RolStoppable said:
The last notable exodus this site has had was when a large number of PS fans fell flat on their faces after their proclamations of doom for Nintendo Switch. It's the PS faction that has suffered the most significant decline relative to all others, because it used to be an about even split of Nintendo and PS fans on this site with Xbox and PC fans always being much smaller factions. The ratio between Nintendo, Xbox and PC fans is still about the same, but PS fans have... fallen off a cliff.
Since 2017 we have had Switch proving the doubters wrong time and time again. It wasn't until about half a year ago that there was a visible resurgence in activity from PS fans, because for one, Switch had slightly underperformed during the holidays, and two, PS was getting back into a position of winning after a long streak of playing second fiddle in the hardware sales charts. Even the Japanese market (Famitsu threads) somehow became relevant again.
It's not that PS fans have had less interest in gaming forums. ResetEra has been thriving all this time, after all. But one thing that I've noticed on ResetEra is that PS fans have worked towards the creation of a bubble that blends out Nintendo's success. This eventually culminated in the ousting of SalesEra because it was without a doubt an incredible annoyance for the hardcore PS fans to have sales threads paint a different picture than the desired one of PS4/PS5 domination.
So when it comes to the outlook for VGC's overall activity, it's not something that the people who are running this site can fix on their own. The necessary push needs to come from the outside, namely that Sony is the company who is winning. This was made pretty clear from the surge in activity earlier this year as well as things getting quieter again after the global pentup demand for the PS5 had been fulfilled and monthly sales for May have regressed to a point where the lofty expectations are not a given to be fulfilled anymore. The PS5 has gone from a record-setting quarter to one that is rather average, consequently followed up by Sony issuing a temporary price cut for the first half of July. Aside from the PS5 slowing down, there's also still the topic of Switch making its way to becoming the best-selling console of all time.
But one important overall aspect is not fixable at all. It used to be that it was believed that installed base matters a lot for consoles to get games made for them. But nowadays there's already so much proof out there that the AAA third party industry doesn't care, that console sales have become a lot less interesting for gamers in general. Back in the day there was real fear that games could leave PS and real hope that games could come to Nintendo, but this fuel for intense forum activity is virtually extinct, the recent Final Fantasy discussions being one of the few exceptions to this general rule.
Outside of this, it really comes down to moneyhats and acquisitions to drive this sort of activity; if you look at all the articles on VGC, the ruckus about Microsoft's A-B deal is by leaps and bounds ahead of everything else, routinely spawning 80 comments or more. This is also something that the forums have lost, because for whatever reason the PS vs. Xbox conflict was moved to the comment sections of articles instead of remaining in the forums; the vast majority of the people who comment belong to the most prominent posters on the forum. Perhaps articles are more attractive because they are less moderated; the discussions over there are certainly on a lower level than they would be here. Of all the things that could be done to make the forums more lively again, moving these discussions back here is the most feasible option.
As for what the users can do themselves, it would be simple things like the creation of threads for relevant news and recent games to discuss them. But many people have been here for so long that they don't care enough anymore. Perhaps the slower pace is welcome because it makes it so much easier to keep up to date with what happens here. If you come here only every three days, there's a good chance that you won't miss a single thread
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