Enthusiasm in core gaming is down, and the companies don't seem to realize it or don't care.
The reveal for the Switch 2 was the lowest effort a generational hardware reveal has ever been. One of of the top yt comments says the following:
It would be something if this Wendy's Twitter account attitude was coming from Nintendo, but fans are just projecting that image onto them. To me, it comes off more like they're taking the Switch 2's success for granted.
"Here's some muddy ass footage of Mario Kart Not8, now piss off and get ready to preorder for maybe 3 new games of consequence and an avalanche of inferior ports"
Nintendo isn't alone here: Sony hasn't had a showcase in over 18 months, and their last was abysmal. State of Plays are contractual obligations on video. No one brings their A game to the content or the presentation. Third parties think that dripfeeding on Twitter and showing a 90 second trailer at one of Geoff Keighley's shill auctions does the trick.
Microsoft is able to put on a convincing effort for NotE3 because they've bought out half of the industry and dedicate most of their energy trying making things look better than they actually are.
And to that point, you might be thinking:
The presentations don't matter. It's about the games.
But this devil may care attitude to selling people on buying their games has also bled into the games themselves, and it's hard not to notice that this started as trade shows, expos and press conference became less of a concern.
Because we don't have regular conference dates, we're left for 5 or more years without having a clue what premiere studios are doing. We didn't know what Monolith Productions was doing for more than 4 years before they revealed Wonder Woman - and it's clear the lack of pressure got to them, as they'd barely started before the reveal which is why we haven't seen shit since.
It just seems like everyone is running on cruise control. Sequels are becoming lesser rehashes even when they take 4+ years to make with heavy asset reuse; new IP of significance is rare, and is either a pale imitation of old IP or looks fucking stupid; major publishers have swathes of their schedules filled by remasters and remakes, and dragging out old IP that was probably let go of for a reason; none of the platform holders are curating their stores; trailers are not as well put together as they were 10 years ago; top developers are more than happy going 5-8 years without releasing a game while collecting six figure salaries; and they increasingly don't give a festering fuck about making a game that sells if it isn't a Stockholm syndrome designed live service they can use to climb the corporate ranks.
And before any of you indie yahoos come in here telling us all about your "hidden gems", most of this stuff applies to that space too.
Who solves it, if anyone? Do we lay all our hopes on GTA6? Do we wait for Hermen Hulst to be dismissed, a major publisher like Ubisoft or Microsoft to crumble, Andrew Wilson to leave for Disney, and the half-century old guard of Nintendo to bow out? I think it's a mixture of all of this and more. This generation looks to be a total wipeout.
80.lv
Phil was right: Generations Are Over
