The Corporate Strangulation of Gaming

video games as a form of Art and entertainment are in a bit of an odd spot at the moment gaming is increasingly popular with nearly all generations and Remains the single largest form of entertainment across the globe at the same time the actual games themselves in the broader industry that makes them have begun to alter and become something much different from their past versions of yester decades while Nostalgia is always a factor to any longtime gamer Enthusiast there's been a subtle yet certain decline in the quality of games in the manner they're made to Briefly summarize the core issue the games industry has by and large shifted its priorities solely towards the Brazen monetization in profiteering off of video games all at the cost of those who make them and the games themselves to talk about this gross corporatization of gaming r large it's important to discuss how video games as a product have changed over the decades in the ancient days of the 1980s games were all oneandone products a title would be shipped out for the nest or Sega Genesis Indian Al cont tent and bugs were there to stay and that was that games had only their own merits to sell them and the transaction between developer and player will begin an end at the point of sale to get a game to sell to ultimately make money off of it the game itself just had to be good had to be worthwhile and provide something to the player though imperfect there was a mutually beneficial relationship between developer and player the gaming cream would rise to the top because it had to be that way and Gamers would generally recognize in reward quality however this relationship would fundamentally change as the world became increasingly connected to the internet for players patches and updates for games would soon become the norm any errors bugs or unforeseen issues could be spotted by the player base related to the devs in Iron Out Post launch for the developers methods of further monetizing games like with DLCs and microtransactions would be widely introduced and allow for further Revenue off of a game developers and players would now maintain a relationship post purchase developers continue to maintain add to games and players would pay and reward them for this work it worked for a Time games could be updated and made even better even if you had a few flagrant efforts to monetize a game post launch in time however developers and more specifically Publishers began to fully appreciate and rely upon the sheer profitability of rampant monetization you begin to see more and more content paywalled behind DLCs and microtransactions a full experience would no longer come with the $60 price tag in parallel you'd see the growth of Highly explorative game mechanics like loot boxes and gacha monetization systems as profitable as they are addictive to call this peace meal sale of games and integration of pseudo gambling unpopular would be a criminal understatement the outrage surrounding these systems has been constant and fierce but the Publishers shoving these egregious monetization systems into every game they own have no intent to relent now such systems May actively worsen the overall experience of gaming but profits for the gaming industry have soared thanks to them as a result over the past few years you've seen an increasing priority on simply making money off of video games whether or not it's done in in Earnest ethical or quality manner this leads us to the most recent events in game Publishers efforts to profit here Mass layoffs and Studio closures throughout the games industry layoffs are a business move that don't actually work but allow for very short-term cost reductions and shift the consequences of managerial incompetence onto the actual workers while the past few years under the lockdown saw massive growth throughout the games industry that growth has begun to slow down it's still growing mind you just not as fast as previous years for shareholders and Executives who are only satisfied at the sight of constant exponential growth they see this minor deceleration as critical lethal even they happily fattened and enriched themselves whilst the goings were good but now as things ever so slightly slowed down they've opted for the most tasteless response in just laying off thousands while disappointing this isn't exactly surprising the major Publishers from Nintendo and Sony to Microsoft and Ubisoft have never been known for competent management of their workforces and sub Studios with Microsoft and Xbox however the recent rationals for their layoffs and Studio closures not only take the cake but perfectly illustrate the mindset these Publishers are now operating under the air example is that of Arcane Austin and Tango Gameworks Studios with a number of respected renowned and undoubtedly profitable titles under their belt with our their latest title in redfall was a definite flop though it was a title none of the devs wanted to make merely being foed on them by their parent company while it's kind of ridiculous Arcane Austin was killed off for a singular failure there was at least a failure that could be pointed to for its closure the same can't be said for Tango Gameworks last year's high-fi Rush from them was a surprise hit being received incredibly well by Gamers and critics alike this was all done on a new IP and with zero marketing budget for the game either it's popularity and praise was entirely organic and contingent on the game's many merits in spite of this the game wasn't profitable or successful enough to Microsoft you can look at reports from April of last year where they discuss how it didn't meet the detached expectations set for it again you wouldn't exactly expect the game to be a multi-million seller when it wasn't even advertised and put Day One on Game Pass nonetheless HiFi Rush's modest success and huge potential was instead seen as some unsalvageable failure and grounds for the studio behind it to be Act to add insult to injury a mere 24 hours after killing off numerous quality Studios the head of Xbox claimed they needs smaller games that give them Prestige and awards suffice to say such a desire either Rings Hollow or is simply delusional when Xbox kills off the studios that do just that rather this claim of wanting actual quality games serves to provide a thin veneer of legitimacy to Microsoft as a games publisher it maintains the falsity that they're still focused on producing games when their priorities are now solely on on growth and profitability now this isn't anything groundbreaking or revelatory since the beginning games have been produced to generate profits for developers and Publishers I'm not denying that what has changed however are the sheer links these companies will go to to profiteer off their titles how much they will sacrifice and abandon to see year-over-year growth as technology has advanced and ever more sophisticated monetization systems have been developed there's been less and less need to actually deliver quality to turn profits in other words the requirement of making an actually good game to make money is less and less the case you can just shove microtransactions and live service garbage into an established IP and enough teenagers and consumer drones will still hand you a successful game at least in the eyes of shareholders to this end a sincere focus on smaller award-winning titles AKA games from 20 years ago is unlikely going forward such games simply would't be profitable enough and thus shouldn't be expected but that begs the question what should be the long Arc of the gaming industry has bent towards greater profit maximization really since its Inception and the tools which have allowed for this will simply be further refined and implemented at present the primary monetization tools at Publishers disposal have been live service systems to encourage microtransactions along with loot box and gacha Mechanics for the prior it's all about cultivating engagement with a game meaningful or Hollow it doesn't really matter through frequent content patches and Updates this is all done so the game can keep the player leash to it to provide a gameplay Loop that is just entertaining enough to keep them contentedly playing though without feeling a full satisfaction with the gamer experience this gives ample opportunity to bombard the player with cosmetics and trinkets they may wish to purchase along with all the cool loot they could get by just buying the season pass the core goal is to instill in the player the belief that actual in-game enjoyment is just a credit card swipe away and once they've made that purchase and the sunk cost fallacy kicks in you're golden regarding loot boxes in gacha it's just about cultivating a gambling addiction these mechanics have been refined to be about as addictive as possible and it's something I go in depth on in another video of mine the rewards offered through these thinly veiled gambling mechanisms often pertain to progression or providing a Competitive Edge ranging from Buffs in equipment to scany clad anime chicks with broken abilities fundamentally these systems are antagonistic towards the actual player content features and options that were once standard editions have been cut up in solded a premium with the purchase being the only way you can have a semi-decent experience with a game this antagonistic game design is sure to become ever more commonplace and integral to games moving forward all because it makes a lot of money while these systems explicitly worsen the actual experience of gaming to the executives and shareholders behind them such issues are wholly overshadowed by their sheer profitability aside from the slow steady spread of these gross monetization systems Publishers and Developers are becoming increasingly Brazen in their manner of profiteering namely through their want and raising of prices now inflation is a thing the budget for producing AAA titles is ever increasing and the consumer costs of games and consoles relative to their 20th century counterparts are generally cheaper while I understand the need to raise prices where appropriate the price and manner in which games are now being sold is ridiculous a prime example of this is the pricing structure for the Recently announced Star Wars Outlaws $70 for the base game 110 for that plus the plant expansions and 130 for all that plus some cosmetics in an art book to put it in more blunt terms it's $70 for part of the game then 110 or more for the full experience it's a similar case with dlc's cosmetics and microtransactions you're now spending the price of the base game for a few alternate skins or $80 for a gorilla fist while such prices are frankly insulting these Publishers only set them so high because they think if not know they can get away with them gaming is now a leviathan industry with a gargantuan audience there are more than enough lwi information consumers and [ __ ] Gamers who will shell out for these overpriced games and obscene macro transactions the fact such content still sells at such ridiculous prices justifies these rates in the eyes of Publishers and if anything encourages them to continue raising prices just to see how far they can build consumers the ever increasing price gouging seen in the games industry is not the only area they intend to use to profiter one of the more frankly gross systems currently being considered is in-game advertising advertising and crossovers in video games are nothing new in many cases it's just simple marketing for the game's owned store or something relatively unobtrusive what Sony and Microsoft have been working on however would see more General advertisements unobtrusively inserted into games at present the basic idea would be to sell in-game advertising space to any company trying to advertise with the actual adverts being things like Billboards and racing games or banners in sports games a related system would be opt-in or occasional popup ads again for any product from any company within game awards attached to watching them these advertising systems are currently being floated for use in various free-to-play games offered by Sony and Microsoft a means of generating Revenue to cover the cost of an ostensibly free game in and of itself these systems aren't particularly objectionable at worst they may hamper immersion in certain games was perhaps offsetting the need for other microtransactions in them the issue is that this is just the first iteration of actual in-game advertisement if successful such systems will only see further implementation and integration banners for Coke or McDonald's will find their way into single player Andor fully priced games the opin ads will soon become mandatory and your only release from them will be by purchasing the battle pass or some new subscription now it's worth noting in-game advertising as it has been previously implemented has faced some backlash from gamers in 2020 EA Sports UFC 4 in MMA a game with Stellar box art introduced rather in-your-face in-game advertising post launch the fact of you're being bombarded with advertisements in a fully price title generates significant outrage towards the game ultimately leading to its advertising features being paired back while EA's decision to reverse course was the right one their error was only in going too far too fast these Publishers will introduce minor unobtrusive advertising systems Gamers deem tolerable and in time they'll be seen as acceptable or the Norman games once say sufficiently receptive audience has been cultivated Publishers will just drop the facade and add their original egregious monetization systems the Frog will be successfully boiled ultimately such in-game advertising is set to be yet another system broadly implemented yet wholly at odds with the actual soul of games and all for another 30 pieces of silver finally the types and sorts of games to be emphasized moving forward are those that will be most conducive towards these profitable monetization systems short-term growth and ever increasing stock value are now a singular myopic Focus for these major Publishers as discussed earlier we've seen Studios of significant pedigree be axed over their failure to be obscenely profitable their owners aren't even interested in wasting time and resources on anything but the finest cash cows to that end more and more of the AAA gaming landscape is set to become annual or semiannual live service garbage sustained mostly off of whales and people with more money than taste utter schlock like codon Battlefield the yearly semi functional Sports titles in RPGs insultingly written with microtransactions will become more and more the focus and more and more the norm any aspect of a game that can be monetized will be every system that introduces monetization will slowly become more and more gross and intrusive the pathological need for Eternal growth no matter how unsustainable it may be is the motive Force for nearly every major game publisher now in the sacrifice of any and all quality in their titles is now deemed acceptable a knock on effect of this hyper focus on profiteering is that game developers the people who actually make the executives and shareholders any money are increasingly wary of and uninterested in AAA development I mentioned in the beginning that redfall from Aran Austin was a flop this was due to the fact the development of a live service money first title was mandated to them yes but also because over half the development team left the studio rather than work on trash knowing that all developer will have to work on are soulless Skinner boxes masquerading his games and that even the delivery of actual quality acclaimed titles isn't enough to maintain job security well they're unlikely to stick around and find out these major Publishers have not one iota of respect for the talent in Artistry that goes into making games and if they're creating an environment that won't attract meaningful Talent then you just have a vicious cycle of rapidly declining quality to short up the holes and developer Manpower Publishers will likely employ AI for use in game development but at that point whatever Soul remaining in the games industry will be truly choked dead and buried in summary the hyper focus on profitability and growth seen in various major game developers has progressed to a point where all pretense must be dropped and all fat trimmed employees in groups insufficiently profitable must be shed titles that don't shamelessly Target players wallets must be cancelled and every last mechanism for monetization of microtransactions must be pursued no matter the actual impact on consumers or the final product just like many of the other Industries in our society and economy the gaming industry's one goal in God is now Mammon and in time everything that once made gaming so unique and enjoyable will be sacrificed to it while there remain certain Studios and Publishers who weren't as myopically focused on money the general downtrend in the games industry inspires little hope and is just disappointing more than anything with that this is an issue primarily affecting the largest players in the industry the AAA sphere may be irredeemably corporate at this point but the same can't be said for the Indie scene Indie developers basically carry the soul of the industry at this point and are now the more reliable source for actual quality and gaming while Indies are definitely made to make money by virtue of their size along with the greater creative freedom and passion the odds of getting Earnest and actually enjoyable experiences from them are immeasurably higher than anything AAA nowadays aside from Indies you have the titles of yest your decades as well a vast and Cura library of retro games is always at the Avail and the titles at hand were made when developers at least tried to care about the games they made with that the overall direction of the overall industry remains Bleak barring some Mass unionization drive at Major Studios or an actually effective consumer protest I feel the only real move is to check out better forms of gaming and better uses of one's time exist best not to waste your time and energy on an industry that actively despises you and the people who make it up hey thanks for reaching the end and I hope you enjoyed this vid while I've covered the general decline of gaming and the positive scene of the Indie scene pre previously the ever increasing corporatization and hollowing out of gaming was something I wanted to look at the recent round of Studio closures and egregious monetization systems on the horizon were the Catalyst for this vid they just cemented the rapid downward Trend and utter soullessness of the industry in my mind time will only tell what its ultimate fate will be but I've yet to be given much reason for optimism on this matter with that punch the like have a couple Brew skis with the Subscribe button and that Bell until next time take care

Channel: Ciggy Snake

Views: 36,893

Keywords: Ciggy Snake, Gaming, Microsoft, Phil Spencer, Andrew Wilson, EA, Ubisoft

Id: -J-g9cWshHk

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Thu May 30 2024