An opinion piece in which I think about where gaming as a whole is heading and if there will even be a place for me in it.
The first time I went to Times Square, like every other person in the world, I was stunned. To add insult to injury, a middle-aged man passed by with his wife and uttered a term I heard for the first time: sensory overload. It’s been a decade since, but I keep going back to that moment as I wrap up this gaming-filled June.
First, remakes, remasters, and juggernaut AAA reveals stacked Summer Game Fest. Then, the Steam Next Fest assaulted our PC screens with over 4 thousand demos, no less. And now, we are closing with the Steam Machine being offered at an expected exorbitant price. Oh, and PlayStation put the final nail in the coffin, announcing the death of physical media… What is a gamer to do?
Where To Start?
One of the reasons I never try to discuss the “topic of the day” on social media is because almost always someone smarter, more experienced, or simply funnier than me has already formulated the post with the most engagement. But pondering on what has already unfolded this past month, it is hard not to think that the future of gaming will look very unfamiliar to all of us.
I remember over the years how the PlayStation 5 “has no games” phrase took hold as the years went by, and I refused to believe so. This was since I have always played a healthy variety of games of all shapes and sizes, so I never felt that lull in between big releases.
Now that the dust has settled, though, it is important to face the facts. PlayStation did sit on its laurels this generation and caused blunder after blunder in what is an excellent case study of mismanagement for future generations. The gold rush to the live service game, years late and a spectacular mess (for the record, I did like Concord’s gameplay). It’s abysmal customer service, and the reports of hundreds of accounts with two-factor authentication hacked overnight with no hopes of recovering them.
And now, their ultimate gamble: complete control over all of our gaming libraries. Considering they just removed 500 movies from people who spent the money to “own them,” this could not be more alarming. As I write this, I genuinely contemplate that my time playing new video games is coming to an end.
The Beginning Of The End
My backlog, as so many other fellow gamers mention to struggle with, is attainable. I have about 15 incredibly high-quality VR games, from Half Life: Alyx to Batman Arkham Shadow. On my Switch, a plethora of deeply creative games from smaller and bigger studios surprise me every time I pick them up. And on Steam, well, there is a significant amount of games that I have wishlisted—about 350—and another 20 downloaded on my gaming laptop.
Making a mental note of the games that I have available on offer to me right NOW, I am good to go for the next few years of my life. I tell myself I do not need a PlayStation 6. I am starting to believe it.
One of the people that I am glad to have found on Bluesky is Mat Piscatela, a gaming industry analyst with smart insights that, for better or worse, have a deadly accuracy. I saw his reports that gamers on PlayStation play the exact same top 10 games every month. And not only that, but the pattern that younger generations do not care about consoles or allegiance to any companies will mean a reduced market. Another win for the 1%, whose broken souls cannot be fixed with anything other than more of everything.
Looking at the reaction of “normies” outside online gaming spaces, they do not seem to care. Subservience in the name of convenience? Why yes, good sir, tell me where to sign my rights away. Maybe we do deserve where the future of gaming is heading. And I refuse to be a part of it.
