Ask HN: Why does it seem like the game industry is stagnating?
Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that kids today play games that are 20 years old like Roblox and Minecraft? Also the most anticipated title is another sequal to a 20+ years game.
Does anyone else feel like there is a lack of innovation in the game industry in the last 15-20 years?
In one sense it's a golden age (more indies than ever) but in another it seems like the triple AAA's have lost any attempt at originality.
Graphics have kind of flat lined as well take this for example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKcTwq_4lk&t=1011s (which I was talking to a gamer friend about on discord this morning) that's a game from 2017.
While there have been some slight improvements since they'd already reached a level where for most games they were already good enough and so the game play becomes the most important thing and that hasn't really changed much in a decade.
With one exception (Arma Reforger) nothing I play was released in the last 6 years.
The massive investment required to make an AAA game requires the promise of AAA-sized returns, pushing publishers and studios to (supposedly) safe paths like copycatting existing popular genres and attempting to build franchises amenable to a series of sequels.
now we just wait for GTA7