upvote
There's definitely been an enslopification of both. Endless sequels. "Franchises" with meaningless stories and common tropes. Maybe it's survivor bias when I think back on older works, but nothing just seems that exciting these days.
reply
Right, but you can ignore them, as they don't stifle the good stuff. You can ignore Ubisoft, Bethesda etc and still have a nice selection.
reply
The difference between games and movies is how easy it is for entrants comparatively.

Indie / small studios have an infinitely easier time going to market than one would with making a film or especially a TV series.

You just make an account on a platform, sometimes submitting some additional information and paying a small fee, and that’s it. You may not even need actors like for text based games (Shovel Knight, Balatro etc)

Movies is so much more. And the cost of production is higher.

Also, the other big thing to realize is by far what games many people play is dominated by a handful of highly successful live service games. I have friends who only play Fortnite and have for a long time. They don’t play much else other than a few casual games when they take small breaks from Fortnite.

It’s not universal but there is a reason they’re always top of charts for revenue. Millions play every day.

The one other thing I’ll say is that seemingly unlike other media there is enough sufficient customer diversity that one business model doesn’t completely choke off all other types. Look at Expedition 33 for example

reply
I also suspect this is the core reason. There are plenty of bad books, video games etc, including some for the same reasons we have bad movies. But the lower barrier-to-entry allows great ones to exist too!
reply