9 Crippling Problems With The Video Game Industry (And How To Fix Them)

9. When Was The Last Time You Played A New Genre?

The Problem: Thanks to the industry's exponential rise, encompassing a myriad of genres over time, refining them, raising budgets to do better and throwing the results out to an ever-hungry public, we've arrived at a point where it feels like all the major possible genres and methods of gameplay have been realised.

This all relates to budgetary constraints, too. For Honor is the first game in years where Ubisoft took the time to create a core mechanic that we've haven't seen in a million other releases, yet it's one game amidst a sea of identikit-feeling titles. Where do we go from here?

The Solution: Part of a solution is identifying the problem - which is to say, only the most marketable titles show up on peoples' radars. There's an understated fact that a lot of your favourite video games from decades gone by were created on shoestring budgets, and through an indie mentality.

Look up the history of Naughty Dog and Crash Bandicoot if you want proof - they went from sketch to mascot through sheer force of will and talent, not through anything relating to targeting demographics or marketing before Sony got involved.

The overall issue is people THINK there aren't 'any new genres' or game mechanics because the net they're casting is incredibly small. You wouldn't say movies were terrible because Transformers or 50 Shades of Grey sucked, right? There are a wealth of additional titles popping up left, right and centre - we just need Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to showcase them alongside the triple-As more often.