Video games are bigger than ever. Just when everyone thought that consoles were dead and mobiles were going to become the norm, Sony and Microsoft came out swinging in 2013 to deliver some of the most successful machines the industry has ever seen. Unfortunately though, the new generation has brought its own series of new problems for players around the globe, with some dodgy practices in particular infiltrating the biggest games of the past few years. Although the likes of online passes met a quick demise shortly after they were introduced a few years ago, it hasn't stopped publishers from shoehorning similar restrictions into various games right under our noses. For as much as these companies pretend to make decisions "for the fans", the amount of intrusive business decisions, shortsighted industry predictions and broken products they push out the door would indicate otherwise. So, while the industry at large might be doing better than ever financially, the fact remains that publishers and developers are starting to go to some ridiculous lengths to squeeze the most money out of their releases, without the dedication to quality and stability that you would have gotten in years gone by.
9. Publishers Don't Have Any Foresight
Everyone knows that mobile gaming is the future and consoles are dead, right? Well, of course not, but that's the future video game publishers were having a melt-down over a few years ago. While it seems silly now that mobile games could ever dominate in the console market, this was a very real outcome that companies were preparing for just before the dawn of Sony and Microsoft's new hardware - and the effects are still very much being felt to this day. With the market seemingly heading in the direction of more bitesize, episodic content over huge and sprawling releases, many games coming out now were initially supposed to follow suit. Ever wonder why the release of the latest Hitman has been so weird? It's because it started out as an attempt to compete with episodic and mobile games, and when the likes of The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 proved that people want meatier experiences, Hitman has been trying to shift course ever since. It's just one example, but it's proof that publishers don't always have the best judgement when it comes to the industry they're supposedly experts of.
