Video Game Industry Stalls, Stocks Plunge. What’s Going On?

Lol so 2nd biggest year of all time. Am I reading this right?


SKY IS FALLING!!

"Pay to win"

"Microtransactions"

"Loot boxes"

-may be good for the bottom line, in the very short-term, but it doesn't build a solid gaming community or fanbase for a game.

It builds/reinforces addicts or shortcutters that do nothing for the merits of the game or improve the gaming experience.

/rant


ETA: The quality studios and independent publishers producing quality games (and I focus almost exclusively on PC, single-player games) should be patronized and supported if you want something different than what EA and Activision (and they're not alone - others are chasing the bucks, too) are offering presently.

And, BTW, at Anthem.

The biggest issue is that everyone is creating games that are supposed to be live services that exist for a long time.

The industry can’t survive if it continues down this path.

You can’t have 10 different “games as services” and expect them all to thrive.

On top of that, I completely agree with Jim Sterling on how games are becoming so fricking long nowadays that it is damn near impossible for me to even play them.

I’m having a hell of a time finding games to play.

I can play some of the games like Destiny, The Division, etc., because they allow you to just jump in, but I can’t sink the hours into them that is required to reach the end game.

Same for a lot of the RPGs now too. I thought about putting Fallout 4 in the other day, but then I figured, what was the point?

I can’t play to the end game. I don’t have the time to put in 100 hours for gameplay now.

It is becoming a bit of an issue.

quote:

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What are you guys looking at?

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It is just a prediction.

I expect that, as game creation costs bloat and their sustainability exists solely on the concept of “games as a service”, it will start to collapse on itself.

How many subscription service games do people pay for at one time?

And I refer to them as “Subscription Service” games because they require significant additional payments to progress, such as “season passes”.

How many do y’all actually pay for now? Two? Three?

How many do you think the average person pays for?

Just last month, there were 4 games released that are tied to some form of “payment plan” to maintain their longevity.

I don’t see how that is a sustainable model.

We are only at the beginning of this “games as a service” period. I feel that it is peaking.

On top of that, many countries are looking into loot boxes, and one country has already banned them outright.

If those go the way of the dodo, that will be a huge hit to the industry.

i picked up Assassins Creed: Origins and the season pass for $30 about a month ago, but even with the season pass there is a lot of stuff tied behind some Helix Coins micro-transaction model. who the hell spends money on different weapons in a game like assassins creed?

anyway, i've been having a lot of fun with apex, i'll probably get the battle pass when it comes out, but i've never paid for anything on these other online games besides League of Legends when it was all i played. The new call of duty is ridiculous with all the stuff it tries to get you to purchase, and i don't even notice what skins people have on when i'm playing so i know noone else will notice if i'm wearing a cool $10 skin.

Single player games have been killing it as well. It is not like everyone is just buying season pass type games. These very recent games for example. All doing exceptional.

RDR2
RE2
Kingdom Hearts
Ace Combat
DMC5 (sales are very good so far)

Sekiro comes out next week. Will do very well.


I get people getting frustrated with certain practices and they need to be curbed some but the industry is fine. I mean if you even look at the charts this guy is using it will show that. And those are probably low estimates.

EA stock peaked recently at ~$150 per share, then lost about $50 per share, currently sitting at ~$100.

Activision peaked at ~$83 per share and then dropped to ~$43.

This was over the previous year for both of them.

Why are we seeing such a contraction if profits are the highest ever?

Someone sees something that we don’t.

EA and Activision are not the gaming industry as a whole.

And those companies just had major failures.

quote:

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Single player games have been killing it as well. It is not like everyone is just buying season pass type games. These very recent games for example. All doing exceptional. RDR2 RE2 Kingdom Hearts Ace Combat DMC5 (sales are very good so far) Sekiro comes out next week. Will do very well. I get people getting frustrated with certain practices and they need to be curbed some but the industry is fine. I mean if you even look at the charts this guy is using it will show that. And those are probably low estimates.

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The industry isn't to hell in a handbasket yet, but we should be very wary of the direction the industry is headed in as it spells trouble for down the road. Look at how many studios have closed since even the PS3/360 days.