same but I still get excited when I fin old games

Fair :P

Maybe it's because most large scale developers and studios are just going down the toilet in general? And yeah, even the ones we used to love like Bethesda have now, it seems, entered the same realm as EA and Activision. Most AAA games now are just total garbage. I've steered clear of them for a while now, and I couldn't be happier.

Yeah I am mostly willing to wait months if not years for games to be on sale now, and often times I still won't buy them for like 75% off

I always had an opinion about this, which some people might agree with.

Larger companies kind of exploded onto the gaming market within the last couple decades. Prior to when video-games were even considered cool, since in the 90's, most people were seen as 'nerds' for their gaming. So in order to make things appealing, many companies had almost movie-production style games, which invigorated communities. Except after a decade of every title being seen as 'AAA' quality, it's made differences between 'passion' and 'profit' scary accurate. Even the earliest 'AAA' launches had merit in their prime, but now they are being released incomplete, prematurely, or with broken content entirely. Companies have turned the biggest franchises into 'shovel-ware' because 'DLC can always repair problems' now.

Independent companies succeed because they sort of rolled back the clock. Great deal of their products are based around pure passion, and nostalgia for when games were 'Good' so-to-speak. Now that doesn't mean every game in the 90's was perfect, God forbid we remember Phillips CD-I or Panasonic 3D0. People usually mean 'Good' as-in company belief and integrity, people who have passionate ideas, or concepts other companies are uninterested in. Originally, even with huge franchises like Pokemon, they were literally tried on a whim. Nintendo had a habit of giving 'weird' ideas a chance, but now that they have established themselves so firmly, it's less likely they will make anymore original IP's. Not that it's a bad thing, honestly. Except other companies have been mostly burned by doing the same thing, which is taking a chance on independent ideas outside of their creation. So, it's forced developers to make smaller companies.

Some of my favourite games are purely independent, such as Darkest Dungeon, Armello, and even Stardew Valley. Simple things that have been 'ported' on major consoles, but only because those larger companies saw an idea, and wanted a piece. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo really struggle to maintain dedicated fans, outside of those impressed by shiny explosions. Not bad companies, but they realized their demographic of customers, and have decided to churn out massive amounts to feed easily impressed consumers. Independent creators only need to appeal with their small audience, and if they explode like Shovel Knight did, people are given a dose of companies who still love their work. Nintendo has always tried to work along those same expectations, but until Nintendo Switch, they were riding the 'shovel-ware' express like everyone else. Sadly, what's considered a 'AAA' title is not based on fun or excitement anymore, simply the cash dumped.

People are sort of realizing, games with a $10,000,000 are less imaginative and exciting compared to ones made from $10,000.

Sorry, I got carried away.

agreed and on that note my all time fav games while not from indie developers persay, they certainly aren't companies that are still around today... atleast.. i don't think they are... anyway they are 1. Grandia (the original not it's sequels though i liked those too) 2. Legend of Legaia and 3. Legend of Dragoon/Legend of Mana (i can't decide which of those 2 i like more so they get a tie)

the glory days seem to be mostly gone now when it comes to games. but i have hope. because of one major developer that still makes good games. they made the witcher and they are making cyberpunk 2077 and that games looks amazing. it's games like that and also the outer worlds from obsidian that give me hope that the future of gaming isn't as bleak as EA, Bugthesda, and so many others are making it appear. (i say that even though i still play fallout 76...)

Yeah I agree, the new titles are just boring rehashes of old titles

-Squeezes- Good games exist, hun. I promise.

Rather than iterate on more interesting game systems, or at the very least refining and perfecting existing ones, AAA developers try to let technology upgrades do the work for them. Graphics are a high cost race to the bottom but are at the very least a money in = quality scenario that business types can understand. Incomperables such as 'what if we tried a fantasy setting with something other than humans, elves and dwarves' and 'what if we let players have control over their characters choices' are unnecessary risks that will never see a dollar of funding.

And lets not forget that like all companies AAA publishers think throwing shade at people on a twitter account is the moral equivalent of actually paying their employees, giving them time off to be with their families, or enforcing even the most basic healthy workplace culture practices.

Yeah the US companies in particular seem to be monsters to their employees

I think it's because all the good AAA studios keep getting bought out by the likes of EA and Activision that only care about profit and end up gutting everything that made the studio special and cutting all the staff that made those games good so they can crank out franchise sequels efficiently =/

I relate to this way too much. Though for me even indie games kinda just feel boring, tbh I only really play games still cause it's how I chill with the boys. I don't believe the whole "the video game industry is headed for a crash" thing, but sometimes it does feel like it might

It's not just you. The AAA companies suck balls these days. They built themselves up, but then rested on their laurels and got fat and entitled. The end result: Shit games, and in some cases a company that lashes out when people don't want it.

I know the feeling but I'm not sure its so much that AAA games suck so much as they are both over marketed and marketed poorly."You guys have phones right?"

I think a big part of it is that this generation has really been defined by 3rd party publishers who lets be honest have always been disposable trash throughout gaming history, not bad games exactly but games that have no real staying power and usually weren't intended too. Part of the problem with "live services" is for that to be an effective strategy for your multiplayer game (if its not multiplayer than live service is just a tool to kill a game) it needs to be around for a long time and you need to convince players to stay with it. Of course that requires long term thinking and the big 4 EA, Activision/blizzard, 2K, and Ubisoft don't do long-term or even mid-term the real obsession with "Live Services" is because you make your profit on pre-orders, merch and tie-in deals, and then any additional purchases such as season pass, DLC, micro-transactions, and god forsaken gambling boxes is not just profit but because its recurrent spending it pads out the sales quarter plus you can kill the game at anytime because its always online so you can kill it if you feel the player base won't move on to the next game. You would actually make more money on keeping a game updated and in-circulation for an entire console cycle but it wouldn't make share holders happy. Which is the real goal these "publishers" don't want they're game to last they want it to have a heavy initial boon followed by most people discarding within a few months and counting on a few to people who really like the game to buy micro-transactions or hopefully get addicted to lootboxs. This makes share value bounce unbelievable high in that sales quarter which are of course the real customers. The people like Bobby Cocks do not make they're money selling games or running the company, they make they're money selling shares by creating unsustainable growth patterns and leaving once the company is about to burn down. The good news we are approaching the burning sky phase of this cycle EA and Activision/Blizzard over this last year have reached what is essentially peak growth and as a result share are going to go down and the parasites will guzzle up what they can and run, which is where things get so desperate that leaders who you know actually want to run a game company tend to be put back in charge for the next 2-8 years. I could rant about this for days because I love videogames and this has been one of the weakest generations ever because of this BS.

It look like first party publishers/consoles will be the king makers next generation which I feel is for the best. The current 4 big publishers would never make a "God of War" or even a "Halo" because they take too much effort and time. First party are usually more willing to give that time or take more risks because they are trying to sell you hardware and no buys hardware without impressive software.

What I really want to see is the return of AA games which essentially died last generation. In the current climate its either Indie or AAA and nothing else. That means you'll never get a "Brutal Legend" or "Dead Space" or even a "Dragon Age" games that cost to much for indie devs but are only very profitable not ridiculously stock inflatingly profitable.
It also means indie devs haven't gotten to move upon and become large developers which is how all the greats started from Epic to Bioware,

I'm gonna stop typing now before this becomes a manifesto

IN SUPERGIANT GAMES I TRUST!!
Oh wait they're indie....
IN CDPR I TRUST!!!
Wait strictly speaking they are indie too.....

FUCK.

Hahah yeah, pretty much.

I like most of Paradoxes stuff too

I'm too dumb for paradox games.