Right now, the current state of the gaming industry doesn’t seal success upon huge budget, and this change came before Concord.

There are some huge games in the market that blew the publisher’s pocket when they were released but never made the payback. Concord is a recent example of that. This retro-futuristic sci-fi shooter was released on August 23, 2024, but never burst into the scene.

Concord was released in August 2024. | Credit: Firewalk Studios
With a whopping $400 million budget and over eight years of development period, the game never did justice to the efforts of the developers, as it sold only 25,000 copies (as of August 2024). However, a huge game failing on the big stage is a “generational change,”  and obviously Concord was not the first one to bear the flag of this change.

Epic Games CEO Talks About the “generational change” in the Industry

Tim Sweeney gives his opinion about the failures of big games. | Credit: YouTube/ Unreal Engine.

The gaming industry is in turmoil right now. With the ever-increasing gaming prices, companies have to take cost-cutting measures like shutting down the studios or laying off employees. High-profile big-budget games are also failing to meet expectations, and this represents the future of gaming.

In the recently held Unreal Fest Seattle 2024, Epic Game CEO Tim Sweeney marks this as a “generational change” in the gaming industry. This is what he said about the current situation of the gaming industry:

One of the manifestations [of that change] we’re seeing right now is that a lot of games are released with high budgets, and they’re not selling nearly as well as expected. Whereas other games are going incredibly strong. What we’re seeing is a real trend where players are gravitating toward the really big games where they can play with more of their friends.

According to the CEO, the value of a game “grows in proportion to the number of your friends that you can connect to.”

Games need to have exposure for not only playing together but also chatting through voice, watching virtual concerts, or doing cool kinds of virtual stuff together. And this is the only way for any game to be successful amidst this “generational change.”

Concord Is Not the One Which Started the Generational Change

Before Concord, there were many games that failed miserably despite having big budgets. | Credit: Firewalk Studios.

Many fans think this “generational change” of failing miserably in the market despite having a huge budget was brought about by Concord. This highly ambitious first-person hero shooter never took off and remained one of the most disastrous gaming projects of Concord.

However, this so-called change started affecting games like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Redfall, Skull and Bones, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. So, why are these big games stumbling? Let’s talk about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, for instance. This game never made anyone interested in playing it once more after they dumped it.

The game looks like the developers were forced to make a live-service title instead of delivering a great story-driven narrative. Also, another reason for the failure of these games is that they were never appealing to the players. These games never ever offered any new or unique aspect. Yes, there might be changes in the storyline or the gameplay, but the monotony in the core aspect was clearly seen.

What’s your opinion on this? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.