{"id":112615,"date":"2016-12-04T08:10:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T06:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=112615"},"modified":"2016-12-04T08:11:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T06:11:33","slug":"why-big-budget-games-are-dying-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/112615-why-big-budget-games-are-dying-in-2016","title":{"rendered":"Why big budget games are dying in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

MyGaming recently reported <\/a><\/strong>the fact that some of 2016’s biggest titles were seriously under performing on the sales-front.<\/p>\n

Chief amongst these are Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Watchdogs 2, Dishonored 2 and Titanfall 2 – games that would have sold well in previous years that are now on their way to being considered relative flops.<\/p>\n

Naturally this has\u00a0sent alarm bells ringing with a number of industry insiders, pointing to several different reasons as to why AAA games sold so poorly in 2016.<\/p>\n

Games are too long<\/h3>\n

One of the biggest problems with new triple-A games is that they are too long, according to industry analyst Rob Fahey<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fahey posits that because games are much longer and more full of content than ever, gamers have no reason to go out and buy new games.<\/p>\n

Add to this multiplayer games that can last hundred of hours, and you have games like the above that would traditionally sell well doing poorly.<\/p>\n

While we can relate to the above and have personally found it to be the case where I don’t want to start a new game until I’ve completed the current one, it doesn’t explain why the phenomenon is only occuring now.<\/p>\n

Mammoth titles like Skyrim and Modern Warfare are well over 5 years old at this point and we can see clearly that\u00a0game sales didn’t dip unexpectedly after their release.<\/p>\n

The rise of digital<\/h3>\n

While digital sales are more convenient and often cheaper than going to a brick and mortar store, they too could be causing the dip in sales, continues Fahey<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This is because despite all of the benefits of going digital, it has caused the pre-owned market to all but dry up.<\/p>\n

Gamers no longer have games to trade in as they are all tied to a digital account, and there really is less of an incentive to buy physical copies.<\/p>\n

As a result, while it was once much more affordable to buy a new game by simply trading in some of your older ones and paying in the difference, that option is now no longer on the table and gamers have to buy a games at full price or wait for a sale.<\/p>\n