Video games are dying out and not for the reasons you think

A reader warns that younger gamers are not interested in traditional video games and that they’re the ones driving change in the industry.

In recent weeks we’ve had Reader’s Feature which argue that traditional, console style video games have become something that’s only for older fans and another that suggests that only younger people, with more time on their hands, are able to appreciate them anymore. Both were reacting to the events of the last few months, in which both Microsoft and Sony have seemed to signal a move towards multiformat releases and away from consoles – or at least not having them centre stage as usual.

Who knows what they’re actually planning, because they certainly aren’t telling us, but it’s clear something has changed. The cost of making games is clearly part of it but that’s been slowly increasing for decades, so that’s not enough to cause this sudden, seemingly panicked, change in approach.

I think both the previous articles got it wrong, although they were both touching on the actual problem. The problem is that kids just don’t like console video games anymore, not in the way previous generations have.

Before everyone writes in saying their kid has a console and loves it, clearly not everyone is the same. And Nintendo stuff is particularly popular with younger kids, but once they start to get into their tweens and beyond they start to enjoy Roblox and Minecraft, before moving on to Fortnite and then eventually GTA Online, as well as other free online shooters.

None of those are what most people would consider traditional console games, even though they can be played on a console. But the problem isn’t really the format, even though it seems obvious that more and more younger gamers are sticking with a phone and PC and nothing else.

The problems is that they’re only ever playing two or three different games and seem to have no interest in playing, or certainly paying for, traditional single-player games. All of that is being left to older gamers and once they’re gone I don’t think there’s any evidence that young people today are suddenly going to become single-player fans when they hit 30.

For those growing up today, video games are Fortnite and Roblox. Where we used to war about Nintendo vs. Sega or PlayStation vs. Xbox, that’s an irrelevant question for them. They’re just interested in meeting up with their friends on their social platform of choice, which also happens to be a video game.

They’re not interested in buying the latest new games that get good reviews, they just play the latest new fan-made one in Roblox or buy a new skin in Fortnite. Both those two have gone well beyond being just a single game and are basically platforms in themselves. Far more people play Roblox and Fortnite than own a console and that is the future, not the PlayStation 6 and beyond.

If they do take an interest in something single-player they’re much more likely to watch someone else playing it on Twitch or YouTube than try it themselves, it’s just not an idea that even really occurs to them anymore.

And it’s not just kids. You see it in adult gamers too. GTA Online has been one of the most popular games in the world for over a decade now, with multiple different game types, from shooters to racers. Or there’s Rainbow Six Siege, which is just one game but so popular that the developers say there’ll never be a sequel. And even that pales compared to free PC games like Counter-Strike and League Of Legends.

Some people will still make the games we – the sort of people likely to be reading this article – like, whether that’s indie developers or the odd prestige product from a big publisher, but it’s going to become less and less every year, until it’s a complete niche.

Perhaps one of the big live service games will fall out of favour or be replaced by a new one but that won’t change the overall situation: most younger gamers will still be playing the same handful of games forever, with no interest in anything else beyond that.

I believe Microsoft and Sony realise that already and that explains their recent actions. I don’t think they will be able to compensate for this massive change in how people play games though and that things are only going to get more bleak for traditional games from here on in.

By reader Ashton Marley