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[cormack12]

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2025/01/05/think-gamers-blame-gamings-decline-readers-feature-22244431/amp/

A lot of people who play games just play the same game, or newest iteration of it, each year. That means that other newer or more interesting and innovative games lose out on sales and the cash, therefore studios are much less likely to invest in them in the future.

If it is not another EA Sports FC game or Call Of Duty, many don’t care to check them out.

Imagine if some of the more innovative games of this year, i.e. Unicorn Overlord or Metaphor: ReFantazio got the attention of those annual update release games.

However, the bigger issue, I believe, is that gamers have readily embraced digital gaming. Even with recent Black Friday sales I saw way better discounts on physical versions of recent games than digital. If all physical games stopped being released, publishers would have less incentive to discount their digital games due to lack of competition and so all gamers would end up losing out.

TLDR
A reader argues that many of the problems in the games industry are caused by gamers not being willing to try new games and insisting on digital over physical purchases.

 

[LectureMaster]

TLDR
A reader argues that many of the problems in the games industry are caused by gamers not being willing to try new games and insisting on digital over physical purchases.

LMAO, my man you are too kind, even included a TLDR so that I can skip clicking the article and go shitting on the stupid site and writer directly!

 

[Randall365]

What a fucking moron - buy physical and indie games, or gaming will suffer.

How about the publishers make games the players want and then they won’t go bust.

Gamepass might not be sustainable but Microsoft are free to throw away their money if they want or up the fees once gamers are invested in the model.

 

[jufonuk]

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2025/01/05/think-gamers-blame-gamings-decline-readers-feature-22244431/amp/

A lot of people who play games just play the same game, or newest iteration of it, each year. That means that other newer or more interesting and innovative games lose out on sales and the cash, therefore studios are much less likely to invest in them in the future.

If it is not another EA Sports FC game or Call Of Duty, many don’t care to check them out.

Imagine if some of the more innovative games of this year, i.e. Unicorn Overlord or Metaphor: ReFantazio got the attention of those annual update release games.

However, the bigger issue, I believe, is that gamers have readily embraced digital gaming. Even with recent Black Friday sales I saw way better discounts on physical versions of recent games than digital. If all physical games stopped being released, publishers would have less incentive to discount their digital games due to lack of competition and so all gamers would end up losing out.

TLDR
A reader argues that many of the problems in the games industry are caused by gamers not being willing to try new games and insisting on digital over physical purchases.

Oi Cunt fuck off.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

COD and Fifa crowd is not the problem here. Let them play those games, they have become comfortable with them.

I think bigger issue is discoverability of well made games. A lot of fine games are releasing but are not finding audience.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Gamers don't give a shit about new games that are only interested in peddling DEI and woke agendas. I blame the developers.

 

[Z O N E]

Ah yes, the problem with me not buying certain games is because I'm too busy getting my ass beat in CoD, FIFA and Fortnite. /s

No, the problem with me not buying certain games is because certain games have become "checklist games", where the priority is not the game itself, but making sure they include everything on a checklist.

Voting with my wallet.

 

[Generic]

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2025/01/05/think-gamers-blame-gamings-decline-readers-feature-22244431/amp/

A lot of people who play games just play the same game, or newest iteration of it, each year. That means that other newer or more interesting and innovative games lose out on sales and the cash, therefore studios are much less likely to invest in them in the future.

If it is not another EA Sports FC game or Call Of Duty, many don’t care to check them out.

Imagine if some of the more innovative games of this year, i.e. Unicorn Overlord or Metaphor: ReFantazio got the attention of those annual update release games.

However, the bigger issue, I believe, is that gamers have readily embraced digital gaming. Even with recent Black Friday sales I saw way better discounts on physical versions of recent games than digital. If all physical games stopped being released, publishers would have less incentive to discount their digital games due to lack of competition and so all gamers would end up losing out.

TLDR
A reader argues that many of the problems in the games industry are caused by gamers not being willing to try new games and insisting on digital over physical purchases.

He's 100% right.

 

[SJRB]

A reader argues

The opinion of a random reader of the authoritarian metro dot co dot uk is very important to me.

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[Astray]

He's not wrong lol.

 

[FreeY$L]

Make a better, content rich, tight-feeling, technologically apt game that beats COD and i’ll play it. Peope like to shit on COD for its MTX and yearly release but i cant find a better game on the market that delivers consistently other than COD. Not every COD is a banger, but BO6 sure is a banger.
The mentality that states “yearly franchises bad, indie game good” needs to fuck off, let people play what they want to play.

 

[winjer]

Imagine someone being so entitled, that they think they deserve other people's money just because they want it.
Seriously, if developers want their consumer base to give them money, then make good products, that consumer base needs or wants.
This has been the fact of commercial trading for millennia.
That modern game devs can't understand such basic concept is telling of their disconnect with gamers.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

What a fucking moron - buy physical and indie games, or gaming will suffer.

How about the publishers make games the players want and then they won’t go bust.

Gamepass might not be sustainable but Microsoft are free to throw away their money if they want or up the fees once gamers are invested in the model.

A big problem is that these big sports titles have exclusive licenses for the player's likenesses, so competing games in that sport can't exist. EA has created a monopoly on one of the most popular genres of games, which chokes the rest of the market.

 

[Wildebeest]

He is right that the discounts on official digital stores have become bad compared to retail. Very slow to drop prices and then small discounts like 20% off or 30% off. It used to be that a game would come out, way too many copies would be made, then months later you would be buying it for pennies. It is not even like digital means that the industry is no longer making bombs that crash studios.

But things like EA FC and CoD sell because people want them, and you can't really blame people for playing what they want to play. For me, even, the retro console aesthetic and gameplay of games like Unicorn Overlord and Metaphor are a turn off. At least give me something like, I don't know, Eye of the Beholder, and I'd be more interested, but I wouldn't be calling it incredibly innovative, fresh and creative.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Metaphor Refantazio sold record numbers for Atlus and was nominated to GOTY by the Game Awards giving it significant exposure so not sure what this reader is on about. Last I heard, Unicorn Overlord was also a success for Vanillaware.

 

[cireza]

Reads like a desperate attempt to have me buy some shitty game. Maybe try making games I actually want to buy ?

 

[Crystal Winters]

Gamers don't give a shit about new games that are only interested in peddling DEI and woke agendas. I blame the developers.

 

[Gojiira]

Nah the problem is the people who buy Snoop Dogg/Minaj/Post Malone etc skins in Fortnite or COD…Literal scum, these skins and crossovers have zero business being in any game.
But the biggest problem was Anita Sarkeesian. Without her Woke in gaming wouldnt be a thing.

 

[GrayChild]

It's almost like some kind of an exorcism. The DEI demons are screaming as loudly as possible, shouting obscenities and curses on their last attempt to stay in the victim's body.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Those games are purposefully designed to keep people hooked and not to move on.

It’s like deviously getting people hooked on crack and then blaming them for consuming instead of the dealer for supplying.

 

[Big Al]

Let's pump out more

Online multiplayer games
Remasters
Woke agendas
Paid DLC

This will reinvigorate the market to its golden years.

 

[cormack12]

Nah the problem is the people who buy Snoop Dogg/Minaj/Post Malone etc skins in Fortnite or COD…Literal scum, these skins and crossovers have zero business being in any game.
But the biggest problem was Anita Sarkeesian. Without her Woke in gaming wouldnt be a thing.

That's an interesting point actually. Maybe money that would get spent on other games is now being ploughed into the live services, cannibalising opportunities for other games to have a risk taken on them

 

[genesisblock]

Everytime someone blames "the consumer" for any failure of the product is exactly the kind of out-of-touch thinking that ignores the very reason why it didn't succeed. Why do you need a marketing team when the "gamers" will end up deciding your success?

 

[SHA]

Gamers are older than devs, of course the younger devs woudn't understand what we need and they shouldn't be challenged for this task.

 

[Robb]

Imagine if some of the more innovative games of this year, i.e. Unicorn Overlord or Metaphor: ReFantazio got the attention of those annual update release games.

Like Black Myth of Wukong did? Not sure what there is to imagine here, the game sold insanely well and nothing else changed..

And consumers embracing digital isn’t a problem. The problem is digital storefronts being inherently anti-consumer by design. There should be options for re-selling what you’ve bought etc. but companies will never willingly implement that because they’re greedy. You bet the discounts on new games would be better if I could buy a ‘used’ digital copy of that same game from another user.

 

[donkey_oaty]

What decline? If anything there's too many good games to play

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So many rare incel victories these days huh

 

[GHound]

Many of the problems of the industry are a result of it being almost exclusively grifters and tourists at the wheel.

 

[SJRB]

 

[Hudo]

Didn't Metaphor and Unicorn Overlord sell pretty well according to their respective companies/devs?

 

[Klosshufvud]

I believe Atlus considered both Unicorn Overlord and Metaphor as huge successes. They have different metrics for success than 200m western productions.

Regardless, someone that plays CoD or FIFA will never care for an anime JRPG. Or atleast unlikely to. Same way someone who plays Candy Crush is unlikely to care much for CoD. I think the biggest mistake you can do is somehow try to force one audience to the next by stripping that more niche product of its identity. We've seen many examples of it in gaming and almost all end up making the games worse. What should happen and is happening is for the press and more hardcore gaming circles to lift up all those good games and make sure they don't fall to the endless void. The Game Awards did a good job this year promoting those kind of games.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Make a better, content rich, tight-feeling, technologically apt game that beats COD and i’ll play it. Peope like to shit on COD for its MTX and yearly release but i cant find a better game on the market that delivers consistently other than COD. Not every COD is a banger, but BO6 sure is a banger.
The mentality that states “yearly franchises bad, indie game good” needs to fuck off, let people play what they want to play.

Yup.

If gamers are sticking to well known franchises for ages, it just means gamers are happy with it. It doesn't mean other games are good or bad, but probably not worth gamers moving to. Not worth the risk and hassle.

But why did everyone back in the day switch to NBA2k over NBA Live? You;d think EA had an automatic lock on all sports games due to legacy and pure marketing power. Nope. People moved over to 2k because it was noticeably better. Even when EA kept trying (after some delays and a hiatus), people still stuck with 2k.

Why did Fortnite take off making COD pale in comparison? I dont play it, but it did something right to blow past all other shooters.

 

[The Cockatrice]

He is partially correct. The cod/fifa/lol/fornite crowd only play those, I have friends who keep adding free games and are interested in some new games, but ultimately they just play one of those nonstop and will never care about new games so in that regard he is right. Problem is that the companies are desperate to attract that crowd to their games as well which means they kleep trying to make that big new online IP like Concord, but ultimately fail. But then they make this unique niche singleplayer title and complain that nobody bought it day one as if that matters? Most games like Days Gone have huge legs and will sell overtime A LOT especially on Steam and when prices drop.

tl;dr AAA companies are idiots.

 

[sono]

Sure, blame the customer. Take the easy option.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Not even an AI would write something this stupid.

 

[Lambogenie]

It's a whole lot of things. Skipping just pure development costs;
Marketing costs are high
Competition among gaming is high
Competition for just time is super high (just entertainment)

Those can all effect discoverabilty significantly. It doesn't help that even on console stores, featured placements are usually just paid (marketing).

Most media is also paid or needs to kiss ass. And if not, they need to make sure they always talk about he bigger hype stuff because it brings attention and engagement (also cross over to hype beast culture bs).

So it's often the gamer that needs to be proactive and seek it out. Somehow. It's become more and more challenging since search is also BS at times on purpose to maintain engagement (amazon...). If you're just not an enthusiast on GAF or checking general news, of course you'll miss or gloss over up and coming stuff. Sad reality.

On the plus side, tiktok and short content is really underused to just show quick gameplay whether from publishers or players wanting to spread the word. What do people want to show? Fifa and COD, obviously.

 

[FreeY$L]

Yup.

If gamers are sticking to well known franchises for ages, it just means gamers are happy with it. It doesn't mean other games are good or bad, but probably not worth gamers moving to. Not worth the risk and hassle.

But why did everyone back in the day switch to NBA2k over NBA Live? You;d think EA had an automatic lock on all sports games due to legacy and pure marketing power. Nope. People moved over to 2k because it was noticeably better. Even when EA kept trying (after some delays and a hiatus), people still stuck with 2k.

Why did Fortnite take off making COD pale in comparison? I dont play it, but it did something right to blow past all other shooters.

Same thing happened with PES and Fifa, PES stagnated while Fifa was the better game.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Maybe the industry has gotten to a point games are high enough quality. And once a big subset of gamers find their game (like COD or FIFA), they are simply happy with it. Arent there gamers saying graphics are good enough? Ya. Well, maybe for many gamers new maps and roster updates are good enough.

If someone loves COD, why should he purposely try another shooter? Or even more so, dont play any shooters and expand their horizons and go 180 and play a turn based WWII strategy game. If he's happy with COD for 10 years straight, the game must be doing something right not to change his playing time to something else.

 

[Klosshufvud]

Maybe the industry has gotten to a point games are high enough quality. And once a big subset of gamers find their game (like COD or FIFA), they are simply happy with it. Arent there gamers saying graphics are good enough? Ya. Well, maybe for many gamers new maps and roster updates are good enough.

If someone loves COD, why should he purposely try another shooter? Or even more so, dont play any shooters and expand their horizons and go 180 and play a turn based WWII strategy game. If he's happy with COD for 10 years straight, the game must be doing something right not to change his playing time to something else.

Yeah same reasoning why someone that watches sports on TV isn't obligated to watch The Sopranos. I think it's better to just tolerate people's preferences instead of this consumer shaming act. I dislike CoD but I also know the people who play it are not the types who like the games I do. The overlap is so minimal that I stopped getting bothered by it. Video game industry is so big now that it can contain countless niches without it being harmful to the other. The only thing I dislike is when a game abuses its dominant genre position to impose shitty business practices but that's a different subject.

I remember when FF13 director Toriyama said that CoD players would feel at home with FF13. This was after MW2's blockbuster record breaking release. I felt it was such a weak display of faith in your own genre and franchise. You're making a game that has qualities that no CoD will ever be able to compete with and instead you're reducing yourself to a CoD alternative. I generally regard those type of statements as "red flag" of sorts for the game.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

very stupid opinion indeed.

"gaming" is not as big as some people like to think.

as piscatella said (i think) that 70% of the market is owned by the top dogs (or something like that) it is similar to the movie industry.

so what? it's what it is.

Unicorn Overload and Metaphor were successful and captured enough attention (for niche games). there are a shit ton of games that release every single day that are lucky to sell hundreds of copies.

i bet this reader is a "gaming jurno/retardera type of individual; living in delusion and always blaming the wrong people for everything; im surprised this person didn't mention capitalism or somethin like that.

 

[mdkirby]

Gamers are not blameless, but this is mostly on companies for short sighted profit/greed.

The moment in time where I place the blame on gamers is in the early days of the AppStore on iOS. Prior to then gamers had been quite content paying a fair price for games, on whatever platform. For some reason that perceived value proposition and purchase intent changed with early iOS. Gamers simply weren’t willing to pay £5 or £10 for a game. There was a race to the bottom as a result. First to 99p, then to “free” with ads. This was generally not sufficient to support the development of these titles…this is where corporations had to get creative to work out how make these free games profitable. In comes psychologists and gambling experts poached from the gambling industry.

They gradually mastered how to turn the free games into microtransaction filled, highly addictive dopamine machines.

The mobile industry as a result saw an explosion of wild profits.

Seeing this, non mobile game studio execs saw $$$$$ signs. They decided to work out how they could apply those same cycles of addiction and monetisation to big console games, in the hope of securing an endless massive payday for themselves. Many companies chased this with a few winners. There can only ever be a few winners tho, these things are literally designed to be an addiction, designed to make you never stop playing and eat all your time, time that you would otherwise have spent exploring other games. Because they never end, and people are locked into an addiction, they either simply never graduate into full gamers who explore lots of different games. There’s now entire generations who have been exposed to this, so whilst they will technically be classed as “gamers” and are included as such in statistically market reports, they are not really, they are addicts, who once upon a time would have been future gamers. Now they just play a small handful or only one addiction machine.

This was a case of chasing massive profits but at a cost of wrecking the future consumer base for the industry writ large. Thus the principal blame goes to the companies imo. This was a willful choice by them with a profit driven motive that has caused likely irreparable damage to the industry, exasperated by the industries growth where there’s now so many thousands of games released every year, for a shrinking pool of those not just locked into one or two forever games.

 

[IAmRei]

It is always us who is to blame when something not good happened, why not looking for the trend and capitalization of this industry as whole?
eons ago, games are made with nerd for nerd, from hobbyist for hobbyist, from true people with passion to people who are enthusiast, and the industry is growing so well then capitalist sense money so big and bang, here we are with this degeneration of video games industry.

and don't forget the one who antagonizing us, who always said that if some X games is not selling well, it is we who support their failure.
it's itching my ears to heard that especially 2024, where lot of numbers fail so hard...

Greed, agenda, and entitlement are true culprits in this situation.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Yeah same reasoning why someone that watches sports on TV isn't obligated to watch The Sopranos. I think it's better to just tolerate people's preferences instead of this consumer shaming act. I dislike CoD but I also know the people who play it are not the types who like the games I do. The overlap is so minimal that I stopped getting bothered by it. Video game industry is so big now that it can contain countless niches without it being harmful to the other. The only thing I dislike is when a game abuses its dominant genre position to impose shitty business practices but that's a different subject.

I remember when FF13 director Toriyama said that CoD players would feel at home with FF13. This was after MW2's blockbuster record breaking release. I felt it was such a weak display of faith in your own genre and franchise. You're making a game that has qualities that no CoD will ever be able to compete with and instead you're reducing yourself to a CoD alternative. I generally regard those type of statements as "red flag" of sorts for the game.

Haha. Funny you bring that up because I am exactly one of those people!

I love watching sports and will put it on in the background while I eat dinner or surf the net. Even if it's random NBA game at 9 pm I'll put it on because I like live sports even if it's two teams I dont care about.

And I hated Sopranos! I like mafia movies, but my bro bought me Sopranos Season 1 DVD way back when DVD was the big thing. I watched 5 or 6 episodes and it was the most boring shit ever. I sold the season set at some point to someone or a store and never even told my bro.

Now someone could say, Sopranos is a highly rated show. Watch that instead of NHL or NBA games. No thanks. I'll stick to sports. lol

 

[Drake]

The article is half right. People who religiously buy every iteration of COD and ignore new IP's is definitely an issue. That said, when all western devs feed players is DEI, woke bullshit is it any surprise that gamers skip these games?

 

[delirium trigger]

A large chunk of the COD, Madden, Fifa players wouldn't play video games if it weren't for those games or similar substitutes.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Says he as if most hits from the last two years weren't from new and dormant IPs.

Its about time people realize the gaming industry isn't a singular entity. The people who buy FIFA and COD every year aren't the same market buying the Balatros and Wukongs

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Gamers are not blameless, but this is mostly on companies for short sighted profit/greed.

The moment in time where I place the blame on gamers is in the early days of the AppStore on iOS. Prior to then gamers had been quite content paying a fair price for games, on whatever platform. For some reason that perceived value proposition and purchase intent changed with early iOS. Gamers simply weren’t willing to pay £5 or £10 for a game. There was a race to the bottom as a result. First to 99p, then to “free” with ads. This was generally not sufficient to support the development of these titles…this is where corporations had to get creative to work out how make these free games profitable. In comes psychologists and gambling experts poached from the gambling industry.

They gradually mastered how to turn the free games into microtransaction filled, highly addictive dopamine machines.

The mobile industry as a result saw an explosion of wild profits.

In the mobile market, the opposite has happened. Companies have upped their game, and now they make AAA games on par or superior to retail games while being F2P. They are succeeding because they listen to players and even make drastic changes if players ask them. It's quite the opposite of what classic studios do.

Studios like Shift Up, Kuro, Neowiz, or Infold are full of passionate people who define themselves as "gamers" and that is transmitted to their games. The old bad actors are gone, the market has expelled them.

If anything, gamers are telling who deserve to stay in the market and who don't.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

FIFA/PES and COD have been yearly or nearly-yearly releases for more than 20 years at this point. PS2 fans would be so offended if someone took the time to make an accurate report of just how many people bought the best-selling console of all time just to play yearly FIFA and maybe a couple of other dudebro games, best game library of all time be damned. Most gamers only buying the next iteration in a handful of franchises is nothing new. Which is one of the reasons why gaming variety in the AA/AAA space has constantly declined after the PS2 and is not a recent phenomenon.

It is absolutely true that a good chunk of console and PC gamers hate stepping out of their comfort zone.
Every time you have a graphics-related thread on GAF, you have the usual suspects laughing at the idea of playing “indie shit” or anything that can’t keep 60fps at max settings.
You also have tons of “core” gamers hating on any control scheme that isn’t a controller that is essentially the same since the OG Xbox, and thinking that motion controls were just “waggle waggle” and didn’t bring anything good to the table. (then some of them proceed to lecture others on why VR is the future, it just needs a little more time in the oven)

The market has spoken. People vastly preferred some types of games, and those types of games ended up getting all the marketing money - plus most of the development money, too. If you want something different, you’ll have to look for it on your own and trust other people’s comments. Can’t blame the devs and publishers entirely if they don’t want to waste big money on games they know you most probably won’t buy.

 

[W11d]

Well maybe all the woke and anti woke crowd should combine their powers to destroy all the f2p forever games