10 Reasons AAA Video Games Keep Bombing

There's a conception within the games industry that sequels need to be a substantial improvement upon what came before. They must have shinier graphics, slicker gameplay, a grander story, and (most importantly) the map needs to be far bigger than before.

It's a cliche now that developers will proudly boast about how vastly expansive the map is and that everything you see is explorable. The trouble, though, is that bigger doesn't always mean better. Especially in open-world games where it's not so much the map's size that matters, but the quality of the content that's in it.

Whereas games like Breath Of The Wild, The Witcher 3, and Red Dead Redemption 2 brought their respective environments to life with meaningful interactions and surprising discoveries that fully immerse players within their settings, this is unfortunately less common in contemporary games.

Typically, modern games are set within expansive but empty worlds. Instead of meaningful and meaty content for players to discover, the maps of Forspoken, the Saints Row reboot, and even Cyberpunk 2077 were packed with empty space and lackluster checklists of objectives to complete.

These lifeless worlds detract from a game's quality, and audiences are starting to get tired of it