[adamrezich]

I don't know if anyone's noticed the unprecedented price-slashing that's been happening in AAA games this year but I think we may be in for another AAA game crash. For indies I don't think it's much better unless you're one of the Big Names in that space.

(Incidentally, getting into making games professionally through any means other than self-funding seems basically impossible at the moment.)

Any other perspectives on this?

[gnarbarian]

It's not across the board. Red dead redemption 2 is a huge hit. The big launches which are failing and getting lots of press (fallout 76, and battlefield V) are doing so because of anticonsumer practices. In the case of fallout 76, the game is so buggy nobody wants to play it. Plus, launching fallout 4 after people were wrapping up Witcher 3 really put things into perspective as to how far behind Bethesda is compared to CD project red. Side by side fallout 4 was garbage.

As for Battlefield V. I've been a die-hard battlefield fan since BF 1942, I played the BFV demo and it proved to me that they are continuing to move backwards. Pay to win microtransactions and even less destructible environments show that they are dead set on destroying the mechanics which make battlefield fun and alienating their core customers. Perhaps they are doing this in a misguided attempt to capture some of the fortnite/call of duty market but instead they have sacrificed their core customers in an attempt to entice people away from games they are perfectly happy with. Then they top it off by sanctimoniously insulting their customers and telling us not to buy it if we don't like their changes.

[FooHentai]

>In the case of fallout 76, the game is so buggy nobody wants to play it.

Buggy, bland, and hamstrung by silly design decisions:

- No non-player characters transformed into 'we'll use robots to awkwardly get around our self-imposed rule'

- 'Let's use our time-stopping VATS system in a multiplayer environment where you can't pause time, I'm sure that will work well'

[zanny]

Despite how the industry likes to try to pitch it games aren't as disposable as developers want you to think they are.

At least for me, I'm spending more time playing titles I've owned for years today than on new releases. And every year adds more games to that backlog / history of games to get around to. And some games never get old - I still revisit probably twice a year Quake and Doom (the original) to play all the new community map packs and mods for a week.

There really needs to be some sea change in the industry away from disposable properties and towards ongoing refinement and iteration on proven titles. I'm sure publishers would love it - there is a lot less investment risk if you can establish regular revenue from game updates like how MMOs work - but the consumers have for the longest time seen value in gambling how good a new title in a series will be over seeing the last one just made better over time.

[user5994461]

+1 on that.

There are more games than ever. New games are competing against other new games while also competing against every old release of every game, on sale at a huge discount. There is no time and no money for all.

Much worse than that, there is no more groundbreaking innovation in technology. 20 years ago there was the move from 2D to 3D. 10 years ago came realistic 3D with facial expressions and destructible environments. Today call of duty cannot be distinguished from last decade call of duty.