Are There Too Many Games Released Each Year?

When Dusty Cartridge reflects upon the mighty 2011, it’s easy to see that this solitary year contained some of the finest months the gaming industry has seen in some time. Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, and Zelda: Skyward Sword, alongside a cavalcade of others. Yet, while we like to sit back and revel in the joyous elation of Triple-A heaven, it raises one resonating question – Is having this many games within a twelve month period actually beneficial for the industry?

[jacksonmichael]

Both. Too few great games, too much shovelware. But I guess it all depends on what games interest you and what portion of your budget you're willing to put into gaming.

[dark-hollow]

people tend to give this gen way much less credit.

ps2/xbox gen had as much if not more shovleware.

[humbleopinion]

And less high quality games

[HBK619]

Definitely true Dark Hollow.

If you took all the worst rated games from PS2/XBOX generation and looked at them compared to this gens worst games. While they'd all be terrible to play and look at, at least this gens would be SLIGHTLY more polished.

And overall there's far more higher quality games coming out year over year from every end of the spectrum.

[ABizzel1]

@dark-hollow

I agree, bad games this gen are better than ones from last gen, but that's not saying much of anything.

However, there was a lot more diversity in gaming last gen then currently.

[CanadianTurtle]

I think this generation of gaming was the most innovative and changed the industry forever due to its focus on online gaming.

There are many great games these days.

[flappersack]

I'd rather more than less. I like finding it hard to decide what to play instead of feeling like there is nothing to play.

[adam_guetti]

I'm totally down for having choice. My main issue comes with having more just for mores sake. If I have to endure a slight lull, or have less selection in order to get consistently quality titles, personally that's something I can accept.

[TenSteps]

Same, I mean you don't have to buy them all at once.

[CommonSense]

WAY too many games. I already have a massive backlog of games i fear i'll never finish. and there are about 15-20 i want this year.

[cas85]

You would still play limited amount of games regardless of how many gets released. But more is better because now you can pick only the best.

[Crap_Turtle]

What are you serious? There used to be between 3-40 releases A MONTH, the idustry thrived

Now its between 10-20 and the industry is close to crashing again..............

So you tell me whats better

the best thing for the industry to do is have each company have 1 game at least in each region a quarter

[CommonSense]

lol...dude. *sigh*

correlation is NOT causation.

[Excalibur]

I'll bet I bought 20 last year and only actually finished maybe 5 of them, Even though I never payed full price for any of them thanks to Amazon I took a step back at the beginning of this year and decided that I'm not doing that this year, So far this year I haven't bought a single game.

I just decided that unless it's a game that all of my friends and I want to play day one I'm not going to get it until it's in the $15-$20 range, so far that is working for me and my wallet appreciate it too.

[Kaos_Vll]

I did the exact same thing. Stepping back from your passion is hard but once you do you realize that most games are unfinished, buggy and set to be tweaked at release so why not wait for a cheaper price and a complete product.

Time for gamers to take back control.

[Excalibur]

I agree, smart man.
It cracks me up when disagree with what I did. LOL

[NastyLeftHook0]

there are NEVER too many games.

[_LarZen_]

People dont complain that there is to many serie,movie or books coming. Why should gamers complain about games?

You do know you dont have to play them ALL? :P

[arnyftw]

I dont really care, I only buy 3 games a year and skip the rest.

[KMCROC54]

Depends on what system you have . lol

[Chrono]

The more, the better. In fact, for some genres, there aren't many games.

[CRASHBASHUK]

well umm who said u got to get all the games?

[Stansolo]

Yes there is, too much rubbish being released. God only knows how some of the ribbish get passed for release.
I've gone back to retro gaming because I'm sick of the same thing over and over again...I'm still a happy gamer though..lol.

[FinaLXiii]

too many games or too many shooters?

[modesign]

its more "are there to many games released in one SEASON", you see all the good games comeout from sept-December, and nothing from march-september.

[aprea]

For someone that doesn't really play too many games I don't see this being an issue but for hardcore gamers I can see how they could be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of titles being released. They probably want to get hands on time with as many of the AAA titles as they can but probably struggle due to rate at which they're being released.

[Xof]

In terms of quantity there may well be more games being released now than last gen. But the current game market is VERY homogenous. In terms of unique game concepts, we're lucky to get half a dozen a year. And of those six, we're damned lucky if even one is an new IP.

[Droid Control]

Depends on the type of games you like to play.

If you like shooters, then this gen is for you. If you like story-based adventure games, then its not.

I would rather see more games like Shenmue and Heavy Rain than COD or Gears of war, but I'm clearly in the minority here. That's why I game more on Steam. The PC has more of the games I want.

[NYC_Gamer]

Too much garbage and not enough quality

[level 360]

I say too many bloody whingers.

[BitbyDeath]

I think they meant to say "Too many First Person Shooters".

[TheDivine]

Theres def alot of crap (imo at least) games every year. Theres maybe 4-5 each year i really want and 5-10 i would buy/rent depending. People say last gen had more diversity but i disagree. The creative good stuff is on handhelds or xbl these days. That was what this gen will be known for imo, good fun cheap games like journey, bastion, limbo, pixeljunk eden, shadow complex, toy soldiers exc. Theres also retail games like el shaddai, majin, folklore, project sylpheed, valkyria chronicles, resonance of fate, kameo, nuts and bolts, epic mickey, muramasa, cursed mountain, so theres still diversity there also. People just tend to buy the blockbusters now. They dont give the small games a shot unless it becomes trendy or spreads by word of mouth like demons souls.

I think the constantly connected world we live in along with expensive games makes people go for a sure thing. Theres reviews everywhere now when last gen even i had to search to find alot of stuff.

[Asgaro]

I agree with the article.
Because I don't have that much time as I want to play games.

But some advantages to me:
- Most games I can buy in a Steam sale for around 30 euros. (Yes, talking about the big budget titles)
- Games receive mods (if supported), and I can play them from the start with mods installed. I can already imagining buying Skyrim and being blown away by how many mods there are now.