Is gaming dead? Review Or Summary

[Azuwi]

Have gaming become dead or reached it's stale period? Here is my thoughts, opinion, review, and summary on why.

Based on TTV and Steam Charts, among others, let's go through the stats for the games (period) of April 02/03 2024.

The most played games on Steam right now is:
1. Counter-Strike 2, with 468000 players, where it has peaked up to 1.5 mil previously (less than 1/3 of it's peak rate), this game was also released (CS:GO) in 2012, with minor/major updates depending how you see it, a 12 year old game.

2. Dota 2, 231k players, also had over triple amount of players during it's peak rate and a 11 year old game, released in 2013.

3. Helldivers 2, this is the first new game on the list, released this year 2024 in February, but has already lost over half of it's max player since then, is it gonna be like most other new games and die out?

4. Stardew Valley, came out in 2016, a 8 year old game, recently had a major update, so many players returned, but already about half have stopped since the big update, went from ~260k to 130k. Couple more months, and will be back to normal(?)

5. Tom clancy rainbow siege, released in 2015. A 9 year old game.

6. Call of Duty, well it's CoD.. maybe never dies out but not the biggest game either.

7. Baldur's Gate 3, came out in 2023, have dropped about half it's player base since the release

8. PUBG: Battlegrounds, released 2017, 7 years old, not also the biggest game, guess it's always gonna keep the player numbers around 70-80k, but far from it's peak one time at 750k+

9. Path of Exile, just recently had a new league launch, sitting at 71k players online, but will fade away as the league gets older. maybe to 15-30k. Came out 2013, 11 years old.

10. Apex Legends, came out 2019, 5 year old game, sititng at 64k players, always gonna have around I guess 70-80k players aswell (including the ones on EA platform)

That's the top 10.. Summary:
Most games are 5+ years old, exception new CoD, Baldurs Gate 3, Helldivers 2, odds are Helldivers 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 are slowly gonna lose player numbers as time goes on, all numbers in the list have lost over double of it's peak time. 7 games out of the 10 is 5-11 years old.

Twitch.tv:
Popular streamers who use to have 20k+ viewers have now only around at top 10kish viewers, including summit1g, shroud, etc. The most mainstream played games are GTA 5, released 2013, again a 11 year old game, rainbow six as mentioned earlier, Valorant (2020), League of legends (2009), Fortnite (2017), talking about Fortnite, who also had to use it's old OG map and game to draw in players from losing most of it's peak, Cod, Dota 2, CS2(GO), WoW (2004 - 20 years old) who had to bring in WOW Classic because also lost a big playerbase, TFT (part of LOL), Dead by daylight (2016) which is nothing more then a horror among us game in a mediocre unreal engine where all you do is repair generators or play as the killer, Apex legends, Minecraft (2011) , and others like Path of exile, Rust, depending on if there is a new league/launch event or a Twitch drop/Rust event ongoing on raising the viewers for a week or so.

Epic Store / EA Games / Ubisoft :
I think only a small fraction use these clients where Steam is the majority.

Conclusion: There is not a single new game that is "main stream" today that have came out in the last 3-4 years, exception Helldivers 2 which I think is not gonna be mainstream anymore in 1 year. Twitch viewers have dropped 100-200%, and majority of games that are being streamed is old games between 5-10 years old, Steam most played games aswell.

Example:
Go back in time to 2012, we had a major game came out that became main stream (and still up to this date) CS:GO, year after Dota 2, same story, plus Path of Exile, GTA 5, we had just some year earlier Minecraft came out, League of legends, fast forward 2-3 years, Rainbow siege, Stardew valley, Dead by daylight, year after PUBG, Fortnite, only 2 year later, Apex legends, year after Valorant.

What did we get the last 3-4 years? Nothing.
Revamp of CS:GO > CS2, revamp of Overwatch > Overwatch 2, revamp or reintroduce of WoW > WOW Classic, revamp or reintroduce Fortnite > Fortnite OG. Still most played games are 5-10 years old and lost alot of players since then, player numbers at peak low, viewers on twitch at peak low.

Still waiting for the "Next big game" that will make the list and stay there.

[BJWyler]

MrQun lähetti viestin:

The game industry is garbage because the vast majority of gamer's standards are garbage.

Volfogg lähetti viestin:

It's been dead for a while, just like people's "modern" standards being utter crap. I wouldn't be surprised if another 1983 would happen.

Which shows a complete and utter misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of what 1983 was all about.

The thing about standards - just like taste - is that they are completely subjective.

My only standard when buying a game:
Am I getting value for the money I am spending?

And that value is purely subjective based upon my level of entertainment and enjoyment. I don't care about Mary's standards. I don't care about Stu's standards. And I don't care about your standards. Because none of that has any bearing on my standards.

So an industry that is in existence to make money is going to chase that money. And that money is coming from millions of others like me who are making value based judgements. Looks like there are more of us than there are of "you."

Adapt or move on.

[Start_Running]

MrQun lähetti viestin:

It's not dead, but it's definitely down the toilet right now. I don't know about other countries but here is Australia we have a saying: "The people get the government it deserves." However, this sentiment can be pretty much be applied to anything that has a market.

And if it has the support of the majority it just means you are not representative of the majoprity. Sad I know. And gaming has as pointed out never really changed . I mean the general rule is that as one becomes more aware of the breadth of options the more one realizes that people have very varied tastes.

MrQun lähetti viestin:

The game industry is garbage because the vast majority of gamer's standards are garbage. This is the reason why so many game developers are becoming more lazy, greedy and incompetent with each passing year as they continue to release broken, unpolished, and unoptimized crap. And most gamers are so clueless that, not only are they allowing it to happen, but they're also encouraging it as well.

I do love when people who know nothing about programming, or software design, or design in general throw the word 'unopptimized' around. Since they only ever illustrate how little the ubnderstand about the word or what they are talking about.

The only thing that has changed is that you and others have hit the point where you've become aware of all the options that have always been there and you don't like the fact that most of the options aren't geared towards ye...


That's fine. This is the downside of wrapping your identity up in you prefered brand of consumerism. But don't go talking like this is some downward spiral. Those of use who've been around for a while know that uit'squite the opposite. . Maybe if you stopped tuinneling your vision on a tiny sbubsector of the industry you'd see the truth of the matter.

MrQun lähetti viestin:

Now here comes the BS excuses from the enablers.....

Because the idea that you might be wrong never occurs to you.

[inpurpleshadows]

Azuwi lähetti viestin:

Have gaming become dead or reached it's stale period? Here is my thoughts, opinion, review, and summary on why.

Based on TTV and Steam Charts, among others, let's go through the stats for the games (period) of April 02/03 2024.

The most played games on Steam right now is:
1. Counter-Strike 2, with 468000 players, where it has peaked up to 1.5 mil previously (less than 1/3 of it's peak rate), this game was also released (CS:GO) in 2012, with minor/major updates depending how you see it, a 12 year old game.

2. Dota 2, 231k players, also had over triple amount of players during it's peak rate and a 11 year old game, released in 2013.

3. Helldivers 2, this is the first new game on the list, released this year 2024 in February, but has already lost over half of it's max player since then, is it gonna be like most other new games and die out?

4. Stardew Valley, came out in 2016, a 8 year old game, recently had a major update, so many players returned, but already about half have stopped since the big update, went from ~260k to 130k. Couple more months, and will be back to normal(?)

5. Tom clancy rainbow siege, released in 2015. A 9 year old game.

6. Call of Duty, well it's CoD.. maybe never dies out but not the biggest game either.

7. Baldur's Gate 3, came out in 2023, have dropped about half it's player base since the release

8. PUBG: Battlegrounds, released 2017, 7 years old, not also the biggest game, guess it's always gonna keep the player numbers around 70-80k, but far from it's peak one time at 750k+

9. Path of Exile, just recently had a new league launch, sitting at 71k players online, but will fade away as the league gets older. maybe to 15-30k. Came out 2013, 11 years old.

10. Apex Legends, came out 2019, 5 year old game, sititng at 64k players, always gonna have around I guess 70-80k players aswell (including the ones on EA platform)

That's the top 10.. Summary:
Most games are 5+ years old, exception new CoD, Baldurs Gate 3, Helldivers 2, odds are Helldivers 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 are slowly gonna lose player numbers as time goes on, all numbers in the list have lost over double of it's peak time. 7 games out of the 10 is 5-11 years old.

Twitch.tv:
Popular streamers who use to have 20k+ viewers have now only around at top 10kish viewers, including summit1g, shroud, etc. The most mainstream played games are GTA 5, released 2013, again a 11 year old game, rainbow six as mentioned earlier, Valorant (2020), League of legends (2009), Fortnite (2017), talking about Fortnite, who also had to use it's old OG map and game to draw in players from losing most of it's peak, Cod, Dota 2, CS2(GO), WoW (2004 - 20 years old) who had to bring in WOW Classic because also lost a big playerbase, TFT (part of LOL), Dead by daylight (2016) which is nothing more then a horror among us game in a mediocre unreal engine where all you do is repair generators or play as the killer, Apex legends, Minecraft (2011) , and others like Path of exile, Rust, depending on if there is a new league/launch event or a Twitch drop/Rust event ongoing on raising the viewers for a week or so.

Epic Store / EA Games / Ubisoft :
I think only a small fraction use these clients where Steam is the majority.

Conclusion: There is not a single new game that is "main stream" today that have came out in the last 3-4 years, exception Helldivers 2 which I think is not gonna be mainstream anymore in 1 year. Twitch viewers have dropped 100-200%, and majority of games that are being streamed is old games between 5-10 years old, Steam most played games aswell.

Example:
Go back in time to 2012, we had a major game came out that became main stream (and still up to this date) CS:GO, year after Dota 2, same story, plus Path of Exile, GTA 5, we had just some year earlier Minecraft came out, League of legends, fast forward 2-3 years, Rainbow siege, Stardew valley, Dead by daylight, year after PUBG, Fortnite, only 2 year later, Apex legends, year after Valorant.

What did we get the last 3-4 years? Nothing.
Revamp of CS:GO > CS2, revamp of Overwatch > Overwatch 2, revamp or reintroduce of WoW > WOW Classic, revamp or reintroduce Fortnite > Fortnite OG. Still most played games are 5-10 years old and lost alot of players since then, player numbers at peak low, viewers on twitch at peak low.

Still waiting for the "Next big game" that will make the list and stay there.

I think the reason for many of the games you've mentioned losing players is because they have probably moved on to other stuff. This has been a thing ever since the start of the industry. A new major game comes out, a lot of people play it and when they've experienced everything it has to offer, they proceed to the next game. As for multiplayer games, some of the older ones you've mentioned are still popular because of a variety of factors. Some multiplayer titles receive updates, have a lot of custom content or multiple game modes to ensure that people keep playing. So no, the gaming industry isn't dying.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nah, gaming isn't dead. There are so many great games, whether it's older games, current ones or games yet to be released. If people can't find something they enjoy in todays market, it's not the market that is the issue.

[Knightspace]

See, your problem lies in yourself.

You only look at the "hype" games, instead at the massive, massive amount of games that aren't ""mainstream"".

I swear, DSP mentality is spreading.

[Volfogg]

Sometimes I have a feeling that if there ever will be another surge of dumb multiplayer games, I'm gonna snap for real. Who the hell needs so many multiplayer titles?

[or2dash]

Games as a service are ruining this industry. Games made with real passion cannot compete against games that are designed to retain players forever.

People complained about loot boxes, but there's something even worse called FOMO. Games as a service encourage FOMO so that their players don't leave the game.

Big companies don't care about the addiction problems they cause. These types of video games should be regulated as soon as possible.

[Start_Running]

or2dash lähetti viestin:

Games as a service are ruining this industry. Games made with real passion cannot compete against games that are designed to retain players forever.

You makre it sound like the two things are mutiually exclusive..
Also. No ♥♥♥♥ Sherlock., of course a game thats designed to be constantly played is generally gonna keep players around longer than a game that's one-and-done.. But again Here's the secret:

PEOPLE CAN PLAY MORE THAN ONE GAME AT A TIME.

Yeah . Shocking right. Somone can be in the mood for a fighting game today and a an fps tomorrow. They may want to grind in a survival game now, and then have a hankering to try out that halfling barbarian build they were considering.

or2dash lähetti viestin:

People complained about loot boxes, but there's something even worse called FOMO. Games as a service encourage FOMO so that their players don't leave the game.

FOMO is an entirely internal issue. Not everyone suffers from it, and anyone who has a shred of mindfulness can train themselves out of it. FOMO is a personal shortcoming and it requires personal effort to fix.

or2dash lähetti viestin:

Big companies don't care about the addiction problems they cause. These types of video games should be regulated as soon as possible.

Addiction is also an internal problem and is harmful no matter the form it takes. Socuiety however is rather selective about what sort of addiction it considers problematic. At the end of the day it's another personal shortcoming that requires a personal solution.

What has gotten worse and what really is the problem is the nasty combination of entitlement and perpetual victimhood that seems to define a distuiurbing amount of the gaming population these days.

[Spynion]

the market grew enough to go the mobile's market route, and that is all, we don't have supercell games yet, but they are trying.

[or2dash]

Start_Running lähetti viestin:

You makre it sound like the two things are mutiually exclusive..

You may not be seeing it, but "classic" gamers are an increasingly smaller minority within the player population. There are more and more people who only play one game.

Ask the children in your circle what games they play and how often.

Start_Running lähetti viestin:

FOMO is an entirely internal issue. Not everyone suffers from it, and anyone who has a shred of mindfulness can train themselves out of it. FOMO is a personal shortcoming and it requires personal effort to fix.

FOMO is a serious problem.

What you are saying is like saying people who kill 40 persons in a supermarket can control themselves so let's continue giving away guns ☠️

Start_Running lähetti viestin:

Addiction is also an internal problem and is harmful no matter the form it takes. Socuiety however is rather selective about what sort of addiction it considers problematic. At the end of the day it's another personal shortcoming that requires a personal solution.

There are people more likely to suffer from addiction problems, but everyone can fall.

There is no problem in creating addictive multiplayer games, but putting playable or cosmetic content for limited time to force players to play the game or spend a lot of money in a short period of time when they may not want to is irresponsibly forcing FOMO.

[stmpunk]

BJWyler lähetti viestin:

stmpunk lähetti viestin:

Well, if they are in fact hitting a wall, than the current Game Designers should all be fired and they should start hiring talented creative people who never got a chance to pull off their genius ideas, because good ideas that can work still exist, though the minds behind said ideas are never given any opportunity.

The Indie scene vehemently disagrees with you. Today, more than ever, it is easier for anyone to create some kind of game, for a low cost. I have seen Steam users in this very forum who are putting money where the mouth is and going through the process of making a game. If the talent is out there, nothing is stopping them from building their dream.

some kind of game was always easy to create ever since the 80's.
a good game, however, requires resources either for tech accessibility or talent pool. With fewer people game wider scope has to go, without tech, game mechanics have to be sacrificed.

I have education on this field, I know how it works better than you, and I'm telling you: true talent rarely if ever gets any chances with the bigger leagues, and indie league's just about "game-art" and cope-productions for the talented who insist on sticking to the field.

I've left, had top notch grades on the leading roles, specially Game Design, and I don't intend to return nor would I cope-out by doing some half-arsed indie game.

Aikido lähetti viestin:

Industry revenues have increased year over year consistently for decades now and continue to. The number of people actively playing video games (and no, it doesn't matter what you or anyone else considers "real" video games vs whatever you think doesn't count) has also continued to grow. Some of the most critically acclaimed games of all time have released in the last few years.

The "death" of video games has been prognosticated since the inception of the industry. I was here for the ostensible video game "crash" back in the day. Do you know what the practical effect of that crash on everyday video game consumers was? Virtually nil. Games and hardware were still on shelves. People still bought and sold and played them. Some stuff got put on clearance and there was a lot of shovelware. Average consumers playing the games themselves barely noticed. Then Nintendo "saved" the industry with the NES, and most consumers went, "Oh, that's cool!" and continued on as per usual.

I've been around since before home consoles existed. I've been around since before the arcade amusements to home entertainment revolution. And I can very, very confidently say that video games aren't going anywhere. It will continue to have up and down times, and people will continue to act like whatever is happening at any given time represents the worst thing imaginable and the death of all that is good about the medium. And it will continue to exist despite all of that.

That only means people's standards have lowered because gaming became a mainstream form of social coping. There were studies on this matter ever since the mid 2000s, that doesn't make the industry better, just "richer" in terms of investment returns.

The reason why they have been steadily growing are exclusively due to the predatory business practices because the market's now flooded with mid to low quality products which watered down concentration of players, the only good games are those people keep coming back to, and none of those were released in the 2010s, they are either "remakes / updates" of 2000s games or have strong pull elements that are deliberately implemented into certain games to manipulate people into not abandoning the game due to emotional and time investment (reason why so many survival crap games are still rolling, otherwise most would be dead, like Ark)

The only slight exception to these rules might be Fortnite, but might, because it's population has rotated a lot already, those who used to play it never come back. Another often overused argument tends to deal with Valorancid, but than again it does fall into the "remake / sequel" category considering it's a bad copy&paste of CS that only really thrives on Valve's shortcomings, but it's slowly failing due to it not fixing any of CS' problems, not even the cheating issues, though their genius marketing convinced a lot of people it was "cheat-proof", lies never last too long.

[NuLife]

Its dead, Its ALL dead :(

[Jarek has quit gaming]

Gaming in general ism’t dead, but pc gaming itself will go downhill compared to console gaming when GTA VI is released.

[The nameless Gamer]

I really don't understand all this gloom and doom around gaming. Am I missing something? Am I too easily pleased by video games? Why are so many people so negative in a day and age when we have access to more good games than ever? Why is everyone so focused on whatever the corporations are doing in gaming when there's a whole world of niche and indie games which is largely unaffected by microtransactions, lootboxes and other price-gouging tactics?

[MonkehMaster]

gta 7 coming out on console, wont do anything in the case of pc gaming.. not sure where that person came up with that

if anything consoles have been and are currently, slowly dying out, for pc gaming.