[85612] Crisis in the gaming industry: Between economic models and software development difficulties

The battle over the future of the gaming industry

A public storm is brewing on social media regarding the issue of game development studio closures, with the debate splitting into two main narratives. On one hand, Asmongold and wiseASDF present a position criticizing 'Woke' culture in the industry, arguing that awards given to certain games do not reflect commercial success and that studios are closing due to a lack of alignment with the target audience. On the other hand, other voices in the discussion emphasize that these are the rigid rules of capitalism, noting that studios that developed hits like 'Hi-Fi Rush' were closed regardless of ideology, but rather due to pure business considerations.

Development challenges in the field

Parallel to the cultural discussion, industry figures point to the actual operational difficulty in producing games. Jonathan_Blow, a veteran game developer, emphasized that "game development requires a massive amount of work," and noted that while in regular software he multiplies his time estimates by 2.5, in games he multiplies by 10 and is still wrong in his estimates.

The status of independent developers

The economic difficulty is also trickling down to independent (Indie) developers. AstroFox_Dev expressed despair over the state of the industry and noted that "independent development is simply not sustainable." Despite this, he emphasizes a more romantic approach, whereby he prefers to focus on fine-tuning his game and enjoying the process, even if the chances of failure are high, instead of investing all his energy in manipulative marketing methods.