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[Cao Cao]

There used to be a lot of games with iconic non-human protagonists. Why aren't big studios making new characters anymore?

 

[Adapting]

Everyone trying to make shit realistic.

 

[Robb]

Lack of demand I guess. But even then the majority of franchises in that picture are still being made.

And we got an absolutely outstanding AstroBot entry very recently. Sackboy has also been a semi-big mascot in the past years. Tearaway came and went. Stray was pretty neat, as was Biomutant. Indies have been delivering outstanding stuff with Cuphead, Ori, Unravel, Cocooon etc. etc. etc.

 

[Peroroncino]

Having non-human protagonists exposes humanity to the risk of creating another sonic-like fan community. I think I'm good with humans only.

 

[Baemono]

There used to be a lot of games with iconic non-human protagonists. Why aren't big studios making them anymore?

You said "anymore" but you listed
- Sonic, which had an entry as late as last year
- Ratchet and Clank, which had an entry in 2022
- Donkey Kong which had an entry this year, and will have another one in July
- Crash which got an entry 2020
- Kirby which got an entry in 2023 and 2024 and another one is planned for this year

But I guess you meant "new" non-human protagonists

 

[CokeDiet]

Feel like OP is subtly letting us know he's a furry.

 

[seething left]

Because a cartoonish character can't be a black girlboss that needs no man, so it wouldn't be appealing to the modern audience.

 

[RoadHazard]

A new DK is coming this year. A new R&C came out a few years ago. Sonic games regularly get released. Crash 4 wasn't that long ago. Kirby is getting a new remaster.

 

[Toots]

Big studios still make these types of game.
OP grew up, did not notice his taste and interests changed, and now thinks no one cares anymore about the things he stopped caring about.
As long as children and furries exist toymakers will make anthropomorphized animals for them to play with.

 

[FingerBang]

You said "anymore" but you listed
- Sonic, which had an entry as late as last year
- Ratchet and Clank, which had an entry in 2022
- Donkey Kong which had an entry this year, and will have another one in July
- Crash which got an entry 2020
- Kirby which got an entry in 2023 and 2024 and another one is planned for this year

But I guess you meant "new" non-human protagonists

Right?

I imagine OP mean no new franchises with these characters, but I am thinking of 2 reasons:

1) Those characters were easy to introduce in the era of the mascottes and where making realistic looking humans was really hard

2) No anthropomorphic animals = furries and no one wants to touch that shit

Mostly 1 though

 

[L*][*N*K]

You said "anymore" but you listed
- Sonic, which had an entry as late as last year
- Ratchet and Clank, which had an entry in 2022
- Donkey Kong which had an entry this year, and will have another one in July
- Crash which got an entry 2020
- Kirby which got an entry in 2023 and 2024 and another one is planned for this year

But I guess you meant "new" non-human protagonists

I think OP meant why we don't make games with non-human protagonists anymore outside those established ones from the 90s

 

[Trunx81]

I miss Rayman. A Rayman-game with Ori mechanics would be amazing

 

[Baemono]

Kirby is getting a new remaster.

If you're referring to Air Riders, I believe it's a new game

 

[RoadHazard]

If you're referring to Air Riders, I believe it's a new game

I meant The Forgotten Land. But you're right, I forgot about Air Riders.

 

[Cao Cao]

I think OP meant why we don't make games with non-human protagonists anymore outside those established ones from the 90s

Exactly.

 

[Pejo]

We got that troll creature Kay Vess in the new Ubi Star Wars game just last year.

 

[Skifi28]

For the same reason bald space marines are also out. Every few years there's a new trend. It is what it is.

 

[Tomeru]

We grew up.

 

[Hector Hall]

Because a non human can't be a girlboss that speaks non stop and weighing 50 kg beats everybody without training one second?

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Jak is supposed to be human, believe it or not. I think Daxter is also a human that was transformed.

 

[The Cockatrice]

We grew up.

 

[Dice]

We stopped being fun

 

[Scrawnton]

You need actually talented artists and modelers that are willing to do more than copy and paste the same purchased unreal engine human assets over and over.

 

[lh032]

Simple.
Not cool enough for gen Z

 

[RoboFu]

We grew up.

And there was never anymore kids born?

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Dragon cat thing in that PS4 game forgot the name. Had a kid in it,

We also got Cat from Stray.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Amaterasu is coming back in the Okami sequel.

But yeah the videogame mascots fell off quite long ago. The PS360 gen already had way less of those compared to the PS2.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Are we really forgetting that a new Donkey Kong game will be released in 2 months or so? Are we really forgetting who won the last Game of the Year award ?

But yeah, non human protagonists need to be charismatic, and charisma is something lacking in these times...

 

[Dr.Morris79]

We stopped being fun

That.. actually depressed me somewhat.

How very true.

 

[Tomeru]

And there was never anymore kids born?

Sonic and Mario are still around, but the average age of gamers today is much higher than in the 80s.

 

[Holammer]

Most serious companies have game designers like Kojima fancying themselves as movie directors.
That's why we see fewer cartoony depictions of humans and the non-human protagonists OP mention. Naughty Dog is too deep inside its own ass to make a new Jak & Daxter type game.

We still get them from indies and it's Nintendo's bread and butter (probably why they are so successful btw).

 

[PatientGamer]

OP did you forget about Sackboy and Astrobot?

 

[GymWolf]

I was about to make a joke about the cast of dustborn being a bunch of colorful subhumans but maybe it's not what you were searching for.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

It takes a lot of talent and creativeness to make likeable non-cringe creatures. Those traits are missing in most studios.

Momo from Infinity Nikki is really cute and funny. A great companion.

Also, Esquie and Monoco from Expedition 33. Every non-human in that game is amazing. True talent.

 

[PeteBull]

We stopped being fun

I love/watch yt every day and know none of those fucks on the right

 

[Punished Miku]

Furries pretty much ruined it.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Did Squid Kids release before Astrobot?

 

[StueyDuck]

We stopped being fun

The OG yt days were great.

basically the second money got involved (with adds and revenue) the platform went to the shitter

 

[Power Pro]

For some reason, my brain went to this game when I read the title of the thread, like playing as an alien, or something that isn't human anymore...not all the anthropomorphic mascot characters in the OP lol

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Because the only new protagonists we can get this gen are ugly DEI girlbosses.

 

[onQ123]

Speaking of this I remember playing a game on the original Xbox that had a female main character but she would talk to something like a purple or blue ape ( no it wasn't Dora the Explorer ) it seemed futuristic, I remember it being a really good game & I was caught up in it but now I can't remember what game it was & I feel like I should know what game it was .

 

[Honey Bunny]

I feel like kids who liked this stuff are getting sucked into the weeaboo underage upskirt titty vortex way earlier thanks to chinese f2p shit games

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[Fbh]

My guess:
- There isn't much demand for it unless it's a Nintendo game
- They were more common during the early days of 3D graphics because it was way easier to make cartoony characters look good (compared to humans)
- Games that go for a more stylized look now predominantly focus on an anime aesthetic
- Furries made it weird

That only applies to AAA games though. AA and indies are still full of non human characters.

 

[bender]

 

[TrebleShot]

We dont like or want furrys in our games.

 

[PeteBull]

Explanation is even easier, nowadays devs can make pretty okish/realistic human protags(unless DEI uglyfies female intentionally ofc) that they dont need the creativity to think of decent looking non human/animal-like protag for it to still look decent.
Just look at evolution of Naughty Dog games protags.
First one is crash on first playstation, superlow resolution, low amount of polygons, cant make realistic human for the life of it so u go with animal-like humanoid- crash bandicoot:

Now much stronger ps2 and we got much more complex and human looking jak and daxter:
Much higher res and amount of polygons, still not enough to make semi realistic human but good enough to make jak so much closer to human-like figure:

After that ps3 and finally hd resolutions, its clear enough and console is strong enough to make relatively realistic looking human protag, - nathan drake, ofc still far from perfect but somewhat good enough:

By ps4 we get very realistic drake in uncharted4 and even more realistic tlou2 when it comes to graphics(ofc story is fake af

TLDR: Tech advanced to a lvl that for the most part devs dont have to "settle" for humanoid-like animal protags but go for proper humans and it still looks good enough

 

[Wonko_C]

Judging by the pictures in your post, you mean "Mascots". Non-humans are more diverse than cartoony mascots: Monsters, robots, mutants, demons, aliens, fantasy races (elves, dwarves, etc.) and yes, even "furries". (Oblivion Remaster let's your main character be a lizardman or a catman, that's a "recent" game)