Greetings again to the 3 people who read my posts, my work picked up massively from my last post, thus the two year break, and it has not stopped but I’m angry enough to write. I am busier then ever but very much employed which is a great thing in this economy. This is going to be a very doom and gloom post with some hope sprinkled in so I apologize in advance but I really do feel like that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the gaming industry (outside of indie obviously lol) as we have gotten to know it over the last 30ish years. There is an argument to be made about the last 10 years and the slow encroachment of out of touch communication and anti-consumerism from the industry as a whole that has made its way mainstream.
Grand Theft Consumer 6
We’ve all seen the news and has been talked about ad nauseum, so I’ll save you the rigmarole, make this quick, and just say $100 dollars for the full GTA 6 Ultimate Edition (with no missions or content blocked off) is a rip off. I see people bending over backwards to defend this practice just because its GTA 6 and I just want these people to know the suits across the industry are salivating for you to buy the game full price with its day 1 DLC. The game will inevitably go on sale like other Rockstar titles and people will eventually be picking it up for $20-40. Ironically my last post in this category was talking about how Nintendo games like Mario Kart World were far to expensive at $80. We are speedrunning price increases that took a full 10 years from 2000-2010. Yes inflation is partially to blame here, that is undeniable but for the sake of argument lets say Mario Kart World’s $80 price point is standard for this example. $100 is a 25% increase, over approximately 2 years, that is outrageous. Oh and the game doesen’t have online at launch…and has a subscription service hidden its pre-order fine print, some poor saps out there are gonna get robbed blind. When did we decide that this was ok?
A Shortsighted Viewpoint
The D&D Youtube Channel recently asked their audience if they’d be going to any cons this year. This is a genuinely insane thing to post about in a public poll, sure this is still gonna be promoted by the social media team on things like Twitter (I ain’t calling it X.) and Bluesky but to pose the question to the ENTIRE viewer base is not only frankly insensitive, its idiotic. The United States Economy is in shambles. The stock market is never a good indicator of what Joe Shmoe’s, who (by average American standards at the time of writing) makes approximately $61,000 and probably has just a 401k, financial situation is. Cons are DESIGNED to sell you stuff, I have been to a couple and while they are quite fun, I was out a pretty penny by the time I was done. The average person does not have the disposable income to blow on this right now and even if they did people are TERRIFIED of the economy becoming worse with the current administration. Everyone is hoarding their savings, which is a smart move during periods of great uncertainty, I would never blame a person for trying to be financially responsible but this does hurt the economy in turn. While people are still spending money on games and TTRPGs the majority are doing the bare minimum and sticking to titles that they know or are already invested in, people will save for the latest iteration/game of their favorite series or from a certain publisher and then that’ll be it as far as financial investment goes, people do not buy little charms and trinkets in the space currently, let alone go to a convention. Check your local Gamestop, (if it still exists…) they don’t even sell any merch outside of mainstream material anymore. So I ask, who the FUCK is this post for? Curious of the results?
I know this may just be the social media manager or comms department making a goof but for fucks sake read the room. There’s a million comments on this post from people saying they are too poor to attend, from a business perspective this is HORRIBLE marketing for the event as everyone just spam flooded the comments saying that they aren’t going, people that are going or wanted to go might be second guessing their plans now. This is but one example of how out of touch the industry as a whole is becoming, it seems that lately bottom lines are…bottom lines for everyone which to a degree I understand however fans are able to pickup on this notion rather easily, it does not feel good to support a game or series that is being treated as a business, we know it is a business, the management knows its a business however your Consumer PR is actually quite important, whoever said “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” was full of shit.
Death of a Disc Drive
Sony announced that they would be ending production of physical game disks starting in 2028 and moving only to digital sales and the PS6 may have no disc drive at all.
The fans took it horribly, this was conveniently, the last thing the twitter account posted before going completely silent until Tuesday morning. Its been a bloodbath, people are boycotting PS Plus, selling their consoles to try and recoup some cash for either a Nintendo Switch or a PC, and just dunking on Sony in general.
There is some merit to this decision, maybe they literally can no longer afford to make discs. I would still argue that this is completely unacceptable though, having someone physically be able to own a game is way different from having a license/digital copy that can be revoked at anytime for whatever arbitrary reason Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, or some other fourth party decides to think up next. A physical copy can be held, a physical copy can sit on your shelf for 20 years and still be yours at the end of the day, a physical copy won’t vanish into thin air because your account sat inactive for to long or you didn’t play it enough, physical copies can be backed up. Sony should immediately reinvest into making physical disc sales, apparently their factories are already being repurposed but I would say, repurpose it back. This wave of anti-consumerism threatens to collapse the industry as a whole, you’ve heard it once or a million times if you are a gamer even remotely in the space. “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy is not stealing.” while I would never advocate for what is essentially theft they do have a valid point. Am I paying to rent it now? What exactly entails physical? The game key card thing Nintendo does is not a physical copy. You could say that laws need to be passed to prevent piracy then but if people are broke and cannot pirate the games that they want to play they simply…won’t play at all which is the worst possible outcome. Rather then dying a quick death by being robbed blind, we would suffer a death by a thousand tiny razor blades made of people who literally cannot play and interest for the medium would fade.
Mass Layoffs at Xbox Game Studios
Years ago I raged that Microsoft was buying up so many studios and great game companies, I predicted that it was a monopolizing move and that Microsoft simply did not have the resources or technical know how to be a publishing company, I wanted to be wrong. The last 24 hours have been a slaughter, game studios that I love like Id, Obsidian, and Bethesda (when Todd Howard didn’t realize 5 quintillion rereleases of Skyrim.) have been massively downsized with core team members getting the ax. You may not be a games enthusiast (how did you find this page!?) but I should NOT need to tell you that this is fucking terrible. Approx 4,800 people are being laid off and I feel awful for the such brilliant minds being squandered, some will leave the industry and not return at all.
While I do applaud Xbox for looking internally and recognizing that they are in fact the problem, it was obvious. Asha Sharma is doing divine work right now with this hard decision don’t get me wrong but Phil Spencer should be put on some sort of blacklist for running these studios into the ground as he has done. It is hopeful right now for those who have broken off and once again gone independent however as always there will be winners and losers. Some studios have wonderful people working at them and will bounce back no matter what happens, for others this freedom and/or reduction in staff is going to be what drives it to finally fail and while this is a fact of life, I am still allowed to be mad at those that created the conditions for this to happen.
A Retro Relapse and Reflection
I promised some hope sprinkled into this despair laden post. Retro games are doing very very well right now, mostly because of the reasons above but you can go to any game store these days and find a retro section. Most people these days though define retro as not anything in the current generations which in my opinion is wrong, really should be anything before 2015ish. (A decade is retro right!?) Old consoles are being bought and refurbished, people are showing genuine care for these older physical games and consoles again because they know that the industry is hostile. You could go out and buy a PS5 right now and it will run you $650 or you could go buy a PS Vita which will run you about $200 range.
It is little wonder that retro games have become a shining example of the industry that everyone yearns for. We had it all, we had it so good with things like the PS3, Nintendo Wii, and the Xbox 360 (REAL ONES REMEMBER OUYA) and we took it for granted. I can download Persona 1 off the PS3 Playstation store right now (Digital game I know) but I could get it and play it on my PS3, my PSP, or on my PS Vita. PS3’s can even play physical native PS1 discs no problem no matter the version of PS3! The Wii could play Gamecube games and had the Wii shop for the old N64 games. Xbox 360 could play Xbox games! This was the still in the peak of the console wars, exclusives were the norm! How did an industry that seemingly loved us all so, simply come to despise us in the span of just 20 years?
Comments (0)