Game Economics, Graphics and AI ...

[Shifty Geezer]

Nostalgia from their parents

Seriously? Kids are playing something because of what their parents liked? When has that happened ever?? The new generation shuns everything their parents like(d) as lame.

People buying Nintendo I suspect do it for nostalgia, as I have never owned a Nintendo product and have zero interest in their games I am not qualified to speak about their games, other than they do not interest me, never have and most likely never will.

And I should mention that Nintendo has a sub 1% marketshare in DK, so I guess culture/geography is another big part of it.
It has been more than a decade since I last saw Nintendo unit IRL and around 2 decades since I dropped their controller in a "Yuck" moment aka touched one

So you don't like Nintendo and that's the basis of your argument for all Nintendo users?

 

[JPT]

Nostalgia from their parents
And I should mention that Nintendo has a sub 1% marketshare in DK, so I guess culture/geography is another big part of it.
It has been more than a decade since I last saw Nintendo unit IRL and around 2 decades since I dropped their controller in a "Yuck" moment aka touched one

Come on, you are not that different from us further north. Switch is big here and lots of people has it as their handheld console in addition to whatever else they have.

 

[JPT]

Seriously? Kids are playing something because of what their parents liked? When has that happened ever?? The new generation shuns everything their parents like(d) as lame.

Off topic, but YES! My step son was like, I hate any movie about the Vietnam war, its just American boasting. So I forced him to watch The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket and Rambo. He resentfully had to admit they where actually good movies and not overly blaring USA propaganda.

 

[IQandHDR]

Seriously? Kids are playing something because of what their parents liked? When has that happened ever?? The new generation shuns everything their parents like(d) as lame.


So you don't like Nintendo and that's the basis of your argument for all Nintendo users?

No, read again and drop the fallacies.

 

[IQandHDR]

Come on, you are not that different from us further north. Switch is big here and lots of people has it as their handheld console in addition to whatever else they have.

You look up the numbers then and tell me what you find

 

[trinibwoy]

Sure, because there's one correct solution and everything else is status quo.

Well you were dismissive of my suggestion that something needs to change. So what does the developer community think needs to happen? If the money people aren't budging and games need to be built concurrently with the tools they depend on what's the way out?

Developers. Salaries are stagnant, and consequences of failures always result in workforce being fired to minimize cost. People investing in games (whether publishers or VCs) are also first to recuperate. So if game under-performs despite what otherwise would be considered decent sales, every last cent goes to whoever invested in the game, not to the studio or its employees.

Bizdev in the last two years was especially cut-throat. Small and medium size publishers scaled down investment in new titles. Their pipelines are typically 2 years deep so they can afford this conservative stance. The only games publishers were interested in were promising games near completion. So essentially the deal was "we'll help with your final 20% and marketing for ROI 150% or more". Very few studios can afford carrying game to alpha and then look for a publisher. But this is how market looks right now.

That's very rough.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

No, read again and drop the fallacies.

I don't understand. What did you say? What are the fallacies? tuna said sarcastically, "the kids buy/wish/want for nostalgia," where clearly children can't be buying on nostalgia as they are too young. You replied, "nostalgia from their parents." Isn't that saying kids - young consumers of Nintendo products - want Nintendo because of nostalgia from their parents?

Where's the 'sub 1% market share' coming from?

The second part, you aren't presenting anything except your own observations and sentiments. And 'yuck' meaning you find the even the touch of a Nintendo console objectionable??

 

[Dominik D]

Where's the 'sub 1% market share' coming from?

If DK = Denmark then Nintendo enjoys roughly 1/4 of console sales according to Statista.

Well you were dismissive of my suggestion that something needs to change.

I was negative towards the idea of what needs to change, not that the change is needed.

 

[Color me Dan]

Dunno if I can really grant any sort of insight here, but they raise a good point. And I think the article is especially on the money with regards to younger generations gaming habits. Why, indeed, should a studio burn employees out striving to make the next graphically astounding AAA title when kids (or me for that matter) are equally happy playing Minecraft?

I kind of see parallels here to action blockbusters, where big studios are increasingly surprised that their shiny new action fests struggle to cover their exorbitant costs. There simply isn't any more excitement to wring. Tech has reached a point where high fidelity is no longer a major driving force behind sales. The gulf between decent and top notch fidelity has also diminished enough that, for the great majority, it matters little. It's become an artistic choice as much as an economical one for both creators and consumers. Whereas when I grew up there was a very tangible difference.

And that's where I think a major part of the problem lies. Selling something that's shinier than the last thing is comparatively easy, even in a world where our attention is increasingly swamped (perhaps especially then). And what do we do when that increasingly fails? I don't have any solution for that. Because a part of me wants to suggest that it's time for an era of more indy development. That new structures should emerge to support smaller teams who create more diverse games at a reasonable cost, both to the consumers and to themselves. And perhaps AI is part of that? Making a smaller team able to cover any shortfall in artistic or technical skill with more advanced tools.

Or we can just push on, automate those who don't burn out away to save on cost, and pretend everything is fine I suppose. At least in AAA development.