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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

It's true. Reviewers rave about a game, I pick it up and play it, and they're raving about a new one before I've finished that last one. I've got a list of 20+ games that came out this year that I still haven't gotten around to. I might get through 5 of them before the new year. And you know, if wouldn't hurt my ability to play more games if more of them were shorter.

EDIT: I provided this anecdote as a reason contributing to the problems that the industry is experiencing. The article is about the trouble the industry is experiencing as a result of too many competing games being released in a given year. It is not about how I feel about trying to play through many of the ones I found interesting. Apparently Schreier had the same problem on BlueSky with people answering what they think the headline says rather than what the article is about.

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[-] rozodru@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

It's not a problem for me just because of the cost. I want to play Expedition 33 but I'm not sure I want to pay $70 to do so.

I'm happy just playing my old ROM collections or booting up Cyberpunk or whatever. but now I just can't justify dropping $70+ on a game anymore.

sigh, I'll probably just end up going back to EVE Online.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Not every game costs $70. Expedition 33 in particular only costs $50 when it's not on sale, unless you're in a different region where $50 USD converts to $70 in your country.

[-] rozodru@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

yup, am a Canuck :/

[-] MudMan@fedia.io 4 points 1 week ago

And you know, if wouldn't hurt my ability to play more games if more of them were shorter.

From the article:

In 2024, a staggering 18,626 games were released on Steam, according to SteamDB, a website that tracks data on the popular PC platform. That’s an increase of around 93% from 2020, when 9,656 games were released.

By my count, if you don't sleep or eat and only play videogames you need every game to be about 30 minutes long on average.

I mean, it wouldn't hurt, but I'm gonna say it's not enough.

In all seriousness, I'm more concerned by the competition from social media and on demand video. I'm typing this, which isn't that interesting of an activity. Idling online is a huge time sink, and it's getting bigger.

[-] SolarPunker@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

The problem is the immature critique and not the quantity.

[-] AgentRocket@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Reviewers rave about a game, I pick it up and play it, and they're raving about a new one before I've finished that last one.

That's why i only wishlist games that i'm interested in. by the time i get around to them, there's usually a sale and/or price drop. Some games have been on my wishlist for years, while I'm working through my backlog, waiting for their price to drop even further.

[-] kratoz29@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

This becomes even worse when you also want to play old gems that missed because you weren't even born, or because you had kid taste in your early gaming days, but there are worse things to complain at.

My first two video games that I had were Gran Turismo and Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, so at my 6 years old or so I already had negative time of hundreds of nice jRPG gems LMAO.

[-] palarith@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago

It’s the same with tv. I am very picky with my time. So i play very few games or watch very few shows.

[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

I've been playing The Binding of Isaac for decades. I've bought it probably 5 times on different systems, for friends, etc, bought the expansions as well. I've probably still spent less on that game than what a current AAA title costs, and I still have new content to play.

The problem with the industry is they are all trying to get the "next big thing" and they stick to the same formula, there's no innovation from the big studios anymore. That's also why I play way more Indie games, I think the last major title I bought was Tears of the Kingdom, and that was probably the last Nintendo title I'll purchase.

Silksong & Hades 2 will probably be enough to last me the rest of the year. Having 1000 games to pick from doesn't bother me because I don't need to play them all.

[-] mohab@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Hmm… newest game in my library is Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes from last year, which is a re-release anyway.

I bought 13 old-ish (pre-2022) games this year for less than $100. I have no reason to spend %60-80 of that on 1 game I probably won't even like, and that's if it clears the seemingly impossible "playable" hurdle.

Let me count upcoming games I look forward to playing/am curious about:

  1. Ninja Gaiden 4 (Happy to wait for a deep sale)
  2. Onimusha (Happy to wait for a deep sale and may even refund if I don't enjoy it)
  3. Okami 2 (Happy to wait for a deep sale)
  4. Marvel: Tokon (Will definitely wait for a deep sale—$10 base game)

That's it.

I definitely went to see more new movies at the cinema this year than I played new games. IDK where the industry is headed and I feel for all the underpaid, overworked developers at risk, but there isn't much I can do if publishers collectively decided to abandon my favorite genres.

[-] gummorgue@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

This is also a lot of covid era games/funding come to fruition imo

[-] Guitarfun@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

The main problem I see is that creators and all of the people involved in creating games get a smaller share than they would have in the generations before and games aren't getting cheaper to make. It's the same with movies and music and everything. There's only so much capital and the pool of people fighting over it keeps getting bigger. It would be nice if people could make shit just for the sake of making it but instead every market has become a cutthroat competitive wasteland of bland bullshit and half assed or unfinished projects.

I buy tons of games. I hardly play most of them. So many have potential, but stay in early access or fizzle out and the developers abandon it. It really sucks, because I do see a lot of creativity and really awesome ideas that go to waste. Unfortunately, people have to make money to survive and can't just create art for art's sake.

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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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