In 2023, Insomniac Games, the Sony studio impressed everyone with its Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 released on PlayStation 5. Ultra realistic and visually magnificent, this game has sold 11 million copies. An honest result, but insufficient for this title which cost 300 million dollars to produce.
“What does my 7 year old son play?” »
The Japanese video games giant decided to carry out a plan to lay off 900 employees last February. Far from being an isolated case, this is an underlying trend in the industry. In a fascinating article, the New York Times rightly wondered about this phenomenon.
Quoted by our colleagues, Jacob Navok, a former Square Enix executive, sums up the situation perfectly: “It’s very clear that high fidelity graphics only make things happen for a class of 40 and 50 year old gamers. But what does my 7 year old son play? Minecraft. Roblox. Fortnite. »
In fact, many studios are beginning to wonder whether spending large sums of money on an increasingly small group of consumers is not a financial aberration. Some therefore favor increasingly basic graphics that can be viewed on smartphones.
Matthew Ball, entrepreneur and video game analyst, doesn’t beat around the bush when discussing the case of Roblox and League of Legends games: “They basically run on toasters. Developers aren’t chasing graphics, but the social connections that players have built over time. »
No model that works 100%
The specialist here puts his finger on what concerns the giants of the industry at the moment. Above all, it is about focusing on the social experience of video games, much more than on visual realism. However, it is not an exact science. For example, Warner Bros. and Sony paid the price following the launches of their multiplayer games: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Concord.
Conversely, another example is provided to us by Nintendo. With its Switch, the Japanese firm is not banking on spectacular renderings, but its know-how, single-player games and its large licenses always make the difference. The launch of the Switch 2 is already shaping up to be a big hit.
What to remember:
- Games that offer high-quality graphics are becoming less and less popular in the video game industry.
- They cost too much money and don’t bring in enough
- Studios now prefer multiplayer games playable on much less demanding devices
