Lack of competition is killing gaming

This is the problem that we’ve got with the ‘Sims 4’. With the ‘Sims 3’ there was a ‘Supernatural’ expansion pack you could get in order to have occult Sims. Now if you want occult Sims in your game you’re going to have to get at least 5 different packs in order to get 5 different occult types whereas in the ‘Sims 3’ it was all under one pack. Same with the ‘Pets’ expansion pack on ‘Sims 3’. Horses, dogs, cats and small rodents were all available in one pack but in ‘Sims 4’ you need ‘Cats and Dogs’, ‘My First Pet’, ‘Cottage Living’ and ‘Horse Ranch’ packs in order to have all the animals. We used to make jokes that the ‘My First Pet’ pack was basically a DLC for a DLC😂.

I forgot to add earlier that this is why we Simmers are looking forward to ‘Life By You’ by Paradox Interactive which seems to have all the essential stuff on a life sim game IN THE BASE GAME WHICH IS WHAT THE ‘SIMS 4’ SHOULD’VE HAD!

Too much meddling in the markets and the culture of of the industry. It’s about total control, it’s not JUST that they want to make money, they have to be sure to crush superior competition, which means people who actually want to work hard and make cool sh*t.

You used to think of monopoly as regulations or someone having so many resources that they bully outers out of the industry, as a singular big bully entity crushing their competition. But the modern industry is inundated by a cultural plague ON TOP of market monopoly, they infest every entity from all sides, consumers, employees, it’s a mass takeover hinging on the worst nature of people’s snide moral superiority and lazy hypocrisy. Just a really petulant notion that they’re the good guys despite sacrificing nothing to their cause, they reap all the benefits though.

There’s this entirely new organism emerging where the store fronts and now the engine creators are becoming parasites on the host of the game creators. But they hold the keys to the kingdom, so what we end up with is an industry that isn’t focused on promoting and creating the best games, they foster and culture and a market where they can destroy anyone who won’t allow them to suckle at the hard work of others.

It’s not that there aren’t people out there that would work hard to make good games, it’s that most of these hard working people won’t kiss the boot of these scumbag monopoly hoarders, and now we’re watching the fields burn as  a result.

Shameless plug if anyone wants to check out my Indie Game. I’ve been working on it completely independent of any of these shitty companies and their underhanded tactics:

https://illtemperedtuna.itch.io/the-seacrit-fish-game

This is the first time I’ve linked my game in years, hope it’s kosher to post here. I’m sure this will just fade into obscurity… but you never know. I think it’s starting to be pretty good. I can’t think of any other place i’d rather link it than to this community, so figured i’d start here. Thanks in advance if you decide to give it a try! (Keep in mind this is an early demo, feedback is greatly appreciated)

@Vknid.

I actually had this conversation with a liberal friend of mine not too long ago and while I do think there’s a cultural plague in the gaming industry, I wouldn’t say there isn’t any competition, but rather there are fewer companies that can compete at the same level these days but with that being said, there’s still dozens of games being released almost every single week.

At the same time, you also have indie devs who are pushing identity politics just like the AAA studios, so the lack of options comes from a cultural place.

As for “big developer buying studios”  most of the studios devs buy are quite large and also very stagnant. For example: blizzard/Activision, Microsoft is finishing the purchase now, not a little developer by any means, people said they’d become a monopoly after the purchase, that is simply not the case, thankfully.

As much as the FTC tried to paint that ugly picture, it simply could not be found under the evidence provided in any legal sense.

Now can we say Microsoft bought mid level devs? Yes, the mid level devs who have been around got bought up, at the same time you are seeing indie devs popping up every single day making more games and they’re getting more and more ambitious.

I found hundreds of games in the switch from indie devs I’ve never heard, they still exist.

Do all of them seem good? No, but there are options. And you’re only looking at this from a western developer perspective.

Let’s look at all the Asian devs making games? Nintendo, NIS, Bandai Namco (occasionally woke), Konami, Marvelous, Xseed, and then you also got Tencent of course,  but the point I’m making is that there isn’t a lack of competition overall, there’s a lack of AAA competition and I think that is only a minor issue.

AAA games are the last thing on my mind and honestly I dont think gamers solely rely on those games for fun these days and I still haven’t played starfield or renewed my subscription with gamepass. The fact is that yes, there’s a lack of AAA competition and unfortunately that crux of being in a free market, people can buy up company after company and make the market sluggish, BUT that doesn’t mean the market won’t adjust.

Much like every other market, once a shift occurs and quality adjusts, it takes time for consumers to look at the quality and make the judgement of the money is worth it.

In some cases it is and other times it’s not. I have no doubt that there’s stagnancy in the mainstream industry, but that doesn’t mean all the competition is gone and it’s a “all is lost” moment.

I’m a gamer through and through, I’ve probably been gaming longer many of you, but at the end of the day, money talks and bullshit walks.

I’m not going to buy games that look and play like crap and I’m sure there are many gamers that can feel the same way, but I don’t doubt at all that’s there’s a lack of competition amongst AAA western devs, in fact I am absolutely agreeing it’s slowing down, but if things keep going, there will eventually being a breaking point, there always is.

The parallel economy is a thing. Nintendo is part of that parallel economy. Know where your money goes and only buy games from companies that out games first and messaging in the ground.

Now that’s a response. Thank you for letting us know. Such a deep understanding that I think gives us more on the developer engine side of things. Rarely do I ever venture into the tools.  Fantastic discussion piece. See i wouldn’t have even thought of those companies going woke either.

Although funny enough, Unity stated Planned parenthood isn’t a charity and that based response alone has me in stitches. Woke AF, but will say something so bold and based ? An oxymoron in itself. 😂

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Salvince.

I recently discussed this topic with a friend who has more liberal views, and while I do believe there is a prevalent issue in the gaming industry’s culture, I wouldn’t go as far as to say there’s no competition. Instead, what I’ve noticed is that there are fewer companies capable of competing at the highest level these days. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that a substantial number of games continue to be released nearly every week.

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I can see that, at the same time, Football games have peaked for a long time. Even if there was more competition in developing football games for the NFL (which the NFL hold the rights to) there’s a ceiling of how far you can develop those sports games until you get to the VR side of things.

It’s not the best example, but I completely understands and agree, there does need to be a greater competition at hand. Let’s hope we can get there