A lot of gaming outlets and media have been reporting on the overall decline of sales within the AAA Games Market. Titles such as Watch Dogs 2, Titanfall 2 & Dishonoured 2 are well below the anticipated numbers. My first thought on the matter was probably just like everyone too little innovation, too many micro-transactions, too many repeat series entries… and, of course, a heady increase in the quality of the indie fountain.
This was my long term held point of view, until recently discussing games with my PC only brethren.
A discussion with a member of the team (who shall remain nameless), recently led to them declaring to the group that they had around 630 games in their Steam library. Apparently this is not such a rare thing among PC Gamers. With a few averages drawn -essentially a game a week- and some basic maths I took great delight in working out that they’d need approximately 12 years of consecutive play in order to conquer the backlog.
The hilarious jives within our group then commenced with others announcing their own gaming backlog. This then got me thinking…with today’s digital market and more and more bundle packs selling games on the cheap, have we hit a surplus/saturation point in terms of gaming?
Think about it – Steam offers great games, and some not so great games, at fantastically cheap prices in terms of bundle packs or cheap deals of the week. You’ve also got multiple clients competing on price, which ensures there’s almost always a big deal on somewhere as they battle for player attention.
Now combine that with a limited amount of time for players to actually game within a day… for those over 30, barely a couple of hours, and even those in school with lots of free time there still is only so many hours in the day. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for people’s actual anticipation at finishing a game. Games these days can vary from around 4 hours to a full on 70+, and that’s not including the expensive numerous DLC, or multiplayer, or mobile companion apps. Gamers just don’t have enough time, and sometimes cash to complete these titles.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Okay, that may be the case for PC Gamers, but what about us console gamers? We don’t have multiple marketplaces and heavy bundling! To be fair, we are heading in that direction; with free games every month, cheap deals rotating on a weekly basis, and more. Just by getting a Gold/PS+ subscription you rapidly start accruing a backlog of games without trying. Heck, I now have about 20 bloomin’ free games, like ‘Lords of the Fallen’, which I haven’t even booted once… and in that case it’s been four months. But, because it was free, why wouldn’t I take it? Great! New game, I’ll play that soon! Only to find myself blindsided by the next big ‘’must have’’ blockbuster coming out.
I looked back into my childhood and thought to myself what has changed? (Yes, it was a while ago)
Back then, most kids/parents would buy -at best- 2 or 3 titles and this would keep everyone entertained for the whole year. And before you say it, no it wasn’t ‘’during the war’’ I’m not that old.
Fast forward to today, and we get about triple the amount of games being released, as well as numerous deals every week, and as gamers we lap them up like junkies on crack. Don’t get me wrong – this is not a criticism, actually….it is, but we all do it. We have fallen into this ‘’need it now’’ attitude and this is not even touching on the price of newly released games, or the new fad of day one editions, extra super gold plated ball sack edition, or the ‘’buy-this-plastic-crap-related-to-the-game” edition.
We have become overburdened with a plethora of games, that we have no chance in hell of even fully completing a title, unless we really stick to a game like glue. I finally managed to complete Alien: Isolation last month, and that was released 2 years ago. I feel guilty now about the games that just sit there collecting dust. At least with hard copies I could resell them and just put the guilt behind me, but now with digital, it’s so easy to just download and forget, and before you know it… Bam, 650 games in your library.
My backlog of half completed, or barely started, games is on the increase and I’m finding it hard to convince myself I need a new game. Not when amazing games like Witcher 3 sit there calling me to finish them like a seductive siren serenading her victim. Could this be the crux of it? Discard the obsession with the cost, and the other options; are we simply over-saturated with games? Soaked with games?
My conclusion is; I think we are. We have so much choice, so much cheap entertainment that we are now overwhelmed. There’s a mountainous tidal flood of ever longer, ever deerer, ever more extensive games on offer, and we just can’t cope.
So what’s the solution? To be fair, I’m not fully sure.
As bad as it sounds, we may need a recession to give us all a break to catch up! But, with technology forging ahead like a 5 year old chasing after a puppy’s tail, the best we can do is hang on for the ride. Now, I love gaming, I’ve been doing it for 30+ years, but I just can’t keep up. I guess in all, what frustrates me most is that I’m no longer gaming as much as I want, and there is so much that I want to play. Cost and time is a cord around my neck like a hangman’s noose and it’s only getting tighter, and because of this I’m sitting here typing away whilst trying to prioritise my rare amount of gaming time to a select number of games.
And in the end, maybe this is the real reason why we are not buying as many AAA titles.
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