Its not that we cant afford them necessarily, its that we cant justify them. The main reason you needed to get the new game was because all your friends were getting it. Only nerds and dweebs and losers play single player games. CoD is where its at bro. When everyone moves to the new game you can lose social time with friends or you can spend another £50. Now that everyone is poor, enough people aren’t migrating to the newest shiniest edition immediately and people are playing games they already have.
Couple that with desperately working every opportunity you can every hour and adults just don’t game together any more.
Tl;dr they are not feeling the social pressure to buy any more.
Even my CoD (Warzone) obsessed friend told me he barely plays anymore. He said it’s become boring and repetitive, and also he finally realized how much time and effort it takes (for a meh payout).
Just to add a contrasting perspective I feel like it’s been an absolute golden age of gaming for me lately personally:
No Man’s Sky still getting relatively fun updates.
Cyberpunk 2077 was great on launch and arguably much better now.
The Last Of Us Part 2 on PC is incredible and I’m happy that the port exists so I could experience it. You haven’t really played the game till you replay it with both protagonists wearing their Hotline Miami shirts in all the cutscenes.
PS4 Spider-Man on PC was prolly the best superhero game I’ve played.
MSFS2020 opened a whole new world of flight sims to me, especially when it comes to doing fun VOR2VOR navigation with littlenavmap charts printed to PDFs and attached in VR, and Assetto Corsa did the same for racing sims.
Speaking of VR, H3VR is stronger than ever. I have many fond memories of VRChat just a few years back.
Victoria 3 has a really fun thriving modding scene.
Indie games like Sea Power, Flight of Nova, Stray, Ultrakill, World of Horror, Nuclear Option, Descenders and Crisis In The Kremlin: The Cold War have been a big timesink for me lately as well as classics of indie like Suzerain and actual art masterpiece DEFCON.
It’s also been great to go back and play old classics and PS3 emulation now that PC hardware is much cheaper after the crypto/scalper crises circa 2018.
Also, with Steam play and the steam deck, PC Gaming is easier than ever and just hassle-free.
I never played the popular junk so ig to me all this gacha mtx horse armor crap just doesn’t really relate.
I think SOME of it has to do with AAA being dogshit, but I think a lot of it is actually that they just play roblox. I have been told “why would I buy peak when roblox has this mountain climbing game for free?”
You’re thinking of Gen Alpha. GenZ was born starting '97, most of us are closer to 30 than 13, they don’t play Roblox or know what that is. All they know is eat hot chip and twerk and cry for a world that never was yet feels was taken from us while watching old vine compilations and being able to recite them word for word with impressive if slightly concerning accuracy.
I get what you’re saying, and Roblox’s grasp definitely gets worse on gen alpha and the younger you get, but that quote in my og comment came from a 26 year old playing with another 26 year old and a 27 year old. Gen Z for sure plays roblox
Oh ofc we heard of it, but as I said, I don’t think I, nor the folks I know actually know what it really is, as in: what’s it about or what you do in the game, or if it’s a social thing and not a game etc etc.
Funny enough, the main reason I’m spending far less is not the shitty economy, but rather the gaming industry’s push to kill physical copies.
I used to buy a lot of physical games at full price because they would be much harder to find later on, but if I’m forced to go with a digital copy this is no longer an issue, so I just let them sit on my wishlist until they’re massively discounted.
Gen X, can’t actually remember the last time I bought a game.
Suikoden 1 & 2 on PS5? I think that was it.
I used to buy games all the time, but I won’t pay for a digital release I don’t own. Avowed? Digital only. Looked for Expedition 33, couldn’t find it on physical.
Yeah, why would anyone buy another copy of Mario Kart with minor changes for €80 when there’s much better indie games for a quarter or less of that price?
even milleneals arnt paying it, like myself. not paying for things like switch, or swsh, because they decided to enshittify the console or games, and gouge prices.
i was almost tempted to get it for the first swsh, glad i dint after listening to masuda"enshittifying speech", we get it you’re tired of the franchise, hand it to a company that would make a competent game.
Cause the prices are getting stupid. Cause its all digital downloads with no physical product. Cause my “ownership” can be revoked at any time by the platforms whims or the platforms shutdown.
What happened to digital downloads being cheaper, anyway? Thats the promise we were sold 10+ years ago. That by sacrificing physical products, Publishers/Devs wouldnt have to pay for printing, manufacturing, shipping, storage, etc, so they’d be able to sell AAA new releases for 30 dollars, and Pub/Dev would still make more money.
And now we’re supposed to be paying 60, 70, 80 dollars or more, for these digital download games… that we don’t even own? And because they have no product on the shelves, prices never come down either. Sure, you might find a sale like on steam or something… but those sales pale in comparison to what they were 5, 10 years ago
Fuck that. Amazing how the only promise fulfilled on moving to digital download was that pubs/devs would get more money… and they get that by skyrocketing the costs, not because of the sacrifices we made to give up boxes, disks, manuals, and ownership
With how much CoD costs and how the player base tends to abandon the game once the new one releases, Game Pass is pretty much the most logical way of getting your hands on CoD. I reckon most people play it through that.
Live service on console was obvious on the way for every genre back on the 360/PS3 era with FIFA ultimate team and publishers also having that period of time when they were trying to kill used games with that single account multiplayer access code
Then it became super obvious because of PC from the super success of TF2 hats and eventually CSGO skins by like 2015. Trying to compete with WoW was an ocean of dead video game studios. Fortnite perfected live service on consoles and CoD adapted and went just as wild with it
Single player games, my hot take is Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Assassin’s Creed killed AAA single player narrative games by succeeding so well to making future games mediocre. Mass Effect had interesting alien species dynamics but never took them with much of any depth. They were Star Wars movies rather than the wild Star Wars EU. Uncharted was a hyper popular Hollywood blockbuster where the emotional highlight being the beginning of Uncharted 4 with Nate and Elena being a cute couple.
Assassin’s Creed stories kept going deeper and deeper into name dropping famous figures/mythology that it became parody. Historical clout chasing wrapped together in a nonsense overarching plot that should have had some satisfying ending back in 2012 but instead is effectively spin-offs the series
So Mass Effect hints at interesting politics but plays things safe and gives you none but Hollywood space opera in video games with solid animations and facial animations were fresh in the 360 era. Uncharted was even more extreme in that regards than Mass Effect where there was still novelty in Hollywood mimicry with even better graphics and even more scripted for explosive set pieces. Assassin’s Creed and eventually Far Cry and Watch Dogs are bottom feeders. Chase trends, name drop - shotgun approach for trailer fodder. They are sadly the standards of AAA single player narrative
Also live service single player games are competitive. Stories are just as shallow but frequent in release and graphics at a level good enough now. Talking like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Wuthering Waves
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
I sometimes forget GenZ are now adults. Some now do porn.
Well you cant say that without giving some recomendations around here
Its not that we cant afford them necessarily, its that we cant justify them. The main reason you needed to get the new game was because all your friends were getting it. Only nerds and dweebs and losers play single player games. CoD is where its at bro. When everyone moves to the new game you can lose social time with friends or you can spend another £50. Now that everyone is poor, enough people aren’t migrating to the newest shiniest edition immediately and people are playing games they already have.
Couple that with desperately working every opportunity you can every hour and adults just don’t game together any more.
Tl;dr they are not feeling the social pressure to buy any more.
Some people actively avoid multiplayer games to avoid obnoxious, entitled kids.
Lol, that was great. Thanks!
How are you going to be on Lemmy, a super-niche, nerdy-ass platform, and call Single Player gamers dweebs lol?
I thought maybe the tone would come across as sarcastic. I mean obviously nobody wants to be doxxed by a teenager hopped up on caffeine and adderall
Happy dweeb/nerd confirmed here. Single player, story-driven is where it’s at.
Even my CoD (Warzone) obsessed friend told me he barely plays anymore. He said it’s become boring and repetitive, and also he finally realized how much time and effort it takes (for a meh payout).
Just to add a contrasting perspective I feel like it’s been an absolute golden age of gaming for me lately personally:
No Man’s Sky still getting relatively fun updates. Cyberpunk 2077 was great on launch and arguably much better now.
The Last Of Us Part 2 on PC is incredible and I’m happy that the port exists so I could experience it. You haven’t really played the game till you replay it with both protagonists wearing their Hotline Miami shirts in all the cutscenes. PS4 Spider-Man on PC was prolly the best superhero game I’ve played.
MSFS2020 opened a whole new world of flight sims to me, especially when it comes to doing fun VOR2VOR navigation with littlenavmap charts printed to PDFs and attached in VR, and Assetto Corsa did the same for racing sims.
Speaking of VR, H3VR is stronger than ever. I have many fond memories of VRChat just a few years back.
Victoria 3 has a really fun thriving modding scene. Indie games like Sea Power, Flight of Nova, Stray, Ultrakill, World of Horror, Nuclear Option, Descenders and Crisis In The Kremlin: The Cold War have been a big timesink for me lately as well as classics of indie like Suzerain and actual art masterpiece DEFCON.
It’s also been great to go back and play old classics and PS3 emulation now that PC hardware is much cheaper after the crypto/scalper crises circa 2018.
Also, with Steam play and the steam deck, PC Gaming is easier than ever and just hassle-free.
I never played the popular junk so ig to me all this gacha mtx horse armor crap just doesn’t really relate.
deleted by creator
I think SOME of it has to do with AAA being dogshit, but I think a lot of it is actually that they just play roblox. I have been told “why would I buy peak when roblox has this mountain climbing game for free?”
You’re thinking of Gen Alpha. GenZ was born starting '97, most of us are closer to 30 than 13, they don’t play Roblox or know what that is. All they know is eat hot chip and twerk and cry for a world that never was yet feels was taken from us while watching old vine compilations and being able to recite them word for word with impressive if slightly concerning accuracy.
I get what you’re saying, and Roblox’s grasp definitely gets worse on gen alpha and the younger you get, but that quote in my og comment came from a 26 year old playing with another 26 year old and a 27 year old. Gen Z for sure plays roblox
That’s…wild. No one in my 27 year old age group of friends knows what Roblox really even is or has ever touched it.
Gen Z sure do know about Roblox (as in heard of it).
It’s just that most either play(ed) Minecraft or never were fond of those games in general
Oh ofc we heard of it, but as I said, I don’t think I, nor the folks I know actually know what it really is, as in: what’s it about or what you do in the game, or if it’s a social thing and not a game etc etc.
Like others said, it’s not just Gen-Z.
Funny enough, the main reason I’m spending far less is not the shitty economy, but rather the gaming industry’s push to kill physical copies.
I used to buy a lot of physical games at full price because they would be much harder to find later on, but if I’m forced to go with a digital copy this is no longer an issue, so I just let them sit on my wishlist until they’re massively discounted.
I OWN them!
The seven seas are way more friendly
I do buy games from time to time, but 2 of my most played games on Steam are just free games. OpenTTD and vivid/stasis.
Gen X, can’t actually remember the last time I bought a game.
Suikoden 1 & 2 on PS5? I think that was it.
I used to buy games all the time, but I won’t pay for a digital release I don’t own. Avowed? Digital only. Looked for Expedition 33, couldn’t find it on physical.
I’m not leaving gaming, gaming is leaving me.
and indie games are cheaper and better
Yeah, why would anyone buy another copy of Mario Kart with minor changes for €80 when there’s much better indie games for a quarter or less of that price?
even milleneals arnt paying it, like myself. not paying for things like switch, or swsh, because they decided to enshittify the console or games, and gouge prices.
I’m not gonna lie, I’ve spent hundreds. But I’m definitely not buying a switch 2, what a rip off.
i was almost tempted to get it for the first swsh, glad i dint after listening to masuda"enshittifying speech", we get it you’re tired of the franchise, hand it to a company that would make a competent game.
Everyone is.
I don’t buy new releases anymore.
Why?
Cause the prices are getting stupid. Cause its all digital downloads with no physical product. Cause my “ownership” can be revoked at any time by the platforms whims or the platforms shutdown.
What happened to digital downloads being cheaper, anyway? Thats the promise we were sold 10+ years ago. That by sacrificing physical products, Publishers/Devs wouldnt have to pay for printing, manufacturing, shipping, storage, etc, so they’d be able to sell AAA new releases for 30 dollars, and Pub/Dev would still make more money.
And now we’re supposed to be paying 60, 70, 80 dollars or more, for these digital download games… that we don’t even own? And because they have no product on the shelves, prices never come down either. Sure, you might find a sale like on steam or something… but those sales pale in comparison to what they were 5, 10 years ago
Fuck that. Amazing how the only promise fulfilled on moving to digital download was that pubs/devs would get more money… and they get that by skyrocketing the costs, not because of the sacrifices we made to give up boxes, disks, manuals, and ownership
My main reason for not buying games is that epic and amazon give them away for free.
I’ve got a backlog of around 500 games I haven’t touched or paid for, so there’s plenty to do without paying for anything.
subscribing to humble monthly is also a good way to amass games on the cheap. not as cheap as free, of course, but still better than most sales.
Aren’t we all, fam?
Then who is? Millions of people are gonna buy the new Call of Duty on release. Who are they?
With how much CoD costs and how the player base tends to abandon the game once the new one releases, Game Pass is pretty much the most logical way of getting your hands on CoD. I reckon most people play it through that.
Kids on consoles with mom’s money, those kids that eat up shit like Fortnite and other live-service shovelware.
Live service on console was obvious on the way for every genre back on the 360/PS3 era with FIFA ultimate team and publishers also having that period of time when they were trying to kill used games with that single account multiplayer access code
Then it became super obvious because of PC from the super success of TF2 hats and eventually CSGO skins by like 2015. Trying to compete with WoW was an ocean of dead video game studios. Fortnite perfected live service on consoles and CoD adapted and went just as wild with it
Single player games, my hot take is Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Assassin’s Creed killed AAA single player narrative games by succeeding so well to making future games mediocre. Mass Effect had interesting alien species dynamics but never took them with much of any depth. They were Star Wars movies rather than the wild Star Wars EU. Uncharted was a hyper popular Hollywood blockbuster where the emotional highlight being the beginning of Uncharted 4 with Nate and Elena being a cute couple.
Assassin’s Creed stories kept going deeper and deeper into name dropping famous figures/mythology that it became parody. Historical clout chasing wrapped together in a nonsense overarching plot that should have had some satisfying ending back in 2012 but instead is effectively spin-offs the series
So Mass Effect hints at interesting politics but plays things safe and gives you none but Hollywood space opera in video games with solid animations and facial animations were fresh in the 360 era. Uncharted was even more extreme in that regards than Mass Effect where there was still novelty in Hollywood mimicry with even better graphics and even more scripted for explosive set pieces. Assassin’s Creed and eventually Far Cry and Watch Dogs are bottom feeders. Chase trends, name drop - shotgun approach for trailer fodder. They are sadly the standards of AAA single player narrative
Also live service single player games are competitive. Stories are just as shallow but frequent in release and graphics at a level good enough now. Talking like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Wuthering Waves