This touches on a wide variety of subjects, but of course it directly is related to our flighstim eco system, because Microsoft is a public.

 

Biggest take away for me is: 

TikTok bad! Like really bad!

And:

Exponential growth bad.

 

But we all knew that already, didn't we? 😉

In my humble opinion...

The industry isn't as bad as it seems.  There have been some colossal AAA failures, but there's also been a ton of "AA" games from small stuidos that have been smash hits.  Earlier we had Baldurs Gate 3 and now we have games like Expedition 33 and tons of other games that are reviewing and selling amazing.  Expedition 33 isn't my kind of game, but even on Game Pass it is selling like crazy from a smaller studio.  People are saying "game of the year" already and we're only in May.  

The problem in gaming is the same problem going on in IT as a whole.  I work in the IT industry and it is a hot mess right now.  

What you have is venture capital (vulture capital) buying up everything, looking to get rich quick.  During covid, video games exploded with everyone being stuck inside.  The industry over-expanded, and now we're seeing an over-correction from that.  The middle of those two extremes is where things should settle.

Greed had them overreact to 2020 and now they are overreacting to that problem.  We've seen some massive AAA failures because game companies (backed by VC) chase trends.  Now, an AAA game can take 3-5 years to make, so chasing a trend on the day you start means you are 5 years late when the game is released.  This might seem obvious, but again, greed and bad management.  

Game companies need to make good games, with good gameplay loops and reward systems.  Make good games and people will buy them.  You've also got an oversaturated market, so when a "7 out of 10" game launches, it can struggle because there's so many other options.  

I'm not in video games but in the IT industry and the last 5 years have been nuts.  Back in 2020-2022 or so, many of us had job recruiters cold calling us.  I wasn't even looking for a job and had tons of people basically asking me to name my price (not bragging, this was going on all over).  A couple of years later, and suddenly jobs were disappearing, layoffs happening, and salaries were plummeting.  I know colleagues who are applying for hundreds of jobs and not even hearing back.  They panic hired post covid, and now are bouncing the other way.  Again, hopefuly things will settle in a happy medium.  Corporate greed and bad decision making led us to this.  Had they never over-expanded for covid, we wouldn't be here right now.  

 

 

4 hours ago, kerosene31 said:

The problem in gaming is the same problem going on in IT as a whole.  I work in the IT industry and it is a hot mess right now.  

 

4 hours ago, kerosene31 said:

I'm not in video games but in the IT industry and the last 5 years have been nuts.  Back in 2020-2022 or so, many of us had job recruiters cold calling us.  I wasn't even looking for a job and had tons of people basically asking me to name my price (not bragging, this was going on all over).  A couple of years later, and suddenly jobs were disappearing, layoffs happening, and salaries were plummeting.

This, this and 1,000 times this.  I think we ended up at like 11,000 LR's last yr.  Our industry combined topped 100K last year.  It went from name your price to it doesn't even matter if you are a top performer you are on the block every 6 months...  It's been brutal.  

https://www.guru3d.com/story/grand-theft-auto-vi-delayed-until-may-2026/

On 5/2/2025 at 7:26 PM, psolk said:

 

This, this and 1,000 times this.  I think we ended up at like 11,000 LR's last yr.  Our industry combined topped 100K last year.  It went from name your price to it doesn't even matter if you are a top performer you are on the block every 6 months...  It's been brutal.  

can you explain why?  interested to know

AMD and Intel could have a problem in the Future.

 

For consumers, the industry is as good as ever IMHO.  I mean, I remember the days when the only legit "PC Game" was Oregon Trail.   And in the early days, for "AAA" titles we had Doom and that' about it.

Today, there are so many games I don't even have time to play or try a fraction of them.  The technology is insane, we have great variety, and other than MMORPGs every genre is rocking and rolling with new, awesome releases.   The new GTA will be a cultural event and break records by a long mile.

Of course, as a result, competition is stiff which leads to uncertainty and a lot of risk for the manufacturers, i.e., game developer studios.

Steam is getting close to being a monopoly IMHO when it comes to game deployment, and that is concerning as eventually that becomes anti-consumer.

And yes, rising hardware and game costs are a concern. I do think the price of games have been below the rate of inflation for the past 30 years, but still we are headed to the "new normal" being $80 games. And don't get me started on GPU prices.

Edited May 7, 20251 yr by WolverineHusky

1 hour ago, WolverineHusky said:

Today, there are so many games I don't even have time to play or try a fraction of them.

Might as well face it, you don't even have time to know that more than a fraction of them even exist.  I used to keep up with the game market even in genres I didn't play. Computer Gaming World magazine, alt.games on USENET.  Remember the arguments about graphics vs. game play throughout the industry?

At one point I was buying at least one new game a month, and playing them all. Sometimes even one a week. Some games got over 1000 hours. If I got $1 per hour worth of play time, I considered it a win. Most games did.  I was a professional programmer, and most games I spent any time with I did some modding on, sometimes a lot. This has been going on since Bruce Artwick's Flight Simulator on the Apple 2 (I didn't mod that one).  But no more.

So many games, so little time, and it's been a while since I even saw a game I wanted to try.  Maybe I'm getting old. 🙂 

Hook