2024: A Gaming Year In Review

gamesreviews.com:

For the second year in a row, I’m writing a gaming round-up that will feel less about the games and more about the industry. Unfortunately there’s no escaping that in 2024.

After a packed 2023, this year felt like it had the potential to be a bit quieter. Not the case. Release after release came and went. Nearly 19,000 games released on Steam. A few of them were successful.

But most people weren’t playing new games. For all the releases in 2024, one of the most consistent points is that many undersold. Budgets are getting bigger, audiences are getting smaller. We all have gigantic backlogs and can hold out for sales.

Companies desperate to see their line go up for yet another year made redundancies. The Financial Times estimates that 15,000 people were made redundant in 2024, with a total of 33,000 since 2022. It’s been a brutal time for our industry. The quality of games is largely as high as ever. We’re just not really buying.

it’s hard to get too excited about Indiana Jones or Final Fantasy Rebirth in a yearly round-up when the backdrop to that is so much struggling. Something has got to give. Games must shrink. The $/hour attitude towards games that has been an unspoken standard since the Xbox 360 generation must be thoroughly banished. The constant demand for better graphics – even if you can’t really see what’s happening without Digital Foundry – must be reduced. If there’s one thing we can learn from 2024, it’s that it’s just not worth it anymore. Great games can be short, sweet and just pretty enough. Nobody can seriously argue with that.

In terms of the games, 2024 has been a very good year. I say that as somebody who spent most of it playing Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. What an incredible journey that was. After years of building it up, it surpassed my ever expectation. It is easily my GOTY.

But really, this has been a year for adventurers of all descriptions. It has been a tremendous 12 months for those of us who love stories, characters and incredible