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Welcome all. Are you ready to take a journey back to the 2000s with me? Today I want to talk about how experimental games have fallen to the wayside, and how the 360 and PS3 were the end in the era. What am I talking about? Well, hold on to your screens, and let’s dive in.
Game Developers Playing it Safe
If you’ve been gaming for the past 15 years or so, you may have seen a trend live and die. Back in the days of the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and the systems prior, we saw a lot of wonky games that you don’t find today. Colorful journeys or games that really pushed on boundaries. To give a few examples:
Whiplash, a 3D platformer adventure
Scaler, another 3D platformer adventure
Haunting Ground, horror
Majin and the Foresaken Kingdom, action adventure
Alice the Madness Returns, action adventure
Eternal Darkness, horror
There’s plenty more games than these, but just to give an idea. I’ve discussed this topic with others in the past, and the conclusion is that game developers and publishers don’t want to take the risk involved.
In some ways, you can’t blame them either. From a business perspective, you need to create what sells. The only company that I can say goes with whatever they want is Nintendo, but that’s a whole other conversation.
Indie Titles
Now the argument could be made that we still have these types of games alive today through indie developers and there’s more than ever. In some ways, I could agree to that statement, but it just isn’t the same. Indie games are so common that they’ve oversaturated the market.
Some Glimmering Hope
While you can’t convince me that games today feel the same as they did back then, there are certain games that I think capture that essence to some degree. One such being the recently released Sand Land. I haven’t played much of it yet myself, but everything I see gives me that same feeling. Granted, with designs by Akira Toriyama, maybe that plays a lot into it since I’m getting some Blue Dragon vibes.
Future Generations
So this actually makes me curious. How will future gaming generations see the PS5 & Xbox Series generation? Will they look back at the games released now and think that these games are what I see the PS3, Xbox 360 & Wii systems as.
Conclusion
Not everyone will agree with what I’ve said here, and that’s alright. I’m not saying that there aren’t plenty of good games out there, but there’s definitely been a big shift from where we were. I know I’ll continue gaming for years to come, and hopefully the industry will prove me wrong. Seeing the end of an era is saddening, but I am thankful I was alive during the time period as well.
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