I was thinking about this today but wouldn't it be better if we kinda just had less videogames coming out?

I love that there is so much variety and so many great games out but I miss when we ALL had time to experience some of these games before the next major release. Think about how Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and Dragon’s Dogma II came out all within weeks of each other, each filled to the brim with massive open worlds and RPG elements to spend hours upon hours immersing yourself in.

When everything is 40-200 hours, it's hard to find space between games or find time to go replay old favorites.

There's a lot of half finished early access and live service games that are being sold at full price with the "promise" they'll be just as great as finished at time of release single player games are.

I just wonder if they fully cooked these games before giving us a raw plate of bad food would be better for gaming in general. I'm happy to wait on some of these games.

There's no shortage of incredible games to play in the meantime. On the other hand, gaming has gotten too big and now it's all about appeasing shareholders and not making great experiences.

Look at the recent news from Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed Shadows delayed for more polish, Star Wars Outlaws launching below sales expectations, a drop in Ubisoft’s stock price that is the lowest it has been in ten years.
In addition to the delay, lessons learned from the launch of Star Wars Outlaws and the departure of the traditional Season Pass model, Ubisoft will release the game to all players at the same time with the first expansion being free for those that pre-order.

This also has led Ubisoft to release Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Steam Day 1, rather than make it exclusive to Ubisoft Connect for several months. Star Wars Outlaws will be arriving on the Steam platform on November 21 as the developers are working on several updates around gameplay polish, optimization, quality of life changes, new contracts in-game, as well as adjustments to combat and stealth gameplay.
Shareholders are looking to oust management as leadership identified the need for “greater efficiency while delighting players” with a new “player centric approach.”
Ubisoft has stated their goal is to entertain and reach a broad audience and NOT push any specific agenda.

The Ubisoft CEO said, "I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games… that everyone can enjoy”

If the games aren't good or entertaining, no one is going to buy. Ubisoft has tried agenda over player first games and it doesn't work. Nobody wants Star Wars with agendas, they want Star Wars with lightsabers, blasters, and space battles! Free from our world's politics, but immersed in the world of Star Wars and their issues. Sure there's some people mad about the characters in both Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows but that's mostly racist/sexist folks that aren't the majority of gamers. I don't see this as them backing down to culture wars, but a shift to what players want when they buy a game, and it's not what games like Concord offers. At the end of the day, companies must generate revenue and if something is not selling, changes must be made moving forward.

What was Ubisoft doing in 2014 and beyond that led to a rise in their shares? Assassin’s Creed Unity, Watch Dogs, Far Cry 4, and the Crew all in 2014. 2015 led to games like Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege which is still an active and healthy live service game to this day. Tom Clancy’s the Division, Watch Dogs 2, and Steep would all launch in 2016 leading to For Honor, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Assassin’s Creed Origins in 2017.

Ubisoft has made a lot of great games in the past two decades arguably from the launch of the Tom Clancy series of licensed games, Prince of Persia, Rayman, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and many more.
What has changed in Ubisoft’s formula? A lot of it is a result of pushing out Assassin’s Creed games and DLC on a yearly basis, at a certain point quantity over quality stifles innovation.

Ubisoft needs a big win with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, not just for share prices and for management to desperately cling to power, but because players have been asking for an entry in Japan since the series began in Assassin’s Creed (2007). Expectations are high and players want to be deeply immersed in a world where they can play as Naoe, a Japanese Shinobi or Yasuke, an African Samurai.

I am personally excited for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the choice to switch between two characters with drastically different gameplay styles, one being heavy armored sword fighting and the other a stealthy parkour ninja. Star Wars Outlaws is a game I have enjoyed playing on the YouTube channel but it does require some adjustments to stealth gameplay and takedowns can be frustrating and slow animations. The world is immersive and the reputation system allows you to play one gang against another as you steal from them all in order to be the ultimate Outlaw. The story was better than expected and Kay Vess and Nix are quite the duo.

Where should Ubisoft go from here? Well, I have a few suggestions:

—Tom Clancy’s The Division 3 with DLCs taking us to new and old locations, the full live service treatment with continuous updates for years to come. The Division 2 has a healthy community starving for more story content, missions, and gear.

— Rainbow Six. The live service game Siege can continue to generate revenue and keep PVP players busy but there’s still a market for a single player and co-op squad based shooter. Travelling the globe, saving hostages, defusing bombs, stopping terrorist attacks, and telling an engaging story we haven’t seen since Rainbow Six Vegas and the cancelled Rainbow Six Patriots. Games like Ready or Not and Ground Branch as well as a bevy of extraction shooters are invading the market Ubisoft used to dominate with Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. Mix elements of third person shooters for the cover system a la Rainbow Six Vegas.

Rainbow Six Patriots Synopsis:
Team Rainbow is called to New York City to deal with a terrorist group calling itself the 'True Patriots.' Styling themselves as a populist militia group, the True Patriots have taken it upon themselves to act as judge, jury, and executioner on behalf and avenging the alleged victims of what they see as Wall Street corruption.

To complicate the situation, the new leader of Team Rainbow is James Wolfe, a former Navy Seal who believes ethics are irrelevant in dealing with the True Patriots. As Echo Leader, a man who looks up to Wolfe as a father figure, they must stop the True Patriots at all costs; even at the price of their own personal morality.

This game that never was could make for some interesting stories in a post 9/11 world. It could have made for some dark and political storytelling that would immerse players in the world of counter terrorism.

—Ghost Recon. Bring the series back to basics: third person squad based tactical shooter, option to play singleplayer and command your team, and opt for semi open world hub maps in different locations over massive and empty open world maps.

—Splinter Cell. There may be a remake of the original 2002 Xbox game but we desperately need one of the best stealth games and the iconic character of Sam Fisher to return. With Michael Ironside voicing Sam, bring back as much of his original Third Echelon team as possible and have him working for the NSA. Stick with a modern setting without too much futuristic technology. Keep the series grounded, Sam uses DARPA technology, Krav Maga, a knife, pistol, NVG’s, and the SC20K. Opt for semi open hub maps where the player has control of how to approach the mission and extract. Allow players to customize Sam’s gear, tailored specifically for the mission, think how Hitman allows for cargo drops of weapons, or certain restrictions like disguises or limited inventory in a location. Take the series back to basics and get the sneaking animation as flawless as it was in the first three games. Keep the series rooted in stealth with some possibilities for action but don’t market to the mainstream audience that hates stealth games.

—Steep. An incredible game that captured many winter sports, awesome visuals, great graphics, and the culture. A sequel with multiple locations and options of gear to use would make for a welcome sequel.

What do you think? Let me know your suggestions down in the comments.