My Postmortem on the Gaming Industry Today

Lately I have been feeling disillusioned with the video game industry. Especially, with the big AAA studios whom for many for years have brought us some of our favorite games. I almost feel like we; the gamer, are being taken advantage of by these companies. From loot boxes, to half finished games, to the terrible way they treat their employees, it feels like these companies have lost their way.

The first topic I wanted to touch on is in game purchases. Don't get me wrong I am not completely against in game purchases. There are some great free to play games on the market with in-game purchases that do not give you an advantage in play. Some of these games I want to support and see them succeed so dropping some real life coin isn't such a big deal. Now where I do take issue is dropping almost hundred dollars Canadian on a AAA title and then if I want to take advantage of items in multiplayer I have to pay another 15 dollars. In today's gaming industry it's how much profit can I squeeze out of the consumer. It's not enough they buy our product loyally every year, we need them to keep opening their wallets. I understand these publishers are corporations and they need to make large profits and pay big dividends to their shareholders. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a consumer and a gamer. There was a time where your point of sale purchase gave you the entire game (I know I know expansion packs.. But for the most part..).

The other topic I want to discuss is just the quality of games coming to market now from some of these AAA studios. How many anticipated titles have completely flopped in the last year because they are unfinished or riddled with bugs and issues. How many times have you purchased a game that needed a large patch on day one? Why is the gaming consumer being given a sub-standard product at such a high price tag? The only explanation I can think of is "rush this game to market so we can make money". It's unfinished? Doesn't matter send it out and we will give them an update in a month. Critical errors? That's fine we will patch if after a few weeks. The game is absolutely unplayable? It doesn't matter because the loyal consumer will buy our product every year no matter the quality or content. These companies are taking advantage of us.. Its a hustle and we are the perfect mark. Our saviours in this situation are smaller and indie studios starting to take market share. I have even played games that are community mods or created by a team of 1-3 people and have had more fun than a AAA title. What I think the big difference here is that there is a passion for the craft here. They love the genre of game so much they are making no sacrifices on quality or rushing anything (sometimes staying in early development for years). Also there is not a big publisher interfering with the development of the game. They are not pressured to make changes or speed up the development process to meet a timeline to start making a profit. Many of them also include the gamer in their development decisions. Play tests and early access with open forums with the player seems to be common place with the little guys and it's something I appreciate as a gamer and consumer.

My last point is how these large publishers treat their people. I personally, try to judge a company on how they treat their employees not their profit margins. It is no secret or breaking news in this article that video game companies treat their employees very poorly. How many times have we heard about employees working 18 hour days or sleeping in the office to get deadlines completed. Then after working those employees into the ground and making record breaking profits; they lay off 700+ employees. The lack of morals and ethics is just heartbreaking. Then there was that very large publisher in the news last year about their toxic workplace culture. It was a frat boy culture where women were treated as second class citizens. They where paid less than their male counterparts and also barraged with sexual harassment. This is a 21st century video game company that was being run like a 1950s ad agency. It is just sad and disgusting this went on in one of the industries biggest companies.

I wrote this opinion piece as almost a therapeutic practice to exercise some of the frustration I have with the gaming industry. I do not want this article to come off as entitlement or that every game should cater to my personal needs. I also do not want this article to diminish some of the great work that has been put into games. Even some of the ones eluded to in this article some coder or designer devoted months of their life to labour their project. I just wanted to vent a bit and hope the big players do like the small developers and make the player the centre of the decision.