What Happened to Good Games? 

so have games gotten worse?

Gaming has gone from being an evolution of TV entertainment to the cigarette of the electronic world

Honestly, miss those days when you could buy an "entire" game for like 20-60$ and have all the fun in the world playing them.

If you think of it this way: Take away all the exploitative, unfinished, overmonetized, horrible AAA crap, and you STILL have a game industry of indies and AA mid-budget releases that's bigger than the entire industry in 2010. Makes you feel less depressed about the situation.

Its time for indie games to shine. These big companies don't respect indie devs as real competition and think they can bully us. Time to prove them wrong.

It's crazy how money hungry the studios are. You're right, of course devs and studios need to make money but it often feels like cosmetics are just so quick to get added while issues in the game get ignored.

This is the sort of thing that's been on my mind for months now. AAA games have gotten so poor. It's like they forgot to make a good game first, store second.

I've been playing games since the late 1970s, so I've seen many ups and downs in the industry over the decades. The gaming scene nowadays feels weird, as if it is the best it has ever been and the worst it has ever been simultaneously. I think this video covered the "worst" side perfectly well. Given that the larger companies are run by executives who care more about their yachts and Ferraris than they care about games, it is not surprising that they would try to milk their customers dry. The problem can, perhaps, be traced to the advent of always-online multiplayer games, and it certainly became worse as mobile games became popular. An always-online game can easily be loaded up with microtransactions, loot boxes, and all the garbage mentioned in the video. Even single player AAA games have become infested with some of this crap, as gamers have sadly become tolerant of it in recent years. I never really had a chance to get used to all the scams that flooded the industry. I'm an antisocial gamer who finds the idea of having other people in my games thoroughly repulsive, so I never got into multiplayer games, and I have always hated mobile phones, so I never got into mobile games. Having stuck exclusively to old-fashioned single player games, I am extremely intolerant of always-online requirements and nasty monetization systems, so I simply won't engage with games that are too thoroughly infested with them. Most of the AAA scene has therefore become irrelevant to me, so I have learned to look elsewhere. The video also touched on the reason that the gaming scene is also the best it has ever been. With digital distribution becoming widespread and many developers becoming disillusioned with games corrupted by excessive monetization, the indie scene has exploded. This has, as expected, spawned a lot of low-end shovelware, but the good stuff tends to rise to the top. The indie developers have breathed new life into moribund genres and have experimented with new ideas. City builders and related simulation games (i.e. factory simulators, transport games, and space colony games) are doing quite well these days. Over roughly the last decade, so-called walking simulators, which are more narrative experiences than traditional games, have blurred the boundary between games and experimental literature. The best of these would be worthy of study in a college-level literature class. On occasion, an indie game seemingly comes out of nowhere and takes the world by storm. Stardew Valley and Valheim are notable examples. Games like these prove that a game can be highly successful without having microtransactions, loot boxes, season passes, and NFTs.

I think its really easy to take the cynical approach to it, but there are still tons of fun, non monetization focused games that come out every year. I don't bother with games that have the problems from this video, and gamers are super vocal about these problems, just like your video. You can see the gaming landscape correct itself because of that.

Game developer here, can tell you that its not the developers that want this, its the business types who put pressure on the upper management to maximize profit and reduce risks.

The real problem I see is us, the gamers. We allowed this to happen. We still supported this rediculious game monetization even if we clearly see that there is a big problem with this framework. It's simple supply and demand. As long there is a demand and support , they will continue. This is my 5 cents on this issue.

This is where I am kinda glad my hardware limitations have kept me playing the older games, they are fun and very rewarding to play. I keep looking at all these new games and what's going on with the industry as a whole and it's sad to watch old legends fall to greed

i like how you ended on a high note, it helps give us motivation for the future

The problem is games don't feel like games anymore. Instead of being a complete experience you pay a base price for, most games feel like monetization husks. They get you in on the bare bones, and then fleece your wallets for the muscles and tissues. It literally feels like you're periodically having to pay up just to enjoy *any* content that comes out.

There's still plenty of good games out there. Y'all just gotta look for them, because most of them are not overly monetized triple-A games, but small games from small studios.

Great video. I love the skits you made. I think it's a combination of us getting older and games focussing on less fun concepts. I loved halo 3. The flying dumpster glitch was the best thing ever.

That was an incredible video. Loved the positive twist at the end and have to agree, things are picking up again here and there.

BF4s battlepacks werent all too bad if at all. I remember playing and realizing i had amassed a huge number of battlepacks to unlock weapon attachments just by regularly playing the game

The only game up to these old-time standards is Doom. Man, I'm so happy for every release of this game. You don't have any stupid purchases in the game. You can just play and feel amazing. I hope they never leave this concept. Other studios should take a huge note of how Doom is created. And that action, you feel like it can't get any intense then they release the new Doom and they make the old one look like a toddler. I'm so proud of them! Playing at Nightmare makes it so enjoyable. Also storytelling with all of Midnight's videos... I spend hours and hours on his channel :)

What I suggest you do is find an old - maybe 2010-2013 - gaming novel/book that talks about the video games that everyone is playing and find a game you think would be fun. Ive played so many classics from doing this

Top quality video dude! I just happened to wondered what you had been doing since Rogue and ended up sticking around for 17:55 mins! Nice work

Companies realised that they don’t have to put as much effort in to make a profit, nothing will change until people stop buying bad & lazy games

You just summed up everything that has been on my mind regarding gaming for the past 2 years in a 17 minute video and did it so well, props to you i loved the vid

Top tier video this was the first video of yours I watched.

as someone who grew up in the 90s, I share the sentiment. I've found way more quality from Indy devs that mainstream AAA studios ever since the 7th gen imo (ps3/x360 days). yet Elden Ring came crashing through and the sales/impact it had on the gaming landscape has "Re-kindled" my hope for the future of gaming.

Thank you for this video. I've felt this way for a while. Mobile games have gone downhill years ago. Seriously miss games like Plants vs Zombies. Literally every game these days has garbage micro transactions in the store.

This was such an enjoyable tribute to amazing gaming moments within the last decade or two. The summer of pokemon go was one that was truly special. I have such fond memories of Twitch Plays Pokemon as well, although that wasn't mentioned here

This is soo spot on! 😄

Am I the only one who thinks that “battle passes” or how ever else they are called in other games have ruined games especially when it comes to progression

Your officially my favorite RU-vidr now just btw. You put in alot of hard work into your videos 💪

Great video. I think if VR really buckled down, it will change gaming for the best

Damn! The Legendary Theme on 5:43 ! :o

I had this conversation the other day with some friends. Games also used to be art. They were made by guys who loved games and were passionate about making something THEY loved to play as well. Look at the music alone. From NES to Sonys ps1. The soundtracks alone on these games are so memorable that people formed bands and toured the world playing those soundtracks. I can still remember the music from Contra, Double Dragon and Space Harrier to Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong, FFV and Resident Evil. Games started takingna huge dive when big companies got extremely greedy. On another note I just watched a few videos of upcoming pc games of 2022 and couldn't believe how let down I was while most other people were extremely pumped. I'm like wtf video did you mindless drones just watch? Sheeeeeeit.

loved this one because i am developing my own game and i feel that promotion of the game is more important then the game itself

Thank you for making this video. It's time for a video game revolution. All indie developers unite. I actually started learning game development because I got so sick of this new game model, and I've been having more fun learning how to make games than I've had in years playing games

It all circles back to the consumers. Why are there so many Battleroyale games - people keep playing them (a lot of people), why are there microtransactions - people keep buying them, why are there so many unfinished games being released - people keep preordering them. The list keeps going. It's really sad.

This is the best video I’ve watched talking about the decline of gaming, you actually provided good examples and compared it to how games released in the past. Many of these videos end up talking about good games in the past and bad games today without explaining what makes good games good and bad games bad. You were able to do both. I agree with some of your points and disagree with others, but at the end of the day I really enjoyed the video. Good job! You earned the sub from me!

Another thing I'd like to mention is that it feels like everyone is taking things too seriously. I can't really go into multiplayer games anymore and mess around because the enemy kills me without second thought or my teammates tell me to "stop screwing around", usually both.

Excellent video sir. Well said.

Thank you finally I find the video that explains gaming now also cute dog

I'm so glad that your channel has grown massively, and I hope it grows a whole lot more. Your content has gotten so much better!

There is no reason to make the player feel accomplished if you can just rip out all the rewards and sell it to them. You have to make them attractive to buy. I think that’s the real tragedy and why I’ve never liked mtx, even the “just cosmetics” ones.

Oh my god this video deserves millions of views. You said everything that has been making me sad about current state of games. Honestly such a wonderful video thank you so much❤️🙏 i hope this make people wake up and protect their rights of not being abused for money by big companies

WHAT IS THAT MUSIC IN THE BEGGINING ,BRO I LOVE IT!

I think currently one of the best games available on the market is Deep Rock Galactic. I don’t wanna write too much but they offer few only a few DLCs as a way to support the developers while using the games as a service model. There’s a battle pass and a grind to unlock everything but it’s not unreasonable and is really fun to have stuff to work towards. The community is incredibly welcoming and friendly, and most importantly the developers are really transparent with their community and try to work with them to make everyone happy. I even think we’re seeing a change in the industry, especially with all of these recent AAA flops when compared to the insane indie successes. Look at Inscryption with its massive replayability and new ideas being brought up throughout.

I wish there were more good single player story games like half-life or original halo campaigns. But all the money is in multiplayer online action with endless monetization… here’s hoping the industry takes a turn for the better soon

Plenty of older games that you can still get for way less of their original price or even for free. Unfortunately as soon as people see profit in something theyll try to milk it as much as they can. Its the reason i enjoy singleplayer games more nowdays, no reason to be afraid of the p2w aspect since theres no competition and also usually no microtransactions.

0:08 sounds like the start to a really good pop song

You are on point dude. Like you mentioned in the video, some very awesome indie studios and games are popping up in popularity because of the greediness of AAA game companies.

Agree with everything. That’s why PS2 is still superior 😌

First video of yours I have watched. If was good so I subbed

Ironically at17:52 as you began discussing lootboxing the vid ran a Raid Shadow Legends commercial...

To be fair, the vr ports of games are actually so much fun and bring out child like wonder in most people. I see it in so many people who've tried dumb things like angry birds vr, or fruit ninja. They love it

AAA gaming in Japan is still going pretty well, I've had a blast with Capcoms Monster Hunter series

The fact I just got a raid shadow legend ad, that just tells you all you need to know about the future of gaming.

I hope this guy is a practicing, professional actor. So entertaining and talented!

I've always just summarized it as. Games used to be made by educated gamers, now they're made by profit only corporations

Gaming has definitely gone downhill. Been gaming since nintendo. Corporate greed and micro transactions are killing games. I think we should try to support smaller indie titles, they seem to care more about their games. No one should be defending broke and incomplete games such as battlefield and cyberpunk….

I love how you included Limbo as one of your good 2010 games. Small indie games similar to it such as Little Nightmares or Inside often don’t get the recognition of other franchises just because of the nature of their content. But they are still great games!

You are the first person on youtube I saw who doesn't just straight out crap on games and mention the positive side also. I agreed with every single point of yours, you just earned another sub and like Edit: You are also the first one who didnt mention Cyberpunk 2077 somehow lol

I think big name company games are dying, becoming unfun But indie games from smaller teams or even individuals is where its at. so much love can be felt in some indie games and it just gives a big breath of fresh air

I have also wondered at length whether I'm just getting older and more cynical... But I don't think that's the case. This video is so on point throughout. The slow creep of corporate interest is ruining games. The introduction of loot boxes into single player games like assassin's creed and shadow of war back in 2015 or whatever should have jolted people awake... I work in the industry as an artist and I feel so completely jaded by it all. From the get go we have to consider battle passes, seasons, skins. Not making a quality game and an interesting universe. I hate it. But everyone is doing it, there's no alternative.

This video needs to go viral

This needs to go like viral af

I have been talking about the difference in games with friends a LOT recently. Every time a time game comes out there is something which makes it suck. I was super hyped for BF2042 and then the beta and game came out and I have only played it 5 hours because it's just not fun. Halo Infinite has been great in terms of gameplay, but there is so much lacking. It's a massive difference if you compare it to Halo 3 and Reach. Something needs to change, and I think we as gamers should be the one taking action. How can we let these game studios get away with releasing games that are lacking so much compared to previous games? I just don't know how ...

Its sad how gaming has "evolved" over the years... When I was young I never complained about a game being poorly optimized or glitches or unfinished map designs & etc. But whenever I see my friends try a new game its like they were paid to say stuff about the game.. (( in a bad way ))

The 2000’s was the last good decade for mainstream triple A gaming. It all started to as early as 2010 and it became truly stinky by 2015 . Today it is just a mess.

Love how he calls the worker mark with his max tag

"Real time strategy was actually mainstream" Hit me right in the feels with that one brother.

Excellent work dude ! I work in the gaming industry too and thats exactly the feeling I had, that we all have. It is also important to remind ourselves of the good things that happened in the recent years, as you rightfully did ! But yeah, 2020 and 2021 were really shitty years for gamers partly due to covid and megacorporation avidity.

Nice analysis

5:51 i literally got a fifa 2023 ad. i think i am being watched.

Honestly this video hits home quite hard. I grew up with things like a ps2, psp where id come home and either kick back on a co-op story with my older brother or suplex each other through the steel cage on WWE. Then my dad got me a ps3 and soon after a ps vita where I discovered awesome games like gravity rush whose story left an impact. Nowadays im alot into mmo's but alot feel bland and repetetive. Honestly im really considering going into indie development not for profit but jsut for the sake of making a game for the purpose we play them- to have fun. I hope more people do the same or these big companies get their arses in gear. Cheers for the video!

Honestly, I think a BIG point that got glossed over here is that we allow this stuff to happen. Even though we all say we’re gonna be cautious of the next COD when it comes out, it still magically ends up getting pre-ordered. Something that should be mentioned is that if A) These companies are pumping out low effort games And B) they’re all basically designed around a store and making money Then just don’t by the game. The best way that you can get someone to pay attention to you is hitting them in there pocketbook, so the next time a big game comes out that looks like it could be a real home run, just wait a couple months for it to come out to see if it’s worth the time of day. Because when it inevitably doesn’t quite live up to the massive hype companies put out for their game, they’re the ones losing out, not you. That’ll at least put a stop to all these games that are basically just fronts for a store page.

Season passes are surprisingly smart by letting you unlock things you passed so it makes you want it more

when i got to the rise of gaming section I got an elden ring ad, yeah that seems about right

What happened to game, greed and fear of controversial issues, but the most important thing that led to the downfall of the industry, HIRING A SHIT LOAD OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO BECAUSE THEY'RE ARE HIRED TOKENS, nobody knows what to do or how the systems are working, innovation is forgot but just keeping something that was made a long time ago like how the warhammer universes is having it for the humans in there

13:37 ok yea Minecraft gets a bit repetitive but it will basically never die and will continue to be Verry popular because of it having no ingame micro transactions and also servers having unlimited potential due to plugins and data packs and single player and servers again due to mods, I get you weren’t focusing on Minecraft and I probably sound like I am fan boy’ing it but I just wanted to mention it

this is why dark souls, sekiro, elden ring, blood borne, are my favorite types of games of all time. all of these games are straight up, you want something: go get it. you dont need to buy it. Which is quite rare nowadays. its sad that just releasing a game that doesnt have in game purchases is a rarity now.

At this point, I bounced out the games that are new that I play, and old ones. The new ones are fun, at least some of them, but the old ones are also really nice, just play what you want don't worry about passes or anything and play whenever you feel like it, don't feel obliged to play just cuz there's something involved

Imagine if gamers actually do something about it ? Which we can in literally few days strike .

With a lot of these games if you make in game purchases the SBMM is suddenly very favourable towards you, your bullets seem to do more damage and the opponents hit box is suddenly enlarged. Average players not spending on in game purchases are regularly fisted by these sorts of algorithims.

From South Africa, love the video let me go enjoy the rest of your content brother

One of the most fun I have had in online gaming was play The Forest with my friends. I wish more games like it would come out.

I think it's also partly because writers stopped writing games and business people and developers starting making them, but not writing impactful stories.

13:31 “it’s like they’re out of ideas”. They are my friend. They totally are. The industry is lost and will soon be dead at this rate

Thank you so much for this, I thought I was alone in this way of thinking. I start to think I'm just a grumpy old man yelling at video games, but I genuinely struggle to find much to enjoy in this medium anymore. Subscriptions on top of subscriptions, MTX, forced online shenanigans, lousy launches, lack of creativity. I'm almost thankful for HD remasters and remakes, because at least it gives me some kind of decent game to play in this generation. Gaming is dying quicker than ever, turning into a corporate product a la Hollywood, meant to be consumed and forgotten about, instead of creating something genuinely good and worth investing time in.

i love online orineted games. just booting up my ps3 with custom server stuff, or ps4, or whatever it is during the night and just joining on a server, either in a group of people or meeting people randomly, is just soo much fun. i really like interacting with other people, even if the games dont let you interact, like forza for instance.

Brilliant video, the bigger youtubers would be scared to criticise the state of the industry

Back then, when games came in CDs or cartridges companies only had one shot to polish their game as much as possible and publish a good final product. Now, companies can update their games whenever they want. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the problem arises when companies rush the release of a game to get quick money in the hopes of saving it through updates.

i feel like the switch & the ps5 (in terms of most of the first party exclusive games on both consoles) really brought back the memories of me as a kid playing games on my gamecube, wii & xbox 360 where games were about the experience & having fun & not about trying to exploit players into giving them more money.

I feel like this is mostly true for AAA games. Like you mentioned, some of the greatest games lately have been Indie games. Some of my favorites have been Deep Rock Galactic and Swords n Magic and Stuff. AAA games just make money whether they make good games or not, but Indie games actually have to make a good impression.

And then, elden ring happened

One way to severly improve the gaming industry is to stop allowing pre orders. We gotta stop guaranteeing publishers a huge sum of money regardless of game quality. They are literally making people pay them because of their advertisments, not the game Cyberpunk, Vamguard and 2042 proves that. No matter how shit the game is, pre orders from hyped players are guaranteed revenue, thus reduced urge to make sure they're happy about the product

This video really opened my eyes. I'm ok with some micro transactions like you could get skate 3 maps and a few exclusive cod skins for only a few quid back in the day but for the most part you would have to unlock everything. But now it's gone way to far.

Damn. 13:07 cant believe someone remembered Gigantic

The one thing I look for games is the ability to make choices. Having to apply real life knowledge to a simulator is also another plus for me.

1. greed, a decade of chopping up full games into smaller parts or fucking with exp rates to make more $$$$ 2. lazy, broken releases and day 1 patches hype boi 3. no fucks given 4. no creativity ( don't take risks REEEE) 5. gamers accepting and partaking in it as if it's normal to the point where they goatsee themselves so wide they can fit an 18 wheeler where the sun don't shine. Frankly, the industry needs another crash and all of these ceos deserve to go broke ( 0 in the bank) for being garbage human beings.

What's great for me is that I'm too young to have played the modern warfare series, the black ops series, and I was in 2nd grade when Red Dead Redemption II came out. Oh and I've never played halo. but im 15.... let that put it into perspective. Pretty much my entire generation grew up without good game quality. I'm so excited to play all of these though and enjoy the impact it leaves on me. I've also managed to stay clear of any spoilers for any of these series. .

Remember UT2003 & -2004? The amount of content and maps those had, was amazing!