8 Video Game Genres We're All Sick Of

Why is all the focus put on the "open" part of open-world?

By Martin Shore /

Modern gaming offers developers the broadest range of possibilities when it comes to creating new games. In an industry driven by popularity and sequels to constantly renewed franchises, it seems developers are scared of branching out from their stalwart franchises more than ever.

Advertisement

Having regular series' is fine, as long as they're iterated upon. Without reinventing or updating their core game series, developers risk alienating gamers with titles that are just too familiar to warrant the price of a brand new game for their PC or console of choice.

Almost every major genre is dominated by a specific type of game or design formula, and innovation seems to these days mostly appear in the indie gems that are driven by budget limitations or smaller teams to tackle problems in new ways.

With E3 leaving a lot of players disappointed by the lack of - or any real appearance from - many fan-favourite franchises, it's a perfect time to consider which genres are starting to feel just that little bit stale.

8. Yearly Sports Games

This is probably more personal than the other entries, but there's just something about the yearly entries into the likes of WWE, FIFA/PES, Madden and other genres that feels like there's almost no point in developing new versions of the same exact games.

Advertisement

Developers can really only continue to drip-feed updates to the meta of these franchises' multiplayer elements, like the recent World Cup update to FIFA 18, for example. Yearly entries feel more like a quick way for developers to cash-in on sports-mad gamers and make them shell out hundreds for currency to pick-up packs more than anything else.

Whilst publicity for games tells us that there are adjustments to be made, but most of these games feel more like interactive fantasy football more than anything else. I don't think it would be really that hard to just add the models of new hotshot footballers or NFL players as DLC, rather than developing entire new games to draw in fans.

The beautiful game can only become so beautiful before it ends up just being the same game being trotted out for no real reason.

Advertisement