Have Blockbuster Games Stopped Being Made?
In some ways, it feels like there are more video games than ever before. But in a different way than many of the loudest and most expensive aspects of the video game industry are built, 2022 was a drought like no other.
If you want to talk about tiny platformers on Switch, city builders on Steam, or bizarre horror adventures on itch.io, it’s been a bountiful year. In terms of volume, more video games are offered on more platforms than ever before. Just as the calendar was filled with small and medium-sized games, a glimpse into the blockbuster’s 2022 release schedule was a terrifying read.
As familiar with their routines as we are, it’s easy to forget that much of this industry still revolves around this calendar. The timing and volume of AAA game releases vary from major events like E3, to development schedules, sales windows, retail channels, and an era when the creators of video game websites like this could take time off (until recently ) has been the basis for everything from It wasn’t too crowded in October or November! ).
However, recent years have seen a flurry of once-high-profile releases slowing down a bit and becoming a slow drip by 2022. It’s entrenched like scaffolding that you can’t or don’t want to dismantle. Much of the video game industry has spent this year reverberating around it. Lonely footsteps break through the cavernous empty church. 2022 was not the year known for the big games. It was a year in which her absence was noted.
Sure, some came out. They always have and they always will. Elden Ring, God of War, Horizon, a revamped Call of Duty. But what else? As recently as four to five years ago the year would be full of big, expensive releases from major publishers. Especially now, during holiday seasons that were once jam-packed with the kinds of games that begged you to pre-order them with big posters at a GameStop, that would clog up an E3 press conference. In 2022 you could hear a pin drop for whole months at a time.
Why?
The pandemic is probably the first thing most people will react to. Its impact disrupted development plans around the world. Some games were kicked out halfway through, while others were delayed months or even years to recover from the mess of sending an entire studio home at worst. Early 2023 is going to wreak havoc as many games that were supposed to come out by now haven’t come out yet.
But I don’t think that’s the correct answer. This impasse is temporary, masking broader trends that the pandemic has only exacerbated. The truth is that the AAA landscape has been shrinking for years. Everything got too big and too expensive. The calculation is simple:
There will be fewer games, as they take longer to create and require more developers.
Still, not all of these major his releases are new. Publishers are so risk-averse these days that remakes are big business, and companies obviously prefer to make safe money restoring proven classics rather than trying the originals. Well, this year also saw big releases like The Last Of Us, a game that was released in 2013 and has already been remastered once.
Add to this the ongoing obsession with turning some released games into live service experiments, with publishers hoping to sell content years after release. The years to come will only get worse (or at least weirder), with Assassin’s Creed taking the lead here. What used to be a flagship series with one release in a year or two is becoming a platform in its own right. But you can see it everywhere, from Call of Duty’s perpetual his Warzone to Fortnite seasons. Big games are no longer released. Some things never go away.
But despite all these changes, its framework — a structure of hype and commercialization built to encapsulate the AAA business model — remains intact. Even if what they built begins to crumble. Check out GameStop, a store that used to sell packaged video game releases. It is now an NFT clearinghouse and a placeholder for memetic stocks. Look at big trade shows like E3. That bread and butter (big announcements and big press conferences) is evolving and shrinking. The remnants of these old worlds remain, but the sand on which they were built is beginning to wash away.
Just to be clear, unless you’re doing E3 or working at GameStop, this isn’t a bad thing. Rules for small games, rules for medium games, rules for small studios and more agile publishers, rules for phone games, and how millions of people (and millions more each year) watch videos every day. I am very lucky to be able to play the game. You don’t have to pay $70 for a box that says “PlayStation 5 Exclusive” on the front.
But anyone involved in that crappy framework, or emotionally involved in the idea of his release of his AAA games standalone, i.e. his E3 press conference time in his diary For man, these must be troubling times.
