'Young People Are Losing Interest in High-End Games,' Kojima Says

Dohc-WP

Dohc-WP

Ron Burgundy
With the release of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes on the horizon, series creator Hideo Kojima recently spoke about his hopes for the series, and the impact he hopes it will have on the Japanese AAA game scene.

“We’ve seen a phenomenon around the world,” Kojima told gamestm. “Young people are losing interest in high-end games and focusing on mobile and social titles, especially in Japan. I wanted to show people that Japanese high-end games are still worth playing and that big Japanese games still have a future."

Kojima said the decision to split MGS: Ground Zeroes and MGS V: The Phantom Pain into two individual titles wasn't a stretgic sales move, but rather one of necessity, as The Phantom Pain wouldn't be ready to launch in the next-gen launch window.

Publisher Konami announced a price cut last week for Ground Zeroes, decreasing the digital and retail price for the PS4 and Xbox One versions from $40 to $30. This illustrates Kojima's hopes that the series will help rekindle the perceived drop in "high end" games, and open Ground Zeroes and the subsequent sequel to wider audiences.

Source : IGN
 
I myself have completely lost interest in "AAA" snore fests myself of late. I am enjoying playing older games now. My PS2 is getting tons of action these days.

I will say though I am very keen to checkout this new Metal Gear game.
 
This is indeed true. The younger generation doesn't have the same zest for deeply involved games as before. I think the advent of the internet and the whole "instant" culture has diminished the interest in a game that requires you to dedicate a large portion of time and thought into playing as intended.
 
I'm not so sure about this. Console sales are still going strong as are AAA game sales. Kickstarter recently reached 1 billion in pledges with the most donated area being videogames.
 
It will all depend on what he sees as "young people". Is he talking about school children, twenty-something or what? In any case, it seems as if he is only commenting on the market in Japan. I really don't think that this is true for the rest of the world, especially if you look at the sales figures for top AAA titles.
 
brendanvb said:
I'm not so sure about this. Console sales are still going strong as are AAA game sales. Kickstarter recently reached 1 billion in pledges with the most donated area being videogames.
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But the games are not very deep. I may be wrong of course, but a lot of the time I feel there is no depth to games now.
 
I think to a large degree most of us have grown up with games constantly evolving. When the first "AAA" titles came out they were just other games to us that we got our hands on and played... I think there is so much material for the younger population now, and they are after the quick fix, something short and sweet that satisfies them instantly. As they get older they will appreciate the more mature approach of "AAA" Titles and the wheel will keep on turning...
 
czc said:
But the games are not very deep. I may be wrong of course, but a lot of the time I feel there is no depth to games now.
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I do agree to an extent... They went that direction with Final Fantasy XIII for example... The Story line was still interesting, but the game became totally linear and one dimensional, but the fans hated that... The Metal Gear Solid games have always had great depth in the story as well...
 
Snare said:
This is indeed true. The younger generation doesn't have the same zest for deeply involved games as before. I think the advent of the internet and the whole "instant" culture has diminished the interest in a game that requires you to dedicate a large portion of time and thought into playing as intended.
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I think it's precisely because the majority of AAA games nowadays no longer require any amount of thought to play. Have a look at the last few years of AAA console games. The majority of them were pretty shallow, gameplay-wise.

There's just so much more going on in the non-AAA development scene. People can only play third-person cover shooters and FPS games for so long before they get bored and look for their fix elsewhere.
 
Yeah I definitely prefer playing pac-man and Tetris over a next-gen God of War or Uncharted. Oh no wait, I seem to have gone bat-shit crazy. My bad.
 
Neo said:
Yeah I definitely prefer playing pac-man and Tetris over a next-gen God of War or Uncharted. Oh no wait, I seem to have gone bat-shit crazy. My bad.
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Indeed it seems you did, seeing as you seem to have missed an entire era of games, skipping directly from pac-man/tetris to next-gen games. :p
 
I think it has more to do with AAA titles shying away from epic story lines, character progression and having a sense of achievement. Story arcs all feel like it's on rails nowadays with graphics quality, resolution and high frame rates being the main drivers for making something awesome. Then there is the damn hand holding that most new games seem to have.

Most of the indie titles I have picked up recently gets a few things right : gives you a sense of achievement and it's fun and intuitive to play without having to tell you what to do or how to do something every so often.
 
Hasn't it been established that "young people" do not make up the core of the gaming market.

Yep, pretty sure that's been the case for a long time now. So what is this tosser on about with what games "young people" want to play. Kids grow up eventually, and so will their tastes. Betting that the industry is going this way or that because of what a minority audience wants is just silly
 
PsychoFish said:
I think it has more to do with AAA titles shying away from epic story lines, character progression and having a sense of achievement. Story arcs all feel like it's on rails nowadays with graphics quality, resolution and high frame rates being the main drivers for making something awesome. Then there is the damn hand holding that most new games seem to have.

Most of the indie titles I have picked up recently gets a few things right : gives you a sense of achievement and it's fun and intuitive to play without having to tell you what to do or how to do something every so often.
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I think we've definitely had some epic storylines with the last generation, but you hit the nail on the head with the lack of a sense of achievement. Games are just too easy these days, even on hard difficulties. Difficulty should be about more than just tougher enemies.
 
brendanvb said:
I think we've definitely had some epic storylines with the last generation, but you hit the nail on the head with the lack of a sense of achievement. Games are just too easy these days, even on hard difficulties. Difficulty should be about more than just tougher enemies.
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The problem is that the newer games with epic storylines are so few and far between.
 
I don't believe that "young people" are shying away from AAA titles. I believe the issue here, is developers have lost the definition of what a AAA title is supposed to be in the first place.
 
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