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After digging into the data, some interesting trends are showing from the past 7 years of Ubisoft games. I'd like to dig into this more, but I figured Ubisoft would be a great starting point, and it reveals the state of the AAA industry and where things are headed.
SteamDB Query: https://steamdb.info/publisher/Ubisoft/?min_reviews=1&min_release=2017-01-01&max_release=2024-04-21&sort=release_asc
For Honor (SteamDB): https://steamdb.info/app/304390/charts/
For Honor (Steam): https://store.steampowered.com/app/304390/FOR_HONOR/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Some interesting trends in gaming seem to point to a rapidly shrinking market in PC and Console, combined with the fact that the average age of gamers is going up.
I delve into some studies that show this trend and discuss what this could mean for the future of PC and Console Gaming. Are we all doomed to be stuck playing casual mobile games for the rest of time? Maybe not, but it's not too far off from one possible outcome.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/age-of-gamers-ESA-2004-2011_fig1_258225561
https://www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-game-players/
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/number-of-gamers
https://techpenny.com/gaming-console-demographics/
https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1277729/physical-or-digital-core-gamers-in-the-us
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
With all the terrible games released over the past few years, it got me thinking about how we can get back on course in gaming. Here's some evidence voting with your dollar works, as well as some things you can do right now to find the good games, play them, and support their creators.
Steam Demos: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=10
SBI Detected: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017-Sweet-Baby-Inc-detected/
Hogwarts: https://steamdb.info/app/990080/charts/#all
Forspoken: https://steamdb.info/app/1680880/charts/#all
Mortal Kombat 1: https://steamdb.info/app/1971870/charts/#all
Street Fighter 6: https://steamdb.info/app/1364780/charts/#all
Helldivers 2: https://steamdb.info/app/553850/charts/#3m
Redfall: https://steamdb.info/app/1294810/charts/#all
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Google Gaming has a DEI Pledge that asks companies to inject DEI in their projects and culture. Big players in the mobile, desktop and console space have already signed on, though the reasoning on Google's site as to why this is important falls far short of a convincing argument.
Links:
https://games.withgoogle.com/dei-pillars/#our-investments
https://games.withgoogle.com/dei-pillars/hiring-for-diversity/
https://games.withgoogle.com/dei-pillars/designing-for-inclusivity/
https://games.withgoogle.com/dei-pillars/advocating-for-everyone/
Surveys:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/taking-diversity-to-the-next-level-in-southeast-asia
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/future-of-marketing/management-and-culture/diversity-and-inclusion-for-your-bottom-line/
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/diversity-dividend-in-southeast-asia
https://newzoo.com/resources/blog/diversity-inclusion-study-shining-the-spotlight-on-black-gamers
https://diamondlobby.com/geeky-stuff/diversity-in-gaming/
https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1277728/physical-or-digital-core-gamers-in-the-us
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Microsoft is back at it, telling devs how to make their games. In a new effort titled "Product Inclusion Action" they created a bullet list of things to consider when making games, like avoiding unnecessary gender/gender barriers, making clothing and armor fit your female character's tasks, and making sure male characters show a full range of emotions.
https://nichegamer.com/microsoft-cautions-developers-to-avoid-curvy-female-characters/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The original Marathon will finally be available on Steam. While PC gamers have been able to play it for years using the AlephOne project, we'll now have it on Steam, and it sounds like there will be some serious improvements under the hood, including widescreen HUD support and other quality of life upgrades.
https://nichegamer.com/bungie-shooter-marathon-finally-coming-to-pc/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Details for the Koei Tecmo Easter sale items (Ending 4/8/2024). Links to the full sale, and items I covered below:
Sale: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/KOEITECMO/sale/easter24
Ninja Gaiden: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580780/NINJA_GAIDEN_Master_Collection_NINJA_GAIDEN/
Attack On Titan 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/601050/Attack_on_Titan_2__AOT2/
Berserk: https://store.steampowered.com/app/502280/BERSERK_and_the_Band_of_the_Hawk/
Nobunaga's Ambition: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336980/NOBUNAGAS_AMBITION_Awakening/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
While Sweet Baby Inc may have managed to trash a few games, but the roots of this go way deeper. Games are getting woke, whether or not SBI is involved.
I'm gonna get into the weeds on this one and show you exactly how all this works, and why so many games are trash these days.
Sustainalytics: https://www.sustainalytics.com/esg-ratings
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Details for this weekend's steam sale items. Links to the full sale, and items I covered below:
Sale: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?specials=1
Ghostbusters: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2383990/Ghostbusters_Spirits_Unleashed_Ecto_Edition/
Dying Light: https://store.steampowered.com/app/239140/Dying_Light/
Dead Island: https://store.steampowered.com/app/383150/Dead_Island_Definitive_Edition/
Destroy All Humans: https://store.steampowered.com/app/803330/Destroy_All_Humans/
Ghostrunner 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2144740/Ghostrunner_2/
Station To Station: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272400/Station_to_Station/
Hellish Quart: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000360/Hellish_Quart/
Turmoil: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361280/Turmoil/
Hell Let Loose: https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Getting into reviews and player counts for Last Epoch. This ARPG gem is getting very favorable reviews, and people are playing the heck out of it. Great game from an up and coming studio!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/Last_Epoch/
SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/app/899770/charts/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
As part of a reaction to the poor sales of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, Warner Brothers Discusses moving to live service, free to play, and mobile titles.
The idea is that instead of making good standalone games, they can cash in on the live service / microtransaction model to make more money over a long period of time.
All this is going to do is rob them of the few truly fun games they may have in the queue (like Hogwarts Legacy) and give us more live service shovelware that nobody is looking for.
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Looks like GDC is lost. Time to talk about some of the panels from people injecting their ideology into their games, and show just how bad it is.
GDC used to be about making games, and although that's still there, a substantial part of the conference is talking about politics, ideology, and trying to inject it into your games.
Screaming into the void:
https://twitter.com/Mangalawyer/status/1770689024228757757
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Details for this weekend's steam sale items. Links to the full sale, and items I covered below:
Sale: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?specials=1
Star Wars Jedi: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33658/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Bundle/
Command & Conquer: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39394/Command__Conquer_The_Ultimate_Collection/
Mass Effect: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/
Chrono Trigger: https://store.steampowered.com/app/613830/CHRONO_TRIGGER/
Slime Rancher: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433340/Slime_Rancher/
Dirt Rally: https://store.steampowered.com/app/690790/DiRT_Rally_20/
Contra: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2235020/Contra_Operation_Galuga/
TMNT: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34222/TMNT_Shredders_Revenge__DLC_Bundle/
Need For Speed: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262560/Need_for_Speed_Most_Wanted/
Final Fantasy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462040/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REMAKE_INTERGRADE/
Lightyear Frontier: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677110/Lightyear_Frontier/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Here's my take on the A44 Saga and what all happened when Kabrutus tried to get a straight answer out of them concerning their involvement with Sweet Baby Inc.
In short, rumors abound, but it sounds like the project went woke, and is now going broke.
https://twitter.com/kabrutusrambo/status/1770589523199627342
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1770824726807552188
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Some rumors and leaks are coming out about NVidias latest generation of cards, the RTX 50 series. While the rumors about with some substantial tech upgrades, will it be enough of a performance upgrade to attract buyers to upgrade?
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-50-blackwell-gpus-tsmc-3nm-displayport-2-1
SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/app/2229850/charts/#all
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Getting into reviews and player counts for RA2 and Yuri's Revenge. While I don't see a ton of sales or reviews for this game, it does appear to be very well received. Not surprise considering it was a staple of gaming back in the day.
SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/app/2229850/charts/#all
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Wanted to take a minute to go over the current state of GamerGate and the whole SweetBaby Inc / GamerGate 2 drama. If you dig into the details, you can see that anything SBI touches turned to ash, and the old tactics from the GamerGate era are not working like they used to.
SBI Detected:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017-Sweet-Baby-Inc-detected/?appid=1934570
Successes
https://steamdb.info/app/990080/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1313140/charts/#all
Failures:
https://steamdb.info/app/2316580/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/794540/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1599780/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1934570/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/1956040/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1545560/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1534840/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/1823210/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/1310330/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/2702430/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/1421290/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/757310/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/2208920/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/623280/charts/#3y
https://steamdb.info/app/1496790/charts/#all
https://steamdb.info/app/315210/charts/#all
Grummz:
https://twitter.com/THB_STX/status/1766140988257337518/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The Spring Sale is in full swing! Tons of great deals, but not many people talking about the really great buys at the lower pricing, so I figured I'd list 15 of my favorites on sale for under $5. You can see everything on sale using the link below:
On Sale for Under $5:https://store.steampowered.com/search/?maxprice=5&supportedlang=english&specials=1&ndl=1Games In My List:https://store.steampowered.com/app/234140/Mad_Max/https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/233/Left_4_Dead_Bundle/https://store.steampowered.com/app/394510/HELLDIVERS_Dive_Harder_Edition/https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35501442https://store.steampowered.com/app/242760/The_Forest/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172380/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Fallen_Order/https://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/Portal_2/https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34827950https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/deepsilver/list/35605https://store.steampowered.com/app/240720/Getting_Over_It_with_Bennett_Foddy/https://store.steampowered.com/app/900883/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_Game_of_the_Year_Edition_Deluxe/https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/WBGames/list/43346https://store.steampowered.com/app/274170/Hotline_Miami_2_Wrong_Number/https://store.steampowered.com/app/204360/Castle_Crashers/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Big fail for Aspyr with Battelfront Classic Collection. Server issues, bugs, crashes, and clunky/nonresponsive UI. I hope they can fix these issues, but just in case, here's the steam refund policy linked below!
https://steamdb.info/app/2446550/charts/
https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Dragonball Fighter Z is significantly discounted on the Steam Store for the midweek madness sale. Doesn't seem like Bandai Namco had planned on this, but they're definitely doing right by DBZ fans and gamers by giving such a substantial discount. Rest In Peace Akira Toriyama
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Between Tomb Raider I-III and now Battelfront Classic Collection, Aspyr is on a real winning streak. In looking at this title, it's clear they spent a ton of time under the hood, and not as much on graphics, but they still look great and they're very appropriate to the games.
Heavy Steam integration, and a pre-launch discount really set them apart as a studio trying to give gamers what they want.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2446550/STAR_WARS_Battlefront_Classic_Collection/
https://steamdb.info/app/2446550/charts/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Between Tomb Raider I-III and now Battelfront Classic Collection, Aspyr is on a real winning streak. In looking at this title, it's clear they spent a ton of time under the hood, and not as much on graphics, but they still look great and they're very appropriate to the games.
Heavy Steam integration, and a pre-launch discount really set them apart as a studio trying to give gamers what they want.
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
A group of modders trying to get PS VR2 working on Steam found out Sony's been working on this for a while, and now it's official!
Between this news and the slew of Playstation Exclusives they've been releasing on Steam (Including Helldivers 2) it appears Sony appears to be betting big on Valve and PC Gaming.
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Getting into reviews and player counts for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, now that it's been a few weeks since launch. While Steam numbers are far from the complete picture, it does give us some insights into the replayability on PC and consoles.
SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/app/2478970/charts/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Details for this weekend's steam sale items. I found some really solid discounts on some really great games. Lots more in this sale, but I picked out some things that really stood out to me that might interest you. You can see everything on sale using the link below:
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?specials=1
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jasconius
Outro Audio: https://soundbible.com/1936-Crisp-Ocean-Waves.html / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Jasconius is an independent game developer and publisher. Our mission is to create engaging and enjoyable games for a wide variety of audiences.