This year feels like an absolute gaming drought. The keyword here is “feels”. We’ve had a decent stream of content, including one of the best games in the last decade with Elden Ring and my personal indie game of the year, Tunic. Even so, the weeks where a single game brings everyone together and dominates the discussion on Twitter have been almost nonexistent. Of course, there are dozens, if not hundred,s of reasons for this: delays, COVID, economic turmoil, decreasing attention spans, etc. That being said, I think there is one core issue that has been looming over the video game industry for a while now: creativity.
Before you fall out of your chair to argue that your favorite indie game, like the upcoming Cult of the Lamb, is not creative, hear me out. I know indie games are creative, that’s why I love them. They need to be eye-catching and different to sell. Some of my favorite gaming experiences over the last few years (Inscryption, Before Your Eyes, Hades, Tunic, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, etc.) have been indie games, and I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon. I am always rooting for the success of indie studios and can’t wait to see what they produce in this upcoming generation.
The problem is that indie games very rarely get a chance to make it in front of the casual gamer. It’s really the AAA games with big marketing budgets that are the face of video games to the outside world, and these are the exact ones that need a makeover. To be even more specific, it’s the 3rd party companies that refuse to change that need to take action. For the most part, Microsoft, PlayStation, and Nintendo are all trying their own strategies to innovate and stay relevant, but it seems like many of the once well-regarded 3rd party companies are frozen in place.
I’m genuinely bummed at how many uninspired sequels and remakes we’ve been getting lately. The AAA release calendar for any given year might as well be:
This sucks, it’s boring, and it doesn’t really motivate me to give my money to these companies. Everybody loses. I hate to be that old guy saying “back in my day”, but there was a Golden Age of new IPs where we were getting multiple creative debuts like BioShock, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Assassin’s Creed, Fable, and Batman Arkham (Just to name a few) per year. Something has to change.
One option is for the old guard to ride off into the sun and make way for fresh talent, and to be honest, we’re kind of seeing that in real-time. The gaming juggernauts like Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard, Bethesda Studios, and Square Enix have or are in the process of selling their businesses. Almost all of them have failed to adapt and push the industry forward. In their place, we are starting to see studios like Arcane, Insomniac, Remedy, SuperGiant, and FromSoftware step forward as the gold standard in the industry. I’m hoping this transition completes sooner rather than later because I don’t know how many more open-world generic Ubisoft projects I can handle.
The other option is for these companies to self-reflect and set a course on a new mission before it’s too late. Sure, doing compelling remakes of very old titles like Resident Evil and Dead Space is a step in the right direction, but we need innovation. It’s refreshing to see titles like Final Fantasy 16, Starfield, and Pragmata give us something new and exciting to look towards, and I hope we see more of it.
I really think 2023 will be a make-or-break year for a lot of companies. There are an insane number of releases scheduled, and there is only so much time one can dedicate to playing the latest and greatest games, so only the best of the best will come out on top. Veteran studios will be going head-to-head with brand new developers with top talent, and it will start right away with Dead Space vs. Calisto Protocol comparisons in January.
A gaming renaissance is coming, and soon we’ll see who will be leading it and who will be left behind.