Video Game Crash 2/Remake/Remastered - Pre-Order now!

[Golly Bo-Bolly]

Currently the Industry has 4 CEOs leaving, lost 6,000+ workers/job positions, consoles are becoming digital only, games cost more than ever to make/buy, and people would rather have a P.C.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/over-6000-games-industry-jobs-lost-in-2023-so-far

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/the-s...-bigger-layoffs-and-an-imminent-crisis-point/

The similarities between the 80's Crash and now are games being more miss than hit, and replace Atari with Microsoft.

This year had a lot of games due to the coof but next year is pretty barren.

 

[Geddy Lee's Fee and See]

All this telling me is that this is the last or next to last generation of console gaming. There's no way that Sony or Microsoft can keep existing in their current state without a massive overhaul, which is never going to happen. Their games library is sparse and rather shit while you can play all the same games and better ones on PC (not to mention emulation or the retro gaming market). Shit's fucked and it was a long time coming.

 

[The Backwards Man]

Can the second crash come any faster? I'm tired of waiting. I want out of this hobby.

 

[Breadbassket]

Seems to be less of a gaming crash in general and more of a decline of the console market which to be fair relatively speaking would probably be its own disaster.

 

[augment]

Since time is cyclical, I expect eventually a group of passionate individuals will come together and begin creating good games again, well after the decomposing corpses of Activision, EA and Ubisoft, Naughty Dog and Blizzard dry up. Pity I may not be able to see it.

 

[ChefKiss]

90% of western companies will die, if they're lucky they will get MS/Sony/Tencent to buy them out right before they die and leave those idiots holding the bag
90% of Japanese companies will be fire, only suffering damage equivalent to how deeply they drank the western koolaid (going to be rough for Square Enix and such)
Nintendo will continue to release Mario Ultra Mega Super Giga Bing Bing Wahoo to 400 million sales

 

[Breadbassket]

90% of western companies will die, if they're lucky they will get MS/Sony/Tencent to buy them out right before they die and leave those idiots holding the bag
90% of Japanese companies will be fire, only suffering damage equivalent to how deeply they drank the western koolaid (going to be rough for Square Enix and such)
Nintendo will continue to release Mario Ultra Mega Super Giga Bing Bing Wahoo to 400 million sales

Fostering a cult fanbase over multiple decades has its perks clearly.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

I don't know if I expect a crash, but the death of the "10-year dev cycle, 1500 staff members located across the globe with supporting companies, delivering a (boring) AAA 'experience' that cost a hundred million dollars" could only be a good thing. The bloat does not match the quality of the product.

 

[Fagnacious D]

90% of western companies will die, if they're lucky they will get MS/Sony/Tencent to buy them out right before they die and leave those idiots holding the bag

I can't wait for 90% of the IPs to be owned by a single monolithic entity!
It's going to be fun to see them do so little with those IPs too. I mean we already have Warcraft and Diablo cellphone games. Why not another hundred of so cash grabs rubber stamped from the same formula.

 

[cybertoaster]

The similarities between the 80's Crash and now are games being more miss than hit, and replace Atari with Microsoft.

More like sony, the PS is literally their only business right now, that company lost the music market, TV market, laptop market, movie (physical media) market, is a niche (at best) phone maker and makes semi-pro cameras in a world where everybody except pros use their phones to take pics. The irony of the first PSX barely making it out the door at all only to become the one thing keeping sony from ending like panasonic, sharp, sanyo and other once famous japanese electronic brands its palpable. If consoles go down then sony does too.

But microsoft? the Xbox never made a sizable chunk of their revenue and was a net loss during many years. Their core business is still windows but only for now as their SaaS services, azure and AI keep growing. If consoles go bust microsoft will barely feel it, but sony will be fucked and nintendo will get the beatdown of its life, assuming it wont end up like SEGA.

Seems to be less of a gaming crash in general and more of a decline of the console market which to be fair relatively speaking would probably be its own disaster.

It would for companies who only make gaming hardware, specifically consoles, but the micro computer and PC market of the 80's wasn't as badly hit and studios kept making games for those platforms so the likes of valve should be fine, tho meta might finally pull the plug on VR.

Nintendo will continue to release Mario Ultra Mega Super Giga Bing Bing Wahoo to 400 million sales

Maybe, maybe not, I learned to not underestimate the CONSOOM mentality of nintendo fanbois but if the super mario movie showed anything is that most of that fandom is in their late thirties and even forties, which makes sense when its been nearly 40 years since the famicom launched. My point is that that's an aging and therefore shrinking customer base. I see zoomers and they feel nostalgia about minecraft and FNAF, not mario and link, which explains how the FNAF movie beated the super mario movie in ticket sales. Point is they don't care much about nintendo, the bing-bing-wahoo meme was even made by zoomers to mock old nintendo fans so nintendo itself shouldn't bet the farm on their rabid fanbase to still be around to buy whatever shit they make in the near future.

 

[Golly Bo-Bolly]

But microsoft?

Yeah, I probably shoulda elaborated on the company comparisons. I said Microsoft initially because of how it is currently the west's best home console and best OS for PC gaming like how Atari was for home consoles, but a more accurate comparison with 80's companies would be Atari = Sony, Mattel = Microsoft, and Activision = SEGA.

 

[BadGoy1488]

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was a fuckin banger! I see the chickens coming home to roost for most major companies, many people are just getting tired of increased pricing for lower quality. Thats not even mentioning the current state of the economy. Lot's of AA content been coming out the past couple years too, some decent shit for decent prices at that. Aliens: Dark Decent and the new Robocop game are perfect examples from this year(many others too). Decent graphics, good gameplay, serviceable story, and an acceptable price tag. Both of these examples also give credit and respect to their source material, not "subverting our expectations"....forgot to mention, almost bug free upon release. Except Aliens, although its full of different kind of bugs...that you murder! That doesn't even begin talking about Paradox style map games and city/colony, which known for shit DLC practices, can still provide weeks upon weeks of entertainment out of the box, not including mods.

Indie titles are nothing to scoff at either, I think more gamers are starting to accept not having insane graphics, for a more finished product that is more well rounded and sometimes for a fantastic asking price. I have almost 500 hours in Enter the Gungeon, just because its the best shit ever. same with Rimworld, and around 150 in Darkest Dungeon. all exquisite and fit their niche. those are just the ones off my head, we could go on and on.

Still a lot of normies though, but once quality gets so bad, and it shows no sign of improving, even CoD and FIFA will eventually collapse. It's honestly a trifecta of normies(this includes youngsters), sports lovers, and black people that keep these shit companies afloat. Most of them are not invested enough in Video games to see past the next release of CoD, then they will stand around the water cooler talking about squading up after work, and their games the night before. Most of them are perfectly fine with this, which is a problem for the hobby of gaming, but you also don't want to be that faggot shitting on their parade every time they talk about their game time with friends, most wont care anyways. So we either wait it out, or just try to subtly nudge them from time to time. Either way, somethings gonna give.

Edit: Nintendo will survive

 

[BananaSplit²]

Maybe, maybe not, I learned to not underestimate the CONSOOM mentality of nintendo fanbois but if the super mario movie showed anything is that most of that fandom is in their late thirties and even forties, which makes sense when its been nearly 40 years since the famicom launched. My point is that that's an aging and therefore shrinking customer base. I see zoomers and they feel nostalgia about minecraft and FNAF, not mario and link, which explains how the FNAF movie beated the super mario movie in ticket sales. Point is they don't care much about nintendo, the bing-bing-wahoo meme was even made by zoomers to mock old nintendo fans so nintendo itself shouldn't bet the farm on their rabid fanbase to still be around to buy whatever shit they make in the near future.

I'm not understanding this "zoomer" thing. Is that an american internet lingo to call teenagers as such?
Because they naturally tend to be hostile towards Nintendo for being too kiddie-looking, I went through that phase too like any other.

Also, Nintendo games have the huge reputation amongst the populations to be good (okay at worst), even to the least knowledgeable person, and titles like Mario Kart or Super Mario Bros are pretty simple in concept that anyone can play them. They're pretty much safe bets in terms of videogames and I gift those for the family kids too.

This year had a lot of games due to the coof but next year is pretty barren.

There is plenty of Japanese vidya coming out next year, with the occasional western indies, just like it's been the case for the past several years.
I argue the sole difference compared to two decades ago is that you now have to look for games by yourself and not rely on what the mainstream news tells you to look forward.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

There's no crash coming, even trash like Soyder-Man 2 sold well on a shitty system, nothing can stop consoomers.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

There's no crash coming,

^this. They were predicting this back in the 2010s as well, but here we are years later still taking about it

We reached a peak in the late 00's and have been on a downward slope since the 2010's

 

[msd]

Bold to put an option saying that epic will buy everything out.

According to court documents they're still not making money.

All the buying exclusives, all the collabs for fortnite, and even laying off 15% of their work force, they're still not making money.

And Tim Sweeney still won't put unreal tournament back on the market.

 

[Judge Dredd]

@Celebrate Nite beat me to it, but the "crash" has been happening since the mid 2010s. Starting somewhere in the latter days of the Xbox 360, and early PS4. It's a well known meme that the PS4 had Bloodbourne and no other games worth bothering with. The PS5 doesn't even have that. I hear more about the Series X as an emulation machine more than a console for modern games.

The usual comeback is to point to popular games released during this second "crash", but 1983 had lots of good games, and even some classics like Elite and Chuckie Egg, but we're supposed to overlook all that because it doesn't fit the narrative that 1983 gaming was a wasteland.

I'm not understanding this "zoomer" thing. Is that an american internet lingo to call teenagers as such?

Zoomers are the generation after Millennial.

It goes Generation X (Gen-X), Generation Y (Millennial), Generation Z (Zoomer), and Generation Alpha.

As always is the case with these things, there's some debate about when zoomers officially start. But as a general rule anyone born after the year 2000 is a zoomer.


Edit: To expand on the "But have you considered Indie games?" argument. There are a couple of things at play here. The first is that the "crash" of 1983 marked the glory days of the "bedroom programmer" in the UK. Teenagers getting rich because of games they made on cheap home computers in their bedrooms during their spare time.

There are good indie games out there, but a lot of people fail to articulate the reasons why people don't want them. Despite claims otherwise, a lot of people care that a game has good graphics, and is popular enough to drive conversations. Part of the reason games like Goldeneye, Mortal Kombat, and older GTAs don't hold up is a lot of their appeal was playground myth making and discussion. "My friend's brother flew the Dodo across town." or "My uncle managed to unlock the cheat on Facility" type stuff. That's a niche doesn't exist for adults, and is mostly filled by streamer bait now.

Then there's finding these games. You can't rely on game journos any more, and YouTubers are only interested in what's already popular. People seem reluctant to share their findings.

 

[cybertoaster]

a more accurate comparison with 80's companies would be Atari = Sony, Mattel = Microsoft, and Activision = SEGA.

I would add switch=vectrex.

The vectrex was the alternative console of its day, and successful enough even in a crowded market but it got nuked by the crash. Not saying nintendo will get nuked but it would be lean years at best, might have to branch more into third party territory and maybe release games for PC like it did for mobile.

There are good indie games out there, but a lot of people fail to articulate the reasons why people don't want them.

The ratio of good indie games to bad ones isn't that much better than the ratio of good vs bad AAA games. Indie games were way better back in the days of flash because there was (almost) no money to be made from it so it was 100% a work of passion. Not saying devs should work for free but when one game made by one single guy like notch makes him a billionaire its gonna attract a lot of shady opportunists, which is what happened.

I still remember that igda scandal where they gave fez all kinds of awards because the POS phil fish gave all the judges free stock in his company, so of course it got all the accolades. And that wasn't an isolated event at all, the early 2010's indie game scene was rife with nepotism, it was a clique of mediocre also-rans some of them not even gamers and the journos they hanged around with and gave them good coverage regardless of if the game was good or not. Needless to say this destroyed the image of indie games with most gamers. Then came the still ongoing wave of 2spoopy4me poorly put together "retro graphics" horror games that started with FNAF which wasn't bad itself but it was a simple game and it did so well, made so much money, got so much attention from the biggest streamers that once again every opportunist wanted a piece, and now the market its flooded by creepy PSX graphics walking sims.

For every iron lung there is a hundred "its the backrooms but its an empty spa/gym/library instead".

Despite claims otherwise, a lot of people care that a game has good graphics

Nobody likes shitty graphics, the problem is when graphics is all there is because the gameplay is meh, the AI is shit and the writing is 3rd grade-level.

These days its incredibly easy to have good graphics, just throw assets into UE5 and you got a game, which is why a lot of indie fodder game gets called "asset dump".

So yeah graphics were a much bigger deal back when getting a game to look good and run at a steady 30fps was a engineering challenge in and of itself (see the crash bandicoot dev stories), but nowadays good graphics are the norm, and even back in the day there were games with great graphics but meh gameplay that didn't get as much praise as games with lesser graphics but great gameplay, tho it would still sell because again good graphics were rare.

People seem reluctant to share their findings.

Why?

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

I'll believe the crash is here when it crashes.

Layoffs happen, we're in an economic downturn. They're happening everywhere.

Most of the CEO's retiring are the ones who were part of companies that were bought out. This is also pretty natural.

And the whole "Consoles will only be digital" thing has been in the works for the better part of 15 years now. I don't see this as an indicator of anything either way. After they go all digital, they're going to focus on eliminating consoles altogether for the cloud.

Serious question, is *anyone* here old enough to even remember going through the 80's gaming crash? I'm certainly not, and it often feels like I'm one of the oldest fuckos here.

Why? (in regards to people not sharing indie games)

I can only speak for myself, but literally every gamer seems to just want to shit on every other gamers taste so it seems pointless to mention indie stuff I play and actually enjoy.

It also doesn't help that gaming is a culture war minefield, and the independent scene is filled with LGBT allies so you get lumped with them the second someone finds some connection in some discord you don't even follow or something.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

The situation is sufficiently different, in my opinion.

The original crash (in '83-'84) can be traced back to difficulty with a transition cycle -- there wasn't any new hardware hitting the market yet. Atari's hubris, which had reached Greek tragedy-comedy levels, also played a heavy factor (they honestly thought they were going to get 100 percent of the market). There was a massive glut in games, too -- some of which were good, and a lot of which were dogshit. Lots and lots of competition for the entertainment dollar.

Combine that with competition from both home computer systems and the arcades, plus the total lack of customer reviews at the time (we're used to Yahtzee Croshaw taking a steaming shit on games, but back then? Nobody was going to be able to get the word out that E.T. was crap), and, well, we saw what happened.