No. We lost interest in corporate fuck heads with no ties to gaming, using any imaginable way possible to milk, manipulate and fuck their customers over. We still love games.
Video games are losing the "attention war" to gambling, porn, and crypto, according to industry report
Submitted 2 weeks ago by iamthetot@piefed.ca to games@lemmy.world
Comments
rogsson@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
aksdb@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
milk, manipulate and fuck
That definitely sounds like porn /s
Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
just spent 45 on 3 new indie games. gonna play the shit out of them. also playing cash cleaner simulator and loving every minute of it.
anytime I see any AAAAAA slop on steam from companies like ea, ubisoft, activision etc…i click their game, then click ignore so I never see it on my lists again.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Those three companies are dead to me, even if they hold some IP I used to hold dear.
BiomedOtaku@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Exactly
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
The thing they are tracking is primarily money. If people are playing games they already own and spending money on crypto chasing a big win, that speaks more to increased economic desperation than loss of interest in video games.
48954246@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thank you. I was wondering the same thing. The conclusion that attention must be on porn/gambling/crypto is such a wild jump.
correlation != causation
EightBitBlood@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
PREACH!
mrfriki@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, they are trying to turn video games into porn, crypto and gambling.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
They got the gambling part down pat.
They have been trying to get crypto in with little success.
And while porn games do exist, very few of them are both good at being porn AND being a game. Which sucks, because this is the only one of the three that would actually be cool.
rushmonke@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
God of War did a pretty good job of mixing porn with a solid game.
arcine@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
Can someone explain to me how cryptocurrencies are even in this fight in the first place ? How are they grabbing and holding people’s attention ? Are they staring at the graphs all day !?
Xatolos@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Because the article is badly written.
It’s confusing money spend on X must equal time spent on X.
The total amount of money spend on video games has gone done but more money is now being spent on things like crypto currency. This is being claimed that it means that people are spending more time on crypto since they are spending more money there. It ignores other issues such as who is spending on what (its countries as a whole, not amlunt on average per user), gaming is more expensive, more games are being made as a live service and are flopping (Highguard anyone?), retro gaming is getting bigger (doesn’t cost a fortune), etc…
Bigfishbest@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Totally. Been a gamer for 30+ years, and none of the new stuff holds my interest. Also, my hardware being less than a full time mortgage, means most new games run poorly. So, old stuff it is.
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Gambling with make believe money and lots of economy and trading “experts” telling you where to “invest” in
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Gambling and crypto” reminds me of when I was in DARE and they would refer to “drugs, alcohol, and tobacco,” and I thought “aren’t those all drugs?”
jacksilver@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, at that point a lot of games are also gambling.
radix@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This article should be Exhibit A in any class on “correlation does not imply causation.”
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Gambling was made more accessible in the US because of a SCOTUS case in 2018. Starting later that year, Delaware became the 2nd state to allow sports betting (after Nevada). The list of states allowing access to online sports betting keeps growing, with Missouri the latest to join less than 3 months ago. 39 states now have gambling in some form, with 7 more considering legislation in the next year or two.
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Gaming revenue took off in 2020-2021 because more people were spending all day at home. It has since flattened, or slightly declined as a) pandemic-era games that were written and designed in those tough circumstances turned out poorly. b) gaming company execs thought the gravy train would never end, so set projections too high. c) acquisitions and mergers due to a combination of a) and b) meant massive layoffs and low-effort slop. d) VCs bought up the shells of former successes and accelerated c). Oh look:
A new report by Epyllion, a gaming industry advisory company headed by venture capitalist and market guru
These two things have nothing to do with one another, besides coincidentally happening at roughly the same time.
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Shayeta@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
*shitty overmonetized slopgames, also known as AAA games are losing the “attention war”. The indie and AA scene is blooming.
SalaciousBCrumb@lemy.lol 2 weeks ago
I’m losing my attention for everything. The color in the world is fading and there’s little joy left in vice.
Batmorous@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No no no there’s lots of good happening you just to look out and see it. Yes a lot of the bad news sucks but there is a lot of good still happening and a lot of people getting things done:
Read goodgoodgood.co, and goodnewsnetwork.org. Also watch Good News (That’s the name) and Sam Bentley YouTube channels
For good good good.co there is also 2 articles where they cover studies on Hope (They cover many other studies, hopeful and good news too in their other articles):
- New study finds hopeful people live better lives
goodgoodgood.co/…/hope-key-in-meaningful-life
- Hopeful people live better lives
goodgoodgood.co/…/hopeful-people-live-better-live…
There is a 3rd site that covers issues but in problem solving way forgot name of it though.
Never give up!! We the people have the power to make this life wonderful and free! -From Chaplin final speech video. Great video to watch
You can do anything in this life. Keep going. Connect with others and do! Find things you enjoy doing and find fulfillment from in life! Much love to you brother/sister!
Elevator7009@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I do notice that it takes more effort though. Before online platforms figured out the whole engagement outrage pattern, I spent a lot of time playing video games, yes, but also reading books or making art.
Then the online platforms started investing in trying to figure out how to engage you, and it is easier and easier to spend time online by default to the exclusion of other things and feel bad about it because your online time wasn’t spent on something that made you feel good like it did in the past. It is surprisingly hard to resist the current big platforms are trying to push us down.
People on the Threadiverse have taken at least a small step by disengaging from Reddit and going to an open-source, non-corporate-controlled engagement-maxing platform. But human negativity bias still makes it a lot easier to post outrage and comment outrage and get in fights. Hell, I am making this comment because of my own negativity bias and desire to expound on how much I hate what has been done to our attention spans! It’s a lot easier to complain than to analyze why I enjoy something. And I think the engagement bait outrage has ruined my brain a bit to still sort of seek that out and scroll (but better Lemmy than Reddit). I’ve been trying to get off but change is hard. Sometimes I relapse and click an article I know will have negativity and anger, like this article I clicked on.
I do really appreciate what you did by posting something to help instead of yet another “thing bad” even if I super agree with “thing bad”, and I’m being part of the “thing bad” pattern right now.
I do know of !takeyourtimeback@lemmy.world which might be able to help with the whole online engagement problem.
scala@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
That all grey episode of fairly odd parents.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m old enough to remember when games were being demonized. Don’t sound too bad now, eh?
Bullerfar@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Me too. Pretty funny 😂
WanderWisley@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Shareholders: “so you’re telling me that people want a gambling, porn, crypto game?”
I_Jedi@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Already exists. Gacha H-games (which may accept crypto payment, not sure) happen to be extremely expensive to play, too.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah this is probably the angle of the report. Bet it’s paid for by a firm that owns a lot of stocks in game companies. They want to push the game companies they own into that direction so they can squeeze more “value” out of their portfolio. And now they have the “evidence”.
Remember many of these industry report are paid for by someone with an agenda. They are not independent science.
zecg@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Lightning in a bottle, I had a blast
WanderWisley@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The lightning in the bottle dlc will cost 200 donnycoins and the luck to pull it is 0.0001%.
raimundojcc@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Bollocks. I call this bullshit.
warmaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is shareholder bait.
paultimate14@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For a the past few years, I had wondered why videogames, movies, and TV shows nowadays feel so… Bland. Meaningless. Soulless. Corporate. Like, I know they ARE corporate, but these industries have all been dominated by gigantic corporations for my entire life. What changed recently? Am I just getting old and curmudgeonly and preferring content that was made back when I was younger?
Then I was watching DoorMonster talk about some show (I could be wrong, but I think it was the video about how Arcane had a great Season 1 that was largely ruined by Season 2) where they kept joking about not accusing them of using AI to write things.
Then it clicked. The Writer’s Strike from May-September 2023. On paper, the Writer’s Guild secured restrictions on the use of AI. And I can’t point to anything specific and say “that was clearly written by AI”. But I can say that for the past few years everything put out by pretty much every company has felt very… “Meh”. Nothing new has grabbed me and said “wow I need to watch/play that”. Could be a coincidence, but I also have to wonder whether AI tools involved in writing and visuals have cost us something intangible that I can still feel.
Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I see it as eating a sandwich mades by a loved one, vs one you find at a gas station made by some machine with fillers and packed with sugars.
one is made with love, and you can sense it. mustard in a smile on the bread, meats and crunchy lettuce layered properly.
the other is because you essentially have no choice, you know it takes like crap, is stupidly overpriced and could potentially make you sick but you need it to keep driving to get home from the work trip to see your loved one who makes the best sandwiches ever.
zikzak025@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To continue the sandwich analogy, it’s also, like…
You eat the sandwich made by your loved one, and not only is it everything you asked for, but they also threw in some good salami and a dash of balsamic vinegar that you never thought to even ask for in the first place, because they know your tastes and thought you’d like it. You now have a new favorite sandwich.
Versus the gas station sandwich, which is fine, but only just meets the bare minimum qualifications to be a sandwich. They used to load it up with cheap cuts of meat, which at least made it good value for the price, but lately they put in maybe a single slice of ham or two, a single sad piece of rubbery cheese, and condiments are all sold extra. And the price of the sandwich itself, smaller and cheaper than ever, has only gone up.
paultimate14@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s being mean to gas station sandwiches, but otherwise I agree
Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For Hollywood, I think it’s more about the financialization. Investors don’t want to do risky productions, so we only get the decade old "IP"s rehashed for the thousandth time, rather than independent art experiments.
devolution@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well… It’s kinda like this.
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People love to waste money thinking they will make a profit. - Gambling.
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People love pussy. And girls turn 18 every day so there is never a shortage. From Christy Canyon to Reilly Reid to Sweetie Fox- Porn
2a. Just to be inclusive, people like dicks too. Johnny Sins is never out of work.
- People REALLY love to waste money thinking they will make a profit. - Crypto
Meanwhile,
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AAA studios are doubling down on micro transactions, “performative” social justice, AI slop, and live service slop. - AC Shadows
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Expedition 33 and Silk Song are the exceptions to the rule as far as how the AA performs financially. - No One Wants to Die
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Private Equity and MBA majors have too much influence on the game space. - Embracer Group
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Gamers just grow up. Some things you just grow out of. - Inflation, fascism, life, etc.
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And most modern games just cost too damned much! - GTA 6 projections.
tal@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
AAA studios are doubling down on micro transactions, “performative” social justice, AI slop, and live service slop. - AC ShadowsI think that one factor driving either microtransactions, freemium, free-to-play stuff that does data-mining, or “incomplete” games with expansions is resistance to a higher initial price. I mean, if a studio isn’t making their return on the initial price, they’re going to look for alternate routes. AAA games cost more than ever to make these days. If people say — and I’ve seen plenty of people on here do so — “I absolutely will not buy a game with an up-front price of more than $N”…but then they’re okay playing freemium stuff or games with microtransactions, I mean…that’s what game studios are going to do.
I’m generally okay with an expansion model, because I like the idea of giving the studio the option to expand really popular games, and it de-risks things for both the player (you just buy the base game and get expansions if you want) and the publisher (you don’t put down a ton of money to create massive amounts of stuff for a flop), though honestly, I do agree that I miss the “just pay and get a complete game” approach.
alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The way to make your return on the initial budget is to shrink the initial budget. You can’t scale these things forever.
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rushmonke@ttrpg.network 2 weeks ago
That’s because most games suck.
Echo5@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t know whether to upvote this or not. On one hand, I know plenty of great and amazing games. On the other hand, plenty of slop is being created or forced into existing games.
Ilixtze@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Games were just supposed to be games, they were never meant to compete with those things. But thise CEO’s want it all.
Batmorous@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The stock market wants it all. Infinite is no good. This is why Valve is best in that regard. Private company that moves as one without external influences
Etterra@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
So they’re losing non-gamers who like EA sports?
cv_octavio@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
Modern “gaming” bears more resemblance to those other-mentioned vices than it does to when it was a nascent thing and still fun. The parts of my brain that light up when playing an NES game is not the same as the ones that light up when it (very briefly) tries to engage in any of the unfinished ones in my increasingly-seldom-visited steam library.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sounds like fud, from all angles. No one but Tech Bros and their bots care about crypto, porn has always been porn. There are literally thousands of great, dirt cheap games to play.
But anecdotally, I observed YouTube suck away a lot of attention from games and TV in my family. It’s lower brainpower, so if one is (say) dog tired from work, the algorithm has a lot of appeal vs a hardcore KCD2 session or an intense TV drama.
vane@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I thought GCP is Google Cloud Platform but turns out it’s Gambling Crypto Porn.
RykardNixon@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This is simply not true
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Crypto? Really? What data have they been looking at? I would say different people engage with these mediums for completely different reasons. Gaming being the more casual activity while crypto is for addicts.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
The data that they have been looking at is in the original report, linked in the article, to some great detail.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I am aware attention is the currency of the internet but games do exist outside of it. Unlike crypto. Their target group may overlap to some degree but games and unregulated gambling are still different things. Even when gambling is involved in games those markets are separated from the actual game like in CS2. That’s the extreme case and you can still play that game as normal without ever opening a crate. Games do not compete with crypto unless developers desperately try to.
NachBarcelona@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
They’re not losing mine.
Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gambling/crypto is all risk, porn is risk-free reward
If people have more alluring alternatives for cheap dopamine, maybe video games can prioritize satisfying gameplay and narratives. Play has value, that’d be ok
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m reading between the lines a bit here, but back when I regularly attended PAX East, one of my favorite panels to attend was the video game data panel hosted by EEDAR (now a part of Circana). The games like NBA 2K, GTA, Call of Duty, or Assassin’s Creed that can regularly break $1B in revenue are the kinds of games that may sell to people like you or me on a gaming forum, but also that they can sell to the kind of person who only plus four or fewer games per year. Since then, I imagine live service games that keep you hooked on that one game in particular have only exacerbated that figure of four or fewer games per year. That’s a huge segment of the market. And I imagine that’s the customer that the market is losing on a Friday night to TikTok or OnlyFans.
Yeller_king@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
I have a lot of attention to provide.
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
When ever there is a format war the side chosen by porn is always the winner. It makes sense it would win this battle too.
tal@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I don’t care about the gambling (if it’s for money — I’m fine with variable-ratio schedule reward stuff in games, like having random loot drops in games). We know that that strongly appeals to humans.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement
Variable ratio schedule (VR) – reinforced on average every nth response, but not always on the nth response.[16]: 88 (ex. Gamblers win 1 out of every 10 spins on a slot machine, however this is an average and they could hypothetically win on any given turn)
Variable ratio: rapid, steady rate of responding; most resistant to extinction.
…and I’m amazed that people would be dicking around with cryptocurrencies as a form of recreation, but if you put out good games that have erotica that appeals to me in 'em, I’ll buy those. There are a lot of really bad video games with erotica out there.
In just the US consumption of Tiktok is up 39m hours a day compared to pre-COVID figures.
I really don’t like short-form video, but I do appreciate that a lot of people do like it.
In the 2025, American consumers spent roughly $5bn on Onlyfans.
My suspicion is that streamed pornography is likely presently more of a subsitute good for stuff like static pornographic movies than video games, though I’m willing to believe that I could be wrong.
During this 2025 period, AI apps that allowed for “role play, erotica, and art” have soared. The latest tracked statistic for installs for this software came to just under one billion worldwide.
Well, yeah. That’s new tech.
Apeman42@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not playing games, or not playing the current live service shovelware they keep pulling out?
Lots of people are realizing there were more quality games released between 1985 and 2015 than you could ever play in a lifetime. We don’t need new shit if it’s just gonna suck.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There’s plenty of great new stuff too, often times even modern iterations of the retro stuff we loved, but it doesn’t get the same level of marketing, so it’s harder to find.
Apeman42@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You’re right, of course. Indie devs with passion are still putting out some great stuff.
My ire was much more for the AAA studios, which seem to have tossed out all the talent and vision that brought them to the top.
I mean, I was Ride or Die with Square Enix for decades, when they were different companies. After 16, I think I’m just done with new Final Fantasy games altogether. Fuck you guys, imma go play 6, 8, and 9.
veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I am dedicating a week off just to play StS2 early access.
FrowingFostek@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Hey buddy, those live service shovelware games are manufactured by Shovel-Spyware-Freemium Holdings Inc. They are returning valuable profits back to their shareholders!
And isn’t that what video games are really about anyway? Think of the shareholders.
ApatheticCactus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Older games are also meant to be beaten. I remember games that had reviews saying, “This game will take 40-60 hours to complete”, and that was it. You could replay it if you wanted, but it was just an experience.
The new idea is live service games. Games you can never really beat, you just grind at it forever. That or they have a bunch of add on things to make the game take a lot longer so you keep playing the same thing over and over again. I’m not saying they’re not fun, just that they lack a satisfying conclusion and variety.