General Gaming Mainstream financial press reporting on the "darkening mood" of the videogames industry

[Ominous]

My middle daughter is mad she can't use my PC today while she's home and I'm working. She had to play Minecraft on the Switch and wasn't happy about it. She's playing a lot of Minecraft, Roblox, and Sims 4 these days, mostly on PC. There is some Roblox playing on our iPad as well. The Switch mostly collects dust. 

 

[best3444]

30 minutes ago, Ominous said:

My middle daughter is mad she can't use my PC today while she's home and I'm working. She had to play Minecraft on the Switch and wasn't happy about it. She's playing a lot of Minecraft, Roblox, and Sims 4 these days, mostly on PC. There is some Roblox playing on our iPad as well. The Switch mostly collects dust. 

 

 

So you're occupying the PC she wants to play on, right? If not, you're a cruel father!

 

[Ominous]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

 

So you're occupying the PC she wants to play on, right? If not, you're a cruel father!

 

Well I'm working at the same desk as my desktop. Work laptop. I was also using my desktop.

[Chadatog]

2 hours ago, Ominous said:

My middle daughter is mad she can't use my PC today while she's home and I'm working. She had to play Minecraft on the Switch and wasn't happy about it. She's playing a lot of Minecraft, Roblox, and Sims 4 these days, mostly on PC. There is some Roblox playing on our iPad as well. The Switch mostly collects dust. 

 

Palea is a 3d stardew like that is F2P on the switch.  She may like it and would ease the need for your desktop.

[Kal-El814]

3 hours ago, stepee said:

It’s funny how all the talk here is about Nintendo when they are the ones doing fine, but just missed their target window (by not much) for their new highly anticipated product.

 

I wonder about the extent to which Nintendo embodies this meme for most of the posters here (which is now 3+ years old at least):

 

 

The Wii was released almost 20 years ago now, there are many people who have no real memory of Nintendo hardware being anything other than a Nintendo adapter. And to that extent, the value proposition for the hardware isn't really relevant; there's no other way to get at that content, so... what are you going to do? Most people that buy the thing aren't trying to do an apples to apples comparison. Their only real flubs in my lifetime are the absolute bungling of the Wii U in every way and initially launching the DS at too high a price point. Beyond that, they're the same company that needed Sega to come along and make the Genesis or we'd all still be playing on the NES.

 

Aside from that, their whole thing is shit like... Eiji Aonuma has been making Zelda games since 1998. I don't think you get games like BotW and TotK without someone who has so much experience with one franchise riffing it into contemporary trends. Kinda like Balrog with God of War, I don't think you can chase that, you need the experience. Nintendo just has more people like that than anyone else.

[Kal-El814]

Aside from all this, it's continually interesting that gaming rarely gets mainstream media coverage despite being an incredibly mainstream hobby. I have no idea if it's because of the general erosion of journalism, if it's still seen as "just games" to not warrant more serious coverage, a lack of perceived market for that content... who knows.

[SuperSpreader]

The problem is simple, it's the people at the top. They keep giving games away for free and they keep making the same 7 titles, they don't invest in smaller teams with up and coming talent. Every studio has to be headed by some celebrity developer and they end up delivering the same things they did before, but a crappy version of it because they can't redo it 1:1. It's the same people in charge for over 30 years and they are out of ideas. Until leadership retires or fires themselves the game industry will stagnate. 

[SuperSpreader]

It's also worth mentioning that all these big companies went Spanish Empire searching for El Dorado in China for the last 20 years and have come back empty handed. Meanwhile they've ignored Latam and Mena. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

33 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Their only real flubs in my lifetime are the absolute bungling of the Wii U in every way and initially launching the DS at too high a price point. Beyond that, they're the same company that needed Sega to come along and make the Genesis or we'd all still be playing on the NES.

They have had great successes -- NES, SNES, Gameboy, DS, Wii, Switch.

They have also had big failures -- N64, Gamecube, Wii-U, Virtual Boy.

I don't think any other company has been boom or bust as much as them.

[SuperSpreader]

4 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 Spanish Empire searching for El Dorado 

 

Another parallel to the Spanish Empire is when they find Silver they use it to fund stupid growth aspirations that destroy their resources and overextend their teams, franchises, and they overestimate their capacity to lead that size of an organization.

 

I'm looking at you Habsburg Spain. lmao idiots 

 

 

[Kal-El814]

15 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

They have had great successes -- NES, SNES, Gameboy, DS, Wii, Switch.

They have also had big failures -- N64, Gamecube, Wii-U, Virtual Boy.

I don't think any other company has been boom or bust as much as them.

 

I don't know that the N64 or Gamecube would be considered "big failures." They didn't end up hanging with the PSX and PS2 sales numbers, but... nothing did or would have, really. The Wii U and Virtual Boy were bombs, there's no denying that.

[Ghost_MH]

4 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

They have had great successes -- NES, SNES, Gameboy, DS, Wii, Switch.

They have also had big failures -- N64, Gamecube, Wii-U, Virtual Boy.

I don't think any other company has been boom or bust as much as them.

 

Yeah, but while the N64 and Virtual Boy struggled they had the GB and GBC. While the Gamecube struggled, they had the GBA. while the Wii U struggled they had the 3DS. Even their bust years had some steady stream of cash coming in. Yeah, the N64 didn't sell much, but that's also the same year we got Pokemon.

[best3444]

The N64 and GameCube weren't exactly failures at all. They were huge at the time just over shadowed by PlayStation. Also this is a great point:

 

42 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Yeah, but while the N64 and Virtual Boy struggled they had the GB and GBC. While the Gamecube struggled, they had the GBA. while the Wii U struggled they had the 3DS. Even there bust years had some steady stream of cash coming in. Yeah, the N64 didn't sell much, but that's also the same year we got Pokemon.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

47 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

I don't know that the N64 or Gamecube would be considered "big failures." They didn't end up hanging with the PSX and PS2 sales numbers, but... nothing did or would have, really. The Wii U and Virtual Boy were bombs, there's no denying that.

They went from the market leaders to:

Selling just over 30 million units on N64 (vs. over 100 million on PSX)

Selling just over 20 million units on Gamecube (vs. over 150 million units on PS2)

3 minutes ago, best3444 said:

The N64 and GameCube weren't exactly failures at all. They were huge at the time just over shadowed by PlayStation. Also this is a great point:

 

 

No.  They weren't.  Going from being the overwhelming market leader, to 30% and then 15% of a new entrant is a failure.

We can recognize when they do well, but we can also recognize when they flame out.

[best3444]

2 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

They went from the market leaders to:

Selling just over 30 million units on N64 (vs. over 100 million on PSX)

Selling just over 20 million units on Gamecube (vs. over 150 million units on PS2)

No.  They weren't.  Going from being the overwhelming market leader, to 30% and then 15% of a new entrant is a failure.

We can recognize when they do well, but we can also recognize when they flame out.

 

I'm just agreeing with ghost that while the N64 and GameCube were not as successful as their predecessors, they had this to keep them from failing:

 

53 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Yeah, but while the N64 and Virtual Boy struggled they had the GB and GBC. While the Gamecube struggled, they had the GBA. while the Wii U struggled they had the 3DS. Even there bust years had some steady stream of cash coming in. Yeah, the N64 didn't sell much, but that's also the same year we got Pokemon.

 

[Air_Delivery]

The problem with large budget games and movies is the same. Release rehashed safe content until people get sick of it.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

17 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

I'm just agreeing with ghost that while the N64 and GameCube were not as successful as their predecessors, they had this to keep them from failing:

 

 

Having successful handhelds doesn’t mean their consoles weren’t failures. 

[best3444]

3 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Having successful handhelds doesn’t mean their consoles weren’t failures. 

 

Lol I understand that. The handhelds offset the consoles numbers so Nintendo wasn't failing during those time periods. 

 

The N64 is one of my favorite consoles ever. So many amazing memories with that so I'll never acknowledge that it was a failure. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

Remember when big AAA developers were excited about new technology and wanted to utilize it in their games? They don't even try anymore. The PS5 has a whole list of gimmicky shit in their controller that nothing uses.

 

Remember when Rainbow Six let you use the Xbox headset to communicate with your AI teammates? And if you had the headset plugged in, their comm speak came through the headset instead the TV? And if you were wearing the headset while playing Splinter Cell co-op, if you talked too loud it would alert nearby bad guys? That was cool as shit.

 

Remember when you could use the vision cam or the eye toy to take a photo of yourself for your Burnout Paradise driver's license? Gimmicky, yes, but it was funny as shit when playing online.

 

Remember when the Dreamcast had an LCD screen on the memory card? And you could take it with you places and play little minigames that tied back into your main game when you got home?

 

Remember when developers were excited about physics in games, and you could actually use the physics in your game to your advantage? I'm playing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic right now and its so unintentionally hilarious what you can do to the bad guys just using the physics in the game.

 

Remember when Psycho Mantis moved your fucking controller? Yeah you do. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it awesome? Yes.

 

I realize that all these things were gimmicks. But they were at least trying something different, and there was enthusiasm. Nintendo, for all its weird decisions, at least still seems to be playing with new ideas, even if they don't all land.

 

Now we're all just jaded and grouchy and bitch about everything to the point where nobody wants to try anything anymore.

[best3444]

37 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Remember when big AAA developers were excited about new technology and wanted to utilize it in their games? They don't even try anymore. The PS5 has a whole list of gimmicky shit in their controller that nothing uses.

 

Remember when Rainbow Six let you use the Xbox headset to communicate with your AI teammates? And if you had the headset plugged in, their comm speak came through the headset instead the TV? And if you were wearing the headset while playing Splinter Cell co-op, if you talked too loud it would alert nearby bad guys? That was cool as shit.

 

Remember when you could use the vision cam or the eye toy to take a photo of yourself for your Burnout Paradise driver's license? Gimmicky, yes, but it was funny as shit when playing online.

 

Remember when the Dreamcast had an LCD screen on the memory card? And you could take it with you places and play little minigames that tied back into your main game when you got home?

 

Remember when developers were excited about physics in games, and you could actually use the physics in your game to your advantage? I'm playing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic right now and its so unintentionally hilarious what you can do to the bad guys just using the physics in the game.

 

Remember when Psycho Mantis moved your fucking controller? Yeah you do. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it awesome? Yes.

 

I realize that all these things were gimmicks. But they were at least trying something different, and there was enthusiasm. Nintendo, for all its weird decisions, at least still seems to be playing with new ideas, even if they don't all land.

 

Now we're all just jaded and grouchy and bitch about everything to the point where nobody wants to try anything anymore.

 

Jesus this just ruined my lovely morning I was having with my coffee. 

[Keyser_Soze]

@XxEvil AshxX somehow missed:

 

Remember custom soundtracks on Xbox where you could rip your own CD and then put music into the game and for certain games you could customize what music is used where like in NFL2k5?

[best3444]

5 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

@XxEvil AshxX somehow missed:

 

Remember custom soundtracks on Xbox where you could rip your own CD and then put music into the game and for certain games you could customize what music is used where like in NFL2k5?

 

That was awesome. I pretend my past doesn't exist but some memories do come through. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

4 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

@XxEvil AshxX somehow missed:

 

Remember custom soundtracks on Xbox where you could rip your own CD and then put music into the game and for certain games you could customize what music is used where like in NFL2k5?

 

I will forever have my Burnout 3 play list etched into my brain. And if I forget for some reason, it's still on there lol.

[Remarkableriots]

4 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

@XxEvil AshxX somehow missed:

 

Remember custom soundtracks on Xbox where you could rip your own CD and then put music into the game and for certain games you could customize what music is used where like in NFL2k5?

I had a few country CDs on my OG Xbox that I played while playing Tony Hawk Underground or something.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

5 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Remember when big AAA developers were excited about new technology and wanted to utilize it in their games? They don't even try anymore. The PS5 has a whole list of gimmicky shit in their controller that nothing uses.

 

Remember when Rainbow Six let you use the Xbox headset to communicate with your AI teammates? And if you had the headset plugged in, their comm speak came through the headset instead the TV? And if you were wearing the headset while playing Splinter Cell co-op, if you talked too loud it would alert nearby bad guys? That was cool as shit.

 

Remember when you could use the vision cam or the eye toy to take a photo of yourself for your Burnout Paradise driver's license? Gimmicky, yes, but it was funny as shit when playing online.

 

Remember when the Dreamcast had an LCD screen on the memory card? And you could take it with you places and play little minigames that tied back into your main game when you got home?

 

Remember when developers were excited about physics in games, and you could actually use the physics in your game to your advantage? I'm playing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic right now and its so unintentionally hilarious what you can do to the bad guys just using the physics in the game.

 

Remember when Psycho Mantis moved your fucking controller? Yeah you do. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it awesome? Yes.

 

I realize that all these things were gimmicks. But they were at least trying something different, and there was enthusiasm. Nintendo, for all its weird decisions, at least still seems to be playing with new ideas, even if they don't all land.

 

Now we're all just jaded and grouchy and bitch about everything to the point where nobody wants to try anything anymore.

[XxEvil AshxX]

38 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

 

It damn well better .