oh they are talking about AAA and AAAA games, so then they are not buying/playing fewer games but moved to the indie scene.
Gen Z Is Cutting Back On Video Game Purchases
Submitted 8 months ago by mintiefresh@piefed.ca to games@lemmy.world
Comments
WraithGear@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Mostly_Roblox@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The seven seas are way more friendly
REDACTED@infosec.pub 8 months ago
I sometimes forget GenZ are now adults. Some now do porn.
mapleseedfall@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Well you cant say that without giving some recomendations around here
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Well, gee, I wonder why. Not like their money isn’t going more for necessities after all
kepix@lemmy.world 8 months ago
and indie games are cheaper and better
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, why would anyone buy another copy of Mario Kart with minor changes for €80 when there’s much better indie games for a quarter or less of that price?
MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As a old member of Gen Z, i can definitely say the prices aren’t helping. A lot of people in my age group just don’t work from what i’ve seen, so with 70$ and sometime 80$ games they aren’t going to be buying many. On top of that, and this may just be the people i’ve exposed myself too, but most of them don’t want longer experiences. They’d rather plop down with something like FF14 or Mario Kart and play that over and over and over again. That’s not a bad thing, but i definitely think it’s not helping. And like i said, this might just be the people i expose myself too.
tangycitrus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
True, I enjoy games like Spelunky and old arcade racers a lot more. Play for a bit and leave it. No story to worry about.
MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I can definitely get that. I like to keep a good few games on hand i can just hop into after a long day, it’s nice to be able to kick back with smaller games even if my favorites are always bigger story games.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I hope they make it abnormal to own a $3000 gaming pc in middleschool again.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
I don’t even have one that expensive, even now that I earn enough. Anything above $2000 is just going into silly territory where the marginal improvement per dollar increase is weak.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 8 months ago
$2000
$1000
hansolo@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Y’all, this market is beyond saturated. And the AI gaming people are flOOOoding the space with more and more stuff.
In terms of a fun way to spend an hour or two, or a few go-to games, there’s unlimited options, many free or free enough. Meanwhile, everyone churning out titles expects full attention and wishlist and dropping $50 on them for simply existing.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t really follow current games. Is there actually a huge increase of AI games?
chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Feels a bit like the 80s market crash. Too many low quality games flooding market.
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
There are also some games with active modding communities that can be played basically forever without getting boring.
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Even without modding I have in the last couple of years found myself mainly in a cycle of playing the same emergent gameplay (were the game-space and/or game characters are random) games, one game at a time until I get bored then the next and the next until eventually I’m not bored of the earlier played games anymore and start it again.
These are mostly Indie titles like Factorio, Rimworld and even The Lone Dark in free mode.
The curated experience - which is what most of the AAA stuff is - just doesn’t have this infinite replayability.
commander@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Live service on console was obvious on the way for every genre back on the 360/PS3 era with FIFA ultimate team and publishers also having that period of time when they were trying to kill used games with that single account multiplayer access code
Then it became super obvious because of PC from the super success of TF2 hats and eventually CSGO skins by like 2015. Trying to compete with WoW was an ocean of dead video game studios. Fortnite perfected live service on consoles and CoD adapted and went just as wild with it
Single player games, my hot take is Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Assassin’s Creed killed AAA single player narrative games by succeeding so well to making future games mediocre. Mass Effect had interesting alien species dynamics but never took them with much of any depth. They were Star Wars movies rather than the wild Star Wars EU. Uncharted was a hyper popular Hollywood blockbuster where the emotional highlight being the beginning of Uncharted 4 with Nate and Elena being a cute couple.
Assassin’s Creed stories kept going deeper and deeper into name dropping famous figures/mythology that it became parody. Historical clout chasing wrapped together in a nonsense overarching plot that should have had some satisfying ending back in 2012 but instead is effectively spin-offs the series
So Mass Effect hints at interesting politics but plays things safe and gives you none but Hollywood space opera in video games with solid animations and facial animations were fresh in the 360 era. Uncharted was even more extreme in that regards than Mass Effect where there was still novelty in Hollywood mimicry with even better graphics and even more scripted for explosive set pieces. Assassin’s Creed and eventually Far Cry and Watch Dogs are bottom feeders. Chase trends, name drop - shotgun approach for trailer fodder. They are sadly the standards of AAA single player narrative
Also live service single player games are competitive. Stories are just as shallow but frequent in release and graphics at a level good enough now. Talking like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Wuthering Waves
SuperSpecialNickname@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Did industry try to raise prices even more? Maybe higher prices is what’s missing for gaming industry to blossom /s
reksas@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
there are also almost no new games worth even looking at anymore. There are some, but they are quite rare
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
In the AAA space, sure
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
From my perspective as a millennial, people are running out of time and energy too.
Like, I know a couple, both working, no kids, yet they mostly plop down for YouTube at the end of the day. A VG or longer form TV is too draining, and too long.
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Video games have been my biggest hobbies for basically my entire life, but I barely play them anymore for basically this reason.
ifmu@lemmy.world 8 months ago
For me, I didn’t have the mental energy. At a previous job, I was so mentally strained working 8 hours nonstop on highly mentally taxing tasks that even if I wanted to play a game, it felt like a chore rather than something I can enjoy or wind down to. Even if I had the time, since I do other stuff outside of work.
The strange thing is, when I work I have the money but not the time nor energy to justify buying games to sink time into. When I don’t work I have the time and energy but not the money to justify paying $80-$100 on a game I probably won’t play as much as I think otherwise.
I’ve in recent years looking more into reviews and such to weigh in whether or not I want to buy the game in the first place. Compare that to years prior when I could look at a trailer or short snippet and get a good idea of what the game has to offer. Now I’m more weary of grindy game mechanics and predatory micro transactions.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 8 months ago
I’m only ever buying coop games nowadays. Playing coop is simply the most fun you can have playing games. I’m a Millennial tho, and I do pirate the occasional AAA game.
rockettaco37@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Could it be that the economy fucking sucks?
Nope, clearly it’s our fault for not just going out and buying stuff.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Its not that we cant afford them necessarily, its that we cant justify them. The main reason you needed to get the new game was because all your friends were getting it. Only nerds and dweebs and losers play single player games. CoD is where its at bro. When everyone moves to the new game you can lose social time with friends or you can spend another £50. Now that everyone is poor, enough people aren’t migrating to the newest shiniest edition immediately and people are playing games they already have.
Couple that with desperately working every opportunity you can every hour and adults just don’t game together any more.
Tl;dr they are not feeling the social pressure to buy any more.
Quazatron@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Only nerds and dweebs and losers play single player games.
Some people actively avoid multiplayer games to avoid obnoxious, entitled kids.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Lol, that was great. Thanks!
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
you don’t want to be told to kill yourself and have children tracking down where you live and threatening to call the police to your house
you just cant handle the bants
dweeb confirmed
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Just to add a contrasting perspective I feel like it’s been an absolute golden age of gaming for me lately personally:
No Man’s Sky still getting relatively fun updates. Cyberpunk 2077 was great on launch and arguably much better now.
The Last Of Us Part 2 on PC is incredible and I’m happy that the port exists so I could experience it. You haven’t really played the game till you replay it with both protagonists wearing their Hotline Miami shirts in all the cutscenes. PS4 Spider-Man on PC was prolly the best superhero game I’ve played.
MSFS2020 opened a whole new world of flight sims to me, especially when it comes to doing fun VOR2VOR navigation with littlenavmap charts printed to PDFs and attached in VR, and Assetto Corsa did the same for racing sims.
Speaking of VR, H3VR is stronger than ever. I have many fond memories of VRChat just a few years back.
Victoria 3 has a really fun thriving modding scene. Indie games like Sea Power, Flight of Nova, Stray, Ultrakill, World of Horror, Nuclear Option, Descenders and Crisis In The Kremlin: The Cold War have been a big timesink for me lately as well as classics of indie like Suzerain and actual art masterpiece DEFCON.
It’s also been great to go back and play old classics and PS3 emulation now that PC hardware is much cheaper after the crypto/scalper crises circa 2018.
Also, with Steam play and the steam deck, PC Gaming is easier than ever and just hassle-free.
I never played the popular junk so ig to me all this gacha mtx horse armor crap just doesn’t really relate.
TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I think SOME of it has to do with AAA being dogshit, but I think a lot of it is actually that they just play roblox. I have been told “why would I buy peak when roblox has this mountain climbing game for free?”
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
You’re thinking of Gen Alpha. GenZ was born starting '97, most of us are closer to 30 than 13, they don’t play Roblox or know what that is. All they know is eat hot chip and twerk and cry for a world that never was yet feels was taken from us while watching old vine compilations and being able to recite them word for word with impressive if slightly concerning accuracy.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Gen Z sure do know about Roblox (as in heard of it).
It’s just that most either play(ed) Minecraft or never were fond of those games in generalTheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I get what you’re saying, and Roblox’s grasp definitely gets worse on gen alpha and the younger you get, but that quote in my og comment came from a 26 year old playing with another 26 year old and a 27 year old. Gen Z for sure plays roblox
MITM0@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Translation: Gen-Z does not want to buy those godawful AAA games.
Phegan@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Buy Indies. Fuck AAA
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
people are cutting back on purchases period.
has little to do with culture, quality of games, etc. A lot more to do with the fact that inflation has gone fucking insane.
Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Judging by the comments, reading the article seems to be a lost art. Here’s the image for y’all:
It’s very specifically about 18-24 year olds, compared to last year, with video games seeing the steepest decrease.
You can stop complaining about games being soulless, unless you want to claim that wasn’t a problem last year. Compared to last year, this age group has felt the need to cut back at everything more so than anyone else.
Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
To be fair, the kids are just a pretty good indicator of where this whole boat is headed. Someone who’s been adulting for a while probably has savings and is willing to burn some of those to keep doing the hobby they like, especially when they’re invested with hardware or friendships that exist through gaming.
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
We’re headed for a crash, and the junior positions are the first ones that CEOs think they can replace with AI (they can’t but that will take a few years to bite them in the ass)
bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Almost like they have no money to spend after rent and food.
Katana314@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What did James Gunn say about superhero movies? It’s not that the trend is over and people hate these games. It’s that they hate BAD games.
Plus, I’ve been buying plenty of indies that likely don’t feed into these statistics. It’s not even a hipster thing now - a lot of streamers just like playing the newest indie coop like REPO, Peak, Phasmophobia or Lethal Company.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
The whole world is cutting back on everything everywhere as no one wants to be left short if this global economic craziness gets even more out of hand.
Stern@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Why buy new when I have a backlog, the PS1/2 catalog emulated, and can wait 6+ months for a sale
SonicDiarrhea@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I recently softmodded my ps2 for about $30 (freemcboot memory card and large usb drive) and I’ve got hundreds of hours of nostalgia driven gameplay ahead of me. It’s incredible to think that I have about 40 old, amazing games for less than half the price of a single new AAA game.
t_berium@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Games were once created by gamers, who had a clear vision. It since became a soulless business and people notice. I think twice before opening my wallet now. I don’t pre-order, don’t spend more on digital gimmick editions and wait for reviews, first. Usually I can wait for sales. The industry’s problems are homemade. But once in a while I find rare gems like Forgive me Father. And I’m happy with that.
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Games were once created by gamers
This is the biggest issue. I tend to focus on Indie games lately. There’s the odd bigger game that I’ll pay for, but they are few and far between.
Nikls94@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As a millennial, the games today are mostly shit. I’m currently playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and it’s amazing. I had a blast with DK Bananza as well. Deltarune was nice too. But before that? AstroBot. And before that? I don’t know. Usually I play a demo of a game, if that’s not available I pirate it and play for half an hour or so. If I like it, I buy it. If I don’t like it, I won’t buy it and won’t play any further. And on top of that, a lot of games released today are just remakes of games that themselves released on PS3/Xbox360/PC. I mean “The Last of us remastered”??? That game was released on PS4, so I can just pop it in my PS5 and play it. But now the devs want me to pay $70 to have it a tiny bit better looking?
“Lost Soul Aside” will release later this month. I remember years ago when I first heard of this game, made by a single person (who now got a team of developers from Sony). And I will definitely get that. No demo required.
drmoose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What a crazy statement. My bottle neck is time not lack of game - there are just too many incredible games there!
Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
I feel like the big name titles are all headed in a similar direction (realism, large open world, story-driven), because they need to differentiate themselves from the indie titles that cover the other bases for cheaper.
So, if that direction isn’t your jam, I can certainly see that you’d feel that way, because you need to inform yourself more actively to learn about those indies.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The games today are not mostly shit. There’s so much great stuff that comes out every year that it’s difficult to keep up with it all. It’s just not usually the stuff that gets the most marketing. As a bonus, the best games of the year rarely ask for that $70 price point. What are you looking for?
Nikls94@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What good games did come out this year, that’s
• not stated in my comment
• not a remake/remaster
Potatar@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As a person who doesn’t care about graphics: New games are mostly shit. I’m allowed to do less (need animation for each action you know?), I’m allowed to have fewer monsters on the screen (polygon count you know?) takes 35+ GB and it makes my laptop fans go wrooom?
Shayeta@feddit.org 8 months ago
If you want a medival semi-sim with amazing Monty-pythonesque writing, check Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I’m honestly split between it and 33 for my GOTY.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Playing it now, while it does have its comedic moments, it feels like a huge misrepresentation to call it Monty Python-esque.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Aren’t we all, fam?
Snowclone@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, I remember being in my 20s too. Too bad they are going through the same shit we did. are we getting another “this is a trauma response” generation?
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Everyone is.
I don’t buy new releases anymore.
Why?
Cause the prices are getting stupid. Cause its all digital downloads with no physical product. Cause my “ownership” can be revoked at any time by the platforms whims or the platforms shutdown.
What happened to digital downloads being cheaper, anyway? Thats the promise we were sold 10+ years ago. That by sacrificing physical products, Publishers/Devs wouldnt have to pay for printing, manufacturing, shipping, storage, etc, so they’d be able to sell AAA new releases for 30 dollars, and Pub/Dev would still make more money.
And now we’re supposed to be paying 60, 70, 80 dollars or more, for these digital download games… that we don’t even own?
Fuck that. Amazing how the only promise fulfilled on moving to digital download was that pubs/devs would get more money… and they get that by skyrocketing the costs, not because of the sacrifices we made to give up boxes, disks, manuals, and ownership/
squaresinger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My main reason for not buying games is that epic and amazon give them away for free.
I’ve got a backlog of around 500 games I haven’t touched or paid for, so there’s plenty to do without paying for anything.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
subscribing to humble monthly is also a good way to amass games on the cheap. not as cheap as free, of course, but still better than most sales.