Disclaimer: Again, this is a personal opinion based on my experiences on what I’ve seen in later years and any of these could be wrong at any point, as I can’t really say what will actually happen in the near (or far) future.
Since my last post (wow, it has been a while, hasn’t it?) things has changed. My English hasn’t improved all that much and lots of things happened in the gaming world. So I’d like to dispute or even counter-point myself in the original post.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality has moved quite a bit since May 2019. Valve, Facebook (with Oculus branding) and LG, plus several bootleg companies are really trying to push it down our throats. One of the things I mentioned is that you need a computer to make VR work properly, essentially meaning that a VR headset is no different than a gamepad/console controller or a fancy wheel peripheral, but so far it didn’t work all that much. However, I believe that Oculus cracked that code.
The new Oculus Quest, aptly named Quest 2, is a standalone VR device that costs 400 USD and has its own library of games, plus you can use it with a PC. Suddenly you see that VR can be much MUCH more affordable that way. People are paying over 1500 USD for phones nowadays and over 1000 USD for graphics cards, hell, Valve’s VR headset, the Index, costs 1000 USD in its complete package. But with only 400 USD, you get the Quest 2, and you don’t need anything else but the games (and battery). I can see VR being like this moving forward, trying to be its own thing rather than a fancy gamepad that you can put in your face.
With that, the inconvenience in both in price and usage is minimized almost completely. Not that I think that this is the future of gaming, but this is the future of VR, which needs to have a clear distinction. It won’t replace our standard method of gaming but it sure can use a boost in popularity. Maybe lower prices could work too.
Motion Controls
As I type this, my idea of motion controls not working continue to ring true. The Nintendo Switch (other than VR) is the only console that has motion controls advertised in the first party games, and not all of them support it.
I also forgot to mention that the PS3 controller (the PS4 one as well) had gyro controls. But honestly, I can count in my one hand how many times I used the feature, maybe MGS4 used it but I’m pretty sure it’s only that one.
As I said before ‘Until Motion Controls can replace the convenience of pressing a button to do an action, it’s doomed to fail again and again’. And that continues to be true.
Games as a Service
As I said last time, Games as a Service are doomed to fail if they treat the game as a service but not as a game. And keep releasing new games is what makes things worse and worse for any games that want to be services. Destiny 2 has fixed itself to be a better experience but it’s reached a point that a third game is inbound at some point. Anthem however didn’t far so well. It’s so bad that the Mass Effect trilogy is getting remastered, something that I’ve never believed it would happen.
However we had Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers, a blatant cashgrab disguised as a ‘Games as a Service’ deal. No one bought it, no one played it. On Steam, it lost 90% of the players after the first week. Call of Duty made ‘Warzone’, with the release of Modern Warfare 2019, which means that they have their own ‘Games as a Service’ game, but now it so happens that they still release new games for it, and this year has a 2021 title. C’mon Activision, just drop the BS. Konami made an upgrade to the 2021 version of PES instead of making a new game that looks and plays worse than the previous. So there’s no excuse.
Meanwhile Fallout 76 has lots of QoL improvements, but still can’t make more than 15k people play the game lately. What I said before was that “games are going to die off (eventually) because the ratings are low and the playerbase, which is absolutely necessary for GaaS to thrive, will shrink even lower” but I should have said this instead:
“The first impression is the one that truly counts.”
Game Streaming
The last post started with me saying that Google Stadia was needed by no one. I was sorta right but also a bit wrong. Game streaming did take off but not without it’s players being kinda strange about it.
PlayStation offers PS Now, which is a system that only adds to your local US and Europe PlayStation accounts. You can also use it in your PC, which is cool. But do you happen to live outside of these regions? You get diddly squat.
Xbox offers Xcloud Game Streaming, which is the same deal as PS Now. It has an app for Android which is kinda cool.
Nvidia can’t rely on Nintendo for this sort of deal so they started their own service, ‘GeForce Now’. Creative name? Not really, but it’s unique because you rent a machine and play your own games on it. Only problem was that Nvidia didn’t ask the publishers to take part and many decided to drop them.
Amazon’s Luna service is a service that exists. Never saw more than the news of its announcement and that Ubisoft would be there because of course they would.
Finally, Google Stadia. The tech giant can’t still figure it out. That project director Paul Harrison is a talentless hack that keeps getting jobs… I envy him. Anyways, Stadia only announced its own internal game development studio after the damn thing launched, not before. And after Cyberpunk 2077, Google saw the money figures and decided to drop them like it’s hot, focusing on just third party games. One of them, the remaster edition of Judgment, from the Yakuza makers, is Stadia exclusive, either for 6 months or a year. Steam will launch after that. The old tactics won’t work if your system is losing people, Stadia. You need more than just that to stay alive.
Now, here’s the question: Is it the future? I can answer this way: The limited availability of game streaming makes it hard to replace the common standard gaming. It can be convenient to never have to worry about building PCs or plugging consoles to your TV, but it can’t replace it completely.
Subscriptions
Since my last post, you can sort merge several of the Game Streaming services in here since they do the same thing, like Amazon Prime Gaming and PS+. Ubisoft decided to be funny and create Ubisoft+, EA decided to be boring and renamed Origin Access to now EA Play. But other than that, these services continue to function the same way as before. I mentioned before Humble Monthly, but that since had changed to “Humble Choice” which kinda sucks.
Now the question you want to know the answer: “Xbox Game Pass, is it a good deal/strategy?” Maybe, it depends on the viewpoint.
On the console side of things, it’s kinda amazing, since you get Xbox Gold (aka pay to play online) and tons of games curated by MS. If you play games a lot in a short time, it’s a good deal.
On the PC side of things, you pay the same amount (but don’t pay for online, so it’s kinda wasteful), the game library isn’t as big and you need to deal with the Microsoft Store. Not as good as a deal.
Now, here’s the question: Is it the future? Well, no, it’s the present, it’s already here. If it’s good or not, that’s another story.
Epic Games Store
Before I go “my thoughts on Keanu Reeves” meme in here, let’s just take some time to try to understand that since it’s launch late 2018, the Epic Games Store still doesn’t have a shopping cart. While the store for their engine, Unreal Engine Store does. Let that sink in.
Anyways, EGS is here to stay as long as Fortnite continues to make money on consoles. It’s clear that Epic isn’t fighting any good fights, they just want to get more for themselves. According to some bullshit data, despite the whole 2020 thing, Steam grew about 40% while Epic grew 5%. It’s clear that something isn’t right here and it’s mostly Epic’s fault. They don’t want to get a bigger market for themselves, despite offering free games every few weeks, only a few actually use the platform as a primary source of entertainment.
If you have a PC, chances are that you have a Steam account. If Epic is fighting to be the second option you have installed, they aren’t making a good job. The “If you make games, they’ll come” sort of mentality doesn’t work anymore, you need a strong platform behind you to make it work. And I doubt that the EGS is something I can call ‘strong’.
Conclusion
Predicting the future is always a hassle, but damn, doesn’t feel good when you’re proven right? Yeah, crazy. Again, rushing it is a bad idea, so we need to take one step at a time.
