Is Profit the Main Drive Behind Video Games?

Millennials born in the 80s know how it’s like to witness the surge of iconic home gaming consoles and video games. Sega, Nintendo and Atari were a big part of every little gamer’s life and with that some of the best video games made to date.

The gaming revolution today is spread through various sectors: mobile gaming, pc gaming, social gaming, and even casino gaming where you can play online casino games that have stunning 3D graphics.

There are many prolific companies presently that try to be as creative as possible when breaking into the market with their first games. But sadly, after they get their 15 minutes of glory, these companies continue to be just money generating machines that feed the world with mostly mediocre follow-ups driven by profit.

Mario, Sonic and the other classics have brought us long way, yet people still return to them. Surely, part of this is nostalgia, but nostalgia is when you try to recreate those happy and fun moments you had playing the classics. And the key word here is fun… fun experiencing a game with honest intentions, and not just a redo sequel of a more worthwhile title.

You have probably seen Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Well, becoming the guy that invests in many A+ franchise titles, is like living in the Groundhog Day twilight zone. One example is Assassin’s Creed, a huge revenue generator, but sadly a blockbuster that repeats itself.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a game that contributed plenty to the open-world concept, where complete freedom is the ultimate goal. It made gamers go crazy for it, which is not the case with the next several sequels.

Now, every 18 months you get to be excited about nothing, a game that offers no progression past that initial revolutionary gameplay. When you’ve spent 40 hours of playing it and think about the $80 you spent to buy it, you will instantly want a big fat slap in the face.

There are plenty of uninspiring franchises like that today. Pick any, play it, and you will want to get back in the golden age of gaming, the exciting 80s. How has this happened? How has profit become the main drive in the gaming industry and why have the companies lost the art of creativity?

By becoming big business, video gaming has put its creativity to risk, and has taken a huge loss in that department. It’s not that we don’t get to see exciting, fun and revolutionary games anymore, it’s about what happens after the dust settles and the companies throw out 10 mediocre games for each brilliant one.

The reason why that happens is because business-wise companies are putting less resources at risk by just upgrading their franchises instead of attempting to create something new. It’s capitalistic, and it has ruined the creativity of an entire generation of video game programmers.