Photo Caption: A direct comparison between the most recent NBA 2K games. Sports game publishers release games yearly, often making miniscule changes to the visuals or gameplay as seen here, and just adding new rosters.
Many of us in high school grew up playing video games with our friends and family. Whether it was Madden, Minecraft, or Call of Duty, I’m sure plenty of us can look back fondly on our childhood gaming experiences. But lately, it just seems like the magic of games has been sucked away. Quality has gone down the drain as these gigantic companies prioritize the dollar, and we’ve watched it happen in real time. But is there still value in the new products coming out, or have we just outgrown games?
Games used to be something worth sinking entire days into. Waking up on a Saturday morning and turning on the Xbox to play Madden or NBA 2K felt special, with all of the in-depth team building and customization. But nowadays, games feel stale and boring, as many franchises follow a yearly release cycle that rehashes the same gameplay with new rosters and a spritz of something new to keep people buying. The NFL and NBA both have licenses with EA Sports and 2K Sports, so your only option for officially licensed sports games with current players is to buy the newest Madden or 2K game. Because profits are guaranteed, companies cut corners to ensure efficiency, as beloved features like Teambuilding are thrown to the wolves. Other franchises are even worse—Call of Duty isn’t the only option for first-person shooter games, but it is the most popular, with its own yearly release model. Fans have complained about the constant stream of games, and the publisher Activision has claimed in some years that it won’t have back-to-back releases, but it goes back on its word anyway. The story modes in these games are thrown together with little effort, the multiplayer modes don’t stand out from previous titles, and each game becomes distinguishable only by the name and art design. Profit drives these companies to operate the way they do, sacrificing quality for quantity because they know people will buy their games anyway. So they cobble together some new guns, slap on a different aesthetic, and watch the money pile up with as little effort as possible.
While quality has dropped across many franchises, the games themselves aren’t the only problem. Simply put, many of us just don’t have the same time for games. During COVID, people turned to home entertainment to keep themselves busy, as video game sales surged to a record $56.9 billion—27% higher than in 2019. We had more time on our hands back then, with school fully online and no serious priorities on our hands. But as our generation grew up, games became less of a priority, and this isn’t helped by the industry being oversaturated with mediocrity. I’d never want to say that games aren’t good anymore, even though for some franchises like Madden, this may be the case. We just don’t have the same time to pour into games, and when that’s paired with decreased quality, it’s easy to see how the magic is withering away.
With these problems present and less time on our hands, is there anything to be done for gaming? I certainly think so, and it starts with choosing the right games to play. For some franchises, it actually makes sense to go back, plug in the older consoles, and fire up the games from your childhood. The Maddens and Call of Dutys from the PS2 or Xbox 360 era have aged very well, with core features like their stories intact, making the games feel more complete as a whole. Sometimes, things just were better back in the day, and that’s okay. Not every new game is sloppy garbage contributing to oversaturation, but until game companies start listening to consumers, they’ll continue to cut costs wherever they can to push out new products. If you don’t go back to the older titles, you can find some gems outside of the sports and FPS genres, like Resident Evil: Requiem, a home run title from Capcom that combines the first-person horror of late Resident Evil with the 3rd person over-the-shoulder action of the classic titles into one well-designed package. Games can still be fun, but we have to seek out the good ones in the sea of mediocrity, and those good ones may either be the ones sitting on your shelf collecting dust, or gone under the rug in the wake of the more talked-about games all the streamers are playing.
Jacob Carr is a senior at Washington High School, and this is his first year working on The Hatchet. Jacob grew up in South Carolina, but moved to Fremont in 2019. He’s a captain on the varsity lacrosse team, and enjoys playing guitar and bass in his free time. He looks forward to writing about sports, music, and anything else interesting. Jacob wants to go to the University of Oregon for broadcast journalism in hopes of becoming a commentator.