2020s are shaping up to be like the 1980s for video games. With very few standouts and a giant bunch of uninspired games. Apparently in 1983 the market shrank some 90%. 2021 was also a remarkably poor year.
Some of it can be pointed to the pandemic but it really seems like generationally the market explodes, attracts a lot of people and money but then produces very little. Like it’s own 20/80 rule inside of a generation. Then when the revenue falls short the money leaves and the people go too. Which then leaves fewer but better games. Better because the players left are the ones with the passion for the work less the ones looking to get paid.
We’ve seen some trimming down already with the Microsoft buyout and new office demands. Probably some way to go before it really turns around. The NES which exploded in America didn’t come out until 1985 which really inspired a lot of new games. So we’re probably also looking at the tech revolution preceding the gaming industry boom.
Not to say there aren’t booms now but it’s the cheap, pyrrhic kind where quarterly numbers are pushed by a six month mount or a gimmick stunt.
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I think being on the cusp of peripheral innovation will shift brighter (young) minds into hardware over software. Obviously software is always going to be big, but writers drive game development more than coders (relative to what you’re noticing), I totally expect a decade of poor story boards while many of the up and coming bright minds in the industry shy away from the industry before AI is more regulated. Not that AI wont copy from times past, but humanity has a great habit of intentionally unintentionally satirizing the generation that came before it, something I expect to see done with AI a decade or two from now once we’ve seen how it actually impacts our entertainment industry.
the second great gaming crash is upon us. with many copies of starfield being dumped and buried, just like the ET game
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The nineteen eighties didn’t have a bunch of standouts?
That was like what launched video games
Final fantasy. Tetris. Mario. Duck hunt. Pacman. Donkey kong. Bomberman. Kirby. Excite bike. Get out of here.
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Not sure where you’re looking but Tears of the Kingdom has many calling it one of the best games ever made (so far). Having spent the last few months deeply buried in it I have to say I’m one of them.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is coming out next month and looks phenomenal.
I mean there’s a lot of games coming out, sure, and not all of them are going to be your cup of tea.
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the early 80s didnt.
the good games started coming out in the second half, after the crash
mario zelda final fantasy
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Half of what I listed was the early nineteen eighties.
I can google a better list and Really bring it home
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no one liked tetris. donkey kong was one of the reasons for the crash along with ET
mrs. pacman was better
Tetris was like the world’s best selling game for years and years… You don’t know your video game history… So sad
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why would i im not a boomer
So basically, you’re talking out your butt. But defending it due to your age?
All you gotta do is not talk out of your butt
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there was a crash and ET was buried. starfield is next
Yes e t was one of the worst games ever made. That doesn’t mean everything in that time frame was bad.
Heaven forbid this decade gets judged by avengers mmo
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mario and zelda saved gaming
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Yup. It certainly made it more mainstream than it already was.
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yep im a late 90s kid proud.
well late 90s baby
actually nintendo alone saved video gaming. Atari just wasn’t cutting it.
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If you read the post instead of selectively engaging with it, I did say NES came out in 1985.
So we’re not there yet. It’ll get better though when all the garbage clears out.
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