8 Video Game Genres We're All Sick Of
2. Spin-Off Collectable Card Games
Since Blizzard dropped Hearthstone back in 2014 as a companion game utilising the cavalcade of characters from their Warcraft mythos, several studios have seen fit to start releasing their own companion card games as standalone projects.
Digital versions of Trading Card Games like the Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering had existed before, but these were self-contained releases with set amounts of cards, unlike these continuously evolving free-to-play behemoths.
Of course it's not just Hearthstone. CD Projekt Red released the rather unique game of Gwent, originally playable within the Witcher 3, a game that fulfills its own niche by being vastly different to the majority of other card game offerings out there. It's precisely because Gwent was so unique that you start to notice similarities between Hearthstone, Elder Scrolls: Legends, and the upcoming DOTA spin-off Artifact.
Not only are there plenty of these spin-off CCGs, there are also scores of studios developing original card games for every major platform as well as mobile and tablet variants too.
With the reveal of DOTA's Artifact at last year's E3 not leaving the impression Valve were hoping for, it seems that it's about time studios move on from this growing genre.