown is that they had nothing in delvelopment at the time when the shareholders needed a short term solution. they were actually in the process of getting their next project greenlit - In this case it was unfortunate timing.
@@ElDaumo Correct. Which is idiotic, short sighted, and _unbelievably_ thoughtless.
Business should be about the customers and employees. Not the investors and executives.
Not employees. Employees only exist because of customers therefore it’s all about the customer.
The company's wouldn't have started without investors after some profit I think it should be able to cut investors loose so they can invest elsewhere
It's all a side effect of video games skyrocketing to become the biggest entertainment industry this quickly. You get a lot of money men that see games as nothing more than an investment.
The killing off of Tango was so pointless and out of left field. It was a studio that actually had people's attention and interest, and whatever game they came out with next would have instant free press and popularity.
I hope Phil Spencer doesn't hear the end of the anger until he steps down
And soon after came Hellblade 2 which is flopping and making everyone fear the shutting down of Ninja Theory. Just awesome...
Probably because the game didn't make money. I keep trying to explain this to everybody. That game had a lot of licensed music that cost a lot of money. Everybody sucks that game off, but nobody supported it. And when it was ported PC and PS5 , again nobody supported it. It's sad but true.
@@metpach mate if you think the decision to shut down the studio wasn't made before they released it on PS5, you're delusional. They were gonna get shut down if they sold 5 or 5 million copies on the PS5
Considering how Microsoft did them dirty right off the bat by not marketing their game they're better off elsewhere
First of all I genuinely can't wait to see the corpos try to create a game that is just raw AI output. It's going to be fucking hilarious. You ultimately need skilled humans to make products comprehensible, because AI cannot judge or curate its own output. It doesn't have reasoning to determine whether something is unplayable or not.
You don't need to check out of games entirely, just check out of AAA games. They're not interested in making fun games anyways and more ex-AAA employees are going indie and making real games. Let the big blimps crash down in a big fireball, because games themselves aren't going anywhere. Support more indies.
Yeah, you've had instances of games made heavily with AI and they're all garbage. With AAA stuff, that's what I meant when I said check out, indies are really the only reliable avenue for games nowadays.
AAA games already feel like AI generated trash, when you take a look at the decision making it honestly looks like the executives are asking a shitty AI chatbot what kind of games they should make, get the most random, nonsensical replies and then slap live service at the end and spend millions creating it.
Well....i went into indie games back in 2012, and modern news tells me i made the right choice. only getting company games on occasion when a worthwhile one shows up.
indie is cheaper and free of various issues these companies have. and i have plenty of fun.
This is why I didn't want to upgrade my graphics card, I have very little interest to the current state of AAA gaming... So many things wrong, while indies are MUCH more varied and much less predatory (worst case scenario, I burn less money than a full priced game). I'd also rather support smaller companies in general, not just in gaming.
I replaced my GTX950 for an RX6600 a bit after that GPU crypto storm lmao... And with that I could play Psychonauts 2 above 100fps (bought a high refresh monitor a few months later), so I'd say it still was totally worth it lmao
that is insane... they claim they want smaller prestigious games yet they close their only japanese studio which did nothing wrong and produced a hit?? someone explain this to me!
Tango was doing fine even prior to Hi-Fi Rush as well, The Evil Within series and Ghostwire Tokyo weren't mega hits but they were fine games. Then they release a genuine banger and are rewarded with the axe, it's ridiculous.
@@CiggySnakeBecause money. That game had a lot of licensed music. It being on gamepass hurt it. But, then when it launched on PS5, nobody bought it. The fact is, gaming budgets are outrageous. It's impossible for some of these studios to make a profit, let alone break even.
While I fully agree that game budgets are absurd and unsustainable nowadays, the anticipation and desire for a sequel to Hi-Fi Rush (or just another Tango title) was massive and would translate to even better performance on such a game. Rather than bank on that, MS just squandered it all.
I still find it insane they thought of this but kept 343... A banger IP with 3 generally disliked titles they obviously don't understand how to run and yet you bet everything on them pulling off a 4th when they aren't even using the old engine anymore? Like seriously why wouldn't you axe it now?
@@michaellane5381Because Halo still does money, and probably it will be too much for them to find a new studio altogether
I find it ridiculous that people who don’t do something, weasel into that something, then destroy it for people that actually care about it and walk away with the decades of effort and profit that went into the thing to begin with.
How many of us has had that cousin who comes over, screws over the entire dynamic of your house, then goes home and says he never likes being at your house anyways and he only comes by because he wants to play with your toys instead of his.
Yeh🎉
At this point, I'd rather play games from the 90s and 2000s
Thank god that studios like Fromsoftware are still around makinh great games without any monetization.
Well they're about to have paid DLC soon
@@USMCKong0311 they actually put effort into it
@@USMCKong0311Their games are always full on release tho. Whenever they have dlc it's more of an expansion with a lot of extra content
@@USMCKong0311 have you seen how large their DLCs are?
Lets change what AAA games mean then. From soft is now the example of a AAA game and If it goes to MONEY PIT levels we lable it as TRASH GAMES because that is all they are going to be. Spiderman 2 fits the bill of a TRASH GAME Same with POKEMON S/V and Halo infinite.
One thing - the "vote with your wallet" mantra doesn't work and never worked. The publishers today are targeting specifically people with a gambling addiction and western gaming whales with a lot of $ to burn (I was called "just mad and broke" for telling people that buying a scalped PS Portal is nonsensical with the handhelds we have available today, and I literally sell these electronics and had a PS5 and VR2). One of these people pays for.. what? 500+ of "normal" players? You can't win against this.
THANK YOU, I’ve been saying this for YEARS and I feel crazy whenever I see “guys remember to vote with your wallets” as if that makes any kind of sense at all, like if I don’t like games being a certain way, me not buying a thing isn’t gonna do shit when some 12 y/o with moms credit card is buying every skin in the game, like it’s not equal and people acting like it’s our fault this kind of monetization don’t actually understand the nature of how these things work. They will keep doing these business practices no matter what, if everyone actually agreed and managed to not engage in these practices these companies wouldn’t go back to the old model, they’d develop something even MORE predatory and addictive, and you’d still have people being like ‘it’s our fault because we voted with our wallets wrong’
yeah I learned this the hard way when I was kid, I was playing so much cod and over watch and I didn’t realize I was getting screwed over into a gambling addiction by buying a shit ton of loot boxes
@@sebbo-p1yexactly
That's part of the reason I recommend just checking out. The AAA industry has refined its monetization systems such that its success is contingent less so on direct sales and moreso on whaling. From that, the influence regular consumers (actual gamers) can exercise on these corporations is minimal and shrinking.
I also directly talk about this in my Gaming Isn't Fun Anymore video, so check that out if you want.
@@CiggySnake I honestly fear they have enough addicts now to get by as it is… just like most people don’t go to casinos for gambling. But enough do.
There are *solutions*
Encourage for more and support Independent studios. No Shareholders.
- Worker owned
- staff have more control over their work
- better direct relations with consumers (gamers)
- support open source/public domain over corporate I. E. Godot >> Unity
- Push for public funding to upstart businesses.
- investment in the company and staff within NOT the stocks.
- in the long run Workers can and will get more earnings.
- games will be made for gamers by gamers not shareholders.
-be a developer for a big studio
-get assigned a shitty project
-leave and start your own studio
-make successful indie game
-grow your studio
-get bought by a multibillion $ company
-back to step 1
Works for every industry, we should be heavily pushing for this.
@BxPanda7 but if you have your own studio you can refuse to let a bigger company buy you out
@@tobyzilla Spend the rest of your best years working hard every day hoping your next project won't flop and deal with stress and anxiety.
Or
Take the money, go live in your dream house in a beautiful location and never work another day in your life.
Very few people will chose the former, and honestly, I don't blame them.
@@BxPanda7 or have your creations made from love and passion be ruined by the greedy corporation's
A huge reason we’re seeing mass layoffs now is because of the exorbitantly high amount of people hired and studios merged during the pandemic which was always bound to fall back down to normal meaning a lot of people suddenly became redundant
I feel like you’re looking at the 80s and 90s industry with rose tinted glasses, as there were plenty of shovelware games intended for grandparents to buy and tie-in games with a guaranteed minimum sale quantity despite everyone knowing they sucked.
That said, loot box and season pass addictions are definitely more exploitative than quarter-sucking arcade cabinets; but the difference is one of degree rather than of kind.
I don’t know if I’d ever agree there was a true symbiotic relationship between publisher and customer. Especially given that when cartridge games were the norm, the console’s company exerted more influence on the games than in the old Studio System of Hollywood! It wasn’t quite pure vertical integration, but it was close with yearly maximum quotas and so on; it wasn’t until CD-based systems came along that developers had the freedom to set their own game-content goals and production quantities.
From that one could maybe argue the late-90s and 00s were the only truly competitive market, I suppose. But that newfound freedom for developers and publishers also led to even more shovelware, and slightly-tweaked re-releases with a little bit of changed content. (The latter of which annoyed many people even more than DLC adding 20-50% on the price, because it would be the price of an entirely new game or even slightly inflated for the special edition! In fact that’s part of why people reluctantly accepted DLC in the first place!) The practice existed before CD dominance, just look at all the Street Fighter 2 editions, but CDs made sure every publisher could join in if they wanted to.
But yeah, your analysis of the late-00s DLC era leading into micro-transaction hell is definitely accurate. Most of this video is a perfectly scathing and accurate analysis of the current industry. I just think there’s a little too much nostalgia in the intro.
Hi-Fi Rush is a little indie-like beat-em-up with a short campaign, they made it a Game Pass exclusive for over a month. No surprise on it didn't "turn a profit" on paper, it all went to Game Pass! They axed the goose and smashed it's golden eggs in sacrifice to King GaaS, yet were surprised when the corpse didn't keep laying golden eggs.
you know hifi rush topped steam charts right? steam doesnt track shitpass.
@@snintendog Not nearly to the degree it should've.
Hi fi rush wasn't indie
Fantastic video. I went back to school in 2011. One of the last times I could still be considered a "gamer" was around the release of HALO: REACH. By the time I eventually got a job as a game tester I barely recognized the industry. Everything had some kind of bizarre table top card game aspect to it and was RIFE with micro transactions and scumbag DLC. I might be an old man but for me, pure oldschool gaming died when the war with the Covenant ended in Halo 3.
Gaming is the only industry where you can double your investment and still be considered unprofitable by your superiors
Video games will never die even if the AAA Studios fail us. We will just want games enough eventually to learn to make our own. also known as Indie gaming, which is consistently better than most AAA games not that there are all bad AAA games, some Triple AAA modern games are legendary (Helldivers 2 kicks ass) but the ratio of good AAA games versus the bad AAA games its clearly favoring the bad side compared to Indie developers, which favor community, driven gaming passion projects, most of the projects are always quality.
its a 30:1 ratio between indie and AA vs AAA
You just voiced exactly all the reasons I haven't played a single new 3xA game on my own since 2017. This is also one of the reasons why I keep a bunch of old computers and consoles, I love my NES and my Genesis , they just work, you get what you get, no microtransactions, no day 1 patches, no ingame gambling (besides actual gambling games), it's perfect. Mainstream gaming is in the final stages of enshitification, it's a fact.
Chilling stuff, and hard to fix. We could, as gamers, start supporting the indie game developers to the exclusion of the AAA publishers, but that is hardly likely to make the publishers sack _fewer_ people or _drop_ prices. Gravity is a law - what goes up must, ultimately, come down - and the present pricing and gouging is unsustainable, but there will be a lot of collateral damage while it corrects. Arguably there already is.
The issue is that many of these major publishers aren't necessarily targeting gamers. A more normie audience has been cultivated and is now heavily targeted mostly through MTX ridden apps and the like. At least the indie scene remains strong, they're the only reason gaming isn't as culturally stagnant and decayed as TV/cinema.
This might be the most Eloquently written video I've watch all year. Keep up the amazing work!
I've previously worked in games so I can shed some light on the rampant monetization which is happening right now.
Game studios 100% know what percentage of players will buy micro transactions. If everyone actually banded together to reject this shit price gouging it flat out wouldn't exist. It really is that simple.
There was a lot of Truth in this video. And he did not shy away from pointing out that consumers are also to blame.
I will be the first to admit to having supported N00bieSuck, Bugthesda, Active-Shittard.
But that was unfortunatly before I realized the true reality.
And boy do I regret that... hell fucking yeah I regret that... the worst thing is I can't make it undone...
Yes... you are allowed to spit on me... :-)
cigman returns with another great video, i'm glad i wasn't the only one who saw major red flags when publishers started mentioning integrating AI into video game production
Yeah, the jokes would kinda just write themselves at that point. I think AI could be legitimately beneficial if used for some of the more manual or time consuming aspects of game development, but at present it'll just be used to replace any of the actual fun, artistic elements of game design.
AI has been used in the gaming industry long before the current boom of gen-AI programs, just that they were in different forms. NPC's run off of AI algorithms. Terrains & textures are done procedurally, which again is another form of AI. It's only the legal bounds of the neural networks that needs to be discussed & finalized upon by all major countries' governments by taking help of ACTUAL industry experts & not money hungry sharks.
Remember, It is always moral to pirate AAA games.
Uhh no
@@lightdarksoul2097 uhh yeah
Its only a matter of time till game publishers force updates on older games to include adverts and the only escape will be a 1.0 version on disc. As well as relying on soneone to mod them out of a decade old or longer game.
Great video, friend 👍 As someone who has been casually gaming since my childhood in Nigeria, i am very fascinated with the history of the industry and hobby. I mainly started with the PS2 in 2006 and only recently did i build ny own PC for gaming. I have come to hate the new phase of excessive monetization in the industry a d mainly stick to single player games😢 Hope things get better
It hurts to be around during the 360 golden age just to see what the xbox brand reach new lows.
you're just a front row viewer of the famous Microsoft "lose money" strategy
>find a studio
>spend a ton of money to buy it
>make a game no one wants
>close the studio
>repeat
it's a good strategy you just don't have the brain power to understand the benefits of losing money
Every Time read somthing about the " 360 Golden Age"😂I remeber the Red Ring of Dead Desaster...know the the " golden age" 360 has the same sale number s like the PS3 and the 360 lounched like one year earlier then the PS3😂In Reallity it was the Golden Age Again for Nintendo with the Wii not the 360 😮
@@KnowToChill I'm not here for a console war bro. I just want to have fun playing games again.
@@ultratheman sounds about right
I had a 360 in the second half of its lifespan, I only used it for indie games, didn't play Halo until a decade later.
3:59
This is actually untrue, in regards to Nintendo. They still have some people employed that have been there near the start of them shifting to video games, and the reviews of the company from previous employees is actually 90%+ positive. I cant speak for any other publisher, but Nintendo is actually a great company to work for, apparently.
I didn't really touch on it, but the issues I discussed here don't apply (at least as much) to Nintendo, they're kind of an anomaly in the AAA space. The reason I included them in that scene was regarding their general mismanagement of AlphaDream (the devs of the Mario & Luigi series), as the loss of them really sucks.
I will definitely give you that one. The loss of that series of games is nothing short of criminal. Just as good as, if not better than imo, old Paper Mario.
@@itranscendencei7964 problem is witht he new CEO they are following the trends of SOYNY and MICROSHAFT.
What makes you say that about Furukawa? The only real critique of the guy is that he hasn't really been "tested" in his position as CEO. He was handed Nintendo at a major high point, the Switch has been a worldwide success, and Nintendo's ventures in other media (mobile gaming, film) have been modest successes all without detracting from their main focus on video games.
@@CiggySnake wrong person?... lol
I wonder why a company like Microsoft wouldn't try to at least sell off a studio like Tango, when they don't want them anymore, instead of just shutting them down. They could at least make some money back that way... and an existing studio with a great creative team would not just be destroyed.
Most the good people at Tango left with Shinji Mikami when he left only leaving newer developers so it's hard to say what they would have came out with next or if it would have even been any good
Combine that with Tangos low sales of every title they produced
It was a no Brainer for them to be shut down
opens a portal in a fantasy game, sees a crystal cervesa Comercial before im allowed to step through
Don't give them any ideas
In the immortal words of Mighty Sterling, Corpos don't need to make money, they need to make ALL the money
And this applies to all corpos in all industries, not just gaming. It's gross and it sucks.
@@CiggySnake It's almost like there is a fundamental sickness at the heart of the modern global economy, where expecting infinite growth from finite resources leads to increasing abuse and exploitation of workers and customers in order to wring every last drop of profit from a company until the only thing left is toxic reviled brand a broken withered husk of a workforce.
I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book about why this system is broken and if there is a better alternative...
In my opinion instead of lamenting the death of the suicidal the gaming community should focus on the preservation and optimization of old games and emulators, the translation of untranslated games and the support of indie games.
They need us not the other way around.
I am just glad Nintendo keeps on making quality games and don't fall into this never-ending trend.
Nintendo isn't perfect, but they're easily the least bad/nakedly greedy put there in. Their biggest sin is just their treatment of fans, not necessarily the games.
Nintendo is just as bad if not worse especially when it comes to emulators and mods
Nintendo just charge you 70 bucks for 11+ year old games. No biggie.
@@falconeshield average Nintendo famboy defending a greedy corporation
Found the fanboy lol
💯Strangulation, Stagnation, and general enShittification. It's never been about the cost of making games, and always been about exploiting people that make games for the profit of the elite few.
*ORGANIZE, UNIONIZE, SOCIALIZE* the games industry,
until then this corporate greed will never stop.
Socialize? Wtf?
@@PromisedTriggeringExcalibait it is rhetoric. Meaningless buzzwords as AI slowly takes over the industry
@@PromisedTriggeringExcalibait Yes - Socialism. BIG scary Socialism!!!
I.e. get studios under the control and ownership of the workers and/or public owned
not publicly traded by shareholders or owned by corporate publisher like E.A., Ubisoft, Embracer group, Microsoft etc...
Hence workers begin to organize like
then form Unions like UAW does against giant auto corporations. Sega workers are one of the first workers to Unionize.
Socialize - Independent studios, public funded/owned studios or in the case of giant corporations be Nationalized like calls for airlines Boeing to be.
All these corporate exploits is not just happening in the games industry, it's everywhever and workers are fighting back with those outlined approaches.
@@PromisedTriggeringExcalibait Dude, the unions ALWAYS collude with the corpos in the end.
Just look at Hollywood and the GARBAGE they make.
Unions are trash for creative arts, only through an independent non hive mind, nonconforming avenue can art be made.
Besides union bosses only care about getting union dues in artistic professions.
No unions in art.
Viva la freedom.
Sorry, momentarily forgot Americans have 70 years of propaganda shoved up their ass.
Okay, so. Outside of the US, socialism is not a slur. And if you look closely, things like social saftey nets, social services, pensions and public education ARE SOCIALIST policies.
That said i have no idea what op is on about, socialize games? What?
Companies learned that games don't need to be fun to make money.
i wish people had my mentality of never buying something from a game that you already paid for, you went to a concert, you paid the ticket to enter, then you pay more for shirts and for food, but at least on a concert you can take the items that you brought back home.
Bro couldn't wait for Xbox presentation
Bloody hell you know there’s stagnation when someone coins the term “yesterdecades”. 😂
That's why I don't buy games anymore, I don't watch new movies and shows
I stick to old games, books, and shows from another time and if a new game or a remaster of an old game is deemed good then I'll find other means of playing it
My theory is that the costs of production and distribution of a modern AAA game has outstripped the profitability of a $60 game, thus forcing them to resort to services and microtransactions. In that case they need to lower their scope and shoot for AA to be more consistantly productive and profitable.
It's the equivalent of Hollywood studios saying they need 200-250 million dollars to make movies like batman V superman, while a Japanese studio makes a godzilla film for 12.5 million dollars and wins Oscar for visual effects.
They don't need outlandish money, they need better management of where the money is flowing. That's all
@@A1stardan I agree. Though I'd argue that Godzilla Minus One a smaller scope of movie compared to Hollywood films due to its emphasis on drama and being more of a Jaws like movie on the seaside over being a Kaiju city stomper (which I'd think is more cost effective) for the majority of the suspense. Although its director is also the special effects coordinator which eliminated much of the overhead and that goes into the factor you brought up. With a mix of managing scope and production process there can be a reasonable tradeoff between cost, quantity amd quality.
Spider-Man 2 cost $300 million to make, so yes, it has definitely outstripped the profitability.
I would argue there are no AAA games recently and only MONEY PITS.
The top shareholders who are also at the top of *every* publicly traded major tech/gaming platform pushing for these in-game ads/stores to buy real merch from in-game, predatory monetization, avatar-glopping, AI game development, merging game and social media, per-game subscriptions in addition to account subscriptions, is something that has been tested already for a few years on another platform. One that showed the shareholders so much promise that they decided to shift other platforms they control to that same testing model over time. Roblox. I kid you not. The success they saw on that is behind the direction you are seeing other gaming platforms take. The testing and platform shift of Roblox went largely unnoticed but not to people who develop and play on the platform. If you want to see the investors' vision for the future of gaming, look at the platform they've been testing it on. Its insane.
I’d recommend the book _Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business_ if you want to see where these practices and methodologies came from.
The sheer folly of infinite growth generated via finite resources indicates how worthless capitalism truly is. It's literally based on magical thinking.
spot on! I also laughed at 10:04 and couldn't agree more. Thanks for the video
AA, indie and old games for me for some time now - no AAA for a long time now and I've never pre-ordered.
The worst part is that this affects the production of games so deeply as well. Baldur´s Gate 3 comes to mind, if only because other developers considered it an ´anomaly´ in a twitter thread.
Imagine, a good single player game with optional co-op and without microtransactions is considered something almost impossible now. No wonder people inmediately piled up on the guy, we simply want fun games without the micro stuff added.
dragons dogma isnt "riddled with microtransactions", yes it has them but the player still has a complete and finished game. Capcom uses this monetisation strategy for all of their games. in DMC, you can buy every single type of orb in the game but there is more than enough in the main game so you dont have to buy buy anything. Its the same with DD2, you get a steady supply of RC throughout the game, and it is used to hire new pawns (many of which are free) and it can also be used to get some other cosmetic items that dont affect gameplay.
I wouldn't call DD2 a complete game. It feels more like DD1.75 (Dark Arisen is 1.5) with the exact same issues as 1
A rational person who understands art and creativity is forced to recognize that DEI pushed by corporations also weakens the final quality of a game. Hiring for anything of than skill, talent, merit deludes the final recipe by hiring less competent creatives. Art is hard and almost nobody can create something the masses can enjoy. Do you wish to address this too?
What whould happen if they dont fallow the DEI
@@BillRizer-we4iq the developers will lose $$$ and benefits obtained by investment firms. Freeing companies from DEI (in both hiring practices and the restrictions DEI places on story telling) along with progressive activists will be the only way we'll get great games from western AAA studios. This is unlikely to happen so gamers will move on to indie games now
He probably won’t bother without also including a right-wing equivalent (government backing, grifter crowdfunding).
The issue isn't companies being too greedy, and they need to slow down their greed to make better games; the problem is the profit motive itself and how it destroys all forms of art and entertainment.
Deregulation ruined it.
Some franchises like Call of Duty were doomed to fail, because it brought too much income every year, but the entire industry fell victim to our predatory economy.
I don't know if it's a matter of deregulation, but rather a general lack of regulation for the sector. We don't have major publishers merging (outside of maybe the acquisition of ActiBliz by Microsoft), so it's not a matter of antitrust, and the issues arising from MTX and such predatory, pseudo-gambling systems are fairly novel. With that, the games industry definitely needs greater regulation, like cooling off periods for purchases (it's something I cover in the gacha vid I mentioned here).
It is not enough for them to have profit. They must also have infinite growth. Like a cancer.
If you really think that introducing advertising into games isn't "patricularly objectionable", you should reflect deeper on how advertising in public spaces affects the mind. It's literally pollution and brainwashing. I live in Europe and the trend is actually to remove advertising from public spaces. There is scarcely any allowed in my city, and I can tell you it has been doing wonders to my psychological wellbeing.
Also indie games that are boght by big studio are always enshittified, it's begun with minecraft very notably, every other moth there's an update to the terms of service that everyone hates, and I think we are inching closer and closer to the death of official Java support for minecraft meaning the death of thousands of mods and almost 2 decades of the games history. Mark my words, they will try it, that's why bedrock edition has a store and java doesn't.
One of the few things you won’t regret in your life as a gamer, is buying a modded retro console.
At this point, i think playing an old Play Station game with a split screen is way more entertaining than this shit, i remember how my brother and i would fight to select the best and coolest looking character, and even fought for who gets to use the freshest controller, i think thats the real nostalgia not the featuring characters that fornite does
This whole genre of UA-cam videos where gamers realize that the problems with capitalism actually affect the thing they like, too, is fascinating
ikr 😂 and they act like it’s this profound thing that only they are realizing as if this hasn’t been an obvious spiral for like a decade. it’s gamer’s complacency that has partially allowed this reality to come true
I was about to say... Video has a fundamental misunderstanding of how market capitalism works. I don't have a problem with capitalism, it's the worst system that works. But it's undeniable that market capitalism can at times be incompatible with entertainment.
A mass unionization drive in the industry would be the final nail in the coffin, not a path out of the darkness.
Love the use of cruelty squad soundtrack towards the end. Very fitting!
Aside from the hyperbolic critique of capitalism in the game itself, its music inspires a certain dread and alienation, perfect for topics such as this.
Well with Stellar Blade we got no microtansactions, tons of free cosmetics, great gameplay, and had so much of what gamers say they want and it flops harder than Skull and Bones and Suicide Squad. So we are getting more Skull and Bones and Suicide Squad treatment and less Stellar Blade treatment in the future.
Stellar flopped? It got censored tho so ik some people didn't buy because of that. Not to mention PS5 exclusive rules out a huge market
@@Walamonga1313 Rise of the Ronin beat it and Rebirth destroyed it.
@@Walamonga1313No they are lying, Stellar Blade topped the charts in multiples country such as the US UK France Switzerland Japan and others it's the most sold game in april infront of Helldivers 2 which is a multiplatform release, so yeah they are talking out of their ass.
No it didn’t, it’s one of the best selling games of the year. Lay off the hrt.
@@GorudenMidas This month it was #1 but year to date it's 16th. Didn't you find it weird that 2 fallouts were in the top 10 for the month.
I bought a Commodore 64 and went back to retro... challenging to develop for 😂
The root issue of why our favorite franchises and devs have degraded can boiled down to the average consumer. We constantly complain of these scummy practices yet eventually give in and purchase the game, or whatever microtransactions. We're basically telling these devs and publishers that what they're doing is acceptable and they will make money regardless of public opinion. I've had this sentiment for ages and it feels like more people are finally beginning to realize how bad things have gotten in the gaming industry. Blame publishers all you want, blame the devs, blame the shareholders, the CEOs, but it's ultimately us, the consumer, that is to blame. We vote with our wallets and until the larger scene of consumers realizes this, things are only gonna get worse
The irony of the "informed consumer" movement of the late 90's is genuinely hilarious. With the advent of the Internet customers of a product was supposed to have easier access to information thus, be better informed about the product they bought and put corporations to task if anything was awry. However, what has happened instead is customers have gotten lazier and corporations use the Internet to be able to reach in our pockets without us not even getting up from our couches. The corporations can get away with murder because someone can swipe their credit card from home long before they do any research on a product. Technology is always posed as a benefit to people but it always becomes the ultimate tool for the powerful.
You mean, the corporate strangulation of anything that promotes freedom of enjoyment and creativity.
Oh 100%, the underlying issues discussed here have already infected and killed nearly every other form of art and entertainment (Film, TV, music, etc.). I'm just more involved in the gaming scene and there were some infuriating events therein as of late, hence the coverage here.
This is why I consider myself semi-retired from gaming and whatever gaming I still do is mostly regulated to daily physical/mental training and playing with my esports team. These days I’m more into manga and anime, and I’m trying to come up with my own stories!
I'm not tryna play no indie games they just don't do it for me that's why I play the good AAA games because I like my games with a little money behind them with a great story, graphics, gameplay, and voice acting. I'm not interested in playing games that look like they were made on a $10 budget.
I'm just glad key sellers exsist if i really wanna buy a new game, which rarely happens nowadays. I dont see a point in forking over 70-80 bucks to a company that wont use the money to improve game quality but rather puts it in some overpaid Ceo's / shareholders pocket.
I remember playing a game named Zula in my childhood (and i think its still up and running with players)
the game had very predatory monetization practices and questionable design choices
for example the loadout and gunplay mechanics of call of duty but with the movement (and many game modes) of counterstrike
and almost all of the weapons were behind a paywall with the free weapons being garbage
and the weapons weren't bought, they were "rented" meaning that you used real money to use a weapon temporarily
and it had most of its maps ported from call of duty or counterstrike with a paint job
Aside from the sheer absence of vision or inspiration based on this description, the blatant rent-seeking behavior in what is supposed to be fun entertainment is just gross.
@@CiggySnake Apparently the original version (currently known as Zula Global on steam) was made by madbyte games and either localized or stolen by sorena games for iranian players (which is the version I played and that one is also still up and running)
And it all started with horse armor
Nice to see Lyle finally achieve CEO of sex status in the thumbnail
I'd blame the casuals /whale gamers. No one else to blame tbh
Mobile games set the rules for these and they follow
I would argue they arent gamers or even casuals they are just addicts.
Do anyone recall time when Humble Bundle was released with Trine in it? I recall people playing it on UA-cam for reviews and many was like "Holy crap, its beautiful, why do we need AAA with this indie devs?". And i still feel same way. Yes, there was a lot of new developers joining hype trend, a lot of crappy sloppy made indie games for quick buck, many underdeveloped products(good idea and intentions, underwhelming execution), but goddamn its still better then those battlepass microtransaction boolshit.
I've had this feeling this state of the industry will end like a forest fire. All the horrible things about modern triple a gaming will reach a boiling point. It'll get ugly, but maybe something better will come out in the aftermath of it all. I'm not sure if I'd call this optimism or pessimism, but I do get that feeling things are gonna go through an almost sort of reset once shit hits the fan. I could be wrong though, so who knows really.
Love your videos.
The cherry on top for me was getting an arknights ad after the end of the video
11:46 You bet I am, Game. *Selects Suffer and Die*
Anything can be addictive if you give an addict enough time. Smoking was made to be addictive, but intelligent modern people realize it’s unsafe and don’t do things they know are built to be addictive especially if they know they have an addictive personality. Every idiot knows many of these video games are built with predatory practices, it’s your job as a consumer to not be a total idiot and have some standards and brain. It’s up to adults to act with responsibility and standards, and If they don’t have standards then tbh it was all our faults that we allowed society to erode and brain rot to this extent, our morality has fallen so ofc standards have too. I hate people infantilizing adults, if companies are making money off dumb people ok, people have been slowly getting dumber and dumber we all know this was bound to happen. Focus on supporting indie games and other games worth supporting instead of trying to force these companies to make games they have no creative interest in making anymore
With smoking, not only is nicotine a chemically addictive substance, but cigarette companies purposefully added additional chemically addictive substances to their product to ensure people got hooked. In the world of video games, while gaming can be addictive itself, the added addictive systems are of a more subtle and psychological nature. It's gambling (at least on a psychological level), but it's obscured; the understanding that it's designed to be addictive is not as widespread as the knowledge of cigarettes. Furthermore, the companies implementing these systems do so knowingly and do so solely to maximize profits (in lieu of making just regular games with regular profits). Consumers, of course, need to be educated on how addictive gaming can be and make educated decisions around it, but these companies are the ones ultimately (and unethically) putting in these addictive systems.
I got an ad for a gambling site midway through this video
Business suits entering any industry is always the beginning of the end of said industry.
Yes
Ultimately many of the old games are still playable and many are in better shape than modern games. They can also expand (if they received an influx of players) to accommodate large player bases. So play some quakeworld or unreal tournament.
We don’t harass Pepsi or Coca Cola for implementing addicting ingredients in their products. We should not be upset with addictive micro transactions from game devs. It’s about self control.
This isn't the counter you think it is. It was gross when Marlboro and other tobacco companies intentionally put addictive additives in their products, it's gross when coke, pepsi, and all other sugar peddlers continue to put addictive additives in their products, and it's gross when the games industry does the same. Yes, people need to exercise self control, but the simple fact that they need to is a product of these companies' deliberate actions.
If anything there just needs to be greater regulation of these addictive systems.
Profitable ENOUGH, that is the key word, because is never enough for a industry that seek profits in a predatory and irracional way, following a virus mentality, that only stops when the host is dead, then search another one to repeat the process!
great video! love the use of smt music + sfx a lot lol
The sound design/music in the SMT series is on another level
Well, I did check out, sadly the gaming landscape is not what it used to be.
I recently jumped into Action Figure collecting, mainly Figmas, and I've been quite please with the stuff I've gotten so far.
corporatism is the death of all art
Well written, you have earned a sub.
the ONLY problem we have are the people who make money for these greedy corporations via microtransactions
Very good video
Sony raising the bar and making 2-300 million dollar games also helped ruining the industry, and now Sony can't earn the money back.
Something is wrong when Spiderman 2 had the same budget as the most expensive movies ever made.
Ive been saying for the last 10 years it would take a second great video game crash to set things right, and it looks like it's finally here. Buckle up boys, video games are about to get good again
If it crashes again, great, it absolutely deserves it. However, i feel the industry is sufficiently leviathan and has enough tricks up its sleeve/stupid consumers enthralled to it that it can weather circumstances that in prior decades would have resulted in a crash.
@@CiggySnakeNo, it wouldn't be "great", it'd be thousands of jobs lost.
@@wav3st3p16 thousands of jobs that produce garbage lmao
@@wav3st3p16 where you get your money matters bro
I mean, it's not like these people have tremendous job security at the moment to begin with. Furthermore, if they're producing vapid garbage that is only profitable because it is exploitative and incurs pseudo-gambling addictions, then the decline of their industry may be personally tragic/unfortunate but beneficial more broadly.
When there are billions in revenue to be made. Corporate greed will be there figuring out how to bilk more.
I’m just glad indie games are doing very well their are a lot good indie and double AA games like helldivers 2, roboquest, risk of rain 2, deep galactic and ultrakill.
my life is like a video game trying hard to beat the stage
All while I am still collecting coins
@@CiggySnake ⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️🅱️🅰️ start
Honestly, with how much gigantic the big three are, I doubt the coming VG crash would be enough to get rid of them.
it won't, the crash will hurt everything but them.