\r\nEven if you only occasionally cast an eye over video game news, there is no way you could have missed it. \u2018It\u2019 is the avalanche of major video game titles which has been battering all of the platforms for a few months now. A genuine tidal wave which confirms the extremely positive global trend for this (still) new industry.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\u2018God of War Ragnarok,\u2019 \u2018World of Warcraft Dragon Flight,\u2019 \u2018Pok\u00e9mon Violet & Scarlet,\u2019 and \u2018The Callisto Protocol.\u2019 These titles, feverishly awaited by tens of millions of gamers, were all released within just a couple of months of each other at the end of 2022. If you are a gamer like me, you quite simply don\u2019t know where to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, these triple A products (in other words, the blockbusters of the video game world) are only a minuscule proportion of the flood of games released in 2022. A wave of several thousand video game products which is destined to be repeated, doubtless with even greater ferocity, in the upcoming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this means that the video game industry is doing well. One might even say it is in great shape. Unlike numerous other sectors which are struggling, first and foremost being the cinema industry, video game products are selling well and the sector\u2019s growth is stable to an almost outrageous degree, as it rides out the various crises without ever being weakened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proof in a few figures that make your head spin: \u2018God of War Ragnarok\u2019 and its 5.1 million copies sold in \u2026 one week. A record for the Japanese company, Sony. Nintendo\u2019s \u2018Pok\u00e9mon Violet & Scarlet\u2019 and its 10 million sales in 3 days. In terms of revenue, let\u2019s mention \u2018Call of Duty Modern Warfare\u2019 and its 1 billion dollars in 10 days. Staggering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially given that over the past two years the major consoles such as PlayStation 5 and to a lesser extent the Xbox Series S have become harder or even impossible to find in the shops, owing to production shortfalls and a global lack of electronic components. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the video game industry does not consist solely of big production studios. It is also a myriad of independent developers and small studios of just a handful of people which often offer original, touching and totally innovative creations. A community believed to be doomed given the overwhelming quantity of games released in recent years. Yet this has not been the case, since, in 2022 in any case, this distinctive caste has continued to hold its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another gloomy prediction which failed to materialise concerned the \u2018solo\u2019 games, in other words, those played on one\u2019s own, in contrast to multiplayer games. Whilst this latter category continues to attract more and more people eager to share experiences, the opuses whose gameplay is focused on a solitary pleasure continue to do very well. Saying that, the \u201cVG\u201d public has never been as eclectic as it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sequels, remakes, remasters, regular seasons and additional content are the watchwords for the big studios today. And for good reason. Some ten years ago, new licences proliferated and risk-taking was multifold. The studios had no hesitation in investing tens of millions of Euros to develop new games with very ambitious or totally innovative gameplay. But in the wake of several painful and costly setbacks, the industry has adopted new strategies. Whilst innovations continue to appear, they are noticeably more diluted in an ocean of \u2018rehashed\u2019 content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amongst this content are found the remakes, which today form a particularly conspicuous revenue pool. \u2018The last of Us Part 1,\u2019 \u2018Resident Evil 4\u2019 and \u2018Dead Space\u2019 are of this type. Games which had already been released several years ago and are made over graphically to fit contemporary tastes in a completely new version. The advantage: far lower development costs with very few modifications to make within the title itself. But also a simple opportunity for the studios to bank on a \u2019brand\u2019 which will attract as many nostalgia buffs eager to relive the feelings they had already experienced in times past as it will newcomers who want to play the game but have been blocked by the outdatedness of the original episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sequels are not about to be outdone in this process. The year 2022 alone witnessed the announcements of the releases of: 5 new \u2018Assassin\u2019s Creed,\u2019 3 \u2018Yakuza,\u2019 4 \u2018Silent Hills\u2019 (including a remake) and 3 \u2018The Witcher.\u2019 The common feature of these titles is having a vast community which they have been able to generate thanks to their qualities on the release of previous episodes. For it is indeed their name which today unites these communities, much more so than those of the studios which develop them. They are also beneficial in terms of the amount of work to be carried out in order to see them take shape. Because they often follow the vaunted rule of 33%: 33% innovations, 33% improvement of the characteristics existing in the previous opuses and 33% unadulterated recycling of already established mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n