10 Great Video Game Developers Who Haven't Made Anything Good For Years
That cold streak is a LAKE.
There's something about the current gaming industry that occasionally feels a bit... lifeless.
Where if you flash back to the, 80s 90s and 2000s, every other year saw a mass uptick in pure gameplay innovation, today the vast majority of formulas have been ironed out and perfected; their most bankable qualities offered up front, as sizeable profits routinely follow.
There's nothing wrong with this approach. The gaming industry is one mighty, thunderous beast, and sustaining it requires an element of caution. But I can't help but think back on the developers of the past, and wonder if what they used to specialise in just isn't profitable anymore.
Because as you'll see, there are SCORES of formerly-celebrated studios - ones we grew up with, recommended to friends, loved and look back on - that have struggled to produce anything of note since.
It's a real shame, because if there's one thing gaming's bean-counters love to exploit, it's nostalgia. And yet, so many studios are neither playing to their strengths, nor foraging ahead into uncharted territory.
Is it because the landscape has changed so much, or was their lightning-in-a-bottle output really that fleeting?