Welcome back to RetroFungeon. My intention is to bring this site back as a reminder of what Video games were like before frequent updates, DLC and being nickel and dimed for everything. Back when games belonged to us when we bought them instead of the glorified overpriced BS we get now. A reminder what you should demand from Modern Gaming that has been unceremoniously stripped from the end-user experience and what they have been replaced with; a shell of it’s former self.
A lot has happened in the gaming industry over the past decade. Studios were bought and closed, franchises gamers loved are gone and put away in intellectual property vaults never to be seen again, remakes of remakes of remakes that still fix nothing and of course eternal delays for sequels. People have also been put in charge of franchises that had no right to be. Promising innovation and new ideas only to receive the same re-heated gruel shoveled down our throats as “New and improved” when they were just stripped, censored and repackaged for a generation that does not care about them.
The game studios we have left have all failed us. Some deliver here and there but for the most part it has fallen apart. I think the only franchise of games that has not been dipped in censorship or derived from it’s core has been the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. A lot of Grand Theft Auto I once had has been squished by the mismanagement of Strauss Zelnick and his ego driven, parasitic cannibalization of the series to turn the game into an infinite money printer. When all they did was create a system where online users get banned, only allowing them to rejoin online by buying a new key for a few dollars. That is not growth. That is a dirty trick to make your investors happy and nothing else.
A lot of companies have forgotten that the money in their quarterly reports does not come from individuals who are suckers but rather from people who have given their hard earned money for sub par products that are fed up. Gamers are spending less money than ever on games becuase there is nothing to play. Newer generations of gamers want instant gratification and something they can play on their phones. They are not interested in consoles. They want to play on a tablets or phones. Companies like Take Two think that branding is all that is required to sell anything. I wonder what will happen in 2027 when Take Two discovers that they are not making back the money they invested in GTA VI as quickly as they did with GTA V.
Other nefarious practices have come with Large conglomerates buying up Studios, raiding their IPs and then firing the people who made the magic happen. Harmonix, Monolith, Westwood, Ready At Dawn, DICE (Canadian), Boss Fights, Alpha Dog. The list goes on and on. I am not sure what the whole thing was about getting all these IP rights when none of them are doing anything with them. Capcom ONLY RECENTLY decided to open their CVS games up for re-releases with emulators that added features and better save states than the ones DL’ed from the web. Other studios however, not so much. You will not see a new Battlefield, Metal of Honor or Need for Speed Underground 3. The sequels we want will not come because they sit in vaults with TOP MEN roosting on top of them like they will produce money just being adjacent to their butts! “We’re creating demand”. Delusional folk…
These are the things I would like to cover..as well as all things Retro.