RetroGaming

I think the motivation is that it's difficult for them to show off their newer games to shareholders in a positive light if the old games are doing better. They want people to not dwell on older games and just keep paying money on the next new game, which are often low effort and dragged by the coat tails of some past legacy.

It's about maximising profit and growth outlook with the least amount of investment and effort, not about providing fair access to their catalogue of products

Worse than making the argument is believing it.

People wanna pay me for permission and a tiny data transfer? They don't even need me to do marketing or development because it's already done? Nah, fuck that. I wanna put coal in stockings!

Are you dumb?

When dealing with corporates, I think they need a modified version of Hanlan's Razor:

"When explaining a corporate decision, assume a close ratio of malice AND stupidity."

They don’t want old games cutting into their profit.

Ubisoft can use me as an example. The only games from them I’ve purchased in the last six months are Assassin’s Creed 1, Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2, Splinter Cell and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

Not gonna lie I’ve bought Minecraft like 8 times at this point for my 3 kids over the years for various platforms. Most recent was the Switch

in their minds they already *had *planned obsolescence, until emulation took it away from them.

"It only sold 45 million copies. ABYSMAL. (After we spent 95% of the total budget on marketing promising the world's most flawlessly perfect game ever designed). FIRE EVERYONE."

The logical result of the game industry's takeover by "Packaged Goods industry" types.

I don't know what you are developing, but I mostly play RPGs. And sure, I tend to go towards older games I've played and know a lot. But I also picked up Eiyuden Chronicles, Sea of Stars, and Octopath Traveler 1 and 2 and played them through completely.

The issue for me is that new games try really hard to emulate and reference older titles in the genre. They act as a love letter to the original games and, in my humble opinion, end up worse for it.

The developers chase nostalgia and don't let their games stand on their own two feet. They don't trust the game they made to be good without being propped up by the old games they reference. They fail to write a compelling and unique story instead of filling them with references to games they loved. In some cases, they try to have all these different systems and mini games that were innovative in their original form, but now are clodged together and fighting each other for my limited attention.

Take Eiyuden Chronicles for example, I loved the Suikoden games and have played them multiple times. But they added every single minigame from the 5 games that came before it as well as adding new ones. I couldn't focus on the story while trying to navigate all these little systems. I'm not young and with a ton of free time anymore. I don't want to study in order to figure out some skill tree with hundreds of branching options. I don't want to feel like I'm missing out on story or game play because 20 minutes in I had to make a decision where I wasn't aware of the consequences.

Personally, I just want an emotional story that I can immerse myself in without having to study how to play a game or time pressure where I can't enjoy the journey.

Anyway, if you take anything away from that long winded rant it should be: if you make your game good, trust that it will be able to stand on its own against those old ROMs then people WILL play it and love it. Don't compare yourself to the past and people falling back to their "comfort games" and make your game as great as you can. Create the game that you love and would want to play and know that others will want to as well.

Circuses, you say?

But are you also saying they need to impart social ideologies with them? Like what ones? Where you going with this?

Glorifying/justifying war? Or are you talking stuff in the realm of equal representation?