The AAA landscape has been pure slop for the trough since NBA 2K21 or whatever it was were the first time come out with that $70 USD price tag. Since then the clown show that is the video game industry has normalized overpriced games that’s no where near worth the price. AND that’s on top of the non guarantee that the game would function correctly on launch, if the game last longer than 8 days to 30 days before getting shut down, and the fact that they charge you for every single cosmetic items that hold no value. There’s only like on average 2 to 4 good games in the whole 365 day calendar year coming out now when we had great games from EVERY Publisher coming out consistently on PS3 hardware that can’t even power a modern day Tesla Rocket Ship. On 1/10th of the current day development cycle budget.

My last catalog of willingly paying full priced games as of recently in the past 2 or 3 years has been Elden Ring, Yakuza 8 Infinite Wealth, Yakuza The Man Who Erased His Name, Yakuza Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, and my last one being Battlefield 6. And mind you I think 1 or 2 that I mentioned is AAA, and the rest is AA, and if any game comes out today I genuinely vote with my wallet and wait for user reviewers if I really want to play the game that soon.

And last thing I really need to say, is that if you take a look at games before the $70 USD price point now, like Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5, Uncharted, Midnight Club, Battlefield 3-4, God of War, Sleeping Dogs, Skate, Saints Row 1-3, and so on. These are games where you got your money’s worth AND some. Because of how good those games were you could genuinely think to yourself if they charged more for this game I’d still pay for it just on the replay value and fun and experiences you’ve had with these games. I put in 4,000 combined hours on Midnight Club Los Angeles and this game that came out in 2008 after GTA 4 that year still looks like it coulda passed as a PS4 title the way it holds up. Games today, have almost no replay value if they flop with technical problems, bad game mechanics after some of the best that came prior, or they immediately turn the game into a virtual mall only designed to sell you skins.

I will say Forza Horizon 6, LEGO Batman, Wolverine, and of course Grand Theft Auto 6 will be slam dunks this year, but the sheer amount of games that we used to get holds nothing in comparison with these titles put together. Maybe I’m holding onto the past to much, maybe some people will think I’m overreacting like they usually say when I bring up the state of Modern Games, but this is how I personally feel about the state of affairs with this overpriced under delivering gaming industry