Video gaming peaked with the Xbox 360 era and has been in decline ever since

One reader is convinced that the Xbox 360 and PS3 era was the pinnacle for gaming and that publishers should have realized it back then.

Nostalgia is, as they say, a hellish drug. It hits everyone eventually and seems to destroy all sense of perspective and reason. I am fully aware of this and that there is probably nothing you can do about it. Knowing all that, I’ve become fully convinced that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were the pinnacle of gaming, and while the last generation was good, I think it’s clear now that it was laying the foundations for the mess we’re in now.

I am, of course, referring to all the layoffs and the fact that games are so expensive and time-consuming to make now. These are problems that were evident in the Xbox 360 era and before, as it gets worse with each generation, but publishers have done absolutely nothing to stop or slow it down.

We all know that now, but looking at my collection of Xbox 360 games, what strikes me is how many actual franchises started in that era and how many different genres, that you don’t see today, were still going strong. Even things like arcade racing are rare now, but back then you got big budget stealth games, puzzle games, space combat simulators, 3D platformers, strategy games and much more besides.

It’s not that those games aren’t being made today, but they’re either indie games or low-budget efforts that most regular people don’t even know exist. Back then, these games were all commonplace, or at least the stuff you’d see in stores and casual gamers could be exposed and tempted to buy – especially if they were on sale or sold second-hand.

All of that is gone nowadays and the only games that exist are free-to-play games that want to take over your life or bloated single-player epics that want to do the same. Back in the Xbox 360 days, the average story campaign lasted 12 hours tops and that was absolutely fine. Nothing overstayed its welcome and everything was limited so you fill it up and then move on to something else.

A lot of people will say that the last generation was great and in many ways it was, but then the bloat and direct service games started. Also, the number of new IPs being released decreased drastically, until you get to today where virtually no new franchises are being made. Just endless sequels, reboots and remakes.

In my opinion, the Xbox 360 was the sweet spot where games looked good, we had decent online features, and games were cheap enough to make and buy that gamers and publishers could afford to take risks. from time to time.

Everyone wants great graphics, but it’s like eating too much and not exercising, it tastes great at the time but you know it’s not sustainable and will hurt in the long run.

Saying things were better in the old days sounds like such an old thing, but in this case I don’t see how wrong I am. Ideally, publishers would have realized its truth by then and then cooled the race to have better graphics, so they only gradually improved each generation (or maybe the generations lasted much longer, so that people were spending money on new, non-boring hardware games).

I’m sure there are a hundred different ways they could approach the problem, but instead they did nothing and pretended there was no problem. Once upon a time the good old days were really better.

From reader Gatorater

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