2024 Was the Year the Bottom Fell Out of the Games Industry
From layoffs to the return of Gamergate, video games—and the people who make and play them—had a rough year.
The article (as far as I read) fails to mention the that layoffs have hit then entire tech sector. Not just games.
I lost my job (iOS dev and actually a games dev job) twice in ‘24. I don’t think it is necessarily a reflection of the games industry.
There are some really nice games this year, if you know where to look. I’m playing Uncle Chop’s Rocket Repair and it’s awesome. So fun, so inventive, great visuals, mechanics and soundtrack.
Deadlock has also gotten a fair chunk of my time. I scratches the same itch as DOTA and a little bit of CS too.
Creeper World got a new instalment, too. Different from the 4 mainline games, it’s new and fresh and fun.
Yoooo how the fuck did I miss a new creeper world ?
IXE. It’s new and fun
Jesus man that is brutal sorry to hear you’re going through that.
Ooh, new Creeper World? Underrated games, though the concept was tough for me to get my head wrapped around for a little bit.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2257010/Creeper_World_IXE/
I blasted through the campaign. If it’s anything like 4 I’m expecting 4000 good community levels.
Another article i scrolled past before seeing this was stating Steam broke their record releasing over 18,000 games in 2024.
How can anyone have enough time to even try them all?
I dunno about you but I don’t play every genre of game. So like 70-80% of those are off the table immediately. I’d also be curious how many of those are the drop in the bucket nsfw games that get released every few days. Really need to toggle the ‘adult’ setting on my Steam account. Although sometimes the title alone is gold like ‘Hitler: BDSM Bunker’…
Lots of AI-generated/asset-flipped trash that can be safely skipped.
most of those are anime role-playing, porn games with tits
Maybe gamers are getting older in general and realizing they don't have the time to dedicate to intensive games that are like taking on a 2nd job and studying for college.
I prefer games now where I can do the grindy stuff mainly AFK and do the challenging stuff solo in short bursts. No more 2-3 hr clan raids and shit like that anymore. Hell, sometimes I just start up MAME and set some classic arcade scroller to god mode because I just want to blow stuff up for a few minutes.
While some gamers are getting older the number of players does keep increasing with newer generations like alpha picking up controllers. Many millenials and older zoomers may have more disposable income but also much less time to play, backlogs of hundreds if not thousands of games and bunch of good old games they just keep coming back to.
However gaming doesnt exist in a bubble. Social media platforms, streaming services are also competing for our attention. The whole entertainment market is so saturated that only ways to increase profits is to enshittify or win marketshare from competition.
Lots of good indie stuff, not much from AAA. My recommendation: try new single player or co op stuff. Stop recycling content.
I was pretty surprised by the barrenness of my wishlist. There's been shockingly few titles I've been that excited about. Almost nothing in the AAA realm. And the few things that I am waiting to come out have been on that list for several years already...
And just a few posts up from this:
But how many of those where asset flips or AI made?
It’s really hard to imagine something dumber than “Gamergate 2.0.” I sincerely hope it’s all 12 year-old trolls and there’s no grown adults with jobs and responsibilities getting all in a tizzy over the race or gender of a fucking video game character.
Or journalists desperate for material trying to stir something up. "I saw a comment about a game. There's an article!!"
Well diversity has received a ton more spotlight and discussion for past 10 years with many developers and games being "canceled" for their views, opinions and many games have been heavily criticized for not being diverse enough or containing elements that are offensive for group a, b or c.
Now the pendulum is swinging back with those canceled or holding more conservative or religious opinions banding together to crusade against whatever they consider woke.
Result is a minefield where your game can be attacked if its not woke enough or too woke resulting in bunch of bad press.
We had !balatro@lemm.ee, !stardewvalley@lemm.ee 1.6 update, !factorio@lemmy.world DLC, !satisfactory@lemmy.world and Half Life 2 update in this year. Hey, I don't make rules.
... and most importantly: Helldivers 2
o7
For Democracy
What, again?
Ball says that the blame for all of this can’t be pinned to a single thing, like capitalism, mismanagement, Covid-19, or even interest rates. It also involves development costs, how studios are staffed, consumers’ spending habits, and game pricing. “This storm is so brutal,” he says, “because it is all of these things at once, and none have really alleviated since the layoffs began.”
Huh. Baldur's Gate 3 blew the doors off. They had the same Capitalism, Covid-19 and interest rates. They had the same development costs, consumer spending habits and reasonable game pricing. They had good management and no layoffs. All this success selling to a gaming segment that makes up a tiny sliver of the overall market. Maybe some of those game developer leaders should ask Sven how he did it. Or, you know, listen to him because he already told everyone how they did it. Or not.
Investor money dried up
It's just all tied up in AI and crypto right now. Because everyone wants to get in on the next get-rich-quick scheme. Coked-up investors don't have the patience to stick it out and wait for a return, they've moved on to shiny new toys (that have very little chance of real growth or market viability) and are gutting and cutting the games industry to pay for it.
Ehhh, a bunch of studios have things in the works. Just because very little came out in 2024 doesn't mean that the industry imploded or anything.
There were plenty of layoffs all over the tech industry. I'd argue that big tech was hit harder than games.
It takes many years now to release anything big. Good blockbusters are relatively infrequent. Star wars outlaws hit in October, It wasn't stellar but it wasn't a bad game. Civ 7 is due out in February.
At worst, I'd say we're in a little bit of a lull.
I believe it, the last games I remember buying and enjoying start to finish were Hi Fi Rush (1/25/2023) and Hogwart's Legacy (2/10/2023).
Coming up on 2 years with nothing memorable.
Stalker2? Helldivers? V rising?
Some good stuff has come out this year
There have been a few good indie games. Been playing a lot of Timberborn this year for instance.
That said, it’s just helping me catch up on my backlog.
I thought it went into early access a few years ago?
Yeah, it's got a steam release date of 2021 and it's still in early access. That said, I also bought it early this year or late last year and have played a lot of it too.
(IDK where I'm going with this other than to say that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should get Timberborn, it's fantastic and just getting better.)
Timberborn is among my all time favorites
🦫🦫🦫
I don’t even look at announced or new games anymore. It’s the same open world sandbox go on fetch quests shit but it takes 3x the hard drive and costs over $100 cad.
People hate Nintendo for being a shitty company but I really enjoyed Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Prior to that though I think the last game I actually enjoyed was Horizon Forbidden West from two years ago.
