AAA Games are boring and uninspired

Transcription

 What’s up folks smoke and turn the episode of the UIBuzz podcast. This one I think is going to be, you’re going to have an opinion either way. I think on this. And the idea here is that I’m just finding that a lot of the AAA games that come out these days. They’re just not meeting expectation as far as the players and all the hype.

And I want to talk about that a little bit, cause I think I see the problem and not to say that I’m an expert here, but I think we all know what the problem is. And the problem is that AAA games. Are pretty boring and uninspired, and the problem here is two fold. I see it from both sides. From a games company perspective, you’ve got a formula that works right.

You had a super smash hit with. Some game X, and I’m not going to name names here. This pretty much applies to all of the game studios and all the game types. But do you have a smash hit? And the next thing you look at it as you go people are loving this, so let’s just keep doing that.

Okay. And you put a pile of money into it. And. You just keep over time, releasing new content for it, but it’s really the same content over and over again. I’ll give you a couple of examples here, right? First person shooter there’s new expansions come out and it’s pretty much the same thing, right? A bit of a storyline, maybe. Although more and more, it’s more of a sandboxy type thing.

And the idea being well, let’s give him some new weapons and some new skills, but ultimately. We’re asking them to do the same thing over and over again, just like we have before and people get tired of that. It eventually. And then let’s take another example here. Some kind of adventure game.

Let’s take a massive multiplayer online game, right? I think this is a one that’s very guilty of this. You’ve got your smash hit on your hands. You’ve got millions of players around the world playing it. And they’re all having fun together and everything and the base game is fantastic. And then you got to start releasing expansions, see you put again, a pile of money into it. And you come up with some amazingly stunningly call game trailers, whatever that may be. And it gets people pumped and excited. But ultimately when they get the expansion, it comes down to the same thing.

Oh, maybe I’ve got some new weapons. Maybe I got some new skills. Maybe I’ve got a new place to explore. But yet again, it’s more of the same. Go here, kill this many of that. Go here. Collect that many of that. Ultimately it’s the same thing. And I think we’re just reaching a tipping point where players are just. Bored of doing these things right. They’ve seen through the veil, which is look. Yeah, I see that you get me super pumped and excited with a mega expensive trailer.

And that’s fantastic. And maybe this time around, if I get the upgrade package, you’re going to give me a gold, shiny sword, whatever And I think they were starting to see through that and they realize, Hey, underneath there’s really little substance to these extra DLC’s they’re paying for all the new. 20, 23, 20 24 version, whatever it may be. I think people are starting to see through that.

And I found this myself, of course, and there’s a lot of games I didn’t play anymore that I used to play for many years, for those very reasons. And I’ve also become extremely skeptical when anytime. Trailer and the hype is so massive. It almost guarantees that the game’s going to be a failure because they’re hoping that the hype is going to carry it on through and make them the money at the beginning.

And then. Hey, if people stop playing it, whatever we got your money. And I just think that’s the wrong attitude. And eventually that erodes the loyalty of the players. But for the most part companies didn’t really care because eventually they realized what were just get a whole new bunch of players to replace the money we’re losing from the old players. We no longer care about the old players and things like that.

But then there’s a tipping point that you’ve got all the players you’re ever likely to get in mass. To justify the expense for whatever it is you’re making. And that’s where I think we’re at right now. And I think. There’s a lot of these AAA games coming out. The. Yeah on the surface. They’re there.

They’re amazing. They’re fantastic. Love playing them, but then when you’ve completed the main storyline, once. If it even has one. You find, oh, now I’m just grinding and why am I going? Because somehow you’ve convinced me. I need this extra gold sword. Gun, whatever. But ultimately I’m doing the same thing over and over again.

And that’s why more and more.

I find myself playing these indie games, not only to. Support indie game devs, but because they’re the ones that are really doing the interesting work. The indie dev. Is not answerable. Two. Some massive bank role, right? Some board of directors of some company game studio, whatever. Some massive debt that they’ve got to earn X amount of money because of the amount of money they put in it. They’re making them. Because they just want to, and because they’ve come up with some kind of unique idea, unique twist, that makes it interesting. And I think that’s why you see more and more people playing indie games these days. Now?

Yes. Okay. I’m biased here, right? Because I’m working on indie games myself, but. The point being is that they are doing the interesting, arguably you could say risky things, right? They may be a complete failure or. Super smash hit. But either way. It’s okay. They’re doing it because they love it. Right there doing it Because. Of what the games industry, when it first. Became a thing was doing, making games that they love. They want to play and doing interesting experimental, unique things. Now. That’s not to say that eventually.

It’s very difficult when you become successful. To keep that success going without saying I got to follow the formula. I get that. But for the most part indie game dev is, seems to be not only on the rise, which is fantastic. But also getting more and more attention, which is absolutely fantastic for the developers. And also teaching players. Hey it’s okay to go play these things and to not get that new DLC. Just to go get whatever it may be.

Okay. And I think that’s why you’re seeing a lot of these, again, these AAA games, just not living up to their own hype because all they’ve got is the hype. I find that a very interesting perspective and. I think it’s the right thing. Eh, in many ways, I like to see people. Sort of fighting the trend and saying look. This stuff is crap and going and making their own things and saying, I can do better than that.

And they go do it. We’ll always support indie devs, if any type. Apps or games, especially games. Where as a lifelong gamer, there’s just more interesting things. I have. Really enjoyed exploring games that in the past, I may not have looked at. Because I was too busy playing these rinse and repeat AAA games. Anyway. I’m sure people have opinions on this, right?

Some of you are gonna agree. Some of you are going to go, Nope. And disagree. Fantastic. We should talk about that. Finally people. Standing up and saying, look, I’ve had enough of this AAA game nonsense. Never used to be that way. And if you want to come on the podcast and talk about it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. You can reach out to me UIBuzz.com and you can also reach out at UIBuzz on Twitter, X, whatever they’re calling it.

These days. Love to hear your thoughts on this, but I just wanted to put that out there as it’d been bugging me for a while. And I felt that it was about time to talk about it. So that’s it folks I will speak to you in the next one.