Topic: What happened to video games?

Games are most likely to be mediocre or just decent at best these days and I don't know why. Just look at highly anticipated games that were years in the making like Avowed and Starfield among others end up being a massive letdown. Who knows how The Elder Scrolls 6 will turn out but I wouldn't be surprised if it flops and Todd Howard is a big liar by the way. We were incredibly lucky to get a game like Skyrim from him but it's very outdated now and the next gen ports were wasted potential. I lived in a time when video games were incredible but I don't know what in the world is going on with game developers in a time when we have superior dev kits, game engines, hardware, consoles, PCs, etc. but perhaps it could be a major lack of talent now. Ironically, Leslie Benzies was a big part of the Grand Theft Auto series and will be putting out a potentially crappy game being MindsEye. GTA 6 which is a huge exception will most likely still be extraordinary without him being involved.

People spend more time criticising games online than playing them these days, although I accept any opinion if it's well argued. I actually enjoy criticism when it's honest. That said, there have always been mediocre games, even anticipated ones. Is Tears of the Kingdom a masterpiece or a mediocre sequel? Is Breath of the Wild the masterpiece that so many people say, the best video game ever made? In my opinion is the worst Zelda 3D game and The Legend of Zelda is one of my favourite IPs ever, my favourite during my adolescence. Yet, Nintendo is the publisher I have noticed the drop in quality the most, but it's also the publisher I know the most, so wouldn't know about others as much.

People are divided when it comes to anticipated games, depending on their expectations and preferences. You can see this when a sequel tries something new and some people love it because of that and some people hate it because of the same. We can expect reactions like that with The Elder Scrolls VI, regardless of its quality. Some people will love it and some will hate it.

I played Skyrim last year on Series X and I loved it, but the first hours were very rough and I got into an almost impossible to avoid death because of my save files. I think that the first 10 hours of Starfield are supposed to be a tutorial, but they are utterly boring and the mechanics are very poorly explained, e.g., I didn't know I had to press A and then X to dock until a mission told me so, so I always hit the ships trying to dock in a clunky way. I almost gave Starfield up in this period, because it also shows its ugliest side in the first 10 hours, like what seems pointless exploration and the most boring characters you will probably encounter. The menus don't seem to have evolved much since Skyrim, either. Although I agree with some Bethesda fans that say that Starfield is more an adventure than a RPG, after those 10 hours I started caring about its worlds and enjoying the gameplay, finding another incredible experience that I won't forget, just like Skyrim. Starfield is flawed, yes, but just like Skyrim, one of the video games I have enjoyed the most, maybe because of its storytelling, level of immersion, sense of freedom, subtle humour and depth. Take your pick.

At the end of the day, with so many games, it's almost impossible to not find something that you can enjoy and, why not, you can also play old games that, after five minutes of brain adjustment, can be enjoyed as much or more as the latest hit.

Nothing happened to video games it's just this day and age people expect to much from a game. They put them on such a high pedalstool that they get disappointed by it. Just play the game and enjoy it.

There’s a lot of factors to consider. Big studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of 5-10 years to make one single game and if it underperforms even slightly mass layoffs happen. This is compounded worse when these projects only exist at all to chase trends (See concord) or if the devs are openly hostile to fan feedback (see Dragon Age and Avowed).

Nintendo love or hate them understand that you can’t survive on releasing 2-3 tentpole games per console generation and throw in 3-5 AA games each year to keep hype up and wallets open.

MS just announced today that they’re adding AI player assistance to some or most games and Sony has said they have similar plans. Fans have called this “journalist mode” or “just watch a movie at that point mode” because it ignores
The biggest problem they face which isn’t player retention it’s sales.

TL;DR Devs are wasting more and more money on games that nobody wants to play.

Fans of Rockstar literally spent 14 years telling the studio they didn’t want the SS game and just wanted more Batman.