Topic: The industry makes me want to drop the hobby.

I'm having a bit of a gamer existential crisis. The truth is that this industry absolutely disgusts me. All three big publishers have raised prices for their games and/or hardware. It just feels like they continually charge more while giving you less. And then there is their seeming utter contempt for preservation. It's like the industry is appalled that their medium is considered an art form and so they want to do everything they can to undermine that. Nintendo not allowing you to individually purchase NSO games. Microsoft not putting the actual game data on discs. Nintendo not putting game data on game-key cards. It's like they think the medium is a complete joke that needs to be treated as nothing more than a shameless and soulless money maker. Well, the truth is that if that's what the future of gaming is then I don't want to be a part of it anymore. Gaming is becoming an increasingly expensive hobby that seems to give back less and less. And it's getting to the point where I'm not sure it's worth it anymore. I love video games so much. They're such an important part of my life and are such a wonderful and creative interactive art form. But game companies seem to despise games and despise me for liking games. I just don't know how much longer I'll be able to look past how increasingly disgusting the industry continues to become.

I'm getting to the point of wanting to retire from the hobby myself. For different reasons of my own. At this point...with people wanting to go digital, complaining about having to switch carts and even saying it would contribute to more plastic waste. Of which the latter two I find to be very pathetic excuses. More out of laziness and everything. And to top it off...I just don't care about game preservation anymore. Digital buyers will have to live with the downsides of digital games. Not my problem nor my concern. This may come off as blunt but at this point? I just don't care.

It's why I sticking with blu-ray movies stuff. At least everything will on the movie disc and no patches or updates to worry about. Plus...it's much cheaper anyways.

That what I have been leaning more towards as of late, retro gaming. There are plenty of older games that I missed when they first came out and now are dirt cheap. I just bought a few SNES and PS2 games that were in the range of 5 to 15 dollars.

I don't want to completely undermine the actual valid issues of this post, but I wouldn't have put the lack of having to spend 5 bucks just to play Ice Climber above the mass layoffs and regular reports of employee harassment and crunch personally.

@Ultimapunch The choice is yours and yours alone, nobody else can make it for for you. So my advice is to take a good long step back, tune out all gaming news for a while, unplug and give your attention to something unrelated to gaming. Give it some time and you should have a better idea of how you feel about the hobby.

@Ultimapunch : You've echoed many of my thoughts and sentiments on the topic. I think one of the reasons why I've hoarded so many games on Switch was because I was subconsciously preparing to drop out of buying new games considering the direction that the industry is heading in (not to mention its ideological direction, which we aren't at liberty to discuss), and I do not wish to support those who show nothing but contempt for their loyal customers.

There is no shortage of excellent classic games that I love, and there is no shortage of mods and fan games either, so I think we'll still be amply entertained in the years to come.

But it would break my heart a bit if some of my favourite IP continue to sink to a point of no return, as there's a revived IP that only filled me with anxiety not knowing how it's going to be executed so many years later.

I would argue that most of the things being complained about here is not gaming. Gaming is, you know, the act of playing games. And with the exception of the price of games going up (although notably at a slower rate than other hobbies/media) none of the things mentioned here stop you from playing games. Or get in the way of playing games. If anything a lot of the changes Nintendo has made in the last couple of decades have made gaming more accessible

Sure, things like game key cards hurt the collection of games or specifically the long term value of the collection of games. But.... I don't hold much sympathy at all for that part of the market dying off. And I don't really buy the idea that preservation of games is somehow under threat either

With that said.....

I've been considering giving up the hobby in a few years if things are going to continue to become as bleak as they are. Mainly because eventually I'll be priced out of the hobby (if prices keep rising, and GTA normalizes the 100 dollar game like rumors are saying it will), along with the rise of GenAi being used and normalized by a lot of companies. Games will stop becoming a form of art, and more and more effortless slop will be shoveled out to us. I know that a lot of companies are already gouging prices and the like, but it feels like Ai will only make things worse- since companies will scramble to replace all human employees with Artificial Intelligence eventually.

I want to support art made by human beings, and if even indie titles start using Ai to supplement the need to hire developers or talent, then I just give up at that point.

It's impressive how this industry manages to hate both its employees and its consumers.

Thought 1: Art and creativity will always live on. The world always has and always will hate artists of every medium, yet art still exists. As long as we are human

Thought 2: This conversation has been had ever since the internet started discussing video games. In the next decade, gamers ten years younger than us will be talking about the good ol' days of the Nintendo Switch 2 and how Nintendo hasn't made a good game since Mario Kart World. Like how Nintendo hasn't made a good game since Breath of the Wild.

Thought 3: If you wish to boycott these large companies abusing their employees, indie games are willing labors of love. We had Animal Well, Lethal Company, R.E.P.O and a bunch of who knows what come out just last year. And there will be more to come.

Thought 4: Another alternative is retro gaming and emulation. Since you're already upset and want to stick it to Nintendo, pirate their old games! Emulation will forever kept alive and roms will forever be sent to each other through the back alleys of the internet.

Thought 5: Romhacking! It's like indie games and emulation mixed together! There are legitimately so many amazing rom hacks out there, especially for Super Mario World on the SNES.

Thought 6: I know you haven't finished your backlog yet. Don't lie.

Go for it! A lot of comments in here are taking things way too seriously so maybe it's for the best.

@kkslider5552000 All of those are issues as well. If I went through a complete list of issues I have with the industry I'd have to go way over the character limit. I will say though that your Ice Climber example is really quite the straw man. I can still play the Wii virtual console games I bought back in the day. You can't play Super Soccer on NSO anymore. And sure that's probably a game most people don't care about. But eventually NSO will shut down completely. Just like online service for the DS, Wii, 3DS, and Wii U did. And when that happens access to all those games will be gone. It's just so clearly not a good thing as far as access and preservation are concerned.

@skywake Trying to separate games from the games industry is something that is not possible to do. I would love to be able to do that. But when I get intrusive pop ups for microtransactions, or for online connectivity, or for EA account terms of service when I'm just trying to play a game. It becomes impossible for me to try and ignore the greater gaming industry issues while playing a game.

Gaming will always have a future, thanks to retro gaming. I hope that you will keep your love for games and keep gaming.

You take the good with the bad. The video game industry is dominated by corporations. Profits first and foremost, even at the cost of games being less consumer-friendly and heavily monetized. But that's AAA-gaming. There's plenty to appreciate and enjoy in the AA and indie spaces.

I get it, the industry is changing - in many ways, for the worse. But I don't think there's anything stopping you from gaming, even if you choose not to buy new games and consoles.

I would also challenge some of your assertions tbh. "It just feels like they continually charge more while giving you less" is only true if you let it be true - there's no shortage of games that offer good value in 2025. It's actually never been easier to get large amounts of content (a lot of it quality) for little money - people have a backlog problem for this very reason. And similar to @skywake I also don't buy the idea that game preservation is at risk - outside of always-online games (which you could just not play), I'd say game preservation is in a better position now than ever.

IDK I just think this is an unnecessarily pessimistic view of the medium, but you do you.

@Ultimapunch What hobby are you referring to?

Playing video games? There's plenty out there, accessible through multiple means, that you don't need to give up on.

Following gaming news and buying games?
Capitalism consequences are starting to look a bit unsavoury. Do yourself a favour and be more selective about how you indulge. News sites, and any social media carrying significant advertising, are hooked on rage bait, never missing an opportunity to thrust negative stories under our faces. So look elsewhere. Find places to talk games that provide shelter from the filth flying overhead. News is not a healthy habit. And buying for the sake of buying isn't particularly healthy either. But with a few tweaks, you can still love the hobby while avoiding the contamination all around.

Although some companies are definitely pretty toxic to their employees, Nintendo is consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for in Japan and there are plenty of other good game companies out there, especially many smaller indies. Buyers have a lot of choice if they don't want to support certain things.

In terms of game preservation? Not perfect, but seems pretty good right now. It's impossible to predict too many decades into the future (maybe civilization will collapse, who knows), but I fully expect to still be playing my Switch 1 digital games 2 decades from now, and I expect the trend of porting and emulating and repackaging more and more classic games to modern devices to continue.

Price? Gaming has been hit a bit less by inflation previously and perhaps it's now doing a bit of a course correction. However, there are still essentially infinite gaming options which are cheap or even near free. Much as we like to look down on Free to Play games from our Nintendo bubble, there are a lot of high quality games in that sphere and many of them can be played free for hundreds of hours. There are also plenty of long really good indies out there you can grab for 5-20 dollars. Not to mention things like NSO where you can play 100s of games for $20. We are absolutely awash with choice in modern gaming and although we might not be able to get everything we want within our budgets, it's possible to get a high quality lifetime worth of gaming within a pretty small budget.

I was about to say this. Nintendo is a very good company to work for, consistently make good games, and have said that they won’t use genAI. When you have all of these benefits, it’s hard to keep games at $60, especially with other mediums increasing price with inflation to keep total profits the same, while video games stay the same price.

In fact, I remember hearing (just search it up) that almost 50% of gamers wait for sales before buying games, and that makes it so the massive increases in game budget without any increase in MSRP, makes video games much more risky than before to make, as you have a much higher chance of not even breaking even. You can’t have it all.

I always feel if a hobby no longer brings you joy then let it go. I am sure you have a backlog and plenty of games and YouTube is great for watching things you don’t buy but are curious about.

This is a for profit industry and it will always operate as such. Nothing wrong with walking away.

I'm in a similar boat. I am not happy about prices going up at all since I could be priced out of the hobby, and game-key cards honestly make me want a Switch 2 even less, especially since I do buy third party games on Nintendo consoles as well, most third party seems to be game-key cards. I'm not giving up on the hobby, because there's always something to play.

I love playing older games, and I have a backlog of games between my Switch, Wii U, and my PC. I can look to playing those games. I could still buy new Switch games. One of my favorite things to do is play classic PC games I missed out on as I was a Mac kid growing up.

Also, if you're upset with AAA games, may I suggest looking at some indie games? Indie games can offer great experiences that AAA games just don't offer. On all the systems I mentioned, I've played some indies that have been fun, some of them have been amazing too. I've been playing Freedom Planet lately. It plays like a Sonic game, yet has its own combat system, characters, universe, and story that made it amazing. Indie games are worth looking into if you want something new to play.