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[Mr Hyde]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

 

[amigastar]

Ok, have fun to you also.

 

[SoullessApples]

Ok

 

[Kiraly]

First person shooter shooters

 

[The Cockatrice]

As long as the games I play are great, I see no reason to give up on modern gaming. Elden Ring? new God of War? and so many more I'd have to be pretty stupid to give it all up just because it's now digital.

 

[anthony2690]

Seems like a complete knee jerk reaction.
I feel like we have more games or genres than ever to enjoy.
Plus you can enjoy most the older games worth playing still.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

I must have missed the announcement that nobody is making discs anymore in all the Activision threads.

 

[BaneIsPain]

You forget the NFTs OP. That is going to be huge within these 2-3 years.

 

[𝐃esperado]

Bye

 

[Buggy Loop]

Ah yea, the good ol disc rot, cartridge rusting/oxidation/gunking, truely better.

Seen anyone on PC freak out about physical media going away? It’s been 20 years like that.

 

[ZywyPL]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

Well if you can't see past AAA games that are heavily marketed then it's all on you.

 

[GHG]

Get a gaming PC. Indie games, VR, emulation, etc. Plus you can play whatever shitty flavour of the month AAA game takes your fancy before realising you were having more fun playing games in the aforementioned categories.

We are not where you say we are, yet.

 

[Arcadialane]

Add to that all the woke propaganda being pushed in games today also, and yeah, I understand you.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

Sounds like you need to take a break from modern western AAA gaming.

Check some japanese shit, or go play some indies

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

Change is difficult, I get it. But there will still always be other experiences offered. Indie studios, VR titles.

Nothing to get worked up about in this MS and AB deal.

 

[Gameplaylover]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

You forgot 3rd person action adventures. Well, even if gaming becomes super shitty, there is still more left to play than a single human being can play in his life. Just not the newest games.

 

[AV]

Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG.

You're right to be annoyed about most of the rest, but this is just dumb. There's more diversity than there ever has been. Play more games.

 

[mansoor1980]

only if you are poor

 

[j0hnnix]

 

[Warnen]

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

 

[Punished Miku]

When I started playing video games it was at arcades.

Sometimes shit changes. It'll be okay.

 

[rofif]

Buy everything
Own nothing

I still buy physical discs when I can. It feels even better now because it feels like going against the grain

 

[SLB1904]

Nah. There are more games than ever. I own more games that I'll ever have time play.

 

[ABnormal]

Even though monopolization of third parties is bad, major things like this are at the same time exciting, because they cause huge shakings in a market that for too long relied on repetitive, yearly projects and same-model game approach of the producers.
Things like this will bring some good differentiation in the offer, and new roads explored.

 

[Hitchyhero]

DVD/Bluray/UHD still exists today along streaming

Most games come out on physical unless its a samll indie game.

PC has existed for years with digital only

There's way more genres than that but they are more popular atm. Stop looking at the AAA releases if you want variety

 

[CeeJay]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

I wish!

The racing genre is really under-represented these days. It's ironic that you say you are going all retro to avoid these genres when that's exactly where you find a lot of the classic racing games, especially arcade racers.

Even though there is a lot of consolidation it doesn't mean that you can't find great modern games. Even without the consolidation the types of games that these big publishers were producing has been stale for a couple of generations where they rinse and repeat the same old franchises, in that regard nothing has or will change with Microsoft buying Bethesda and Acti/Blizz. Even if the biggest 5 independent publishers were all bought up in the next couple of years it's not going to change the direction of travel that they were on drastically. If you are only interested in AAA gaming then yeah you will get all those things that you mention in your post but just have a look across to the indie scene and it's better than it's ever been, thriving. Individual developers have more options than ever to get experience, the development tools are better than they have ever been, the engines are easy to learn, cheap to develop on and empower a very small team to punch well above their weight. There are loads of indie developers who are catering to the gamers who love those retro style games, you just need to dig a bit below the surface of what is being pushed by the behemoth marketing engine. They are not even buried that deep!

 

[Hey Blinkin]

Use your money to support indies. Plenty of great games available.

 

[Orta]

First person shooter shooters

 

[Bo_Hazem]

The industry is just getting better, bright future ahead of us.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Well we're not there yet but I can certainly empathize. I'm building up a pretty cool retro collection myself while still playing modern crap. When the shit hits the fan, I'm good with retro games for the rest of my life.

 

[nush]

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Enjoying the circus, smart guy.

 

[FoundryMusic]

 

[LazyParrot]

Seen anyone on PC freak out about physical media going away? It’s been 20 years like that.

It hasn't been 20 years since digital only releases on PC became common, and there were plenty of people who bitched about it when it did happen.

It's a stupid comparison anyway, since going all digital is much less risky on PC than it is on consoles, especially in the long term thanks to nearly infinite backwards compatibility and the ability to get your hands on games even if they get removed from stores, the stores shut down, or whatever other boogieman defenders of physical media can come up with.

 

[ANDS]

[/QUOTE]

Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG.

So independent developers are just outlawed?

 

[Kupfer]

Gaming is not about games and gamers anymore, it's about money and maximizing profit while lowering the effort.
Looking forward to indies and games from smaller studios. CP2077 was she last AAA game I was hyped for and that taught me a lesson.

 

[tommib]

Consolidation. Subscription services. Streaming. All digital. No physical media. No ownership. Sky high prices. Three genres; FPS shooters, racing and open world RPG. Throw in a yearly FIFA for variety. I'm done with modern gaming after this console generation. I'm going retro. It was a good run. Have fun.

You’ll need one of these:

Analogue Pocket

A tribute to portable gaming.

www.analogue.co

 

[Bulletbrain]

My current playlist include

Subnautica (gamepass) - A great take on the survival genre
Yakuza LAD (gamepass) - Endlessly charming JRPG
Forza Horizon 5 (gamepass) - A top drawer open world racer
Cyberpunk 2077 (steam) - Flawed but compelling first person action title
Hitman 3 (EGS) - one of the greatest stealth games ever

Five completely different games. Three of which I get to play from a monthly subscription.

There are many things wrong with the gaming industry but variety is not one of them.

 

[Doom85]

Bye, see you later!

(goes back to the hype party for Elden Ring)

 

[Winter John]

I disagree with most of that. Gaming has never been cheaper. There are more options/platforms than there has ever been. There are more types of game than there's ever been. It's pretty obvious a digital only future is the eventual goal, and has been for some time. Personally I'm fine with that. If Sony/MS released an app that allowed people to play their latest games without the need for an expensive console that would be a very good thing. It would be great if I could turn on my tv, hit a PlayStation app and play the Demon's Souls remaster right now.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Old man yells at Microsoft cloud.

 

[Punished Miku]

Looking at my brief exposure to Gamepass, over the last 7 months, I've so far witnessed nothing but positive trends. It's the early days honeymoon period still for the service, so things could someday get dark and dystopian.

But the main thing I'm seeing is a lot more support for AA games and indie games, as well as a loosening of the noose around the neck of AAA or AA+ games. When you're not entirely bound by sales numbers, then you have a little more room for risk taking and creative freedom I think. Stuff like the new Aliens game can get played by people now on Gamepass, instead of just instantly buried because it's not a $70 mega budget title.

Sub services have the potential to reawaken game diversity, which has been stagnant for a while now for all the large publishers.

 

[winjer]

I would agree that AAA gaming is getting worse by the year.
But then there are several smaller studios and indies making great games.

If you care to experiment outside of those big franchises, you will find many great games.

 

[KiteGr]

I still buy disks, and when a game doesn't have one or is full of patches and DLC, I skip it.

I stayed on consoles because they still had retail games. If they are to discourage them even more, i might as well go to PC and build my library on steam. It's more likely to be able to play my game on steam a few generations ahead, they have better prices, i can mod to translate, fix and decensore the games and the interface to manage, access, notice and discuss the games is ages ahead of the consoles.

Also, yes!
I also lean a lot towards indies and retro lately.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

The industry is changing. Just that.
I do fear these multi trillion companies can end up ruining this. Throwing big sums of money isn't all it takes for a good videogame industry...that's much we already know.

But there's no reason for all this outrage for now.

Even Sony will be okay. If people think losing one single IP is going to drive Sony away from this business, then you guys don't know much about this.
Yes...it blows, it will affect them, etc...but no reason for all this doom and gloom.

If anything it makes me curious what Sony will do, because after this they CAN'T just stand still and think their current IP portfolio is enough to them. They will need to secure 3rd party IPs for them and timed exclusives won't cut it anymore. Not when they uy 1 year exclusivity and MS just walks in and buys those studios. They need to keep known IPs that are related to Sony. Even Sony knows this now after Bethesda and Activision.

One thing Nintendo has on Sony is that people buy their hardware literally for their games. Sony is not there yet and won't be for at least another decade. A lot of the people that bought PS4 was for 3rd party games. Same is happening for PS5. So far creating and growing their portfolio was enough...but MS is telling them that's not enough. Sony has the edge in acquiring Japanese studios which is what i think they will do next.

Just my two cents...so get ready for next week's Sony acquisition of some obscure 3rd party studio with 50 people from a basement somewhere. That's how bad i am at predicting stuff, lmao.

 

[BigLee74]

Oooh, the Drama!

All the games are all still there, all available to buy physically (if you feel you must own a disc) or digitally, or to rent via a subscription service.

 

[rofif]

I would agree that AAA gaming is getting worse by the year.
But then there are several smaller studios and indies making great games.

If you care to experiment outside of those big franchises, you will find many great games.

But the smaller studios all make games about depression.
Aside from The Forgotten city - the one indie game that should get more kudos last year

 

[CeeJay]

Looking at my brief exposure to Gamepass, over the last 7 months, I've so far witnessed nothing but positive trends. It's the early days honeymoon period still for the service, so things could someday get dark and dystopian.

But the main thing I'm seeing is a lot more support for AA games and indie games, as well as a loosening of the noose around the neck of AAA or AA+ games. When you're not entirely bound by sales numbers, then you have a little more room for risk taking and creative freedom I think. Stuff like the new Aliens game can get played by people now on Gamepass, instead of just instantly buried because it's not a $70 mega budget title.

Sub services have the potential to reawaken game diversity, which has been stagnant for a while now for all the large publishers.

The thing is with subscription services is that they are easy to start and easy to walk away from, the only thing you leave behind are your saves and achievements. If at any point they do take a dark turn then you are not obligated or attached in any way to be forced to follow them down that path. If anything the system of ownership makes you way more invested and less likely to leave when things turn sour. As you rightly mention, these sub services make people more likely to give a risky niche title a go and maybe find a completely new genre of games that they didn't know they loved. A developer is more likely to take a risk with a game knowing that they don't need to sell it but merely just need to get people to try it, if it's good then word of mouth will eventually give it popularity. This mechanism has the chance to make games more diverse and move out of the lanes of what is currently selling.

 

[SEGA_2012]

The only problem with modern gaming to me is woke .

 

[winjer]

But the smaller studios all make games about depression.
Aside from The Forgotten city - the one indie game that should get more kudos last year

You know very well that is just wrong. Plenty of games from smaller studios that are very fun and enjoyable.
Just these past few days I´ve been playing Supraland Six Feet Under. It looks colorful, it has many small jokes and is a lot of fun to play.

And yes, Forgotten City is a great game. I have it and can recommended it highly.