Problem is there is way too much developer bloat when it comes to games for the past 10 years or so give or take. Back in the PSone, PS2 even the PS3 cycle, a AAA game would generally take a couple of years to build as a new IP, sequel usually half that. Then you have the ridiculous overhead costs of hundreds of millions of dollars on development, because publishers want to spend unnecessary amounts of money on marketing, hollywood voice actors, 10 writers instead of 1 or 2 etc. Look at the GTA series, on PS2s life cycle alone you had GTA3, VC and San Andreas. Not including the PSP stories spinoffs they released on it as well. Now its been 12 years and counting and they have released fark all in the series since. Also after all this staff bloat, the publishers then just pass the cost onto the consumer for their inability to manage the costs of their game. Also, there obsession with having to make their games have the latest bestest graphics when it isnt necessary. I mean how much better can games get graphically then they already have been the past generation? The difference is practically nothing compared to the PS4 and PS5. Compare that to the gap between SNES and PS1, PS1 and Dreamcast, N64 to Gamecube and you realise how pointless what they are doing is. I hate Nintendo but they have it right when it comes to game design, even though i can and have even in this thread given them heaps of shit.
Look at Super Mario Odyssey, its running on a 10 year old toaster, and yet it still looks better than 3/4 of the next gen AAA games coming out now. Also the obsession with making everything open world, which puts me off the game if anything these days. Because of Ubisoft. You can have the biggest hugest map in the industry, but if your just copy and pasting subquests with slightly different scenery surrounding it whats the point? Its just unnecessary bloat that most people get bored of long before they finish the game. Bold take but open world Ubisoft games were at its peak at Far Cry 2, 3 was ok but they have just been copy and pasting the template from that game ever since so they dont have to come up with interesting sidequests for there games. Only people at that company earning their money the past 10 years have been their art designers and programmers. Everyone have just been grifting on what those two groups have been doing.
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