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Why is the video game industry in crisis? (self.outoftheloop)

submitted 6 months ago by Zeppo to c/[email protected]

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I keep hearing about layoffs, studios being closed and how the industry is troubled. Are companies losing money and sales are poor, or is it the same as Google and other companies laying off people just to pump their stock price and make money despite profitability?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I think your library is a good example of what's going on and the key is probably what you're buying. You have lots of games but I bet many of those are smaller games from indie studios; even if you're not playing those games the studios are benefiting from you low price impulse purchases.

I'm guessing you're not impulse buying £60 and £75 games from big studios and leaving them unplayed. And I doubt you'd even buy those games if they're not scoring well; certainly not at full price anyway.

That is the story of the games industry right now - smaller studios are doing well, some very well when they produce very good games, while the big Publishing houses are producing overpriced games, which are poorly quality controlled or even just fundamentally bad.

Can you saturate a market when a £5 impulse buy on a discounted indie game or a discounted AAA game with good review scores from 3+ years ago is about the same as a coffee? Whose going to buy a £70 poorly reviewed new release when you could have bought 100 good games on discount. Even if you don't play them all, it's just too good a proposition.