Zoombael said:
Yea? The worst? Until a decade ago the industry was doing pretty well. With a far more diverse range of games and far less a mass of grey monotony. |
Two things.
#1: Correlation does not equal causation. There is no reason to believe that greater diversity in gaming is somehow caused by companies spending money for exclusivity deals. I'm all for first party companies getting exclusivity rights to games that wouldn't exist without their funding (like Bloodborne or Bayonetta 2), but spending money to ensure that a game already in production will only be on your console (Rise of the Tomb Raider, Street Fighter V) simply limits the number of people who can enjoy the experience. Exclusivity bidding wars are the worst thing that can happen to the industry as it stands today because it funnels money away from creating other diverse games and simply turns the console business into a competition over who can take the most titles hostage.
#2: I would argue that there's plenty of diversity in the marketplace today; a number of genres today are consistently being filled that were oft ignored as of a decade ago. The complex hack and slash has gone from having one series represent it to a number of different titles. We've seen hardcore Metroidvania titles like Dark Souls and Nioh become popular. Influential choice based games have come back strong with the likes of Deus Ex and Until Dawn. Strategy RPGs have returned to the spotlight with the newer Fire Emblem and X-Com games. Genres that were starting to become stagnant are now being revitalized in the present day, with games like Titanfall 2 and Doom bringing life back to FPSs and Witcher 3 providing a spark to Western RPGs. Full blown horror has made a comeback with the likes of Alien: Isolation and the new Resident Evil. Sure, there's plenty of grey, bland, repetitive games, most of them Ubisoft sandboxes, but there's plenty of good to be found if you're willing to look past the overhyped games, and, more to the point, there's lots of diversity too.
