I get what you're saying, but "the entire video game industry" didn't make Baldur's Gate 3. I'm not jaded enough to claim the entire industry is soulless (indies and AA still exist), but the AAA industry is pretty much there, with the rare exception.

[–] Renacles 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It always has been though. Remember licensed games from the ps2 era?

[–] GunValkyrie 2 points 7 months ago

Does no one remember ET?

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas 1 points 7 months ago

Some were fun. I enjoyed the Harry Potter games and the James Bond games.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah and right now we're all raving that Helldivers 2 is great.

The point is that on average these massive conglomerates of corporate shareholder-driven studios are not soulful because they have the soul beat out of them. Devs have tons of soul, but if it ends up in the final product is ultimately a decision of the management, and they have had the souls sucked out of them.

There are still soulful games, but on average the industry is soulless.

[–] pennomi 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This has always been true, since the very first decade of video games. People just forget because only the good games are worth remembering.

[–] TheQuietCroc 7 points 7 months ago

As is the case with all media. Nobody remembers Populous or Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball on the SNES cuz they were horrible games, but I still hear about Zelda: ALTTP and Super Mario World.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes for example the video game crash of 1983 that saw video game sales drop by about 97% in 2 years because the market got flooded with crap.

Atari even tried to make an E.T game that was supposed to be a console seller but was programmed in 6 weeks and was hot garbage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

And we're looking at a similar collapse for at least AAA vendors because they're flooding the market with half-baked crap.