Shawn Layden said we’re seeing a collapse in creativity in games, and I really can’t agree more with him. Right now, every big gaming publisher out there is just too scared to take risks.
When was the last time, a game was released and it surprised you with how unique it was. Every game looks the same when it comes to storyline and dynamics. They’ve become very formulaic, very repetitive, and just boring. Maybe it's because I'm all grown up now but I used to be a heavy gamer until I reached a point where it felt like I was playing this same game just with a different name and a little bit of difference I'm graphics.
Games like Fortnite and Call of Duty are raking in the cash, but are you seeing anything new out of them. The only red they still make money is probably because they're still the most relevant ones not because they deserve as much cash as they're making.
Have you played this game called Shadow of the Colossus before?. Now that's what I call a game and the game company wasn't trying to squeeze every cent out of my wallet to buy new skins or go to next level. Those are what I call the classics. You don't get such games these days.
They just want another Fortnite and another GTA for more money but not exactly the love of the game.
Layden also said budgets for games are skyrocketing, and I see that's a huge part of the problem. If you have to spend $200 million to develop a game, you’re not going to want to experiment too much with creativity, you'll probably want to follow the trend that'll work which will ensure you make good profits. So if developers realize GTA style games are trending they'll do same until the game stores are flooded with very similar category of games.
It all comes down to plain old fear of taking risk, fear of losing money and the fear of creating something people don’t get or understand right away. They wouldn't want to create a game where the learning curve is too complicated for new players because that'll discourage them fast from playing. Fear really is the enemy of creativity. I miss the good old days when new and creative games were getting released like how new AI updates are right now.