Video games reached their peak with the Xbox 360 era and have been going downhill ever since

One reader believes that the Xbox 360 and PS3 era represented the peak of gaming and that publishers should have recognized this back then.

Nostalgia is, as they say, a hellish drug. It comes over everyone at some point and seems to destroy any sense of perspective and reason. I am fully aware of this and know that there is probably nothing you can do about it. Given all this, I have come to firmly believe that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were the pinnacle of gaming and while the last generation was good, I think it is now clear that it laid the foundation for the mess we find ourselves in today.

I’m referring, of course, to all the layoffs and the fact that game development is so expensive and time-consuming these days. These problems were evident in the Xbox 360 era and before, and are getting worse with each generation, but publishers have done absolutely nothing to stop or slow them down.

We all know that now, but when I look back at my Xbox 360 game collection, I’m struck by how many current franchises started during that time, and how many different genres that no longer exist were still going strong back then. Even things like arcade racing games are rare today, but back then there were big-budget stealth games, puzzle games, space combat simulators, 3D platformers, strategy games, and much more.

It’s not that these games aren’t made today, but they’re either indie games or low-budget games that most people don’t even know exist. Back then, these games were all mainstream, or at least things you saw in stores that casual gamers could see and be enticed into buying – especially if they were on sale or sold second-hand.

That’s all gone now and the only games that exist are free-to-play games that want to take over your life or bloated single-player epics that want to do the same. Back in the days of the Xbox 360, a story campaign would last on average 12 hours or less and that was absolutely fine. Nothing took too long and everything was finite, so you finished it and then moved on to something else.

Many people will say that the last generation was great, and in many ways it was, but that’s when the bloated games and live service games started. At the same time, the number of new IPs released also drastically decreased, to the point where today there are practically no new franchises being created. Just endless sequels, reboots and remakes.

In my opinion, the Xbox 360 was exactly what I needed: the games looked good, we had proper online capabilities, and the games were cheap enough to make and buy that both gamers and publishers could afford to take a risk now and then.

Everyone wants great graphics, but it’s like eating too much and not exercising enough. It tastes good in the moment, but you know you can’t keep it up and it will do damage in the long run.

Saying that everything was better in the old days sounds like an old man’s thing, but in this case I can’t see how I’m wrong. Ideally, publishers would have realized the truth then and then cooled the race to better graphics so that they only gradually improved with each generation (or maybe the generations lasted much longer so people spent their money on new games rather than boring hardware).

I’m sure there are a hundred different ways they could have addressed the problem, but instead they did nothing and pretended there wasn’t a problem. For once, the good old days really were better.

By reader Gatorater

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