Sorry Gamers, But Gaming’s Gotten Worse in the 2020s

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While the 2020s have seen some excellent games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Astro Bot, and innovative hardware like the Switch 2 and Steam Deck, the gaming industry as a whole is facing significant challenges, leaving its overall state as just okay.

Compared to just ten years ago, the gaming world has changed a lot, facing issues like studio shutdowns and censorship. While fewer games came out in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, the games themselves felt more innovative and the gaming community was more united. Overall, gaming has declined in quality, and the industry could benefit from revisiting what made that earlier period successful.

Video Games Need to Recapture the Excitement of Earlier Eras

If you think back just 10 or 20 years, the gaming industry seemed more vibrant. We saw a great balance of fresh, original games alongside strong new additions to established series, and it really felt like games were constantly improving.

A great example of this is Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. It was a truly innovative game, much like Super Mario 64 was in the 1990s. The feeling of traveling through space and touching down on different planets was amazing.

Nintendo wasn’t alone in pushing boundaries. The original Dead Space really revitalized survival horror with its groundbreaking sound and stunning graphics.

Popular game series were getting more advanced, and Call of Duty titles from this time felt very cinematic with their impressive graphics and epic music. Exclusive games for Xbox, like Halo, and PlayStation, like God of War, were also consistently becoming better.

Video games were becoming incredibly innovative, and the industry itself was broadening its reach to include everyone. There were titles for all ages, and even options for people new to gaming. Consoles such as the Wii and Nintendo DS were specifically created to attract a wide audience.

Indie Gaming Is Becoming Oversaturated

Big-budget AAA games did really well from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, and at the same time, independent or ‘indie’ games were becoming incredibly popular. Platforms like Xbox Live and Steam made it much simpler for indie developers to connect with players.

Around this time, Minecraft came out and became the best-selling video game ever. Games like Super Meat Boy and SCP: Containment Breach also proved that success wasn’t dependent on having a massive budget.

Indie games are still incredibly popular, and some would say they’re thriving. However, there are now so many indie games available that the market feels crowded.

Steam saw nearly 19,000 games released just last year, with even more coming out this year. Because so many games are being published, most don’t get much attention. While a highly anticipated game like Hollow Knight: Silksong gets a lot of buzz, hundreds of other titles are barely played.

Consoles Are Turning Into Gaming PCs

During the 1980s and 90s, video game consoles were mostly considered children’s toys. However, by the mid-2000s, gaming on consoles had become a serious entertainment option, competing with things like movies and television. Around this time, consoles also started focusing more on connecting to the internet.

Video games became incredibly popular online, opening up new ways to play. But innovation wasn’t limited to online play – the Wii introduced motion controls, and the DS featured a touchscreen that inspired some surprisingly inventive games.

Around the start of the 2010s, mobile gaming on smartphones started to become much more popular, overshadowing many earlier gaming trends. While video game consoles kept getting more powerful, they also began to resemble gaming computers more and more.

Nintendo consoles still offer a distinct experience, but the Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 are quite similar to each other and to gaming PCs. The main difference between them used to be exclusive games, but with franchises like Halo and Forza now appearing on PlayStation, that advantage is becoming less significant.

Price Hikes Are Making Gaming Too Expensive

By 2025, the cost of gaming had noticeably increased, with price increases for consoles from Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, and for games themselves. This is making gaming less affordable for many people.

Adding to the frustration, gaming now relies heavily on subscriptions. Players often need to pay for services like Nintendo Switch Online just to play games online, and even classic games are increasingly requiring these subscriptions.

While some gaming consoles let you play older games, many developers are constantly releasing updated versions for each new console. This often means gamers end up buying the same game multiple times.

The gaming industry saw a lot of progress from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, but lately, it feels like it’s been going in the wrong direction. While games haven’t changed much visually since 2015, they now cost more and offer fewer new ideas.

The gaming industry needs to recapture the feeling that games are for everyone, like they used to be. It’s time to offer something for all types of gamers again.

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2025-12-07 04:56