Re: Making games faster?

On Fri, 25 Apr 2025 17:06:03 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, 25 Apr 2025 09:13:52 -0400, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:

If the number of video games being produced were cut in half, I would
not personally complain. There are definitely too many being made. I
am guessing that number is going to keep increasing however.
Especially on the indie side of things.

>

Side note: Too many games have other disadvantages too. It means great
games don't get the sales they deserve. I'm reminded* of the early
2000s, when this was a big problem for PCs. There were a lot of great
games on PC, but the sheer glut of games meant that a lot of them
never broke even. Deus Ex, despite being highly regarded by critics
and fans, only sold 130,000 copies. No One Lives Forever sold 36,000
copies. There was just too much crap on the shelves, and a lot of
games --especially some of the ones that didn't neatly fall into
existing niches-- never gained traction. It is perhaps one of the
reasons that so many publishers started focusing on consoles in that
era.

On the other hand...

These days the triple-A publishers are all betting on a tiny handful
of monolithic and massive games to make up an entire year's library.
You'd better like "Call of Duty" or "Assassins Creed" because that's
pretty much all you're getting this year (well, except for the usual
slew of remakes and remasters). This has resulted in a lot less
experimentation and diversity** in games and it's made for a much more
boring game-scape. If a faster game release schedule is the price to
pay for ending the gaming doldrums the triple-As have locked
themselves into, then I'm all for it.
















* reminded mostly by this video, which briefly touches on that issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuSRjyR_ZJU
** apologies to any Americans for using the D-word. I know diversity
is considered a very naughty concept these days over there, even if in
this case I meant in terms of gameplay and setting. Just pretend I
used the word 'mechanics' if it makes you feel safer ;-)