Nacon exec says industry's problem is "too many games"
Nacon exec says industry's problem is "too many games"
The industry is starting 2024 in much the same way as it spent most of 2023, with news of layoffs and "for sale" signs …
Too many garbage AAA games, more like.
A lot of indies, too. And quality isn't enough to rise above the fray anymore.
I'm not going to say it's too many, because that's subjective, but in business terms it's a "red ocean"
I play indies because they're more of a "blue ocean" market, in that they push the boundaries to create very different experiences to what the industry is doing. These indies tend to trickle their way to larger studios once they prove the concept. For example:
- Minecraft - general idea of crafting being a core mechanic; now tons of games have crafting as a major mechanic
- Factorio - automation-type puzzles; didn't quite make it to AAA AFAIK, but there's plenty of other studios now making automation games
- Demon Souls/Dark Souls - FromSoftware was small-ish before those games, and now there's a whole genre
- Slay the Spire - now there's a ton of deck-building games
- Limbo - see Little Nightmares and plenty of others that have a very similar feel
And so on. Indies tend to push the boundaries (i.e. blue ocean), and larger studios fill in behind them.
14532 games were released on Steam in 2023. And that's Steam alone. Absolutely insane numbers.
Oh yeah, right. That's the problem. Consumers have too much choice now. It's not at all that 90% of those gamed now are badly lacking compared to what we used to have. It's not at all that publishers feel it's okay now to release unfinished products and continue development haphazardly after the game is put on sale. It's not at all that this leads to execs either pulling these dev resources as soon as the game had made good money to put these resources either on new projects or on DLC development. It's not at all that the industry has been pandering to the lowest common denominator for twenty years, making games that lack a challenge and reward you for nothing. It's not at all that games are produced by executives with business degrees rather than by extraordinarily passionate and talented creative typed like George Broussard, Chris Sawyer or John Carmack. It's not at all that in-game purchases through micro-transactions or even large transactions has skewed the incentive structures for both player and developer.
No, it's those pesky consumers, they've been given too much choice, they've become spoiled and entitled, so they won't be content with whatever crap a studio puts out, now. They won't just play the game and shut up.
That being said, I've heard that Nancon's Robocop is pretty decent. Has anyone played it?
I kinda agree. Back in the days, I was waiting for new games. Now, there are dozens of games waiting for me every time I complete one. It seems to be impossible to play everything nowadays even if you only do that. It’s not a big issue for us of course (we just have to accept we cannot play everything, and choose wisely how to use our playing time), but I can see this being an issue for the industry.
The solution to "too many games" is to make better games. Instead of making 3-4 "good" games, make 1-2 great games that stand out above the rest.
That's the way markets work, if there's too much competition, set yourself apart by being better in a meaningful way.
Too many shitty, overpriced games from greedy corporations, sure.
Can't say I disagree. There's fucktons of shovelware garbage clogging up stores. But as far as problems go, it's actually the least of the industry's worry.