Why the Gaming Industry's Obsession With AAA Sucks - Retro Bird
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- In this video, I talk about about the problems associated with such a strong emphasis on AAA video games.
Why the Gaming Industry's Obsession With AAA Sucks - Retro Bird
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Games played: Perfect Dark (0:00), Gunstar Heroes (0:14), Tears of the Kingdom (0:30), Oh No! (0:58), Steel Assault (1:20), Spider-Man: Miles Morales (1:40), Comix Zone (2:00)
You do realize that you think you’re so important that you need to have this channel to tell us how nobody’s important. You’re fucked in the head, guy.
what game is that on 3:00 ? Looks like a Metroidvania ?
Great Content - subbed and look forward for more content, such a great video about the sad state of current gaming culture!
@@FreaKzero That would be Steel Assault. It's not a Metroidvania but it's still really awesome.
@@RetroBirdGaming thank you!
No sponsorships
No begging for money
No begging for subs
Quality content
You my friend, have my thanks.
Retro bird and joe from gamesack are the patron saints of retro gaming
Thank you!
You should totally subscribe if you haven't already I love the retro birds stuff
Facts
He has your thanks, but does he have your sub? 😉
Its not Friday without you
Ahhh thanks :)
@@RetroBirdGamingYes, its been one hell of a week, thank you for these videos.
@RetroBirdGaming Have to agree with the OP, except I'd say Saturday instead of Friday with the time difference here in Australia 😊
Australians are the absolute best@@daveretzlaff8391
Or Saturday in Europe. 🙏🏻
The thought of actually seeing you outside jauntily doing a happy stride with a big ole bag 'o clips; reminds me that things aren't quite so bad.
Neighbor: "There's that crazy guy running around with his bag of bread clips again!"
Happy to hear that!
@@RetroBirdGaming So, when are you going start a podcast about that bread clip collection?
@@alvallac2171What's his oldest bread clip? Does he prefer any particular color? Are they separated by wheat/white/sourdough/etc???
It feels the same to me with movies. There's a lot of fun, mid-budget stuff from like maybe pre-2000, but that category seemed to fall away as blockbusters got blockbustier.
I feel like I've noticed that too.
You can throw TV shows in there too...
This was basically all of the way up until ps3/360 released, and even some early 360 stuff feels decidedly AA/mid budget
And music
I saw an interview with Matt Damon that said the same thing - there were tons of great movies from the 90s/2000’s that cost maybe 2-3 mil to make that wouldn’t get made today because they weren’t meant to be huge blockbusters.
Three consistent AAA thing's in my life.
1. Video Games
2. AAA Batteries
3. Retro Bird
When you get to my age, you add 4. AAA, I'm broke down and need a tow! lol
I went from being a kid to having a kid before we finally got metroid prime 4.
I was 21 when Metroid Prime came out 😅
You could have prevented that by calling your kid Metroid Prime 4
I was 2 kids and now I have 2 kids!
@@jarlwhiterun7478 you were two kids?
I'd love a video on cheat codes. I miss them dearly. Had so much fun exploring casually with infinite everything.
I completely agree!
I miss getting that monthly gaming magazine & going straight to the cheats section, hoping there would be something for one of your games 😊
Enter the Matrix is only fun with cheats!
@@daveretzlaff8391 Same here. In the 2000s before I had internet, Tips and Tricks magazine was a favorite of mine! It was amazing
@@dapperfan44 It's a shame. I heard it was bad and always wanted to try it after I found out it was a thing. Then I heard it was definitely NOT good haha
This man DOES deserve to Donkey Kong!
😂😂😂😂🍌
He alao deserves to Shake Dimension too.
As time goes on, I gravitate more and more towards retro and indi.
However a AAA bread bag clip collection, such as your own, still gets the juices flowing. 💪
I think we rolled right past the sweet spot of game length versus quality with the GTA games on the PS2. Really good, and really expansive, for the time. It seems like sometime after that, things just shifted into "errands."
I think the PS3 and 360 is where it started. GTA IV and RDR were still top quality and big.
@@divinecomedian2 I actually haven't really played either, so that's a big blind spot, for me. It does seem like those games maintained a high quality, though.
I loved GTA 5 & played it all the way through 2 times. I have a strong feeling that joy will not be the same with GTA 6...
@@bluorb Yeah, hate to say it, but it seems kinda like the tide of the rest of gaming. I hope not, it could be incredible.
@@MattsFreeChannel1 if it does turn out that way, at least we have 30+ years of retro games to finally check out! I picked up an Ambernic 35xx+ when it was on sale & after watching a video on Sonic Pocket Adventure, I decided to check it out. It may not be that different than Sonic 2, but I enjoyed that more than many games I payed $20-$50 to play.
I'm pretty confident in saying that at least 99% of the games I've played in the last 5 years have been either indie games or retro games (most of those indie games are retro inspired)
Yes, all this, but also, the stuff with Sweet Baby Inc and related consultants is putting a huge strain on the industry's creativity too. Not only will they charge your studio money to make sure it fits their ideology, they will get their journalist buddies to slander you if you *don't* pay them.
It's the corporate ideology, that's why they choose to pay for it. Executives want their product to appeal to the widest possible audience and those kinds of consulting companies claim to be able to assist in that. It's just about the industry being run by shifty, soulless salesmen. Social pressure of any kind is certainly not effecting their decisions, otherwise they might actually pay their taxes and treat their workers properly.
@JB-fp3fb it goes way deeper than that though, if you follow the money. Basically, if they follow this ideology, they get a higher social score so they can get better rates on the loans and investments they need to make the game. This is all being done to normalize their ideology to the public, and make us all as dumb as possible for it.
Uh oh we got the 4chan rats in here. Let me guess, ya’ll believe Sweet Baby Inc is funded by BlackRock and George Soros? Companies like Sweet Baby don’t happen in a vacuum. When you have an industry that permitted an environment where stealing female workers’ breast milk and refused to address complaints of sexual harassment (here’s looking at you Blizz-Activision), you wonder why there are more advocacy groups like this in existence
@@Manitoumaniac So it's either 4Chan or hardcore screeching SJW. No normal people in between? Wow. What a simplistic cartoonish view of the world. They could just concentrate on making FUN IMMERSIVE GAMES instead of pushing anything ideological.
The same thing has happened with movies. They're either blockbusters based on an IP with a pre-existing fanbase or small indie movies bringing some creativity and trying to capture a portion of the audience. The mid range of smaller studio produced movies has practically disappeared.
Yes and it’s hard for indies to do it. And biggest studios now and then actually try to do mid range but often even with ok marketing the go so so.
Still in some sense streaming services has allowed this mid range movies. And maybe in the future same will happen with gaming services.
Ubisoft has taught me never to pre-order games.
Yeah Bro I strongly dislike Ubisoft, and Activision. In fact I’m selling the games I have made by Ubisoft, such as Rayman 2 on Dreamcast. I don’t want anything to do with them. Some companies should be avoided like the plague, and others celebrated. A lot of these big and greedy companies need to collapse and let the Indy companies who are passionate about making GOOD GAMES prevail by our support and love. We have a big say by what we buy and play, and what we avoid.
Always been a scam practice pre-orders.The popularity of Assassin's Creed franchise killed Ubisofts morality. But it seems a petty thing to sell of a good retro game made 20+ years ago purely because the parent company has drastically changed since.
Just my opinions.✌️
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-CZcams not really. The Game I am talking about is Rayman 2 for Dreamcast, I didn’t know it was made by Ubisoft until J bought it recently. After playing it I just don’t like anything about it. Some games just feel off, like you can feel the companies and dev’s intentions and motives behind it, like they don’t have a good energy. Sounds crazy but I can. Got the similar feeling with the Prince Of Persia demo that came out earlier this year on switch (also by Ubisoft) I don’t get this with games made by RARE for example or any other Dreamcast/Sega games and most Nintendo Games.
Skyrim back in the day taught me this. Day 1, game had issues 3 times in a row. First, I fell through the mesh when jumping across the tower in the beginning. 2nd time the game just straight up deleted a lot of NPCs. 3rd time froze the second I tried to leave the Riverwood shop, where you get the first claw quest. I decided I'll never again pre-order anything. That's not a fun experience to have for 60 bucks and 3 hrs in a line surrounded by a bunch of sweaty teenage nerds. (I was one of those sweaty teen nerds)
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-CZcams Well, back in the Xbox 360 era you could bet that the games were good so preordering to ensure you got a copy wasn't absurd. Especially if you wanted a special edition or just wanted to go to a midnight launch.
I like to look at retro games that seem to hold up even still today as being my personal definition of AAA
Personally, in terms of substance, subject matter, and the points you raised... I think this is one of your strongest videos.
Thank you!
I've always felt that this was inevitable. Remember that games used to be a niche hobby. Usually the more people something appeals to, the less it appeals to any one person. Do you remember how we used to laugh at the casuals who just played COD and Madden? Those people are the majority of gamers now, they didn't like the games we did back then and they don't today. The price of games hasn't gone up with inflation, and the teams (and therefore number of paychecks) have increased a hundred fold. They need massive sales numbers to make that up. There's not really a lot of corporations in any industry that bother with small scale niche interests, so I really think indie devs are the only realistic option for that type of content.
They don't need massive sales numbers to cover worker's wages, it's to cover corporate greed. EA and Activision-Blizzard (per your Madden and CoD examples) post BILLIONS of dollars of profit and increased share value every single year, even after they payout billions more in executive salaries and bonuses.
Activision COULD pay for the development of three times as many first-person shooters, each more niche and experimental than the usual CoD, and each could only sell a tenth of the copies of the usual Cod and the company would still be extremely profitable IF they stopped indulging the costs of a single Bobby Kotick. Just to point out one example.
Well, that's true ofc. I did get a little off topic. That's what corporations do; maximum profit at the expense of everything else.
@@JB-fp3fbif you don’t pay the talent for a top dog CEO you’re setting your company up for failure. People like Bobby earned their money and success, and because of that people will resent them for that. Get out there and achieve instead of bringing down the big money.
I remember one time reading letters in a video game magazine back in the 90s and someone complained that he had bought Turtles in Time for 60 bucks and beat in in just one hour. I can totally see how that would be frustrating, especially because many families couldn’t afford to buy that many games for that price in one year, yet at the same time, if you’re wanting a beat-em up style game, you kind of have to expect that it’s going to be relatively short. But yeah, I can’t help but think that consumers constantly wanting a longer experience helped to lead to the industry making much longer games, which doesn’t always mean that they’re better .
All he had to do was wait until the price dropped to $30. Back in the day games were dropping prices as well. Turtles in Time is a good game. Although it really sucks that you have to beat it on hard to see the ending of the game.
@@tonyp9313 You know, you’re exactly right!! That’s one thing I miss about those days. If you were patient and didn’t mind waiting, the prices on games would eventually drop. Do they still do that? I don’t think so. But yeah man, Turtles 4 was awesome!! And there’s your value, right there: 3 different difficulty settings. And yes, hard mode was pretty tough on that game.
A game like that is made to be replayable. My cousins and I played that game over and over. Never got tired of it and I still play it decades later. You wouldn't just play a beat 'em up once and be done with it (I sure wouldn't).
@@RetroBirdGaming I totally agree. 👍
How could you get frustrated at Turtles IV??? O.o It's the best game ever!!!
One of the things i like most about this channel is the energy and good vibes in the comment section. You have reunite people who truly enjoys the fun of playing videogames. You are a beacon man.
The industry isn't obsessed with AAA, they are obsessed with unsustainable profit increase. And that is killing AAA and gaming
My friend, I've followed your channel ever since like 2020-2021, seeing your channel grow to what it is now makes me so happy, your content is amazing as always, keep it up, cheers from México mi amigo!
We all need to obsess less about pointlessly realistic graphics and expansive complex lightning and more about style and fun.
I agree. It’s all about the gameplay. I still play atari. Some not all of their games are fun. Nes will always be my favorite console. There’s a game on nes called Rescue at the embassy. It takes about ten minutes to finish and I play it all the time. It just has fantastic gameplay.
Why? I like good graphics. Graphics dont make a game good. But a good game with good graphics is the best…good doesnt need to be hyper realistic (though it can) it just needs to look nice… its a VIDEO game to say graphics arent important is just laughable. We have games with no graphics, theyre called books, board games trpgs. Its literally THE defining feature of the medium.
Sadly, there are more mouth-breathers that care more about the latest iteration of FIFA with more beads of sweat on player faces than gameplay. They just want the latest “big thing” power fantasy with better graphics.
Underrated statement for sure. Many forget that games are art, and complexity doesn't necessarily make for better art.
yep and it’s called Nintendo
One of my biggest issue of the AAA gaming of nowdays is the lack of variety since is always the same to me: generic open world games, generic shooters, generic medieval or feudal like games, generic hyper realistic racing games, etc...
That's the thing that I like from the world of indie games, I can always find variety or new type of genres or quirky fusion of genres to try, only downside is that since are indie games with low budget can either: never heard of it until someone recommend it (it hapoened me a lot of times 😂) or it could take a long time to be released since make a game by a small team is not easy at all.
Sometimes I wish the gaming go back to the older times in which if you had an idea for game, find a publisher with money, find a proper game engine to rent (or make your own from scratch), develop the title and done.
The only way they go back to the retro style of gaming is if these companies start losing a ton of money & very little support is shown. Unfortunately that won't happen when sales keep increasing with these AAA games & they are making a ton of money.
@@tonyp9313 in reality the game companies are actually targeting potential gaming whales that will buy stuff due to their gambling tendencies.
Dude some of my favorite games are Indies!
I'm still playing older stuff. Recently started up Baldurs Gate EE again for another playthrough and play SNES roms lately. Too many Triple A stuff comes out broken and unfinished these days.
Legendary commentary, great take on the gaming situation. This is why your my favorite retro gamer, excellence! Well played+
Thank you!
I like what they did with Mario Wonder. They have levels of difficulty for each area. You don't need to beat all the hard areas to finish the game, but they are there for the gamer who enjoy a challenge. It has some good replay value.
I haven't played Comix Zone for 25 years. Will play it again this afternoon 👍
All right!
RetroBird I love your videos! Always so funny! I did want to share some thoughts with ya about the topic of this week’s video:
- I love what you said about both the industry and gamers putting expectations on each other. It definitely is a push/pull relationship
- Another good point you made that I agree with is that old video games were simple because the hardware was simple. One big reason this sort of natural evolution of bigger and longer AAA titles has occurred is due to the march of technology. Consoles are so much more powerful now that it lends itself to more complexity.
- I’m glad you mentioned modern game design such as always saving progress and not dying much. Trusting the player is something that has been lost with modern game design. However, the flip side of the argument is that there are a lot of old game mechanics and designs that haven’t aged well.
-Maybe as a supplement to this video you could make one talking about retro game features that don’t hold up as well today and why some of the changes have been made to modern games. A good example could be games that felt unnecessarily or brutally hard because that was how developers would pad their games back in the day since there wasn’t much content there, similar to how games today are padded with busywork to artificially extend their length.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next video! 😁
At one point during the week I just realized why he likes bananas so much...
"You don't deserve to Donkey Kong"
First time tuning into your channel! I enjoyed your take on this topic!
I actually love when games are longer, and that will often affect whether i'm willing to buy it or not. I don't even finish most games I play, which might make you think contradicts itself. But here's the thing, in life you constantly have to complete things. At work, you have to finish your job before you go home, or move on to the next task. At school, you have to finish your assignments and homework. You have to finish cleaning your room, you have to finish your trip to the grocery store, you have to complete your video editing, etc etc. When I game, I just want to have a good time, and stop whenever I feel like it. I don't want to be having fun, especially when i'm having a TON of fun, and the game to say "yeah, you're done.".
To me, I feel a lot of gamers need to realize that you don't HAVE to complete a game to make it worth it. As the old saying goes, it's about the journey, not the destination. And yes I know that this also means that if a short game is amazing, then its worth it, which is also correct. But i'd rather have lots of awesome, than less of it, personally.
Last thing i'd like to add is that in my experience, some of the longest games i've played have also been some of the best. Pretty much any RPG, Elder Scrolls, Borderlands, any Zelda, Pokemon, Witcher, and so fourth. There are AMAZING short/medium games too, but i'm simply pointing out that short games does not equal higher quality/more fun.
Good video! Yeah, I agree that big companies try to usually play it safe when it comes to the bigger budget titles, which can lead to fatigue in the gaming industry. I mean, how many generic team shooter games do we really need every year?
I've noticed recently that I do tend to go back to play many retro games or indie games as many of them offer a lot of enjoyment in a smaller package. I also appreciate indie developers experimenting with ideas that may be deemed too risky by the larger gaming companies. All told, I'd rather have a blast with a shorter 5 or 6 hour indie game with a lot of neat ideas than waste 90 hours on a bloated AAA game that tries to convince me that it is fun, but is actually more of a chore to get through. Quality of fun _always_ supersedes quantity of the content when I'm playing any game.
Man, Steel Assault is so sick, glad to see you playing it too! And YES to Toys for Bob and Banjo (or another Spyro would be nice). When it comes to the topic of your video, I REALLY miss 'AA' games. Not enough polish to be considered AAA, a *little* jank, but they're usually SO ambitious, unique, or have a premise so great that it carries you through the jank (and sometimes said jank or camp is part of what gives the game its charm!). I think the last time we really had an abundance of AA games was the Xbox 360/PS3/Wii era. We're living in an indie game renaissance which is great, but like you said, there are so many with so little marketing ability, it's easy to pass them by accidentally. AA games are that sweet spot of polish/financial backing and soul in gaming that I miss so dearly. Also, I'm not trying to promote myself here honestly, but I think you'd like my 'You'll Never Be Able to Play Everything You Want, but is that a problem?" video. It echoes a lot of things you're saying here and I'd of course be interested in your thoughts, as you were a big inspiration for my channel!
I'm actually starting to really believe Toys for Bob is working on Banjo now. I'll believe it when I see it though!
This is why i love retro games. Pop a cartridge in (or disc), no updates for my game, controller, or system. Play for however long i feel fit and call it a day. I've still yet to finish fallout 4 and i honestly have no excitement about doing so. Oblivion ate up so many of my hours but i was like 15 then, there isn't 9 or more free hours in a day anymore lol.
I play Golden Axe over & over. It's 15-20 min. It's an awesome game.
I love this Channel.
Tears of the Kingdom took an unknown number or hours and probably billions to produce. Compare that to Echoes of Wisdom. Nintendo will never show the ROI on both, but I feel confident that EoW will have a much higher ROI than TotK.
billions is really exaggerated because it has not been a game that´s reached a billion yet... and also the graphics in itself would not put it anywhere near close i believe. did a chec kit´s estimated around 100- 150 millions..
@@basseman4239 I actually did mean to write 100s of millions, but didn't proof read myself. You're absolutely correct.
Another problem I have with modern games is them using the same engine, Unreal.
Makes them look and feel the same where these oldies felt completely different.
Yeah you can tell when a game is in UE. And it's not a good feeling.
I disagree, if game developers care enough, they can make the engine feel unique I mean Kingdom Hearts and Gears of war use those engines and they feel nothing alike.
If game developers care enough, they'll use their own engine. A cartoony looking Unreal game and a realistic looking Unreal game still look the same as others in that style.
@@zodiacthundaga7264 unreal engine is accessible and not all devs have the means to make their own engine. Your point doesn't really make sense. I really care about movies but I don't have the 300 million dollars to hire the best of the best while filming a blockbuster. I could do my best to make a quality short film though with equipment and software most people have access to
I don’t know if I agree with this comment thread in any way. It’s all just a bit too….Unreal for me to understand! 😝
It really feels like the bubble is bursting in terms of mega-budget entertainment properties right now. A big movie has to be an era-defining hit to turn a profit now, and a lot of games are released with similarly bullish and naive attitudes. Some games are brought into 5+ year production schedules, and there's an incredible pressure on the developers to produce something that will get a huge critical and commercial response. I miss the era when a company could put out a scrappy little 7/10 with some unique charm and ideas, and not see the entire staff lose their jobs when it didn't sell more than 30,000 copies.
Hey i've been watching your videos for while now and I think you have a very unique style of comedy that I really enjoy, Keep it up dude!!
At this point, you could get a relatively inexpensive PC, load it up with SteamOS or ChimeraOS, and exclusively play the best PC games of yesteryear (and their most well-made mods), the best emulated games from yesteryear (and their most well-made ROM hacks), and the best modern indie games, and you'd have a blast.
Well not quite. A lot of retro PC games have a problem working on modern consoles
I think you can get an acceptable number of retro PC games working under emulators, such as DOSBox or QEMU, or under a compatability layer like Proton, but the modding community plays a big role in making it possible to run retro PC games with these solutions too. Given both the recent success and potential benefits of N64 recompilation though, I hope recompilation of games for other platforms -- both consoles and computers -- is achieved as well.
@@Manitoumaniac he's talking about doing it on an inexpensive pc not consoles.
Thank you algorithm for recommending this channel. Thought I was looking for copper, but found 24k gold.
Welcome to the channel!
I hear people say a crash is coming to this industry, good riddance I say.
Yeah it needs a correction. But I think it'll just be the big games. Indie will thrive.
Crash affects us all, even you so be careful what ya wish for Devon!
A crash is coming. Investors aren't happy with the ROI, and gamers aren't happy with games.
@@Manitoumaniac we have a lot of decades old games that are more than a 1000+. Also homebrew games still exists which run well on older consoles and Emulators with small file sizes. Newer games kinda feels like a chore anyway, they lost the pick up and play aspects of the retro games used to have.
That comic book style game looked awesome, I need to try it out some day
Comix Zone for Sega Genesis. Really good game.
@@KingC89 It's really hard though. However you can play that with save states or a game genie. Another reason why retro games are better.
Yeah, Comix Zone is pretty sweet!
Played Comix Zone back on the PS3 before by the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis (or Megadrive) Collection disc and yeah it is an amazing and unique game, it also available as a standalone digital game on the PS3 too.
Also if you have a PS4/XB1/Switch the game is also available on the Sega Genesis Classics game.
Many modern games are all about escapism - having a pararllel world to exist in. Oldschool games were games... you play them for an hour or two and then move on to something else.
Games of today are for from escapism. They especially western devs tend to lean towards realism. I don't see that as escapism. But also i agree with you on oldschool games, i kinda like the pick up and play appeal of the retro games.
They took a lot of the skill factor out it's often too easy the games basically play themselves. Back then it took skill strategizing, thinking and developing hand eye coordination.
"Dude waiting for new Metroid." Clearly, this was shot before the Nintendo SUmmer Direct, heh!
Thought the same thing lol
I want to preface this comment by saying I categorically LOVE all your videos, they literally make me smile like no other youtube content. Be grateful for your own comfy little life.
When I look at the game I have I realised that most of them are AA games, since we are talking about games and indie/AA game not really getting the spot light.
Here are some Hack & Slash games you can check out:
Yasuke A Lost Descendent
Soulstice
Valkyrie Elysium
Wanted: Dead
Etenights
Stella Blade
Project DT
Project M
Lost Soul Aside
Phantom Hellcat
Arise of Awakener
Granblue Fantasy Relink
Shred & Tear: Explosive Kajun
Phantom Blade
SuperSimmer
Astor: Blade of the Monolith
There are a lot more that are out there, H&S games are really fun to play and I'm so glad to see more of them.
Shouts out to hack & slash games, they are making a comeback.
It’s the necessity within the networks to keep them all alive. Resolution, frame rate, drives TV, monitors, hardware, consoles. Money 💰
You are so spot on. Thank you for saying this on your platform. I wish more folks in gaming media were dropping truth bombs like you do. You are very skilled at criticizing something while remaining respectful and positive. I really appreciate that.
I probably put 40-60 hours on my first playthrough of Final Fantasy 6 decades ago. And none of it felt unnecessary or like it was filler to me. There's a difference in 40 hours games from several generations ago and the ones we have today. Spiderman is fun in its moment to moment gameplay, but you literally did the same half dozen things for every single sidequest, over and over. It makes it easy to come back to after a break, but it also makes it easier to just put down and possibly never come back to (I've done this twice with SM so far). Yes, there are some amazing games produced these days, but even the bad games back in the day were more "pure" gaming experiences that make them more replayable and stand the test of time better.
Great point about the mid-range games. I love that SquareEnix brought us Lost Spere, Oninaki, and I Am Setsuna for the current systems. I have them all on Switch and I think they are wonderful little RPGs. Are they the biggest groundbreaking role playing games ever? No. But they are great adventures that last anywhere from 20-40 hours worth of fun storylines.
Another thing I love are retro games. When you get tired of AAA big budget games of the day, pop in throwback games from systems of yesteryear and have a ball. Heck, you don’t even need to leave a series to enjoy these classic smaller titles. Whenever Breath of the Wild is feeling a bit much, I just play A Link to the Past and put a smile back on my face.
Another option would be fighting games. If we look at this last Nintendo Direct, my favorite announcement would definitely go to Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection. While Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 might have been AAA in its heyday, it’s just a port of an arcade classic, today. This release brings 7 arcade fighters from the Vs. series Capcom developed over 20 years ago, and I cannot wait to dive into them again! What makes these fighters special is they can be enjoyed in small bursts, one night play throughs, full party competitions, online mastery, or fierce dedication to characters or teams in learning every move, combo, and nuance of the game(s). Enjoy it your way!
Giant budgeted games have their place. I’m always happy to play a new Final Fantasy or Halo. But there are plenty of ways to enjoy gaming, nowadays, without it being all about pushing the technological and financial limits of consoles and companies.
We have options. When developers like SquareEnix and Capcom realize this, we are all better off.
It's really gotten to the point i don't buy next gen consoles. I've had a switch and ps4 for at least 6 years. PC for whenever something special isn't available on though 2. Love your videos. Been sleeping on them too long. Personality reminds me of the zaniness i remember in old video game magazines.
This video totally nails the real problem with AAA gaming right now. The games are often meant to be completed by the lowest common denominator without much fuss leaving skilled gamers with a hollow experience.
I've recently really loved playing the Metal Gear inspired Indie Unmetal. I highly recommend it!
FF7 really changed everything when it came out. Most every issue in industry philosophy stems because of what it delivered on.
The indie scene and retro community are keeping videogames on life support for me, which is sad considering the tech available, even in the palm of our hands. Great vid as usual. Have a blessed evening.
With my busy schedule, games that send you on scavenger hunts have me falling asleep so quick 😴
Currently playing retro games on my rg35xx plus... It is a treat how these games used to be a pick up and play for small sessions at the time, and not have to devote hours into a game
"...and hey, they can even just self-proclaim that they're important by saying they're AAA."
This might genuinely be the most subtle and understated yet ruthlessly scathing and absolutely accurate indictment of the big-budget/AAA portion of the gaming industry I've ever heard. You hit the nail square on the head here.
I've been saying for a long time now when this subject comes up that the AAA space was so inflated in terms of the budget they're given, the number of people that are assigned to work on them, and the outrageous marketing and hype surrounding them that they've become these messy, unmanageable, and inefficient projects. As a result, no matter how good the talent is or how much time is allotted for development they simply can not result in a finished game that is well-rounded, polished, and a good value for both the players and the developers. That fact alone is enough to cause significant problems but then additionally there's all of the issues that can't be easily and objectively quantified that you touched on like gaming culture and how people have been conditioned to judge the value of a game based on metrics that really aren't conductive to an accurate conclusion.
One thing that sucks with AAA games is the obsession to copy shitty mechanics/business models, like loot boxes or now the 'games as a service' thing.
The Suicide Squad game is a good example for that. Another problem that is in common with developing AAA games, because they take so many years, it happens often that the game takes changes in what it wants to be. Skull and Bones or the upcoming new Dragon Age suffer from these decisions from 'above'. During the process some teams even lose talented people because bad decisions have been made, which leads those games in an even worse development. Toxic work conditions, crunch time are just a few examples.
And then what sucks is the
"let' s release an unfinished game and let the consumers be the beta testers" thing, oh and BTW. let's also rise the price for our games.
good example of "industry trends" being more of a trend prescribed by the industry onto the consumer
it's like fast food vs. home cooking. :)
Great video, Retrobird! This is a very topical issue and you covered it well. I heard “sad dad simulator” for the first time on digital foundry the other and it made me lol
Like comment and share for Mr. Bird!!!
That's a good idea. I guess you're right. FIGHT THE ALGORITHM FOR MR. BIRD!
I liked your content from day one, but man your rhetoric and presentation has leveled up significantly. Keep on man. Love this video.
Those cutaways/metaphors were funny, nice job. Not often do people nail them.
I've been a Nintendo guy my whole life. The first non Nintendo console I bought was Xbox 360 and had a lot of fun playing Red Dead Redemption, GTA, the Batman Arkham games, Assassin's Creed II, etc. Then Uncharted 4, God of War on PS4. Had fun times with these different games that weren't on Nintendo platforms. Nowadays it seems we are only left with gritty, realistic, brooding and apocalyptic games on these higher end consoles. It was a nice compliment to my usual Nintendo games, but now I can't be excited for AAA stuff the other companies have been churning out anymore
I enjoy your videos for your cadence jokes and balanced insight. ✌️👍
i only use ONE Memory Card per console. If i start something new & my card is full i will delete another games progress. It's always fun to replay games. Why try to promote a long game & only play it once? I've never touched a new age AAA game in my life. Good games are meant to be played more than once! i just started playing Castlevania for the TurboGrafx-16 & boy is that game hard. But it's a retelling of the original Castlevania Game & i keep returning. Got my Castlevania mojo back by just replaying it tons of times. Quality over quantity 4 Retro Games!
I agree to an extent. These days though, marketing happens much more organically than it used to. Following the right CZcamsr can unlock a whole echelon of great stuff you'd never see an ad for. But there's also a lot of groupthink that turns 'hidden gem' lists into more of the same. So you do have to always be looking to find the REALLY good stuff!
There's never a dull moment for Retro Bird. 🦆🦆
Someone got Christmas early after Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked was announced. 😁😁
I just quit Modern gaming today. I was playing River City Girls 2. I was at a part where it showed where to go on the map but they had to make that complex by now guessing your way there, then I get to the mission marker & instead of making me go & progress they are making me back track to get thing to waste time to have me progress.
The AAA games are really bad. 20-100 hours of going to point A to B, them talking all the way through the game with dialogue, cut scenes you may or may not skip. Then always these annoying complex puzzles stopping you from progressing which I always have to look up youtube every time for solutions just so I can advance further in the games.
Modern gaming is really terrible. 90% of games are going to be Triple A titles where they are new or remakes or last gen PS4 games & maybe 10% of retro games you like, such as beat em ups, 2d side scrollers, airplane shooters etc. Companies want to play it safe because they make a ton of money now & don't care about the hardcore player.
This was something I noticed in the N64 / PS1 era. There was a big push to make _everything_ 3D, whether it needed to be or not. Not all franchises were amenable to a transition to 3D, and it really hurt some of the titles in that generation to be shoehorned into a gameplay model.
Then, around the PS2 time frame, music was moving toward orchestral scores (to be big and impactful, like the movies!), and everyone focused on cutscenes, voice acting, and bigger budgets. Simplicity started to fall by the wayside.
That, of course, led to the rise of AAA. Sure, those big titles were impressive, and having some of that as an option for those who are into the big epic adventure... that's great. But, like movies and TV, it led to that mentality of "Oh you liked that? Well here are another ten just like it!"
Meanwhile, I think people forgot how Tetris basically created the portable console market, Mario is synonymous with Nintendo, and more time is probably spent on arcade-style games than the lower 90% of players put into Skyrim. (Let's just accept that there are probably some gamers who logged in when the game was announced, and haven't seen their desktop wallpaper since, but they don't represent the whole.)
Now I'm curious if there will be a follow-up video titled "Trends I'd like to see modern games get away from".
Gunstar Heroes AND Comix Zone in the same video? You spoil us, sir.
After seeing your 5th video I finally realised that I love your videos and they always make me chuckle! You got yourself a new sub from Cyprus! :)
Love how you present playing the games too.. what's your setup, do you game on a crt?
Yes, it's on a CRT :) Welcome to the channel!
@@RetroBirdGaming Thanks buddy. Looking forward to more 🍿
I don't think games need to be big, they just need to have great replayability. Any game you finish and can't wait to play again falls into this category, specially if you gain new features every time you finish it, like new characters, items, levels, etc.
Nice one. Especially your between-the-bread-layers bit. Keep up the good work--
Nothing about AAA games feels like there's any passion behind them, like they are someone's artistic vision. It all feels like design by a large committee based on focus groups.
This was my thought too. I go back and look at the teams that made something like FF6 or Castlevania SotN -- some of my fav games of all time -- and it's around 2-3 dozen people. And those were 'big' 'blockbuster' games for the time. With teams of that size, the creative visions of individuals shine through, giving you really unique experiences that feel lovingly made. It's hard to do that on modern big games with thousands of people on staff.
@@neogohanamvFFVI was never a "blockbuster".
Until VI FF was very niche and today you can see that most people don't really care about VI except some people that played the game back then and VI fanboys (those that keep trying to bash VII because it's much more popular).
VII was a real blockbuster.
@@TheMrCHELL It was one of the top 10 best-selling SFC games in Japan and is the 12th best selling SNES worldwide (though that may include re-releases, IDK)
Yes, it technically underperformed in America. But it was a huge high-profile release for Squaresoft and one of the biggest projects on the SNES. That's my point. Even if it only sold 5 copies, it was still the mainline title of one of the hottest RPG series in console gaming, second only to Dragon Quest.
The reason why the gaming industry is not that popular today is because the game companies are doing what they want rather than what the people want, in most cases. If we count out the remasters of course which alot of people want, besides that, they rarely ever make something new, like a new franchise with totally new characters because it's something that is way about their head and might require alot of resources and thought, which many game studios today don't have, the ability to innovate and create things that are compelling to the players, they think they got a great idea but when it's on display and game testing occurs, they all fall flat and they have to lie to their quality assurance that the game is great and ready for release just to not get fired in many cases. This is the reality of todays gaming industry where everyone just cares about money and the products, the games in this case result in very poor reception and the games quality often is not up to expectation by the player base, the masses and all the players in general are looking for a game that is interesting and fun to play, who ever manages to fill that criteria often wins in almost every scenario, so hopefully the gaming industry can learn from the past success of the 2000s millenium and take learning courses from that era and bring that forward in modern times, if they even can, lol.
I have so many indie games that cost 10 or 20 bucks that i play a whole lot more than my AAA stuff. I still love 2d side scrolling games .
Using the 1.2 controller setup on Perfect Dark - a man of taste.
The intro man ... just the first 10 seconds, what a social truth bomb right there.
4:15, yes I can think of one, "Ittle Dew" literally says so in the title. It's meant to say "It's not Zelda, but It'll do"
Companies are to worried about realism these days. It's about game play
I think this is the most important video you’ve ever made. It really is a critical problem.
Fair and balanced assessment of the gaming industry. Thanks Retro Bird!
Each video i watch of yours feels like a Saturday morning cartoon when i was a kid.
Adult waiting for new metroid.
😢I felt that.
It’s the bird bird bird
Bird is the word
My favorite of the games that came out during the risk taking era is “Haunting Starring Polterguy.”
First time watching your channel. Love the cheesy 80s style humor.
Welcome to the channel!
I remember finding a good number of fun games back in the day renting SNES and NES games from Blockbuster. Good times! Maniac Mansion and Shingen The Ruler for the NES come to mind...
Great content as always! Keep up the great and positive attitude, you make me enjoy the hobby especially when you talk about a possible negative topic and make it very positive and level headed. Personally I have not played a modern game in years as I do not own a console but my new wife brought her PS4 and xbox so I might have time to play some more modern games and maybe even a AAA game now to see what all the hype really is about.
Satya Nadella went to MIT and worked a technical career; he probably did play video games. That's a strange and random judgement to make based on appearance.
It’s a shame Sony hasn’t made a modern kart racing game with Rivet on the cover power sliding into Crash. If they would have defeated Mario Kart 8 then Nintendo would have been forced to release the switch 2 already. Nintendo won’t release it because they don’t need to.
Sony actually owns an IP of an amazing karting game that was released back on PS3 called: ModNation Racers and that game was the first real competitor to Mario Kart from Sony part.
Sadly the IP is now abandoned and Sony is not interested to bring it back, not even port the PSP version to the PS4/PS5 (because despite the game was heavily online based due to the "play, create & share" feature, still it offered a nice and long offline campaign mode).
Few channels make me wish I could subscribe twice
Your delivery is endlessly enertaining. Big fan!
Happy to hear it!
If we got an on rails inspired action game again, I would be so happy. They could make a VR version, make the peripheral compatible with VR and it could be great
My respectful frustration with tears and breath was that they never really forced you to learn any skill. It’s there if you want to mess around with it and is handy if you do come to grips with it, but you can also just mash or brute force your way through most encounters and make it through. With so many potential skills on the table, I would have liked it if they designed the game in a way where you are more formally introduced to them and encouraged to level up your abilities with them as they will be called upon during critical junctures in the game. But maybe that’s just me as both those games were mega smash hits.
What you mention about balancing big releases with small releases is one thing I think Nintendo excels at more often than not. You have your big titles like Zelda, but they’ll also pop out smaller, less expensive titles like Disney Illusion Island while also supporting and promoting those smaller titles.
6:00 that guy doesn't deserve to donkey Kong