That's the thing- everything is getting made right now. EVERYTHING. Every indulgent niche whatever is out there. CRPGs in the mold of Torment to dumb shit that should be incinerated rather than played like Shenmue III, it's all out there. There's no reason for any segment of video game fandom to be sad right now, unless you want to play shit that's only on the new hardware and you can't buy a PS5 or Xbox series whatever
Not everything is made now. I hate this cliche modern gamers say. There's plenty to buy but not every niche is filled.
I feel like the statement "there is a greater variety of games being made now than ever before" is true.
You're probably mad because major publishers aren't doing weird shit, which, like, fair. But it's out there, maybe not with the budget you want it to have. *shrugs*
You probably still just big mad because you got your wish with a Shenmue III release and it sucked big fucking donkey balls, just like I told you it would.
Like I said, it depends on the genre.
Arcade racers, rail shooter numbers are dire. Budgets are so high and risk is lower. There's a lot of games being made, but the number of hardcore jrpgs that I like playing are lighter. There's specifically a problem with diversity within specific genres. For example, there's tons of fighting games being made today but 3D fighters are all but dead except when it's Tekken or Soul Calibur. Jrpgs are doing good but they're mostly extremely story-oriented games. Games like SMT3 HD come out to little fanfare, will likely bomb, and SMTV likely won't be as much of a dungeon crawler as past games. Stealth has gone to the wayside. 3D platformers are mostly dead and when they're resurrected - besides Mario - they're almost always crap. So there's more games being made, but less variety within certain genres when in the past things were more varied.
Take RPGs, again. Final Fantasy XVI is going to be an action-based game. They're got Team Ninja working on
another action-based Final Fantasy. And FFVII Remake was sort of action-based too. But what if I just want a traditional FF experience that's not trying to be an action game? I'm shit out of luck. So you say there's more being made, but in actuality its less in terms of variety. I, as a player, have less options for my tastes compared to twenty years ago. I'm locked in and if I want to play a turn based game I have to settle for something mediocre like one of those Bravely games when I before, I ate rich food. Now i'm fed scraps. How many turn-based jrpgs are
really being made? Far less than 20 years ago. Action rpgs have become so far the norm that turn-based is basically niche now, but I prefer turn-based unless it's Souls or Ys.
Depending on your taste,"look at all these games being made!" means very little. In fact, I think it means jack shit. Where's the survival horror besides Resident Evil? Where's the Clock Tower? Silent Hill's? Fatal Frame? Something new that rocks the boat? That entire genre is held up by RE at this point. The industry has shifted so far from my tastes and wants. This also supposes that all of these games are
good. Quantity != quality.
I hate Shenmue III. Please do not mention it again.
That said, I'll definitely compliment the current gaming landscape. It's pretty good and you have a lot of options. But the broad brush "anyone can find anything for their tastes these days" is pretty LOL to me. I haven't even gotten into open-world games, a genre I used to love but now can't stand (love BOTW though).
