Is this a clear sign the whole industry is headed for a collapse? It’s not just Nintendo, though more thoughts on them in a bit. Looking at the gaming forums – the left wing one and the right wing one – the general consensus seems to be that pretty much every conference was lackluster. That Microsoft won “by default” at best. I saw the thought that someone about age demographics, but if that were the case, I think I’d see more than viral shills on the forums saying how great individual E3 conferences were. When you look at these games, sure, games like Fortnite are phenomenons (and it was actually Nintendo’s only good move making sure this game was made available on Switch literally today) but 2-3 games do not an industry make, and most of the games shown are trailers for stuff that may not even be out next year, and people are seeing through it. And most of the games are part of the same mono-genre that’s starting to get boring. If they’re even actually games – most of what we are seeing are bad movie trailers. I saw two different samurai movies that I guess you interact with at some point. Sony, EA, these companies keep trying to push games as (B) movies, ignoring that industry is headed off of a cliff as well. Like lemmings I guess. Does anyone think that stuff is actually cool? If these companies are starting to lose the gaming forums – both the left wing and the right wing – then things are more dire than they might think.
The AAAA tier is way too expensive and time consuming. The 9th gen dudebro boxes – Xbox One X and PS4 Pro – have been boring and they want 10th gen? I’m thinking as the hype machine continues to wear down and the industry has less to hype, people will gradually peel off until these AAAA games collapse under their own weight. There’s a lot of hope for “next gen” but even then people are getting cynical about. Most of them realize that instead of tight gameplay, 60 frames per second, etc, they’re going to get more bad movies with bigger gurps per second (or whatever technical term people want to use) and dlc/microtransactions/lootboxes.
Ah, back to Nintendo. The joke has been that Nintendo is great at software, bad at hardware, and should go third party. Right now, though, the truth is the opposite. The hardware team did a masterful job on the Switch and the software side has fumbled the ball at the 10 yard line. There was nothing exciting shown for 2018 unless you’re a Smash fan – and even some of them feel that this Smash is a rehash. On top of that, Namco is making Smash. So what are Nintendo’s teams even working on? They have one platform to develop for and very little to show. A Pokemon spinoff and the latest Mario Party. And nothing. This would’ve been the perfect spot for 2D Mario or something to keep momentum going. In some ways this is worse than Wii Music because at least you could understand Nintendo’s thinking of “expanding the definition of gaming” with that piece of software even if it was a complete dud. Here? Are they doing anything at all? It’s not even arrogance, it’s incompetence.
(Actually, given the NES and SNES minis – you could argue the hardware side of Nintendo is on a roll right now).
I think you may have said it best. The passion is gone.
Maybe there needs to be a crash and a reset in gaming. The 1983 crash gave us Nintendo. Maybe another crash can usher in another golden age of gaming.
PS4 and Xbox 1 and Wii U are 8 Gen. Only Switch is Gen 9.
To those who do not want Switch to be Gen 9, it may be better to think of Switch as primarily being a handheld despite what Nintendo says (“it is a home console so you can pay $60 for the games!”). Switch and 3DS share a 100% market domination for dedicated handheld console gaming.
The gaming forums are really where the old geezers are hanging out. The youngsters seem to be on the youtube or other social media. Go to any gaming forum and you will see posts talking about dealing with their kids and shit. Come on, no gaming forum talked like that twenty years ago. Even when the Wii launched in 2006, every gaming forum didn’t understand Nintendo trying to make games for people who have ‘busy lives’. Today, they all understand it.
I’d say gaming will become lazier and ride the coattails of macro-economic boom of the economy. I enjoyed the recession in the part that it forced game companies to put out better games with more content).
E3 doesn’t show gaming’s collapse. E3 shows E3’s collapse. E3 just doesn’t matter anymore.
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