Gaming Is UNRECOGNISABLE In 2024
8. Name An Ongoing Saga You Care About. You Can't.
The games industry is built on the backs of mainstay franchises which keep fans coming back for more every couple of years, yet in 2024, how many truly engrossing gaming sagas can you actually name?
Once upon a time the likes of Halo, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, and Uncharted could be relied upon to deliver a much anticipated new entry into an ongoing storyline every few years, but at present, this aspect of gaming feels pretty damn lacking.
In large part due to the enormously expanded time it takes to develop a single AAA game, publishers are clearly encouraged to focus more on standalone sequels which function independently for casual players, rather than games deeply invested in their own lore and what came before.
The exceptions tend to be in the AA space, such as the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise, which is able to release quality, highly interconnected mainline titles every two or three years. The trade-off, inevitability, is heavy asset reuse and an overall feeling of gameplay familiarity.
But in the AAA space, it's tough to feel hugely invested in any ongoing gaming saga. Even with 2023 being such a banger year for the medium, how many of those games were releases in storied franchises we can expect to be playing again in the next two or three years?