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[Cyberpunkd]

A great article here: https://www.pushtotalk.gg/p/are-old-games-killing-new-games

Some choice quotes:

61% of all playtime last year was spent on games released over six years ago.

The trend is worsening. In 2023 just five games, most of them released over a decade ago, together accounted for more playtime than every game released in 2022 and 2023 combined.

Here's the kicker:

New, non-annualized games got just 8% of playtime. 92% of playtime is going to old games or annual editions of very old series.

Once you remove the annual franchise games and the top five megahits—Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur’s Gate III, Elden Ring, and Starfield—you’re left with a mere 4.5% of gaming time last year going to new titles.

The more than 14,000+ games released on Steam in 2023, plus every game released on consoles, were all competing for that small 4.5% slice of game hours.

 

[Skifi28]

I am.

 

[Big Baller]

I do.

 

[Paasei]

New games tend to not be all that good, or even finished, in comparison to the higher pricing of them. So it’s best to wait and/or actually find proper reviews.

 

[midnightAI]

Don't you mean no-one is buying new GaaS games anymore? (Which is also incorrect)

What the article should be is.... 'Five six year old games that are still kicking it today'



Edit: hehe, just noticed they called Starfield a megahit

 

[AV]

Playtime

People are still buying new games, they just return to their favourite GaaS stuff when they're done with them. Nobody's made a Fortnite killer yet.

 

[GHG]

Don't you mean no-one is buying new GaaS games anymore? (Which is also incorrect)

What the article should be is.... 'Six old games that are still kicking it today'

Yep, it looks like it's skewed towards the GAAS games, which typically get the most overall playtime anyway.

 

[Danjin44]

This year all I played were new games, the only old game I played is Monster Hunter World because of I’m hype for Wilds.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Games medium has matured... games are no longer just automatically better because of massive tech advances. True innovation in the medium is hard.

 

[Starbuck2907]

It takes two years for a modern game to get all the patches and dlc released, and sometimes longer to hit a decent price. Modern games aren’t even really complete until about two years after launch.

So, I’m not surprised people play older games. It’s usually the only way to get a complete, polished game at a decent price.

 

[Cao Cao]

What a stupid statistic without value.

 

[SweetTooth]

Well, Fortnite, CoD, Rocket League ...etc are skewing those charts alot.

 

[GymWolf]

I'm doing my part.gif

 

[PeteBull]

Black Myth: Wukong is a Massive Financial Success

A new report shares updated sales figures and reveals the revenue generated so far by last month’s runaway hit Black Myth: Wukong.

gamerant.com

As mentioned in a Bloomberg report, Black Myth: Wukong has raked in USD 700 million "so far," after selling over 18 million units in just two weeks since launch. This is already 10 times the investment of USD 70 million that was made into the development of the game over a period of six years.

edit:
newer data

Hit Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong lifts market sales in August

China’s video gaming market grew by more than 15 per cent year on year in August, driven by the popularity of global hit Black Myth: Wukong.

www.scmp.com

To date it has sold more than 20 million copies globally through game distribution platform Steam, bringing in gross revenue of over US$961 million, according to data compiled by game market researcher Video Game Insights.

 

[nemiroff]

What you posted does not corroborate your headline.

In fact, I do not see any mention of sales figures, at all.

Please explain.

 

[midnightAI]

Even though this supposed report is for PC and console, where are they getting the console figures from? Seems to me like the only source of the data is Steam?

 

[buenoblue]

I myself have started not buying games on release because they are always broken. Playing a game a year after release when fully patched is just better. And the game is usually a third of the price

Plus with my backlog, Gaas games and subscription services I just don't consume new games like I used to.

 

[STARSBarry]

I just bought memoria: refantrasia of whatever the fuck it's called after playing the Demo...

Perhaps developers should try making games worth playing rather than over monetised cash shops.

 

[ElFenomeno]

For me personally I'm at the age where nostalgia is hitting hard so I am replaying some of the 2000s and 2010's classics from time to time. Got also a PS3 for the same reason.
Plus PS2 emulation.

So that doesn't leave a lot of time for new games. When you factor in the price, the state most of them are released and the fact that I've already played and seen it all, yeah...why buy it day one?

 

[Sentenza]

I'm buying (and sometimes EVEN PLAYING!) new games constantly.

It's just that my purchases are increasingly rarely picked among the "triple A" output of major publishers, because that's usually some soulless, trite shit that I have hardly any desire to play.

 

[Doggyred]

Nowadays you are paying for a worst experience if you buy a game day one. Why would you pay $70 to essentially be a beta tester when you can wait 2-3 months and pay less with a better experience once the game has been patched.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I'm buying like 8-10 games each month, but obviously that I don't play them all.

 

[ZehDon]

Well, keep making Concord, and I'll just replay Resident Evil 2 Remake for the 28th time.

 

[Danjin44]

Nowadays you are paying for a worst experience if you buy a game day one. Why would you pay $70 to essentially be a beta tester when you can wait 2-3 months and pay less with a better experience once the game has been patched.

I don’t completely agree with that. I bought games like Unicorn Overlord day one and I had zero issues with it.

 

[Lorianus]

I'am one of them, all i do with my play time is play older JRPG's and emulate older games from my childhood, the only newer games i play are falcom releases and mihoyo gacha's.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Classic Broketober.

 

[captainnapalm]

Turning away from your core audience at the same time you raise prices - genius move.

 

[GHG]

What you posted does not corroborate your headline.

In fact, I do not see any mention of sales figures, at all.

Please explain.

Yep, the whole article is about total playtime, not new game purchases.

 

[Putonahappyface]

Nowadays you are paying for a worst experience if you buy a game day one. Why would you pay $70 to essentially be a beta tester when you can wait 2-3 months and pay less with a better experience once the game has been patched.

Sadly this tends to be the case.

 

[Vlodril]

"Once you remove the annual franchise games and the top five megahits—Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur’s Gate III, Elden Ring, and Starfield—you’re left with a mere 4.5% of gaming time last year going to new titles.

The more than 14,000+ games released on Steam in 2023, plus every game released on consoles, were all competing for that small 4.5% slice of game hours."

Once you remove all the games that sold well , this totally supports our thesis.

Cool...

 

[kruis]

Hmm ... isn't it always the case that the most popular games get the most sales and play time and everyone else is fighting for the scraps.

You can make the exact same article about the book industry where just a handful of authors become multi millionaires and the vast majority of published authors don't earn enough from their books to quit their day job.

 

[Wildebeest]

It has been the case for a long time that people would buy their annual sports game and that is absolutely it, no more, no less.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I'm buying like 8-10 games each month, but obviously that I don't play them all.

 

[chilichote]

The thing is, I have over 400 games on PS Plus, there are so many that I haven't played yet and before I buy something new that I don't really have to play, I first play what I want to tick off my list^^

So yes, I rarely buy (new) games anymore.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Didn't Astro Bot sell 10+M copies?

 

[Bernardougf]

1 - most new games come with bugs, perfomance issues and incomplete, by waiting 1 year you probably will get a cheaper, more complete and fully optimized game, early adopters are the new beta testers of the industry.

2 - I will repeat my answer from the other thread:

Shitty games made in the DEI development era with no respect for its supposed target audience dosent sell, news at eleven.

 

[Robb]

 

[DoctorEkkoUK]

Years and Years of devs releasing unfinished buggy games that they release now and patch later coupled with releasing games at high prices and then discounting them later once they are actually patched and working. Gamers are finally reacting and willing to wait.

 

[Bojanglez]

I am definitely more selective nowadays. I probably only buy 4-5 games day 1 a year, where it used to be at least double that. This is due to

- Existing backlog of games
- Games often being released that are unfinished, unpolished or actually broken

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Couple this with the fact many of the best dev/creators since the 90s will be around retirement age come the end of next gen + DEI, I don't have high hopes for the industry going forward. It's looking to become a pile of junk like Hollywood.

So I'm taking what I can get whilst we still have it good. Gimme all the remakes and remasters you can whilst theres still time!

Eventually I can see a scenario where most game release are:

1. Ultra safe or scaled back because of the lack of an audience as the upcoming generation are hooked on GAAS
2. DEI ridden and artisically bankrupt
3. Poor direction and artistic choices as all the old guard that have made gaming great since the 90s/00s have retired and moved on and the new modern crowd take the reigns.

 

[ChoosableOne]

Sales are real! Make those games 80 dollars and see what's gonna happen.

 

[deriks]

Different audiences. Not a fair comparison

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I bought some new games, this year. But, compared to previous years, it's an all time low. Next year, I predict it will be lower.
Ah, went in depth.. play time is also lower for me and will probably continue getting lower as I see the world turn to shit.

 

[MMaRsu]

Make some good games and Ill buy them

 

[Majukun]

that's the gaas model at work and why chasing it is not sustainable..there is a finite amount of play time and customer can give, so they can't just play multiple gaas at the time..which means that in that space there's gonna be a bunch of big winners and a TON of losers

 

[tusharngf]

I am buying games day 1 that i really want like any metroidvania or soulslike or crew series game thats it. Rest will be later on discount.

 

[Pancakes and Sausage]

Stop making shitty games that I don’t want to play.

Charging $100 including tax for those shitty games sure doesn’t help either.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Gaming has been stagnating for over a decade if not longer now. How is this surprising?

PSone to PS2 delivered vastly different game, PS3 to PS3 as well. Ever since it has been iteration after iteration. It's always the same, just a little bit different.

Waiting for sale or skipping non-tentpole games has never been easier.

 

[GMAK2442]

With the amount of money I expect the person around us to have, I doubt this is true.