r/gaming • u/CiabattaKatsuie Console • Oct 01 '24

The games industry is undergoing a 'generational change,' says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney: 'A lot of games are released with high budgets, and they're not selling'

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-games-industry-is-undergoing-a-generational-change-says-epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-a-lot-of-games-are-released-with-high-budgets-and-theyre-not-selling/

Tim Sweeney apparently thinks big budget games fail because... They aren't social enough? I personally feel that this is BS, but what do you guys think? Is there a trend to support his comments?

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u/Lord-Norse Oct 02 '24

Exactly, and that’s the problem with executives making the big decisions, they don’t actually know what people want. They see a graph saying Fortnite made 70 bajillion dollars and think “ah yes if we make a slightly different clone of this we will also make 70 bakillion dollars”, which isn’t how the video game market works.

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u/Golden_Hour1 Oct 02 '24

It's mind boggling these companies even survive. They don't even understand the market

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u/theKetoBear Oct 02 '24

The thing is in the past these companies were often started by passionate creatives hwo just wanted to make cool shit and were rewarded handsomely for making something quality.

Then the big money got into games and saw how much money they made but they want to do what big money does to EVERYTHING .

they want to water down the core product ( less interesting gameplay ) , chop it up and serve it piece meal with extra costs ( micro transactions , battle passes, unimpressive DLC) , and mass produce it and hope the masses swallow the drivel .

People have said for ages traditional tech doesn't work when it gets involved with games because they are a fundamentally different business... same should be said of traditional business people ... running a game company the same way you'd run chipotle , or Apple is a terrible idea and that's what we're seeing Big money making shit-tier games choices.

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u/jonistaken Oct 02 '24

Companies are started by product designers, then taken over by finance people to manage growth, then managed by accountants after they hit peak market share and focus from growth to cost cutting until they collapse for good.

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u/Spidey209 Oct 02 '24

This is called enshitification. There is a word for it now.

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u/jonistaken Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24

Enshittification is different. Not all companies experience Enshittification. Costco still kicks ass.

Edit: I’m not particularly bothered by this response https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/04/business/costco-surprising-union-response

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u/lukify Oct 02 '24

For now. They had a long-standing CEO who recently retired. Every change in leadership opens the door to a culture shift. I'd argue that their pushy checkout tactics to sell credit cards is a fledgling data point for enshittification.

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u/halipatsui Oct 02 '24

Im afraid of the daybgabe dies, steam leadership changes amd there is potentisl for steam to go apeshit like EA

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u/TheObstruction PC Oct 02 '24

Costco is literally refusing to negotiate with Teamsters, and putting out misleading statements regarding the situation.

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u/heimdal77 Oct 02 '24

Worked at Costco years ago. At the orientation meeting one the first things told to the new hires was if you even say the word union you will be fired. Costco is great at pr and putting up appearances. As what actually goes on at the company not so much.

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u/ImTooOldForSchool Oct 02 '24

It’s actually just standard product lifecycle, nothing lasts forever, and when supply starts to outpace demand you simply have to cut costs and pivot to the next big thing.

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u/Sletzer Oct 02 '24

It’s not accountants it’s FP&A(Finance Bros).

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u/sappharah Oct 02 '24

Hey don’t blame the accountants, we just spit out the numbers, it’s the executives who decide what to do with them

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u/dageshi Oct 02 '24

This is true, but also ignores why it happens. It happens because the product designers want to retire.

Eventually the people who founded the companies and who were a really big part of its success run out of ideas and want to do something else. They either sell the business or pass it onto someone else.

People shit on EA for being a graveyard of game dev companies, but for EA to buy someone had to sell and if they were selling perhaps they had no more good ideas left in the tank?

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u/CaptainBayouBilly Oct 02 '24

Everything follows this cycle nowadays. Late stage capitalism.