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[64bitmodels]

For whatever reason, I doubt that. Weren't we 100% sure that would be the case with price increases this gen? Lol

Higher prices will mean fewer games make the cut... but that's not a crash. Or a bad thing, tbh.

Nobody said that 70 dollars will make people stop buying games. But 150-200 dollars certainly will tank sales. Most Americans can't even afford a 400 dollar emergency.

There's no point in discussing this further if you genuinely think that Nitendo's unique situation proves anything.

Not very unique. Most of Japan seems to follow their model too. Capcom isn't spending a bazillion dollars on games (well, outside of resident evil) and they're working out pretty well. As are Sega and Namco. (eing was quite expensive though) Nintendo has had the most success with the model.
Also. We've gotten plenty or indie darlings in the past that were also financially successful- Palworld, Vampire Survivors, Binding of Issac, Terraria, Lethal Company, PUBG, Shovel Knight... lots of exceptions to the rules here.

T is not a market of the average human being in the first place.

A market of 1 billion customers is somehow not representative of the average human being- that's 1/7 of the world population. Gaming is super mainstream now.

You'll have noticed that everything I listed is stuff already in motion to some degree. DRM on digital isn't going to get less powerful. In fact with AI coding, you can expect it to get ever harder to crack.

And Crack groups will use those too.


These price increases you suggest for gaming are just going to accelerate the inevitable crash even faster.

 

[Bigfroth]

I was around 9 when the crash of "83" happened... geez I'm old lol

 

[Stooky]

No crash needed. there are plenty of great innovative games being made OP is just not playing them.

 

[Tg89]

Nah, most games are doing just fine.

Microsoft has never had any clue what to do in the space and have always tried to just spend their way to the top.
Sony is stuck on their 3rd person cinematic experiences that have unsustainable budgets. They're managing for now but they definitely need to switch up.
There's a handful other companies that are completely void of creativity and the ability to make good gameplay that have relied too long on upping the ante of visuals/presentation. That's resulted in budgets and development cycles that are unsustainable and they're paying for it now.


Lots of smaller/indie studios are doing just fine making innovative games with manageable scopes.
People shit on Nintendo for their hardware/graphics but they're out here making great games with REASONABLE and SUSTAINABLE scopes/budgets and doing fantastic. Prioritizing gameplay as opposed to visuals.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Sony is stuck on their 3rd person cinematic experiences that have unsustainable budgets.

Those games make them money. They aren't "stuck" and have adjusted accordingly with the changing climate.

It seems that some really let the budget of Spider-Man lead them to think that all of their big games have those kinds of budgets. They don't.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

It doesn’t matter how hard they look at Manor Lords, they will never be able to duplicate it.

The same way no publisher can hope to have another Harry Potter series or A Song of Ice and Fire by hiring a thousand writers.

The Manor Lords guy didn’t start with the idea that he’s going to make money from gaming, and then came up with the game to do it. He started with a game he wanted to make, and it was so good he was able to make money from it.

I understand that, but that's still how someone running a large studio is likely to view it. You can't recapture lightning in a bottle easily, but betting on games that cater really well to underserved niches, as opposed to more games with massive scope that attempt to appeal to everyone, probably seems like a safer bet at this point.

 

[Zathalus]

Nah, plenty of good games to enjoy. Just don't buy the micro transaction GaaS stuff and you will be fine.

 

[IDKFA]

Yeah and game dev was a lot harder and less accessible then than it is now

And? I'm sorry, but what's your point here? How does this justify a crash now?

 

[KXVXII9X]

It's not our fault publishers keep making overbudgeted projects. Just make smaller games. They come out faster, they're just as good most of the time and they are cheap.

Gamers would not pay more up front for their games because even if game prices rised to 120 dollars that would inherently limit the audience of a game. And that's not even taking to account frequent sales, used games, piracy, and digital game keys. Rising game prices wouldn't solve the problem it would just make them less accessible and incite more outrage.

But there has been numerous smaller polished games that haven't sold as well.

People bitch and moan about Ubisoft making the same big budget open world games but then continue to ignore games like Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and talk about how they are too expensive.

I know it is partly Ubisoft s fault since they trained everyone to wait for steep discounts.

It also seems like big companies almost want their smaller budget games to fail with very little marketing and releasing a brand new IP by shadow dropping it while also having it free, day 1 on their subscription service.

 

[SHA]

Right 110 percent, sequels are no longer necessary at this point, at this moment and time Star Citizen should be the golden living standard, devs come and go nice and easy for one purpose and only, making great content, I'm fine with all the existing ips going away as long as we get the best if not exceeding what we want from them, we didn't asked for sequels in the 90s which is proving my point.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

I think it's fair to point out that Microsoft isn't the only major problem. Nvidia is also in a very unhealthy position for gamers. In general, the dependency of this hobby on cutting edge technology and exponentially growing resources when the world has so many other uses for them is something that needs to change.

 

[Badlucktroll]

Hypothetically i think the crash is most likely to come from Microsoft buying too much, then shutting it down

 

[near]

Talking about an industry-wide crash is nonsensical. There are segments of the business that will change - you're seeing that happen right now. Massively budgeted AAA games? Over-optimistic attempts at GaaS? Those are starting to get culled, and that's going to continue. I think we'll see a shift to more modestly budgeted games that take fewer financial risks but are allowed somewhat more creative latitude. Not to the point of what we saw during the PS2 era, but better than what we have now. I think indie games - especially the more polished ones, are going to start taking a much more prominent space in the business. Once more of these sorts of games become more of a focal point of 1P marketing, I think that segment will start to take off. However stupid the people running a lot of the big studios are, there's no way they aren't looking at this year's success of stuff like Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Manor Lords and taking some serious notes on how to direct their development efforts.

Well said. I'm mean, what would an industry-wide crash even look like? I'd imagine it to be exactly what's happening in the industry now.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

No pal, we only need Xbox to die. Rest of the industry is more or less fine

Why? What kind of shit take is this?

 

[Plague Doctor]

Well said. I'm mean, what would an industry-wide crash even look like? I'd imagine it to be exactly what's happening in the industry now.

Yeah my point in these talks is an entire industry crash won't happen. AAA's specifically? We are at a critical point where it could resemble a crash if the top companies don't act fast. And by fast, I mean act yesterday. Spoiler: Most won't do shit and few will even double down on overblown budgets.

AA/Indies segment and especially the mobile segment (regardless of how me, you, or anyone feels about mobile games) continue to chug along with many, many success stories.

In a hypothetical case all where AAA studios go belly up tomorrow, those two other segments will continue to grow.

 

[Rudius]

Honestly I think this "crash" idea many of you have is make believe. Listen to people talk about the 1st crash. There were still games coming out that whole time, just a lot less. We're never not going to have games on multiple devices.

Maybe we are a the crash right now, but will take some time to be sure.

 

[kyussman]

I know one thing,since I stopped actively gaming nearly three years ago the AAA industry has fallen off a cliff for me......at this point I've zero desire to get back gaming although I will never say I'm done with it because I still like the medium.Even Sony have pissed me off in recent years and I've been a huge PlayStation fan since the PS1.As for Phil Spencer era Xbox,gaming cancer......I just wish I liked Nintendo more but I've never been a fan of their games.

 

[digital_ghost]

This MS stuff has really got to some people hasn't it.

People having Mental Spasms for sure.

 

[MALpractice311]

And it's still insane to wish for a crash to happen rather than course correct as needed not to mention the uncertainty of the landscape after. Fuck all those jobs now because maybe it'll be better after for the players?

If the market can't sustain the products they're selling and a crash/correction happens, yes, it sucks in the short run for those people who lose their jobs, but that means there's not enough of a demand for those products and there's no need for people in those jobs and they should consider a career change. That's how the free market works. Sorry, but no one is entitled to the career of their choice. If that were the case, I would be Taylor Swift's personal masseuse, but it's not, so I had to find a career that I found moderately enjoyable, that I was good at, and paid well.

 

[Rival]

Talk about a crash and then watch when Switch 2 comes out and no one can buy it for retail price for the first year because demand will be so high.

 

[ByWatterson]

Nah it's just a contraction and correction.

 

[Danjin44]

If the market can't sustain the products they're selling and a crash/correction happens, yes, it sucks in the short run for those people who lose their jobs, but that means there's not enough of a demand for those products and there's no need for people in those jobs and they should consider a career change. That's how the free market works. Sorry, but no one is entitled to the career of their choice. If that were the case, I would be Taylor Swift's personal masseuse, but it's not, so I had to find a career that I found moderately enjoyable, that I was good at, and paid well.

Please tell me how "crash" is going to help? Will corporation suddenly become less greedy? will games suddenly cost less to make?

This is no different than people who thinks nuking the world suddenly make everything better.

 

[lughnasadh123]

If the market can't sustain the products they're selling and a crash/correction happens, yes, it sucks in the short run for those people who lose their jobs, but that means there's not enough of a demand for those products and there's no need for people in those jobs and they should consider a career change. That's how the free market works. Sorry, but no one is entitled to the career of their choice. If that were the case, I would be Taylor Swift's personal masseuse, but it's not, so I had to find a career that I found moderately enjoyable, that I was good at, and paid well.

"If" being the important word. No one is not buying games anymore nor is there a crash looming. Post Covid drop off and inflation costs being the two major factors for readjustments for the industry. People are still very much buying their games with still excellent profits - demand still remains strong. There's no crash here other than people bizarrely wanting it to happen.

 

[Barakov]

Given all the news we’ve been seeing lately over the last few years and especially in these last few weeks, one thing is clear:

We need a gaming industry crash. While it will be painful and difficult, it is necessary to restore order in the midst of the chaos.

It seems like over the last decade we’ve been spoon fed trash upon trash, and gaming companies have shifted to producing games that are made to extract as much money as possible from you but without providing anything redeeming or inherently fun in return. Games aren’t games anymore, they’re just ”products”.

Obsession with live service games, micro transactions, engagement, concurrent players, endless upon endless broken day 1 releases with infinite patches to fix a problem that can’t be fixed: you can’t patch a game to fix lack of creativity and lack of passion.

Games no longer take risks. Nothing is ever groundbreaking or original anymore. Game developers have been largely been castrated by soulless corporations that pay more attention to excel spreadsheets than their own creators and fans. Everything is done by committee and has to check every box conceivable.

Might as well let AI make games now, because from what I am seeing the humans aren’t doing a good job of making games anymore.

We need a crash. Time to reset the market.

I think if/when Microsoft fucks off, the market will have a chance to correct itself. Ever since the 360(despite that being probably the best xbox games wise) Xbox introduced a lot of bad ideas to the industry that have made games worse and worse. I think once the truly greedy people get bored and find something else to ruin and leave games alone, then and only then will things start to improve. Although, to be frank that's a pipedream at this point.

Gabe is to big to fail. He must be broken apart.

Sounds like a worst scenario for PC gaming.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Gaming as a form of entertainment is here to stay. You aren't going to see an industry wide crash like the 80s, when it wasn't sure if the fad of gaming would stick around. The worst you'll see is a large pullback in certain segments of the industry (AAA, F2P, indie, and anything hardware related). It's not like people are going to abandon their favorite hobby entirely.

 

[Griffon]

OP, look outside the western AAA console market. The industry is full of great games and it's getting better and better.

 

[Fbh]

Lol there's not going to be a crash.
Gaming made 180+ BILLIONS in revenue last year (for comparison, the global movie box office revenue last year was 40 billion)
The only thing that might change is the companies making most of the money, the types of games or the way we consume them. But gaming as a form of media is here to stay.

 

[Ian Henry]

I was around 9 when the crash of "83" happened... geez I'm old lol

Bro you not old......



You ancient

 

[El Muerto]

We just need a big developer co-op. Different studios handling different aspects of multiple games. All working together and self publishing games. Artists having the freedom to make their art. Then when they have enough money, the can obtain the IPs that were bought and killed by big companies like EA, Embracer, Msoft, etc. No shareholders, no CEOs, nobody to answer to except for people who play games.

 

[Ian Henry]

There won't be a crash but as some have mentioned, there needs to be correction. Too much greed and massively high expectations are diluting the quality. Needs to be rebooted

 

[T-0800]

Given all the news we’ve been seeing lately over the last few years and especially in these last few weeks, one thing is clear:

We need a gaming industry crash. While it will be painful and difficult, it is necessary to restore order in the midst of the chaos.

It seems like over the last decade we’ve been spoon fed trash upon trash, and gaming companies have shifted to producing games that are made to extract as much money as possible from you but without providing anything redeeming or inherently fun in return. Games aren’t games anymore, they’re just ”products”.

Obsession with live service games, micro transactions, engagement, concurrent players, endless upon endless broken day 1 releases with infinite patches to fix a problem that can’t be fixed: you can’t patch a game to fix lack of creativity and lack of passion.

Games no longer take risks. Nothing is ever groundbreaking or original anymore. Game developers have been largely been castrated by soulless corporations that pay more attention to excel spreadsheets than their own creators and fans. Everything is done by committee and has to check every box conceivable.

Might as well let AI make games now, because from what I am seeing the humans aren’t doing a good job of making games anymore.

We need a crash. Time to reset the market.

I remember all those awesome movie games on my C64. So glad that wasn't companies trying to make a quick buck.

 

[Vexed Dad]

Given all the news we’ve been seeing lately over the last few years and especially in these last few weeks, one thing is clear:

We need a gaming industry crash. While it will be painful and difficult, it is necessary to restore order in the midst of the chaos.

It seems like over the last decade we’ve been spoon fed trash upon trash, and gaming companies have shifted to producing games that are made to extract as much money as possible from you but without providing anything redeeming or inherently fun in return. Games aren’t games anymore, they’re just ”products”.

Obsession with live service games, micro transactions, engagement, concurrent players, endless upon endless broken day 1 releases with infinite patches to fix a problem that can’t be fixed: you can’t patch a game to fix lack of creativity and lack of passion.

Games no longer take risks. Nothing is ever groundbreaking or original anymore. Game developers have been largely been castrated by soulless corporations that pay more attention to excel spreadsheets than their own creators and fans. Everything is done by committee and has to check every box conceivable.

Might as well let AI make games now, because from what I am seeing the humans aren’t doing a good job of making games anymore.

We need a crash. Time to reset the market.

Not to mention the politics in games these days, i mean ive gone back to older consoles (PS3 and 360) just to play things that didnt feel like a lecture.

Reminds me of the lyrics in the below song:

"
Intersectionality, I couldn't care less,

None of it matters, it's just virtue test,

Don't need Eve lookin’ like Lizzo,

Or hear about Ellie's love kinks libido,

We're just fed up with all of this."

gaming was a completely different vibe back then!

 

[Dacvak]

No pal, we only need Xbox to die. Rest of the industry is more or less fine

I don’t understand this sentiment at all. We need Xbox to fire Phil and stop sucking. More competition is always good for consumers.

I hope Xbox is able to dig themselves out of this hole and do a complete reversal. Hell, maybe their next console will be the Xbox 180…

 

[Jesb]

There wont be a crash but there are different adjustments that companies will make in order to survive. Sony may need to readjust its strategy with gaas and in the future I could see PS6 games start releasing day one on PC. They may ditch VR and instead invest fully on PC instead. Xbox may need to be on PlayStation for all their games. This is likely.

 

[Rayderism]

Gaming is much too mainstream to ever completely crash like it did in the 80's. It certainly can slump, and maybe the media might hype it up as a crash, but we'll never be in a place like back then. There could even be a sort of "reset", but it would probably be more subtle than people might think it would be. Maybe some of the woke stuff might start to fade, as there is a growing push back against that stuff. We're already seeing the death throws of physical media. Who knows what direction things will really go. It never goes the way we expect.

 

[Pejo]

Don't buy AAA western games. Don't touch their live-service scams. Don't trust their words and never pre-order.

I've been doing that for a while and I'm surviving pretty nicely.

Yep this is the key thing. Stop giving them money. Stop becoming a MAU. Stop watching/supporting/sharing stuff. "Voting with your wallet" is a piece of it, but to really make a dent these days, you have to play by today's metrics and marketing rules.

I stopped "hate watching" movies, knowing I'd hate them and just get angry about it. Shit like Disney live action remakes and Post phase 3 Marvel stuff - stopped consuming it, pretty much stopped discussing it. I'm not gonna reward stuff that I don't want to get made by being a metric in whatever way they're going to try to say "see this is viable!"

Luckily western AAA stuff is doing you a favor and most of it is just fucking terrible in its premise, execution, monetization, etc, so it's actually not all that hard to just avoid things you don't like these days. There are tons of great older games or indie stuff out there to fill more time than you actually have for entertainment. Just stop rewarding stuff you dislike, that's all.

 

[Švejk]

I don't know how, but I would be ok with this.

Unfortunately, I cannot see it restarting without the heavy use of AI.

 

[ArtHands]

Just because you made a wrong bet on consoles and consoles is burning now, doesn’t mean the rest of the industry should go down. Mobile and PC are still doing well if not great at the moment.

 

[MrCunningham]

I

Given all the news we’ve been seeing lately over the last few years and especially in these last few weeks, one thing is clear:

We need a gaming industry crash. While it will be painful and difficult, it is necessary to restore order in the midst of the chaos.

.

I'm not sure if the games industry can really crash... because of the way it is all distributed now. Online services will mostly just continue on, like they always would, and there are just too many alternative outlets to really cause a crash. I think the 1983 videogame crash was more contained to the North American market, and it had more to do with retail outlets getting sick of mass returns/ refunds on high profile Atari games, and other games like it? But then again, maybe this is also why retailers want to make games as a service, so you can own nothing? ><

 

[drganon]

Just because you made a wrong bet on consoles and consoles is burning now, doesn’t mean the rest of the industry should go down. Mobile and PC are still doing well if not great at the moment.

Only one console brand is dying, the other two are doing fine. Try not being so disingenuous for once in your miserable life.

 

[Danjin44]

Don't buy AAA western games. Don't touch their live-service scams. Don't trust their words and never pre-order.

I've been doing that for a while and I'm surviving pretty nicely.

I don’t have to even try……they rarely made any game I would enjoy…..this year I haven't bought a single western game, there was not much to look forward to this year or even year after that.

 

[MrCunningham]

Just because you made a wrong bet on consoles and consoles is burning now

If you were on the fence about 'said console' and don't really care about its future prospects, it might not be a bad time to snag one during a fire sale.... The last console that I did this for was the Playstation classic... for all its flaws, it was still worth the $29.99 wallmart 'fire burner' price.

 

[Phase]

It's been happening. It's just a slow crash.

Wiki 2023-2024 layoffs

 

[Damigos]

We need to reset Xbox, not the gaming industry

 

[darrylgorn]

People have a natural inclination to believe that 'if you work hard, you will achieve success'.

While this may be true, it's still limited by external factors and depending on the industry, won't matter in the slightest.

We are reaching this limitation in the gaming industry.

In fact, we have already reached that limitation in other forms of media, such as music and movies.

The final truth that people need to accept is this: What we can do is finite. It all comes to an end because there is, quite literally, no ideas left.

We've hit that state in all forms of media and we are entering a phase of retrospection. We're simply regurgitating the experiences of the past because there are no new experiences left.

 

[chilichote]

I don't think the market will crash. It will adapt to changing user habits and, like any other industry, there will be losers and winners.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Games aren’t games anymore, they’re just ”products”.

Why not both???

Jesus! That mentality that things can be only 8 or 80.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It's been happening. It's just a slow crash.

Wiki 2023-2024 layoffs

Can we get a "Games industry hires by month" graph too?

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Obsession with live service games, micro transactions, engagement, concurrent players, endless upon endless broken day 1 releases with infinite patches to fix a problem that can’t be fixed: you can’t patch a game to fix lack of creativity and lack of passion.

Looks at Sony and Nintendo first party.


I'm not seeing what you're seeing.



But sure, you want a crash. Thousands of more devs lose their jobs, decades of institutional knowledge lost. Sounds fantastic. /s

 

[Phase]

Can we get a "Games industry hires by month" graph too?

Sorry, all out.