Oversaturation

If you take a look at the videogame industry it appears it is at a point where it is heavily bloated by the amount of games being produced. This bloat makes it more and more difficult for games to stand out. It also makes it harder for aspiring developers to enter the industry and find any kind of success. This is aggravated by live service games. As these kinds of games proliferate there is greater competition for a player’s time. Since games can persist for so long it has become an uphill climb to create something that will pull a player away from established franchises or live service games. Live service games are a result of the ongoing changes in videogame development and technological advances. The ability to update games so easily has made this kind of game more viable. Although some development practices will sometimes allow a game to launch in a broken state, only to be patched shortly after launch. The focus on live service by a lot of developers has also clogged the market. They need to stand out greatly in order to retain a large enough player base that can invest in the game.

A short scroll through Steam and anyone can see the vast amount of games on offer. Even the Switch’s own storefront is filled with hundreds of games that have little chance to stand out. This may be discouraging for future developers. The industry can be unforgiving and the investment of time and resources makes this all the more inaccessible to anyone who does not have the funding for it.

The amount of layoffs in the videogames industry is a direct result of this oversaturation. What once was a growing industry, now needs to scale down. This is coupled by game projects being cyclical, unless the developer plans ahead with numerous projects. A large videogame may require a large amount of artists and programmers, but once the game is out in the market only a small few are retained to provide maintenance. Contract work is popular in the industry as it provides an easy way out for a company. There is, of course, no excuse for the layoffs. It is a lack of planning that results in this. The livelihood of so many people is constantly changing because the videogames industry has allowed the failings of management to permeate.

To conclude, the videogames market has the biggest amount of games it ever has. This works against discoverability of games published by indies or single developers unless the game itself can stand out. So unless the game comes from an already established franchise or studio it might not find the success it needs to help the creator survive in the current economic environment.