Too many games is a good Maze’s song but it’s also the truth:
14,534 new games. In a year. On ONE platform. That is univocally too much. Let’s do some quick math here.
14,534 games. Each game is at the very least a 10-person team and at least a couple years in the making. Let’s say three years.
That’s 145,340 folks working on games since 2020, and who released their game in 2023, right?
Considering how creative industries are all hit-based businesses. 99% of those games will flop. That’s an incredible amount of waste for thousands of people with tunnel vision working hard for years.
Forty years ago, there was a computer game crash. Here’s Wikipedia about it:
The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which were of poor quality. Waning interest in console games in favor of personal computers also played a role. Home video game revenue peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent).
Looking at all the layoffs last year in companies which are actually making money making games, entertainment competition (streaming and social media) stronger than ever and demographic changes (smaller pool of young players who play one or two games anyway), it’s not hard to see that things are not going to improve anytime soon.
Which means more dependence on whales. Which means more abuse. Oh boy.