"Consumers are playing fewer games, playing them for longer, and as a result, outside of a few notable exceptions, many new games are struggling," say Ubi UK.
I think Ubisoft is poking at a legit issue here. A few games ‘snowball,’ especially with stuff trending on social media, and gamers spread themselves out less these days.
…Ubisoft are the absolute worst entity to say it, but still. It’s not just them that’s saying it:
There is just so much choice it’s insane, every day there’s dozens of new games out. There’s some real gems in the indie game space, I feel like gaming is kinda following how music went now. All the major labels are putting out crap, you have to look at the indie labels for good stuff, but that can be a lot of work in itself.
An anecdote: I know a working couple, well off in a good house, young, no kids, like video games, nerdy to the point they self host stuff… Yet they don’t game as much this past year or two. They don’t watch as much TV either. Work drains them, so more entertainment time now consists of favored YouTubers before bed.
…What I’m getting at is that maybe the ‘gaming population’ is more drained from life, in this age? Especially when you factor in hunting for a good game, especially when a common preference is to be served choices via algorithms instead.
I’m so drained from work now. They keep cutting out teams and expecting more output anyway.
I changed the games I play, I no longer play RPG games that take a huge time investment and defer to Arcadey indie games I can pick up and put quickly.
Yes I’d love to play Dark Souls to completion, for example, but I don’t have the energy for that.
I also don’t engage in grind mechanics in games at all anymore. Id rather play something skill / reflex based rather than putting time investments to level up woodcutting to 99.
I’d definitely agree with that, I was a much bigger gamer when I was a kid/teen/YA, the only real franchises were Pac Man, Mario and Donkey Kong, so the field was wide open with all sorts of new and innovative games, the sorts of games that are still coming out but just harder to find. I feel like there’s a lot of people just looking a the AAA titles being announced in the presses and then just being underwhelmed when there’s a lot more going on, but as you said there’s a lot more to life as an adult so that can be too much time. On the upside, a lot of those indie games are much shorter so you can find time to play them.
As examples, work got a lot harsher post COVID, once mandatory return-to-work kicked in. It’s almost like they’re trying to get people to quit. Interest rates went up, costs went up, financial pressure went up. Political conflict with older generations in the family is going up too.
IDK where you are; this is just my perspective from the US. But it seems like video gaming could be an early casualty of all that pressure.
You make a good point about announcements too. I feel like the video game news pipelines is a little muddy, with all the ‘oldschool’ written outlets having shrunken so much?
Yeah I gotcha, I suppose there’s two types of people in those situations: those who will put down the games and see them as a distraction or waste of time in the face of all the other things they have to do and all the serious/bad things going on in the world, or those who dive full on in and escape the world through gaming. Another perspective, games used to be light and fun, hella challenging, but still fun, you could pick them up and put them down. Nowadays if you stop playing a game for a week or two you almost have to start over, at least that’s how it is for me with my sieve brain. I’m also in the US.
I think Ubisoft is poking at a legit issue here. A few games ‘snowball,’ especially with stuff trending on social media, and gamers spread themselves out less these days.
…Ubisoft are the absolute worst entity to say it, but still. It’s not just them that’s saying it:
https://www.wired.com/story/death-occurs-in-the-dark-indie-video-game-devs-are-struggling-to-stay-afloat/
There is just so much choice it’s insane, every day there’s dozens of new games out. There’s some real gems in the indie game space, I feel like gaming is kinda following how music went now. All the major labels are putting out crap, you have to look at the indie labels for good stuff, but that can be a lot of work in itself.
+1
An anecdote: I know a working couple, well off in a good house, young, no kids, like video games, nerdy to the point they self host stuff… Yet they don’t game as much this past year or two. They don’t watch as much TV either. Work drains them, so more entertainment time now consists of favored YouTubers before bed.
…What I’m getting at is that maybe the ‘gaming population’ is more drained from life, in this age? Especially when you factor in hunting for a good game, especially when a common preference is to be served choices via algorithms instead.
This tracks.
I’m so drained from work now. They keep cutting out teams and expecting more output anyway.
I changed the games I play, I no longer play RPG games that take a huge time investment and defer to Arcadey indie games I can pick up and put quickly.
Yes I’d love to play Dark Souls to completion, for example, but I don’t have the energy for that.
I also don’t engage in grind mechanics in games at all anymore. Id rather play something skill / reflex based rather than putting time investments to level up woodcutting to 99.
I’d definitely agree with that, I was a much bigger gamer when I was a kid/teen/YA, the only real franchises were Pac Man, Mario and Donkey Kong, so the field was wide open with all sorts of new and innovative games, the sorts of games that are still coming out but just harder to find. I feel like there’s a lot of people just looking a the AAA titles being announced in the presses and then just being underwhelmed when there’s a lot more going on, but as you said there’s a lot more to life as an adult so that can be too much time. On the upside, a lot of those indie games are much shorter so you can find time to play them.
And what I’m getting at is the era.
As examples, work got a lot harsher post COVID, once mandatory return-to-work kicked in. It’s almost like they’re trying to get people to quit. Interest rates went up, costs went up, financial pressure went up. Political conflict with older generations in the family is going up too.
IDK where you are; this is just my perspective from the US. But it seems like video gaming could be an early casualty of all that pressure.
You make a good point about announcements too. I feel like the video game news pipelines is a little muddy, with all the ‘oldschool’ written outlets having shrunken so much?
Yeah I gotcha, I suppose there’s two types of people in those situations: those who will put down the games and see them as a distraction or waste of time in the face of all the other things they have to do and all the serious/bad things going on in the world, or those who dive full on in and escape the world through gaming. Another perspective, games used to be light and fun, hella challenging, but still fun, you could pick them up and put them down. Nowadays if you stop playing a game for a week or two you almost have to start over, at least that’s how it is for me with my sieve brain. I’m also in the US.