Modern Games Industry: How'd We Get Here?

[ElkinFencer10]

There's still a place for quirky budget games, but they're becoming increasingly digital only and are often hard to find physically. Thank god for Onechanbara and Earth Defense Force.

[BoneSnapDeez]

My question is: For the "HD era," why did absolutely every game developer decide to switch to giant projects? What were the motivating factors?

Newer games require a vast higher investment, a far longer development time and a bigger staff than older ones. Consider that games like Gradius were made by 5-6 people in a couple months while the latest Assassin's Creed took several years and hundreds of people to be made.

Don't forget the generation before that. Games made by one person within a matter of months. Howard Scott Warshaw ftw.

[Sarge]

It's the same reason we transitioned from carts to CDs and DVDs. Cheaper storage. And it's even cheaper to put the onus on the customer to have network access and storage solutions themselves. That it's going this way isn't surprising, but it is disappointing when my city is getting fiber, and I still can't get it because I'm two miles outside the city limits. Heck, I still can't get DSL, and my parents can in the middle of nowhere!

[Exhuminator]

Heck, I still can't get DSL, and my parents can in the middle of nowhere!

I live 2 miles from my dad. He can get DSL at his house, but Windstream won't run it to mine. I know your pain.

[Jmustang1968]

This is this same argument or outlook that repeats itself. If you can't find a modern game of most any genre, then you arent looking very hard.

Obviously PC has most of the more niche stuff, but the modern consoles are also full of niche and indie games.

[Snatch1414]

This is this same argument or outlook that repeats itself. If you can't find a modern game of most any genre, then you arent looking very hard.

Obviously PC has most of the more niche stuff, but the modern consoles are also full of niche and indie games.

I do agree with this. There are games out there. You do need to look pretty hard though for some stuff because they're simply not written about. Like music, I have no doubt there is a ton of stuff that I would like but I don't have time to research and subsequently take a chance on every single thing that I MIGHT like.

[Sarge]

This is true. To be honest, I'm not sure there's been a better time to be a retro gamer than right now, given what happens in the indie space. Massive coverage? Not usually. But my tastes are being catered to more now than they were in the last 15 years, which is absolutely amazing.

Except maybe JRPGs... but even those are experiencing a sort of Renaissance, just in a different tone and style than I prefer. Fans of the Atlus oeuvre are certainly catered to, with their Persona games and the Wizardry-esque Etrian Odyssey games. Bravely Default, for all its flaws, was excellent, we got Legend of Legacy, and I'm hearing good things about the upcoming Project Setsuna.

And freakin' Dragon Quest VII. Okay, I take it back, happy days are here again.

[Gunstar Green]

The biggest threat facing indie games right now is lack of quality control. It's getting harder for gems to rise to the top while buried in garbage.

You've also got people getting tired of being burnt by crowd funding failures and early access scams making it harder for people who want to use those tools legitimately. Steam is the worst offender while GOG has started stepping into early access with a far more cautious attitude.

[Exhuminator]

The biggest threat facing indie games right now is lack of quality control. It's getting harder for gems to rise to the top while buried in garbage.

That right there is my chief problem with the indie scene these days. The barrier to entry is so low now, that everybody and their mother is making games. That might at first seem like a good thing, but the signal to noise ratio becomes exhausting when you're trying to parse the current output.

[Snatch1414]

The biggest threat facing indie games right now is lack of quality control. It's getting harder for gems to rise to the top while buried in garbage.

That right there is my chief problem with the indie scene these days. The barrier to entry is so low now, that everybody and their mother is making games. That might at first seem like a good thing, but the signal to noise ratio becomes exhausting when you're trying to parse the current output.

I know I should be careful what I wish for, but there are too many games right now. There I said it. I wouldn't mind some of these smaller operations with track records teaming up. I don't want them to become Activision or anything, but the small devs that actually put out quality stuff joining forces would consolidate some of this clutter, sweep away some of the crap as it becomes clearer who makes good games, and possibly even lead to even better games due to some of them putting their heads together.