Home video game consoles have numbered generations.
NES was the third.
We’re currently in the 9th generation.
Each generation lasts roughly about 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_video_game_console_generations
Is your favorite generation the one from when you first played games? Or is that unrelated and coincidental?
Is there a correlation with strength of a generation and society’s financial state (2009 recession’s effect on the 7th gen)?
I’m an aspiring developer and trying to answer the age old question of: Are games getting worse? In what aspects yes or no?
They absolutely are getting better audio&video fidelity, but that doesn’t mean much to, at least me, if the music is less memorable, the bugs are all patched, everything is over-monetized games as a service, all the assets are generic, and it’s all hyper-derivative remakes of remakes. I get that “fun is fun”, but once you’ve played so many games, you look back at games from 2001 and wonder why the only innovations we have are mantling, $20 hats, and Microsoft is buying everything.
There are absolutely good games right now, on the way to par with number of good games of most previous generations. So why does it still feel like everybody I talk to, regardless of age, feels like there’s an itch that hasn’t been scratched in ages? And, why is this a contentious issue? Surely, there’s a measurable way to debate seemingly subjective opinion of where we are.
Game devs: We see you guys working your asses off with very little appreciation. This isn’t about you guys, as much as it’s about risks (or lack of) that the industry takes as a whole.
I think this is a bit reductive of the current landscape. It really only feels true if you limit your samples to AAA games, which have always been focused on low risk and high profitability. I would argue that the industry as a whole has become much healthier in the 8th and 9th console generations than it was during the 7th console generation.
Here is my argument:
During the 7th console generation, the industry was experiencing explosive growth. Video game budgets ballooned rapidly as the new hardware demanded higher quality assets and developers needed to pump out bigger, more polished games to compete in the market. Small budget games became a rarity, often relegated to handhelds if they got made at all. Big publishers weren’t all that interested, and you needed their help if you wanted to get your game certified, marketed, and distributed at retail.
The growth of digital distribution changed all that. Platforms like Steam, and later the loosened requirements to sell games on PSN and Xbox Live, lowered the barrier to entry considerably. Over the last 10 years, indie games have exploded in quality, quantity, and popularity. And we’re even seeing the return of mid budget “AA” games. There is plenty of innovation and excitement going on in this space.
I would also argue that the rise of F2P for multiplayer games is a net positive, when done right (i.e. no P2W, cosmetic-only purchases), but that can be a more contentious opinion.