Sorry, Your Favorite Game is Dead - Why I Feel Bad for Young Gamers Today

"I feel sorry for young gamers today. With the rise of ‘games as a service’ titles and always-online video games, we are setting the youth up for disappointment. Let me explain." -- PlayStation Enthusiast

[ULTp0ltergeist]

Those are titles that didn't have much of an audience anyways. Besides Battleborn and Gigantic was overwhelmed by Overwatch which alot fo those kids you speak of are still playing as we type. But I do agree that 10-15 years from now Overwatch might not even exist or be playable, but then that just means there is something newer and better that those "kids" are now playing. So, negative for nothing.

[ptownjbo]

Just sucks for fans in general when a game shuts down :/

[thekhurg]

Really poor choice of headline image for that website. One game is still alive. One game hasn't released yet. The other is actually dead.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I mean it does but when I games entire concept relies on online functionality I think it should kind of be understood from the start

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Alot of those games have questionable quality to begin with, poor sales or controversy, or they just took so long to fix where they got to an acceptable level. I'm happy that I can play alot of great games from my childhood though.

[TFJWM]

It is not about the number of players it is about people that loved these games and then they get shut down...In the past you bought a game and you would be able to play it forever. People talk about how good hosted servers are but they get shut down peer to peer will always be there if people want to play them.

[TheRacingX]

I dont understand why a game publisher or dev who has a game on dedicated servers , decides to shut down those servers, put out an update to make the online component P2P, that way people can still play online if need be. At least youre telling that fanbase, if you still want to play , go ahead and keep enjoying our game.

[TFJWM]

@TheRacingX That would be great but if a game isn't making enough for them to keep the servers running why would they ever pay to do that. If MT was enough to support it they wouldn't shut it down...

[strayanalog]

‎A likely problem since Generation 7, sadly. Long gone patches and dead servers will probably become the number one murderer of past titles.‎
This is exactly why single player and releasing finished product is important. I hope I am wrong about this history erasing nightmare, but we will all know for sure in 5 to 10 more years if no solution is found.

[ptownjbo]

Not many people realize that these games will most likely be completely gone in like 10 years. It's saddening.

[strayanalog]

I wholeheartedly agree. I've warned many players about this scenario for years myself. I truly hope a way is found to help the situation, because in an industry that constantly looks forward it's important to remember our past.

[ILostMyMind]

You were very optimistic. I would say they do not last until the next generation arrives.

[TheColbertinator]

Worried about those online only SP games we see more now.

[Cobra951]

Anything that requires an online component is at risk of complete death. Online DRM can be cracked, but if part of the game itself resides somewhere out there, the whole thing becomes useless once support for it ceases.

[chris235]

headlines that end with „here‘s why“ are not worth the click

[Profchaos]

I replayed the old GTA games recently on ps4 and I realised besides the 1080 res upgrade they are all exactly as released minus a few tracks ripped from vice city unfortunately.

They never needed an update or patch there was no game breaking bug because it spent so much longer in quality control because back thence about 15 years ago Devs knew there was no do overs a broken game was not one that could be fixed.

There was also no online and it meant that I didn't have to stop playing because a game got old that's why new games kind of suck is great that we have fallout style games but they are becoming rarer and need patches to fix half the game in release

[thehitman1398]

But with those old games, you also don't have all the graphics we have nowadays, you also don't have all the new features we have nowadays, you also don't have all the new innovations we have nowadays. So it's a give in take.

Would you go back to using a old flip phone or a old brick phone over a new iPhone or new galaxy just because thjose phones need updates to better enhance the phones itself ????

These updates and patches fix problem with the games. And the older games didn't have as many problems with them, not because they spent longer In QA, but because there wasn't as much going with the games therefor not as many problems. So lets remeber that as well

[Vanfernal]

That reminds me that Demon's Souls is shutting down on February 28. End of an era. =(

Hoping it's because a remaster is on the way! =D

[Michiel1989]

I hope they release a remaster/remake of Demon Souls, it's not as likely though since Dark Souls is the most well known/popular from the suls series

[Vanfernal]

Well it's not THAT unlikely. The Demon's Souls ip actually belongs to Sony. A lot of people ignored Demon's Souls when it came out but if they made a remaster I'm sure that most of the Soulsborne community would hop on board.

[Professor_K]

playstayshun Enthusiast

shitting on multiplayer games, whats there to suspect?

[mixelon]

Multiplayer games are a huge part of the PS platform. No less than the competition. You’re stretching here.

Just because they have a strong SP catalogue doesn’t mean they don’t still have a MP one too.

[KickSpinFilter]

Ya Game Pass is cool right now for gamers but in a few years when a developer doesn't want to support the game and it's only digital (cuz thats where there all going with this) they can just turn if "off"
But don't worry PS4 got plenty of MP and SP games to play thanks.

[rainslacker]

The subject matter isn't contained to a single platform. PS has just as many, if not more, people who play MP games than Xbox, so I don't see what the source's potential bias has to do with the subject at all.

[yomfweeee]

Can't remember the last time I played a game more than a year or two after buying. Probably in the 90s. It isn't that big of a deal.

[snoopgg]

Hell , I miss socom confrontation, wish sony would remaster that game .

[EatCrow]

I feel bad for young gamers because they'll never experience couch Co op like it used to be with games like timesplitters, halo, perfect dark, conker bad fur day, Diddy Kong racing, etc. And a myriad of other games that will never exist again in the same way, especially with all the online crap.

[Hardiman]

Goldeneye started it for me! Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing and Halo I & II were other great ones but Goldeneye was so amazing and game changing for me!

Our generation was so lucky in that we got to witness the evolution of video games from Atari to where we are now and everything that came in between!

[Usperg]

EH OK , Sea of Thieves in the title image and it isn't even out yet and had 250k- 350k in Alpha and Beta..

[BeOpenMinded]

My first thought would not be the digital online stuff but why some of my fav series have been worse this gen. New franchises may just have to be a thing along with smaller creative devs. Digital is great for stuff like that. Taking risks is a good approach. Sony has shown to do that and strengthens industry imo

[Monduu]

THIS bs and DLC is why I no longer game.

[jcole97]

Man so much hate around sea of thieves and it isn’t even out yet

[TargusX]

Totally agree, they have it bad.

[NickAwesome]

I Feel bad for them too, some of them seems to have never played a story driven single player game, sad.

[Hardiman]

I've made it a point to expose my kids to SP games. They've been playing since they were small and at that time I had the PS2, GameCube and Xbox.

Two of them really love SP games and do play some Fortnite but do crave the narrative driven games which I love!

Matt doesn't have a lot of patience and likes sports titles, racing etc but will play a SP game from time to time.

Because of this they've had friends who come over and have never played Nier, Uncharted or TLOU and they have in turn got these games and are now playing them!

To me that's the key and we just have to show younger gamers that there are these amazing narrative driven single player games and let them experience them!

[_-EDMIX-_]

I don't feel bad for any of these Gamers because at the end of the day growing up we still had online games that ran on servers where was completely understood that if one day those servers no longer existed that clearly those games with no longer exist.

I believe that over time you're going to see multiple small companies come out to support those servers as we kind of sea with Gamespy.

[Tross]

Gee, I'm quite a few years older than my co-journalist and I almost never play the old-timer card (mostly because that's not how I see myself). I do agree that GaaS titles having a shelf life limited by the servers that they run on is a problem for the preservation of our medium going forward though, and it's a big part of why I tend to avoid those titles. I do get that that's part of their appeal though.

There's probably something magical about taking part in something that's fleeting and finite, knowing that one day it will be an experience future gamers will not be able to have. But, the idea of getting attached to something only to have it be taken away from you one day doesn't sit as well with me. I do get into online games on occasion with friends, but I'm content knowing I'll still be able to play my singleplayer games down the road. I guess every type of game has its drawbacks and it's best to just enjoy what we have now regardless of what kind of experience we may prefer rather than fretting about the future or what has been lost to us.

[Cajun Chicken]

This is why I outright refuse to participate in this trend of online gaming which is supposed to merge the online with the multiplayer. Online games are disposable, do you think that collectors will want to buy rare copies of games of games which servers closed and are unplayable in the future? You are essentially buying a blank disc except for maybe a title screen.

The fact of the matter is that the publishers and even developers KNOW their game are short term and disposable and that's where we should begin to worry. So if you let Single Player games die and let this kind of gaming win, you kill gaming or you let gaming become a graveyard for once playable experiences, everyone loses.