I think this is an issue that will become more impactful in the future - and is likely a driver for big game companies pushing for micros-transaction fuelled F2P: the average age of the general video gamer is getting older AND people are just generally buying less stuff. How this will change things in ten or twenty years time is interesting, and perhaps worrying.
Twenty years ago nearly everyone owned some CDs and DVDs and video games and books, but now, with streaming and Kindles and things like gamepass etc, people have really got used to not going out to buy those things and owning them in the same way (not me obvs, physical media till I die!), but it has clearly had a huge impact on the way we consume media. And with games like FIFA and COD basically setting themselves up as the only games one might need for a year’s worth of entertainment, alongside many other games promising season passes and battle passes and the like, it’s not that surprising.
Plus, it feels everyone but the 1% is being told how poor they are all the time, which is probably making less people spend money on smaller games that they could probably still afford, as all are hobbies are deemed expendable when one is constantly being reminded to tighten one’s belt.
I wonder whether certain aspects of (certainly single player) console gaming is going to head in the same way as owning films on 4K blu rays - boutique stuff that commands a bit of a premium? As someone who loves a Criterion or an Arrow or a Second Sight, I’m OK with that, but I’m aware that I’ve reached an age where I can afford to indulge in such things… had the majority of video games been £70 or so when I was first enjoying them, then I would have been priced out of playing more than a couple of new releases a year too. For parents trying to get their kids into a shared hobby, or simply allowing their kids to enjoy their own gaming habits, I can see the price of new games meaning only one or two purchases a year making sense.
As visitors to (and commenters on) a gaming website, we’re obviously going to be exceptions to the rule - and long may our purchases go on, so there is evidence that enough people still want curated gaming experiences, rather than fad-chasing options that are constantly chasing the quick buck.
It’s like complaining that novels by the same author - or even books in the same genre - might contain recurring themes; we return to those genres we love exactly because of that stuff, as well as what new things each iteration might bring to it - and finding both things we expect and things that surprise within the framework of something we know is all part and parcel of consuming any kind of entertainment product. It is not surprising for an IGN article to be utterly clickbait and reductive.
Graphics are so tied together with art direction and atmosphere - and sometimes nostalgia too - so this will always be an ‘in the eye of the beholder’ debate. My rose-tinted specs still tell me that the PS2 iterations of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus had the best graphics and art direction I’ve ever seen, but in more recent times I’ve been wowed by The Last of Us (both), and by Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Shadows and HZD too, even if the quest for photorealism sometimes doesn’t let your mind fill in the blanks (or the blurriness) with a better version of what the game actually looks like, which is why games like Hollow Knight - and many older classics - remain both timeless and venerated.
I was at Uni when I first played a PS1, and at first, like all the other console games we played at that time, it was a multiplayer affair, worshipped for Tekken 3 and Tony Hawk’s etc, just like the N64’s were for Goldeneye and Mario Kart, and (later) the Dreamcast for Power Stone and some weird fishing game that used a bonkers peripheral… but whilst the other systems were played often and totally awesome, they stayed reserved for that co-op or PvP experience… and with the PS1 I went on journeys both with friends and alone, to places that that I’d never imagined video games might take us before then - that first trip to Silent Hill, infiltrating Shadow Moses, losing (spoilers) Aerith in FFVII… So many indelible memories. The PS1 felt like the first console that had grown up with those that had started gaming in the boom of the 80s, and that was not making games for a new generation of kids but was crafting new and more adult experiences for those on the cusp of such things - and I think that’s why, particularly with folks of my now vintage, this particular console is so mightily revered. Each new generation of Sony consoles has brought with it amazing experiences and surprises, and I’m happy to be gaming now on the PS5, but nothing will top that first voyage of discovery that me and my friends went on (as I’m sure so many of you here did), back when we first booted up that unassuming grey box in the mid 90s.
I almost think that God of War would make a better movie than a TV show - especially if it’s taking its inspiration more from the recent games than the older ones - as strip out the gameplay, there isn’t a huge amount of real story in it, whilst the huge set pieces would be better suited to a big-screen budget - they could even try to keep to the whole ‘one take’ conceit too. Things like The Last of Us and Fallout are already kind of episodic in their structure, which makes them a better fit for TV and streaming etc, whereas God of War should just (imo) lean more into its action and the spectacle…
In broad strokes this all sounds pretty positive, even if I think there should always be room for both: the big-budget blockbuster eye candy AND the lower-key and lower-budgeted releases that hit different on a different level. But as soon as the term AI is added into the verbal mix, it does give me pause. Obviously AI is going to streamline certain workflows, just in the same way new programming languages and game engines have done in the past, but AI can’t (imo) ever replicate an artist’s (or studio’s) singular vision, nor yet create or curate content that feels either tailor-made or truly original. Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, as by virtue of the term it means we often remember what resonated and overlook what didn’t gel, but it was still very human heights and very human flaws that made those games that so many of us hold up as masterpieces; and a user-focused AI future of algorithm-driven content might make all games manageable but not memorable.
Interesting and uncertain times for gaming and other creative mediums for sure.
@MikeOrator You’ve got that absolutely right: ‘The right game at the right time for the right person’ - that is the perfect sentiment 😊. In the same way some movies are amazing and harrowing and the kind of thing you might only be strong enough to watch once, other films can be far less revered and certainly less demanding - and yet rewatched and enjoyed far more often. The same is certainly true of games. I love the Souls games, but they’re not what I would call comfort food or choose to play when all I want to do is switch off! And I think we’re all lucky to have games that scratch both itches. There’s a lot of hate for the Ubisoft ‘map of things to tick off’, but all that stuff is like rereading a favourite book for me: unsurprising, but still enriching.
There is a kind of comfort-food quality to many of the Assassins Creed games, with them often offering up lots of box-ticking with not too demanding a challenge - and whilst certainly not every game should be like that, at the right time of year and in the right frame of mind, a new Assassins Creed entry can be just the right kind of undemanding fare. If it’s a dark and dreary November (in the UK), then some virtual tourism of Japan with a tick-list of things to mark off on a map sounds good…
It shall be more Red Dead Redemption II for me… Im sure it has a story to tell, but I’m still way more interested in just riding around the map and making my own narratives. Even after all these years, it’s still incredible stuff. Adopt Arthur Morgan voice: “happy gaming y’all” 🖤
@B0udoir That’s a fair point dude, and I totally get it to an extent. But I suppose there are loads of people who grew up with like the Star Wars prequel series as their entry point to that franchise, or even those who have the later sequels as their introduction to the whole thing… but if they liked them and it brought them to the originals…? Or those experiences simply just let them imagine themselves in that universe and as a part of that whole deal? Then that is totally cool too imo. I guess I’m saying that we all might board the train to the same destination at different stations, but we don’t judge that; and I guess I think that’s the same whether people jump into a franchise right at the very first release or a much later sequel, everyone’s still getting the same amount of the pleasure they wanted out of something, regardless of when they hopped aboard 😊
There’s a whole lot of weird gatekeeping going on in a bunch of the posts here. So yeah you liked something before it was popular… that’s awesome, and nobody can steal that experience from you! But now, by virtue of the Fallout TV series kicking off, more people are going to get to enjoy that experience too… isn’t that also awesome too?! Just because you like something doesn’t mean you own it, or have any real right to enjoy that IP more than anyone who came to enjoy it later than you did, so why should it make any difference? Surely it should be great news that more people are discovering something you love (as trust me, it doesn’t make that thing that you love any less special!), and now there’s a wider audience for a potential next instalment… making that potential next instalment more likely. It all sounds like a win to me. A win for old fans, a win for new fans, a win for those hardcore fans and a win for fairweather ones too; plus a win for the property as a whole 😊
Comments 11
Re: People Don't Buy Anywhere Near As Many Games As You Think
I think this is an issue that will become more impactful in the future - and is likely a driver for big game companies pushing for micros-transaction fuelled F2P: the average age of the general video gamer is getting older AND people are just generally buying less stuff. How this will change things in ten or twenty years time is interesting, and perhaps worrying.
Twenty years ago nearly everyone owned some CDs and DVDs and video games and books, but now, with streaming and Kindles and things like gamepass etc, people have really got used to not going out to buy those things and owning them in the same way (not me obvs, physical media till I die!), but it has clearly had a huge impact on the way we consume media. And with games like FIFA and COD basically setting themselves up as the only games one might need for a year’s worth of entertainment, alongside many other games promising season passes and battle passes and the like, it’s not that surprising.
Plus, it feels everyone but the 1% is being told how poor they are all the time, which is probably making less people spend money on smaller games that they could probably still afford, as all are hobbies are deemed expendable when one is constantly being reminded to tighten one’s belt.
I wonder whether certain aspects of (certainly single player) console gaming is going to head in the same way as owning films on 4K blu rays - boutique stuff that commands a bit of a premium? As someone who loves a Criterion or an Arrow or a Second Sight, I’m OK with that, but I’m aware that I’ve reached an age where I can afford to indulge in such things… had the majority of video games been £70 or so when I was first enjoying them, then I would have been priced out of playing more than a couple of new releases a year too. For parents trying to get their kids into a shared hobby, or simply allowing their kids to enjoy their own gaming habits, I can see the price of new games meaning only one or two purchases a year making sense.
As visitors to (and commenters on) a gaming website, we’re obviously going to be exceptions to the rule - and long may our purchases go on, so there is evidence that enough people still want curated gaming experiences, rather than fad-chasing options that are constantly chasing the quick buck.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Getting Sick of Sony's Supposedly 'Samey' Approach to Story Telling?
It’s like complaining that novels by the same author - or even books in the same genre - might contain recurring themes; we return to those genres we love exactly because of that stuff, as well as what new things each iteration might bring to it - and finding both things we expect and things that surprise within the framework of something we know is all part and parcel of consuming any kind of entertainment product.
It is not surprising for an IGN article to be utterly clickbait and reductive.
Re: What PS5 Games Have the Best Graphics?
Graphics are so tied together with art direction and atmosphere - and sometimes nostalgia too - so this will always be an ‘in the eye of the beholder’ debate. My rose-tinted specs still tell me that the PS2 iterations of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus had the best graphics and art direction I’ve ever seen, but in more recent times I’ve been wowed by The Last of Us (both), and by Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Shadows and HZD too, even if the quest for photorealism sometimes doesn’t let your mind fill in the blanks (or the blurriness) with a better version of what the game actually looks like, which is why games like Hollow Knight - and many older classics - remain both timeless and venerated.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your PS1 Memories?
I was at Uni when I first played a PS1, and at first, like all the other console games we played at that time, it was a multiplayer affair, worshipped for Tekken 3 and Tony Hawk’s etc, just like the N64’s were for Goldeneye and Mario Kart, and (later) the Dreamcast for Power Stone and some weird fishing game that used a bonkers peripheral… but whilst the other systems were played often and totally awesome, they stayed reserved for that co-op or PvP experience… and with the PS1 I went on journeys both with friends and alone, to places that that I’d never imagined video games might take us before then - that first trip to Silent Hill, infiltrating Shadow Moses, losing (spoilers) Aerith in FFVII… So many indelible memories. The PS1 felt like the first console that had grown up with those that had started gaming in the boom of the 80s, and that was not making games for a new generation of kids but was crafting new and more adult experiences for those on the cusp of such things - and I think that’s why, particularly with folks of my now vintage, this particular console is so mightily revered. Each new generation of Sony consoles has brought with it amazing experiences and surprises, and I’m happy to be gaming now on the PS5, but nothing will top that first voyage of discovery that me and my friends went on (as I’m sure so many of you here did), back when we first booted up that unassuming grey box in the mid 90s.
Re: Boy! Sony and Amazon to Start from Scratch on God of War TV Show
I almost think that God of War would make a better movie than a TV show - especially if it’s taking its inspiration more from the recent games than the older ones - as strip out the gameplay, there isn’t a huge amount of real story in it, whilst the huge set pieces would be better suited to a big-screen budget - they could even try to keep to the whole ‘one take’ conceit too. Things like The Last of Us and Fallout are already kind of episodic in their structure, which makes them a better fit for TV and streaming etc, whereas God of War should just (imo) lean more into its action and the spectacle…
Re: Key Sony Exec Gives Eye-Opening Quotes on the Future of PlayStation and Gaming
In broad strokes this all sounds pretty positive, even if I think there should always be room for both: the big-budget blockbuster eye candy AND the lower-key and lower-budgeted releases that hit different on a different level. But as soon as the term AI is added into the verbal mix, it does give me pause. Obviously AI is going to streamline certain workflows, just in the same way new programming languages and game engines have done in the past, but AI can’t (imo) ever replicate an artist’s (or studio’s) singular vision, nor yet create or curate content that feels either tailor-made or truly original. Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, as by virtue of the term it means we often remember what resonated and overlook what didn’t gel, but it was still very human heights and very human flaws that made those games that so many of us hold up as masterpieces; and a user-focused AI future of algorithm-driven content might make all games manageable but not memorable.
Interesting and uncertain times for gaming and other creative mediums for sure.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows the Actual Name of AC Red, Reveal This Week
@MikeOrator You’ve got that absolutely right: ‘The right game at the right time for the right person’ - that is the perfect sentiment 😊. In the same way some movies are amazing and harrowing and the kind of thing you might only be strong enough to watch once, other films can be far less revered and certainly less demanding - and yet rewatched and enjoyed far more often. The same is certainly true of games. I love the Souls games, but they’re not what I would call comfort food or choose to play when all I want to do is switch off! And I think we’re all lucky to have games that scratch both itches. There’s a lot of hate for the Ubisoft ‘map of things to tick off’, but all that stuff is like rereading a favourite book for me: unsurprising, but still enriching.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows the Actual Name of AC Red, Reveal This Week
There is a kind of comfort-food quality to many of the Assassins Creed games, with them often offering up lots of box-ticking with not too demanding a challenge - and whilst certainly not every game should be like that, at the right time of year and in the right frame of mind, a new Assassins Creed entry can be just the right kind of undemanding fare. If it’s a dark and dreary November (in the UK), then some virtual tourism of Japan with a tick-list of things to mark off on a map sounds good…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 525
It shall be more Red Dead Redemption II for me…
Im sure it has a story to tell, but I’m still way more interested in just riding around the map and making my own narratives. Even after all these years, it’s still incredible stuff.
Adopt Arthur Morgan voice: “happy gaming y’all” 🖤
Re: Fallout 4 Sales Up 7,500% in Europe as Bethesda Series Dominates
@B0udoir That’s a fair point dude, and I totally get it to an extent. But I suppose there are loads of people who grew up with like the Star Wars prequel series as their entry point to that franchise, or even those who have the later sequels as their introduction to the whole thing… but if they liked them and it brought them to the originals…? Or those experiences simply just let them imagine themselves in that universe and as a part of that whole deal? Then that is totally cool too imo. I guess I’m saying that we all might board the train to the same destination at different stations, but we don’t judge that; and I guess I think that’s the same whether people jump into a franchise right at the very first release or a much later sequel, everyone’s still getting the same amount of the pleasure they wanted out of something, regardless of when they hopped aboard 😊
Re: Fallout 4 Sales Up 7,500% in Europe as Bethesda Series Dominates
There’s a whole lot of weird gatekeeping going on in a bunch of the posts here.
So yeah you liked something before it was popular… that’s awesome, and nobody can steal that experience from you! But now, by virtue of the Fallout TV series kicking off, more people are going to get to enjoy that experience too… isn’t that also awesome too?! Just because you like something doesn’t mean you own it, or have any real right to enjoy that IP more than anyone who came to enjoy it later than you did, so why should it make any difference? Surely it should be great news that more people are discovering something you love (as trust me, it doesn’t make that thing that you love any less special!), and now there’s a wider audience for a potential next instalment… making that potential next instalment more likely. It all sounds like a win to me. A win for old fans, a win for new fans, a win for those hardcore fans and a win for fairweather ones too; plus a win for the property as a whole 😊