{
"post": {
"title": "I noticed AAA singleplayer games are not quite popular in Russia.",
"selftext": "As a russian I want to share with you my experience. I don't know what yours kids are playing. Maybe they play Mario Kart or Zelda Breath of the Wild. But in my country I noticed some things about our gaming culture.\n\nFirst of all, AAA games are niche thing in my country. They are popular only among mature gamers who played games in 90s or early 2000s in their childhoods. Russian zoomers, instead, prefer these types of games:\n\n* Mobiles like Brawl Stars\n* Multiplayer games with low system requirements like Fortnite and Valorant.\n* Indie games which are hyped by youtubers (Undertale, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Cuphead)\n\nI think this is because in Russia doesn't care about gaming seriously. We have some sort of russian gaming industry in 2000s. We released some really good games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Heroes of Might and Magic 5. But what's now? Nobody want to make a AAA gaming. Russian gaming industry is fully switched to mobiles and indies. In contrast to us, chinese are now switching from mobile market to AAA console market (Genshin Impact, Bright Memory and Black Myth are examples). Some developers are working at oursource with foreign companies like Ubisoft.\n\nAlso nobody is advertising good AAA games in Russia. I heard that Genshin Impact was goodly advertised in germany and many western countries. In Russia young players knows games because someone on YouTube playing it.\n\nI should to mention that games on consoles are too expensive for Russian auditory. So this is why PC is still superior in our country. But how about PC parts like videocards? They are really expensive. And because Russia is conservative country, many people see videogames as something horrible like \"THEY CAUSE VIOLENCE\". And young gamers' parents don't like videogames. So, young gamers (teenagers, kids, students) can't afford singleplayer AAA games.\n\nI heard that some countries are having more difficult situations. Take for example Argentina, where people are poorer. Even russians use this country's prices in Steam to buy games cheaper. And we have a well developed piracy. Also I heard Australia, despite being one of richest and well-developed countries, is not good place for gaming because of moral guardians.\n\nIn Russia many people don't know about Kingdom Hearts or The Legend of Zelda franchises. So yeah, being a russian gamer is not a very good thing.\n\nIn contrast to gaming, anime, being also a niche thing, is more popular in Russia. I'm talking seriously. I noticed that young people know at least more than 10 titles. Anime becomed much popular in Russia than in 2000s. Most of young people in Russia are weebs.\n\nWhat's about your opinion? Maybe you have some difficulties like this?",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/k3bgzh/i_noticed_aaa_singleplayer_games_are_not_quite/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "I'm from China and it sounds like Russia is just following in China's footsteps because we were a pretty poor country relatively recently and it made the gaming market heavily trend towards F2P low requirement games. I also agree with the other person, in both Asia and North America I've noticed the newer generations ignore PC and Consoles in favor of mobile gaming (and honestly I know a lot of people who don't have computers in general anymore), especially since parents view smartphones as more of a necessity than consoles and a good smartphone to play games is cheaper than a good PC.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah, the way they described what kind of games Russians play is very similar to China's being fond of mobile and multiplayer. Though China does seem to get some Japanese games with popularity, I'm guessing as a lot of Chinese developers have taken to using an anime art style.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "A lot of the more popular Chinese mobile games also use Japanese voice actors too. They know that their audience is a bunch of weeaboos so they lean into it heavily.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The problem is that weebs often prefer garbage to genuinely good Japanese stuff like FF.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I think that's more of an acquired taste. As OP mentioned, there is more of a lean towards smartphones rather than expensive PCs or singleplayer games. Final Fantasy requires you to *know* what an RPG even is. That's when you can enjoy it. If you grew up with say brawl stars, who knows if you're even gonna enjoy a Mario game?"
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I think this is horrible. If we will live in this dystopian world, I prefer it's destruction.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Noted.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "*Loads shotgun*",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No no no, have you heard of the old Russian dead hand system way more bang for your buck"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Yaay! Giant death ray!"
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Installed Heroes 3 for roughly 50th time last week. That game will never get old. Still playing Morrowind every few years. Same with Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, Civilization 4, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 etc etc\n\nOut of last 100+ *new* games I installed, maybe two of them survived for more than 15 minutes. Witcher 3 is the last big game I played. I haven't found a single other AAA game worth my time since then.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'd suggest looking into Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you haven't."
}
]
},
{
"body": "> [...] gonna be one of those guys who plays the same shit for 30 years.\n\n*Laughs in classic Doom mod community.*\n\nI just hope compatibility with older games stays more or less as it is now, where most older stuff can be played fairly well in a modern PC."
}
]
},
{
"body": "This is an extremely Russian thing to say",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That's an extremely 'global North' thing to say."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Me too brother, me too"
},
{
"body": "dude, it's just video games",
"replies": [
{
"body": "no he's right"
}
]
},
{
"body": "*Get out of here, stalker...*"
},
{
"body": "Facts, so true."
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "i was thinking that too lmao like it sucks you cant afford a better rig or AAA games but like i wouldnt call that a dystopia LOL",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeah I hope op is underage.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "He’s just Russian."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Isn't that just for the hobby he's interested in? Russia and China are authoritarian country which is as close to dystopia you can get."
}
]
},
{
"body": "...ok weird dude"
}
]
},
{
"body": ">in both Asia and North America I've noticed the newer generations ignore PC and Consoles in favor of mobile gaming \n\nThose poor poor souls."
},
{
"body": "Oh imagine single player AAA games of Chinese and Russian culture....",
"replies": [
{
"body": "genshin, single with gacha.thats chinese culture",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "The mobile market is readily available. Kids are getting phones early and smartphones these days go for less than $200. Many AAA games will need a graphics card of a higher price than that. Before they get the $800 PC, they'll have played a while on mobile. The game devs in your country are just trying to do good business by filling a niche.\nPlus I think youl'll find someone who plays Cuphead and the likes are more \"gamers\" than someone who plays Watch Dogs: Legion, gamers mainly play what's fun and available to them.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Kids are getting phones early and smartphones these days go for less than $200.\n\nI want to know what will happen in a couple years, when the gamers of PS1/PS2, N64/Gamecube era start having kids that are old enough to game.\n\nThat should be pretty soon if not currently just starting.\n\nI know I sure as shit am not going to let my kid play trash, I'll hope to give them an appreciation of what's good, and tell them the dangers of microtransaction/gambling based ftp games.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I’m 33 and my kids are 12(f), 11(m), and 6(f). My youngest has a switch lite she uses and my older ones have a ps4 (f) and Xbox one (m). My oldest does play among us on her phone but that’s it. I grew up playing games and I introduced them all to gaming at a younger age. They all prefer console gaming. My youngest plays on the ps4 as well, things like crash and ratchet and clank. My son does enjoy roblox but we don’t let him spend money on microtransactions.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I've seen the effects of Roblox on some of my cousins and their school friends - shit is like crack to kids. Gotta keep em away from it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "This is so true. I’m also 33, my oldest is 8 and I try to play games with him on PC like Overwatch or Minecraft Dungeons but all he ever wants to play is Roblox..."
},
{
"body": "He plays other things as well, too. As long as he’s not spending money on it I don’t care.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Just keep an eye on it. There are some \"roleplaying\" games on there a stone's throw away from being Second Life Lite."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Adults said the same thing about Pokemon when I was a kid in the 90s. Let kids like what they like, it’s up to the parents to be responsible when it comes to screen time.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Pokemon didn't have microtransactions.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I know we're talking about video games but pokemon cards were also massively popular and that was purely a pay to win/gambling model, but people never had an issue with it because it was made of paper instead of computer code.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Pokemon cards are still massively popular. Though it's super popular now for the wrong reason imo. I just want to fucking collect but so many scalpers that don't give a shit about Pokemon are in on it too."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Kids don’t really have a way to purchase micro transactions unless their parents authorize it, which I clearly stated that parents need to monitor what their kids are doing and be responsible when it comes to their screen time. Let’s not pretend that games of the past weren’t designed in ways to make people addicted.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Man you must not know many parents. Plenty of kids have nearly free access to their credit cards. It's terrible.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "A very small minority of irresponsible parents is irrelevant. That fallacy is used against everything, including Pokemon when I was a kid. Just another “old man yells at cloud” argument. 🥱",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[removed]",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I'm 37 and have a 7 year old. He's got a switch and plays the main titles on that. Prior to that, his first exposure to games were old NES and SNES classics we played together on emulators. He'll also play on my PC.\n\nI think most kid's gaming choices are influenced by youtube. He plays a lot of Minecraft, Rocket League, Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront 2, etc because that's what youtube kinda tells him is cool. He just started Undertale for the same reason although I'm not sure his reading level is sufficient yet for a full RPG.\n\nHe'll sometimes pick up the ipad and play some crap mobile game, but they don't generally stick around for very long and I always try to explain to him how predatory those game models are and nudge him toward something else."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Of course, Cuphead is better than WD:L because it has better quality and visuals.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Have you played Metro?"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "A polish person here, we had a similar situation back in the 00’. It was mostly caused by the fact that nobody had good computers to run those games, lack of English skills that would allow you to understand what’s going on, and polish localisation was not that common, and almost never good, reaching deus ex levels of cheese at best. Also import costs and piracy made the country not an attractive place for publishers. Maybe Russia has the same problem. Multiplayer games are usually pretty cheap and can run on potatoes, the same for most indies. Also if the publisher doesn’t scale the price from country to country, the 60$ cost is way more if the average salary is only 10 times more."
},
{
"body": "> We released some really good games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. \n\nUkraine: \"Am I a joke to you?\"\n\nSeriously though I think it is like this in most nations now. All the zoomers play on their phones which their parents buy for them. Buying a games console seems expensive for just one thing whereas they are willing to buy expensive phones as they are a social status item. If they have consoles, they mostly play sports games and the mainstream shooters.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Russia is stealing every part of good history from Ukraine for some time already, even in this kind of moments. And then we are \"not even a country\" to them. :)\n\nNo offense to OP, just something to think about.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "wow why not just say the poster planning an attack online to your local police?"
},
{
"body": "Don't be mad. Learn some history, but not from russian schoolbooks. :)\n\nOur culture is \"united\" because of entire history of assimilation and genocide of Ukraine, ukrainian culture and language by Moscow and USSR. \n\nAlso you have more history with Golden Horde, but can't stand this fact. :)",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I don't give a fuck how things were 300 years before I was born and why we are assimilated and whos the assimilating culture \n\nThe fact is, foreigners can't descern us and never could. We ourselves are unable to recognize difference if we talk same language.\n\nI personally was grown in shared culture, my visits to Ukraine didn't make it feel like any different, none was able to tell me apart in Kiev or Odessa. None was telling any different history.\n\nI'm not mad, I'm just shocked by your blunt nationalism. People that developed game lived and studied in same soviet union. And there's absolutely nothing in stalker striking you as \"different culture\" at all.\n\nBy the fucking way, modern Russian language is 100 years old, only created to be universal and easy for non-slavs. You would fail to comprehend difference between languages just 100 years ago altogether.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "If not \"300 years before\", then what about 2014 Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk? You are closing your eyes once again and still shouting about \"one culture, one nation\"?\n\nDon't bother me with accusations about mine \"blunt nationalism\", while it's exactly opposite.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "2014 is like 25 years after collapse\n\nAnd long time since stalker\n\nI never even told about my position on 2014 bold assumption, to presume I wasn't originally pro maidan\n\nBlunt nationalism as is",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Haha. Okay, man. Live your life then."
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Wow, talk about trolling too hard!"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I also thought 4A Games; the creator of the Metro series (Video game) were from Russia. Turn outs they're from Ukraine too."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Isn't it like this on most countries??\n\nI'm from South America and besides exceptions like GTA, most people only play FIFA, mobile games and multiplayer titles like LoL or CS:GO.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "For me, who is 32 years old, this even feels like it isn't a newer thing. Back in the 90's, sure a lot of kids played all kinds of games on the SNES and Megadrive, be it Sonic, Mario, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Soccer games, etc. etc. - but I can only speak for the kids demographics, back then, I guess it wasn't that usual for teens to play videogames, it was mostly seen as a kids toy - unless you were some real geek playing Dungeon crawlers and strategy games on your C64, Amiga or IBM-Homecomputer. But as I emerged into my teen years at the turn of the millenium, there were less and less people who really played all kinds of video games all day like the basement dweller I was. Most of my fellows at school played the odd round of FIFA here and there, or GTA:SA when it came out, but besides that nothing much. Until the Internet became more prevalent of course, a lot of boys picked up CS 1.6, but still, in my class of around 18 boys at that time I would guess it was just five or six of us who really played even those \"mainstream\" games. \n\n\nBut that being said, videogames were still a niché interest back then most of my childhood, at least compared to what happened between 2005 and today, a complete boom of that medium throughout all demographics.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "As you say, the NES, SNES etc. were marketed almost solely towards kids (and the young at heart of course). I wouldn't call the NES niche though, it was an outright cultural phenomenon throughout the 80s and early 90s. This might be down to regional differences though, from what I've heard it wasn't as big in the UK where micros held much more sway.\n\nWhen I hit 16 years old, right as the ps1 and Saturn were coming out, I thought I had left behind games for good and I stopped paying attention to them for a couple of years. They were kid's toys after all and my life became consumed by cars and girls and all the things teenagers obsess over. By the time I took another look later on I found that the market was entirely different. It had shifted to targeting the older teen/young adult demographic and the games were a lot different than they were in my younger days. It had grown up with me really. I picked it back up right as the Dreamcast was coming out and hit it hard with the ps2. I also got my first \"real\" PC around this time, and that is a hobby that has stuck with me for the rest of my life. I go through periods where I barely play anything but I still like fiddling with hardware.\n\nThat transition period from kid's toy to mainstream entertainment was strange. It took huge games like FF7, Tomb Raider and MGS to get masses of older gamers on board as the \"for kids\" stigma wore away. Again as you said, by the time the 360 and ps3 came out it was mainstream all the way from that point on.\n\nWhat is interesting to me is that if you go back and look at some old Atari, Colecovision and Commodore 64 ads, they were marketing to adults just as much as they were children. It wasn't until Nintendo came along really hammered the \"young male child\" demo with their marketing then videogames were cemented as toys for children.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Sure the NES and the SNES to some extend were pure cultural phenomenons. I kinda formulated it bad - I rather meant Videogames in general were seemed truly nichè besides a certain age demographic - at least during my childhood and early youth. Also as someone born in 1988 I can't really speak for how big the NES really was in my country during the 80's, I mean sure - it was big, but I can't really tell how many late teens and adults actually played on those or had one besides maybe picking up a controller for a round of Mario for sake of novelty. Actually I got my NES gifted from my aunt who is just 10 years older than me - she grew out of it so I got her old Atari2600 and NES + a nice medium sized collection of games. Even though I had my SNES and Gameboy at that point I greatly enjoyed those classic consoles even back then, probably groomed me to be appreciative of older games at an early age. \n\nAlthough what I can tell is that here in Germany we at least never really had an arcade culture like the US for example has, because our dumbass politicians back then lumped them in with gambling, so all arcade-machines automatically were only for 18+ locations (mostly dingey casinos then, of course some Bars and Pubs here and there also had them) and went almost completely over the main target demographic here - kids and teens. You only get stories of older german gamers who played the odd arcade machine here and there during a summer trip to Italy or similiar. Not sure if this had any influence on how home console games were seen, because well - as much as I can read up on history of gaming in my country - or already did a lot as a Retro-fan, I wasn't there, didn't start gaming until I got my Gameboy at age 5, and that was in 1993. Me personally - due to the strong influence of US-popculture, even as a kid I was aware of those flashy places called Arcades full of videogames, and I hated it so much that we didn't have them here. Hated it so much.\n\nI think the impact the first and second generation systems had, and were also regarded as something adults can just as well enjoy might had to do with the pure novelty factor back then, too, but I'm just assuming here, too. When the NES hit the market, that novelty has probably worn off a bit, and it was just a little flashier version of that novelty video game thingy that was around for the last decade now. But I guess Nintendo did make the right choice with the target demographics, even though many Nintendo fans suffered growing older under that \"games for children\" label, as a Nintendo-kid myself I long accepted that and never really took it that hard, as others seem to do.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Hey I spent a good portion of my childhood in Germany (Bad Tölz and Darmstadt) as well! This was in the 80s, right as the NES was taking off in the US. My father bought an Atari but I was too young to really know how to use it at that time. When we moved to the States in the late 80s I got my introduction to videogames proper. It was THE hot thing for boys my age. My parents were the type to say \"but we already have videogames at home\" meaning our Atari, so I didn't even get an NES until like 1990, but I had a few \"Nintendo friends\" who I'd go play with just to use their consoles lol.\n\nNow that you mention it, I don't remember seeing any arcades in Germany. Lots of other memorable things, but no arcades."
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "honestly in america its like this too. the only difference is when a big AAA singleplayer game comes out, we all go crazy about it for like 2 months. but after that its back to gta LoL and csgo. mobile games are fairly popular here too, but not like in other countries. its slightly different in america, but pretty similar \n\n\nedit: i think thats why a lot of singleplayer games try to add a multiplayer mode. they know that AAA singleplayer games get bought, but people either beat them and never touch it again, or they play half of it and never touch it again. with multiplayer, you can ensure your customers are going to come back. either to play, or to buy add ons for multiplayer"
},
{
"body": "I'm from southern Israel and it's basically this. Gaming is a pretty widespread casual hobby in 2020, but outside of the best selling games and whatever is popular at the time it's very niche. Out of anything I'd say it's Fortnite that brought the most people into gaming, a much bigger hit here than anything I imagined it to be and I can't wait to see what's the next big hit that draws more people into the hobby."
},
{
"body": "I see."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Kinda similar situation in my country. Crazy expensive consoles with games that cost half the price of the console EACH, and also expensive computer parts. A lot of people here just stick to previous console gens that are cheaper now like playstation 3 or 2. I personally have a low end computer for games and I play mostly F2P and indie games with realistic prices. Also I do not buy cosmetics or anything else in my F2P because those also have insane prices."
},
{
"body": "Honestly all I know about Russia gaming is the existence of 2C and the promising but ultimately mediocre games they tend to put out.\n\nI have no knowledge of the topci otherwise, but I just wanna say... \n\n> \\[Russia\\] released some really good games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. \n\n you can hardly get more Russian than pretending that Ukraine is just Russia too.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Lmfao, there's the call-out I was looking for. Was my first thought when I saw S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mentioned as a Russian creation.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ha well to be fair Roadside Picnic was Russian!"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "IS no one going to mention Tetris?? I'm really sorry y'all don't have access to the kind of market you want, but you Russians seem to take every art form and add immensely to it. I know that isn't much of a consolation, but from my perspective, obviously, Pajitnov alone has a badass legacy, and it's so cool how Roadside Picnic inspired SO much that it made not only a classic film but also a classic video games series unlike no other. Then there's Ice Pick Lodge who make Pathologic and The Void and I'm pretty sure the writers of those games are some kind of geniuses. This wasn't your point, I know, I just wanted to thank your incredible artists, for whatever it's worth."
},
{
"body": ">heard Australia, despite being one of richest and well-developed countries, is not good place for gaming because of moral guardians.\n\nIt's really an overblown topic. It's talked about a lot on reddit but in reality it's **very** limited in it's impact. Hotline Miami 2 was banned, but before that the last really big game was Left 4 Dead 2, which was under the old rules which have been overhauled since then - and the L4D2 ban was overturned.\n\nThe vast majority of the headlines about games is usually that they get upset with drug use being related to incentive or reward - most of the time the dev just changes the name of the item/spell in question and the game goes through fine. It's a dumb rule but in reality has less impact on gaming in Australia than a million other factors - like the cost of games themselves.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I agree with you regarding the price being a larger limiting factor but disagree with you on the classification thing being overblown. \n \nJust recently, The Medium was refused classification, many indie games are refused, Hotline Miami 2 (as you mentioned), \nSouth Park: The Stick of Truth was ridiculously censored, Saints Row IV was banned for a long time until a censored version was released, and this is *after* they introduced the R rating for games. \n \nThe one that gets me is banning the games involving \"scenes of sexual violence or situations\" whether or not the player character is involved, the second a game includes sex, it's banned. I find that really frustrating because it limits the medium artistically. There's no reason to ban Hotline Miami, the scene in question added weight to the story and was no different to anything that has previously been shown in Hollywood films for decades! \nOur law makers are just too out of touch with the public to understand that the average gamer is not a child and it's actually *easier* to keep this stuff out of the hands of children than it is porn or R rated movies on stream services.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I agree there's a lot of small things that are censored, but at the same time it's almost \nalways negligible to get around it. Like, with south park you had to just download a text file to fix it.\n\nI agree that in principle the whole thing is a waste of money and time, but it just doesn't really impact the average person all that much. The OP described it like it was a problem for us gaming here - in reality beyond the occasional little fix like South Park or the once every few years ban (that you can get around with the simplicity of something like a VPN) it's not like we're living in some gaming dystopia."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": ">I should to mention that games on consoles are too expensive for Russian auditory. So this is why PC is still superior in our country. But how about PC parts like videocards? They are really expensive.\n\nSpeaking as someone who knows absolutely nothing about daily life in modern Russia, my assumption was that the main issue preventing people from playing AAA games would be access - either because the games cost too much, or because they can't find the games in stores, or because the hardware to play the games on costs too much, or can't be found. My understanding is that this is an issue in many countries. Mobile games and free-to-play online games circumvent a lot of these issues which is a big reason for their popularity.\n\nCause if you're trying to tell me there's a country where the people there don't enjoy Mario Kart, I just don't think there's any science to support that.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Nintendo's products are not selled well in Russia.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I don't know bout Russia, but in Poland NES-clones were really popular in the early 90s.\n\nAs a result Nintendo got \"offended\" or whatev. And neglected our country for the next decade. You know, it's Nintendo - they hate money.\n\nWas there anything similar in Russia?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Ninteno just barely supported PAL territories at all when it mattered."
},
{
"body": "I think so, NES clones like Dendy were first gaming experience for pretty much every player who is now in their 30s."
},
{
"body": "Region 3 here, same. Plenty of knockoff hardware in malls, even up to this day and age. Back in the SNES' heydey I don't think it was this bad, but there were still plenty of bootleg cartridges, those \"30 in 1\" that even as a kid you knew weren't legit.\n\nPersonally though I don't think it's about liking or disliking the region; I simply think it's a matter of economics. Our currency exchange rate here is pretty poor - I'm guessing publishers are like \"these countries are probably not gonna be too profitable for us, so let's allocate some small percentage% of our stock to sell there\" and that's it. Hell, we NEVER get any targeted marketing, which is a telling sign. I've only ever seen marketing for regional MMO servers back when those were a thing in the early 2000s.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "In Poland bootleg cartridges were sold everywhere for a while, every street market had a few vendors.\n\nBuying those was a bit of a gamble, 10% of the time there would be a different game than shown on the sticker, but we had no Nintendo magazines or Internet to know which games were good so it mattered very little. \n\nWe had a 1000 in 1 cartridge with about 10 different games in multiple variants/mods, like Mario with low gravity or random level order. Good times."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "probably because Russia is, all in all, a poor country",
"replies": [
{
"body": "its most likely viewed as console for little kids",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Videogames in general are still seen as for children here in Southeast Asia too. Most people aren't really aware of how adult-rated games are. Oh sure they've probably heard about shooters but they think it's just one genre for weirdo manchildren or \"degenerates who idolize decadent western trends\".\n\nWe did have the cybercafe trend in the late 1990s, so we're aware of PC gaming being a thing instead of just mobile gaming. See, computers for gaming makes sense: they're accepted as normal/required in the modern world, you want your kids to be familiar with technology especially when they grow up and start looking for jobs, they can do their homework on it, etc. It's a small step from \"computer\" to \"insert a decent GPU inside, and voila! It's a gaming computer now\".\n\nConsoles on the other hand are a whole different ball game, they have NO OTHER PURPOSE than to play games. The typical High Expectation Asian Parent can't be expected to approve that shit especially when the currency exchange means these things are **very** expensive. Plus it's a lot easier to pirate PC games, making it even more attractive as a gaming platform. Kids only need to convince dad to buy a GPU, they can take care of the games themselves. Consoles on the other hand will be an ongoing money black hole, even used games aren't cheap - nevermind the push towards digital.\n\nI'm speaking as a 40+ y/o lifelong gamer from these parts; I lived through this shit."
},
{
"body": "I forget where I first read this, and have no idea if it is true nowadays, but I once heard that Nintendo thinks of their products as exactly that: toys for kids. When was the last time you saw an M/18+ game from Nintendo?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "yup the thing is its not going to be viewed (in russia) as something that adult can buy(by a lot of people)"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "No, because Nintendo games are considered childish and overrated by \"traditional\" gamers. And mobile games fans just con't care about any consoles, including Nintendo ones."
},
{
"body": "Nintendo stuff is not particularly expensive (even though it retains its value for too long).",
"replies": [
{
"body": "300 bucks for Switch is hella expensive for such poor hardware",
"replies": [
{
"body": "yeh. switch is great, but everything about it is over priced, esp the games and accessories, because they dominate the handheld market (outside of mobile) they can price things silly :'("
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Is genshin really considered a 3A title? Almost everyone I know (me included) that started playing it played it for a week-month and quit.\n\nIt felt like a game that has just a bunch of features to literally try and force you stay in the game. The gameplay aspect got extremely tiring after a week of playing.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "It had a budget of 100 million USD, so technically it is 100% AAA.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I really wish the whole “AAA/AA/A” nonsense would disappear. It means literally nothing."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I'm from Hungary, and nobody is advertising video games here either, but for some reason, gaming became really popular and accepted.\n\nPeople play all kind of video games here: mobile, indie, AAA, free to play multiplayer, etc.\n\nConsoles are a lot more popular than PC, but even PC gaming has a huge fan base.\n\nKids obviously can't really afford AAA games, but parents usually don't mind purchasing games, hardware for them.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Bulgaria here; yes, gaming is more acceptable nowadays compared to 10-15 years ago when if you played something different than FIFA, CS and GTA you were considered a nerd, but I think it is partly due to gaming becoming more user-friendly(mobile games) and accessible financially."
}
]
},
{
"body": "In order to enjoy a single player game you usually need to speak the language of the game. As someone that has worked in a holiday getaway that gets both Russian and European tourists, I've noticed that the Russians are the least likely to speak English (which is fine in my country because plenty of people, especially on the older side speak the language). Like, some of them are taking it as a point of pride. Then there's the morals of western stories and the morals of the average Russian dude. If you've talked with enough Russians, you'll know what I'm talking about.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Then there's the morals of western stories and the morals of the average Russian dude. If you've talked with enough Russians, you'll know what I'm talking about.\n\nI'm Russian, lived in the country for 40 years (so I've probably talked to enough Russians) and I still don't get what you're talking about.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "*Gross generalization warning*: I would assume OP is talking about how much more conservative your average Russian is compared to your average Westerner.\n\nBut that still doesn't make a lot of sense, because most game narratives are super conservative anyway.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Well, Russians are extra sensitive to modern topics like gender identities, homosexuality, etc. which is why they complained about a \"SJW agenda\" in TLOU2. \n\nBut again - it might be a loud minority, albeit likely still a bigger one than in the West. I’m basing this on the comment sections of gaming sites, which might be a bad example on its own, lol.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Thanks to the life during communism time there are lot of people in eastern europe that can't even take seriously the idea to save other people just because you can and it's the right thing to do. The only way to move forward is to screw over other people for these people because that was how things worked. I'm seeing it every day in my life. Following rules is for the stupid. Not being selfish is being dumb. It's not just the extreme hatred for certain minorities."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": ">In order to enjoy a single player game you usually need to speak the language of the game.\n\nUnless the game has subtitles in your language."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Where did you get that impression from? Is it an anecdote or you got some research you missed to link to?\n\nBecause from where I'm standing that's not exactly the picture. I mean sure casual (like mobile) gaming market overwhelms more 'proper' gaming one, but I imagine it is true for the rest of the world too. Online discussions of games might shadow silent majority of people who only play as padding of their daily life, but this gaming form is massive everywhere: Russia, China, Germany, Brazil, US - you name it.\n\nAs for the topic of AAA games themselves, I wouldn't find interest in them lacking in Russia. I admit thats anecdotical but most of my acquaintances (in fairly diverse sample) regularly play singleplayer games. Most of them got Cyberpunk 2077 preordered (given the economical situation buying games is almost a gesture sometimes) too for example. \n\nAccessibility for PC is not really an issue because current generation of consoles was around for a while and you can get acceptable experience on a rock of a PC you bought for dirt basically. And if you cannot afford game's price tag bittorrents are always an option.\n\nNow, Russia is PC country and consoles never got a hold in it (and I don't believe it will change soon since sticker price on AAA games got to like 1/6 of average monthly income), so if console games (like Kingdom Hearts you mentioned) is your baseline, I can see where you come from. But I don't think that is correct way to do so.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Still, PS5/Xbox Series preorders got sold out in minutes."
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Do we even live in the same country? Being a gamer in Russia ever since the 90s, there's a lot of conclusions that are the complete opposite to my experience with our gaming community. \"*Russia is too conservative for videogames*\"? Doubtful, considering how huge was Postal here, of all things. \"*Games are too expensive*\"? Console ones for sure, but friendly regional pricing makes AAA PC gaming very accessible, and modern large releases still gain enough popularity. Same for the parts, with multiple affordable ways to build a decent gaming rig (be it retailer prebuilds, ordering cheap parts overseas, or building services). \"*Kingdom Hearts/LoZ are unknown in Russia*\"? Sure, they're not as big in Russian mainstream as Pokemon or Mario, but most remotely invested Russian players know whar KH and LoZ are.\n\nFrankly, the amount of traction this post got kinda baffles me, considering how anecdotal it is at best and downright misinforming at worst.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I'm from SEA and kids here are lucky enough to be playing any game that are suitable for them be it on mobile or console. Most of the time it's stuff like Minecraft, Mario Kart and Brawl Stars. As they grow into their teens, kids who are still serious gamers will head on to play some competitive titles. Games like Valorant, DOTA, LoL are popular here. \n\nAAA single player games still belong more so to a niche of audience that I'd say were core gamers who grew out from the 90s. When we started playing games, multiplayer wasn't that much of a key aspect. I myself grew up in the 90s playing titles such as FF, MGS, and that is why today I'm still playing titles like FF7R, Death Stranding, Witcher, and the like. \n\nI'd be curious to know how people get into AAA single player games today especially if they were exposed to an era of gaming that's mostly mobile first and multiplayer. I would never want to see AAA single player games die out but I have to admit for game devs,the money is in mobile and multiplayer titles. The risk is far lower as you can quickly launch a title, gauge response and iterate. You just don't have that kind of flexibility in single-player titles.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I was going to ask why you were in the ocean but then I realized SEA probably stands for Southeast Asia and felt like an idiot"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Dude kids don't care about any of that shit period\n\n\n\nTheyve moved onto the future of mobile gaming while us dinosaurs still sit hear playing console games\n\n\nIts not only in russia, it's every fuckin where \n\nKonamis CEO stated they were gonna stop making \"real\" games cuz the future was in mobile\n\n\nIts not a Russia thing, its a world thing\n\n\nNo more begging mommy and daddy for the new console and new games when its all free right in your hands",
"replies": [
{
"body": "My kids and most of their friends (currently 10-13 years) play on PCs and consoles. While some of their friends played on tablets, I don't think any of them do any more.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes, I think that percent of kids playing on PCs and consoles are similar to what it was when I was a kid. But when in my youth the rest of the kids didn't play any video games, today they play mobile games."
}
]
},
{
"body": "I wouldn't vehemently be against playing on mobile is \n\n1. The controls weren't ass\n\n2. Phones had better battery\n\n3. Their quality was at least 5x better than what it is now. These games come off like flash games from yesteryear, and not \"real\" games. Do any of them have good writing? Nier's getting a spinoff on mobile and that's probably the first time I thought wow, an original mobile game could be engaging.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Do not discourage a thing you know nothing of\n\nTo list a few games:\n\nMonster Hunter stories \nFinal fantasy 1-9 which all work fine with mobile controls\nBalder's Gate 1 and 2\nThe escapist 2\nEvoland\nKOTOR\nChrono Trigger\nThe World Ends With You\nDragon Quest VIII\nDeath Road to Canada\nBanner Saga 2 (which I just literally found out, that game is fantastic)\nPlanescape Torment (regarded as one of the greatest stories in gaming)\nDisgaia\nDon't Starve\nEvery GTA up to San Andrease\nTerraria \nXCOM: Enemy Within\n\n\nI'm particularly partial to the Reigns games \nThe game of thrones one is really good just not much of GoT fan anymore\n\nReigns is actually one of the better games I played in a while including console games\n\nAlso the mobile animal crossing is good \n\n\nNot to mention emulation\n\nMost phones can emulate every console up to the PS1 era and the PsP\nPsP, Ps1, GBA, N64, DS\n\nHell I can use my phone just to play old pokemon games.\n\n\nI also would argue that the touch controls make playing mobas way more easier \n\nI think Mobile Legends is the best bet in terms of seeing how good the controls can be\n\nBut if you want a actually good moba get Omniyoji or Vainglory\n\n\nJust in general its still a new platform and the developers need time to fully utilize it\n\n\n\nAlso CoD mobile is playable with a ps4/xbone controller so that solves your issue\n\n\n\nLike mobile games aren't gonna go away just cuz you think they suck. Its only a matter of time before something comes out that you care about\n\n\nUltimately the Sky's are the limits\n\nMobile one die and they're only gonna draw in more developers for the profit so the games are going to get better",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Most of these games are not mobile games, but were ported to mobile. That doesn't make me think mobile games are good, but that they have to get their good games from somewhere else. I had a friend in college 10 years ago playing emulated games on his droid.\n\nThe mobile platform is more powerful than the platform of all those emulated games. How is it that those games from older platforms are better?\n\nI was concerned when my die hard AC fan friends got bored of the AC mobile game within a month. I played the gamecube version for at least a year. Some of those purely mobile suggestions exist in genres I don't enjoy.\n\nIf I have to use a controller to play a mobile game, I would rather play it on a screen, because I definitely won't be holding my phone and a controller in both hands on a bus.\n\nOf course they won't go away. I thought wii shovelware was shovelware but it remained.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The Wii didn't remain, mobile games have out lasted the Wii and they will outlast every other console \n\nA phone is now effectively just a computer in your hands, it cannot die\n\nTheir will only be more games added and with this new generation of kids console gaming will become only more and more niche\n\nI intend to get good at mobile controls so I won't get left behind in a desperate cling to comfortability and a unwillingness to adapt to the times\n\nMaybe I won't go to tik tok or Snapchat because I don't care for that new shit\n\nBut a good game is a good game at the end of the day.\n\nWhen it comes to emulating pokemon games the phone is in fact your best bet\n\nAnd its not like the controls for the older FF games are damaged by the port\n\nIf a good FF game can exist on the mobile than any good RPG can exist on mobile",
"replies": [
{
"body": "The wii didn't remain the same way the phones of that era didn't remain. \n\nBut has a good RPG been made for the mobile yet? Has a battery good enough to warrant playing long stretches of a good RPG been made for mobile yet?",
"replies": [
{
"body": ">But has a good RPG been made for the mobile yet?\n\nChaos Rings maybe? \n\nDidn't make enough money, because no one is paying for mobile games up front, because mobile games are shit, and it had the battery problem, but it's the only attempt I'm aware of of a serious rpg with some effort behind it developed for mobile.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Yes and dude how bad is your phone?\n\nLike if your shits a 10 year old hand me down than I wouldnt expect long battery life either",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You compared the Wii to phones, so I assume you mean phones released when the Wii came out, otherwise your comparison is moot. If you're referring to phones as a platform, then you have to compare them to a platform not a single device.\n\nThe Wii had a primary console lifespan of 6 years, 2006-2012 (when the Wii U became the primary console). The iPhone was released in 2007 and in 6 years had gone through 4 models of iPhone and had gone through 6 major OS versions (iOS6 was released in early 2013).\n\nNow of course, not everyone is gonna buy the new iPhone on release, but at some point in that lifespan, if you want to keep up with the most modern games, you are going to have to move up as each hardware device had a limit to how far you could update them. At a bare minimum, if you owned the first generation iPhone, you would have had to upgrade after 3 years, as it only supported up to iOS 3.1.3, and iOS 4 was released in 2010. \n\nFor a more modern comparison, I can kinda understand, phones are more like PC gaming, it's generational, but you can buy cheaper devices (or parts in PC's case) and still experience more modern games, but due to the rate at which phones are coming out, and Apple continues to stop updating phones after about 3 years, you are effectively experiencing 3 year generations, far shorter than game console generations. Not a single phone generation has been longer than any game generation."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "> they will outlast every other console\n\nHAHAHAHAHAHA\n\nhahahahahahhahahaha\n\nHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA",
"replies": [
{
"body": "What phones won't outlast the ps5?\n\nUnless we find a device to replace phones what is it that you disagree with\n\nPhones are already older than consoles",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> mobile games have out lasted the Wii and they will outlast every other console"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I have to agree with this. Most kids that I know are playing mobile games and do not even care about consoles or PC gaming. Why would they? They feel happy playing those types of games and for them it's all great so why bother looking elsewhere. \n\n\nGet a random kid that's 8 years old and ask them \" A new console or a new mobile phone, which one do you want?\" \n\n\nYou can ask them about popular franchises that almost everyone have some familiarity and they won't have a clue of what those names even mean. Metal Gear, Civilization, Street Fighter, Kirby etc.\n\nEdit: typo",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Before reading this thread I never realized how big mobile gaming has actually become.\n\nI still feel like smartphones are not really there yet in terms of gaming. There are so many games in the app store that are hot garbage. I even tried out one of the GTA Vice City on my phone and hated the touch controls, and I wasn't a fan of those attachable mobile game controllers. Idk, maybe I'm just too old and out of touch to see the appeal.\n\nI really hope devs don't abandon the console/pc platforms one day. But who knows, maybe the technology will get even better?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Before reading this thread I never realized how big mobile gaming has actually become.\n\nIf you don't mind invading peoples' privacy, something interesting to look out for next time you're on public transit is to see what people are doing on their phones. You'll notice that a surprising amount of older people like 40+ are playing games on their phone, just stuff like random puzzle games, but these people still count as gamers to the industry because even if we don't really think of these on the same level as something like Fortnite or Last of Us, they're still players to the developers.\n\n>even tried out one of the GTA Vice City on my phone and hated the touch controls, and I wasn't a fan of those attachable mobile game controllers\n\nThis is just a case of playing a weird port of a game that's not meant to be played on that system. I don't know anyone who likes mobile games who plays stuff like the mobile version of Assassins Creed or GTA. A lot of people who do enjoy mobile games are playing games either developed for mobile controls (Candy Crush, Peggle, Love Live, Fate Grand Order, etc.) or ported with a mobile version specifically in mind as a main platform (Teamfight Tactics, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, etc.)"
}
]
},
{
"body": "I think it's sad because kids prefer pay-2-win mobile games rather than cult classics.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I respect your opinion.\n\nTo me, most(not all), mobile games are soulless cash grabs but who am I to say what those kids should play? The marketing is adpating yet again, mobile games produces way more revenue than a traditonal console/pc game does on average. Unfortunately the industry moves where the money is. \n\n\nThe only possible turnaround I see is if the games that we love becomes more easily accessible for kids and if they notice the difference between those games. Microsoft is trying something with that subscribe thing maybe it works? Who knows.... I sure do cheer for them because I love games that are made for us, the old gamers.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> who am I to say what those kids should play?\n\nI think most people will agree that most mobile games are made with predatory tactics in mind, to get little Timmy to beg mom for her credit card once again. ~~Skinner~~Lootboxes anyone?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Sounds to me like a perfect opportunity for a parent to teach his kid the value of money, how hard it is to get, and that paying for pretty pixels isn't a good usage of it."
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Gotta be honest, I'm 28 and even though I know Kirby is a big franchise and stuff, I think I've only played 1 Kirby game and that was on the GBA. Other than that I don't think I've met others who have actually played Kirby outside of Smash."
}
]
},
{
"body": "And that's kinda OK. Indies make enough money to make it a valid career choice for the devs and new tech makes it very possible to design indies and there are some amazing games being made by passionate people from my generation who grew up in the golden age of PC gaming. I mean I'd like my hobby to be more popular and a lot more resources being spent on it sure, but this isn't the end of the world. I remember when CoD campaigns were actually good too, but there was zero chance you'd see a game like Hollow Knight or Hades back then. This is a historically good time to play games.\n\nIdk what the OP is complaining about either, if Russians are playing Undertale rather than Assassin's Creed I'd say good for them, they have good taste in games. Also I disagree with Russian game industry being dead. Pathologic 2 came out last year and was amazing. Escape from Tarkov and Ash of Gods are the latest Russian made games I played probably and they both have a lot of potential. There are good games around if you look for them, they don't have to be AAA to be worth your time.\n\nEdit: As a response for guys and gals pm'ing me for a list of those 10 indies in the last 2 years I loved. Completely personal taste and no particular order:\n\nDisco Elysium\n\nSunless Skies\n\nPathologic 2\n\nHollow Knight\n\nBaba is You\n\nSpelunky 2\n\nOuter Wilds\n\nHeaven's Vault\n\nBullets Per Minute\n\nA Short Hike\n\nKatana Zero",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I remembered when late 2000s' kids are enjoying first Assassin's Creed games. But today kids prefer games like Undertale.\n\nAlso I don't liked Undertale much. I think this game is overrated. In my opinion Kingdom Hearts (which is unpopular franchise in Russia) is better in lore and plot.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "undertale is years old dude..."
},
{
"body": "Kingdom Hearts is hands-down one of the worst-written pieces of entertainment I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through. You cannot be serious. More plot does not equal better plot."
},
{
"body": "Sure Undertale might not be your cup of tea, my point was that there are a lot of indies that offer much more than most AAA games that offer absolutely nothing else than the previous entry of the series. I honestlt can't remember the last AAA game I genuinely enjoyed before Witcher 3 and Doom 2016 (I don't have a conaole so idk about exclusives like God of War, Last of Us, Breath of the Wild etc.), and honestly neither of those were revolutionary or anything just an old formula done well. Whereas I can probably list 10 indy games I absolutely worshipped in the last two years.\n\nBtw. if you're looking for other games like Kingdom Hearts I can't help much since I personally never got into JRPGs, but I've heard a lot of great things about Nier:Automata."
},
{
"body": "Lol\n\nWhat are we only talking about the first kingdom hearts?\n\nPlease for the love of fuck tell me you only mean the first two and you only said that cuz you haven't actually kept up with the series\n\nSeriously the only kingdom hearts fans their should be left are people who hate the series but are too invested to get out now and the people who don't actually play the games.\n\nKingdom hearts lore is a trash fire\n\nThe fuckin mobile games are not only canon but required reading for further context in the story"
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I hope mobile gaming isn't the future for gaming as it objectively sucks ass. Most mobile games are pay to win, the ones that aren't have such a simple game loop that it's not worth my time. Why would I be playing a game about driving a car in a straight line without crashing when I can play GTA and do the same in 3D as an optional choice?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Well you're guys premise all starts with the idea that gaming on mobile will stay as it is\n\nI mean video games always start out pay to win: ARCADES.\n\nAs the audiance for mobile widens the demand for better games will come \n\nCoD Mobile is perfectly fine version of COD and its free and all of its bought stuff are cosmetic just like in the full versions",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Arcades are pay to play, if you have skill you only pay once. Mobile gaming started out with angry birds, the perfect mobile gaming, it wasn't pay to win and it was fun. Now that the audience widened we only get shitty 3D games, pay to win games and a few good games that can be counted on a hand."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I don't think so.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Someone gives you an example outside of your bubble and your response is \"I don't think so?\" Okay. Well I'll give you another: most kids in my neighborhood play fortnite, call of duty, and roblox. Most of my friends kids? Same. Single player games are hit and miss. Pokemon? Yeah. Mario? Sometimes. Call of duty campaign? Never. If they can play with their friends, they will.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Kids sure, but AAA single player stuff is still popular and has large demographic. A lot of adults with disposable money to keep them around for 20-50 years. I honestly can't speak to the kids generation, but know many 18-25 generation that still play games single player games. I'm now about to head into my 30s."
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "Well, I'm from Germany, not Russia, but I had some contact with Russians, especially Millenials thanks to some Imageboards, and at least I can say, you might not have a big love for AAA-titles and too modern games on \"real\" platforms in your country, but I respect the love older russian gamers have for more oldschool type of games. Probably also has to do with the more pricey hardware parts, but from what I've gathered russian gamers still dig the classics like Heroes of Might and Magic, Fallout 1+2, Jagged Alliance 2, games like that. It even seems to affect what is actually produced over in Russia, if I'm not mistaken \"Underrail\" for example is from a russian company, and it couldn't be more true to classic isometric CRPG's. Atom RPG also comes to mind, although thats from a team from different Eastern Bloc countries, but still. Those games might be a bit rough around the edges, but I feel like they have their place besides more polished indy-titles like Cuphead, and the big mainstream blockbuster titles."
},
{
"body": "From what I gather, accessibility is a huge problem for AAA games. People in poorer countries can't afford a 500+€ console/gaming PC and 60€ games. Top tier gaming is not the most accessible hobby.\n\nWhereas everyone has *some* phone and most have *some* computer. As much I dislike the fact, it makes sense that the most popular games are the ones that are easy to pick up and/or free to play. \n\nEven if, personally, I think it's just much better to play AAA games from 10+ years ago. But you don't get youtubers promotign that so much."
},
{
"body": "Since you are Russian, how well is the Metro series talked about there? I'm from Sweden myself but I love the Metro series, even though the developers are from Ukraine I think.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Well so is the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games, so so by OP's logic the Metro games should be Russian developed too. At least Metro is a Russian franchise from the start, the games however where developed by an Ukrainian studio."
}
]
},
{
"body": "Console gaming in Russia is very very underdeveloped. Hell console gaming outside of US, Japan, and Europe is basically 2nd place to PC gaming. \n\nPC cafes, ease of access to PCs vs consoles, basically pushed players to these kinds of games. Piracy as well, is basically *the way* to get games in Russia in the pre-steam era, and piracy on consoles is difficult compared to PC. And AAA singleplayer games for PC simply didn't exist before the late 2000s.\n\nEven in Korea, a relatively richer country which is BIG on gaming, PC gaming, multiplayer gaming is king, and Nintendo and the like take a big backseat.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I see you are from South Korea?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "No I have background from the US, Eastern Europe, and Japan. \n\nJapan has success with consoles because PC ownership is *still* relatively rare in 2020. Hooking up a box to the TV that's already there and playing it is much more space conscious than needing to set up a desk, chair, and monitor. Japanese homes are extremely tiny, home offices are very rare, and most people arent even allowed to work at all from home, including emails (pre covid). \n\nLots of my friends in Japan even do their schoolwork on their phones and tablets, and people at most own a macbook. I even have friends who watch entire movies and anime series on their mobile phones sitting at home... really weird concept to imagine right?\n\nNowadays though, mobile gaming is a big deal, especially gacha waifu games like Fate Grand Order and Kantai Collection. Also visual novels for women. People want to play stuff on the train and those are easy to play. \n\nNintendo switch is also very very popular and mainstream, but not easy to play standing up with one hand on the train. So that even takes a backseat to mobile gaming nowadays.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I think developers should improve mobile gaming. Making it less pay-2-win and more fun. Phones should have better and cheaper parts so we can play AAA games on them.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "what do you mean \"improve\"?\n\nthey're making boatloads of money and, to be frank, that is what they care about, not you or your desires\n\nthe number of people who say they should \"improve\" their games is infinitesimally small next to the number of people who will put a battleship of money into those games\n\ncapitalism does not care about people, it cares about profits, and until the number of dissatisfied people is greater than the theoretical amount of profits to be made, nothing will change\n\nthe problem is that probably much less than 1% of gamers spend a majority of the money, I heard it was something like 0.2% of gamers in GTA Online spend 90% of the money\n\nhow easy do you think it will be to get half of that 0.2% to stop spending money and support your cause?"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "I think some Russians take games significantly more seriously than their Western counterparts. I've met Russian players at very high levels of skill, and Russian crackers also at very high levels of skill - this probably ties in, like you said, to paying full prices being impossible for a lot of Russians.\n\nAnime in the US has gone from 'maybe you like this, maybe you don't; if you do you're ostracized' to '*if* you're ostracized, you like this and so do all your friends'. The causality is totally flipped. Any young person with any reasons to feel non-normative watches anime now. It's crazy to see. I kinda like it.\n\nYouTube was always going to be a huge influence on children, with the only question in the minds of those of us who saw it launched being 'how much will they be allowed to consume?'. We all agreed that would be the only limiting factor. Remember being a certain age, and knowing *for sure 100%* that your parents didn't know shit, your teachers didn't know shit, and who knew about the world was, for some reason, your really cool classmate?\n\nThat's not just a thing that happened to you, that's a phase a lot of kids go through. YouTube is *commercialization of that phase* and it's horrifyingly effective. Who needs an impartial game reviewer when I can have a YouTube celebrity? He, uh, kinda seems to know about games, and he's LiKe My FrIeNdS.\n\nGames in general are getting worse on average, as more mobile-only and other bad-faith actors cash in on what is now worth just as much as movies, the US's traditional cultural-powerhouse industry. The best games are still getting better, but the *average* game is getting worse. That's not just Russia, or just poor countries. Keep fighting the good fight.\n\ntl;dr If it can run on an older computer, I promise you there is a Russian somewhere who is very good at it. Often I find Russian squads playing older AAAs after many customers have moved on, and getting more out of the game than the nerds who buy every CoD did."
},
{
"body": "Wargaming is a Russian company and they make two extremely popular games in World of Warships and World of Tanks, and that one failed World of Warplanes game too.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "\\>Wargaming is a Russian company \n\nActually, Belarusian, with headquarters in Cyprus :)",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Gaijin Entertainment is Russian though, and makes War Thunder"
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": ">Also nobody is advertising good AAA games in Russia. I heard that Genshin Impact was goodly advertised in germany and many western countries. In Russia young players knows games because someone on YouTube playing it. \n\nGenshin Impact may be AAA by budget and affiliation, but it looks and plays like a late PS3/early PS4 action JRPG/gacha hybrid. It was heavily advertised in Germany, because the F2P market in Germany is quite small and player budgets are high. The general F2p criticism is the lack of quality. Genshin Impact is probably the highest quality F2P cash grab I've ever seen (if you ignore EA/Ubi levels of microtransactions). Genshin Impact is also not a non-mobile game. While they're also cashing in on console money, iOS and Android seem to be the dominant platforms."
},
{
"body": "Yeah that’s just every country. Little kids don’t really find there own games. They just piggyback off what others are playing, and there’s nothing wrong with that."
},
{
"body": "For what it's worth, Genshin Impact is basically a mobile game they decided to release on console and PC.\n\nIt's a gacha game with the same insidious bullshit as all other gacha comes, and they come directly from the mobile market. It's not better just because you can play it on your TV.\n\nIn general, China has a few exceptions but they still solidly rely on the mobile market so I'm really not sure they're a good comparison.\n\nI don't think it's helped Russia that for a long period of time developers just didn't bother to release the games there so piracy was common as fuck.\n\nAs for Australia, it's fine. They do some stupid crap every few years for political brownie points but nothing ever comes from it and you can find the games just fine *somewhere*. You're not really blocked by any major releases because no matter how ass-backwards the old farts in power might look they know the value of a dollar fucking bill waving in front of their faces."
},
{
"body": "Hello my fellow comrade. I can agree about mobile games among youth but... I believe it’s vice versa. Every console owner in Russia plays only AAA from Sony, and rarely third party games."
},
{
"body": "India is really similar in that regard. AAA games(except GTA games) are quite a niche segment of gaming. And add to the fact that electronics are heavily taxed here and many publishers using DRM and removing regional pricing has hurt AAA gaming enthusiasts in India. \n\nLuckily, one or two Indian indie games are emerging into the indie scene. Raji: An Ancient Epic is one such example. Add to that, EA, Ubisoft and Rockstar also outsource their work to their Indian studios.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I guess either AAA games will die out or they will go to mobile phones. Genshin Impact is the example of AAA mobile game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "People have said this for longer than you have been alive. Yet, here we are. Still playing great single player games year after year.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "in 1982, Dead Kennedys released an EP called In God We Trust, Inc\n\nthe cassette tape version stated in text on side 2 that home taping was\" killing the music industry, we left this side blank so you can help\"\n\n20 years later, the music industry achieved record profits\n\nby 2010, less than a decade later, that number had been cut by almost 3/4 and has continued to decline ever since\n\npoint being, things can be predicted a long time before they come to pass\n\nthe fact that developers like Rockstar gave up on single-player DLC for their two flagship franchises (and continue to milk one whose last entry first came out 2 generations ago) should give everyone an ominous sense of foreboding",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Music sales aren't really down as much as you think though - they just get the revenue in other ways. Tour money is higher than it's ever been and musicians are doing just fine for themselves.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm a musician and I've been in touring bands, I know how it works lol",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Word up - just seemed like you were trying to say the music industry has somehow become 1/4 of the money maker it was previously which is entirely untrue. It's still as big a moneymaker as it's ever been and piracy absolutely has not killed or harmed the music industry in any kind of significant capacity.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Coincidence. That's all.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "foreboding coincidence"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Well, I guess AAA games will be free-2-play games which are available for mobiles.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "How old are you? Seriously. Your rationale and thinking is just...beyond ridiculous.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "21. I have some problem with my psyche.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yeeeeaaah boy! Me too"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I don't think AAA games will die out. As for them coming to mobile, I feel that it is only possible via Cloud gaming platforms(with few exceptions) such as Project xCloud by Microsoft."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Ok, but what about Metroid Exodus? It was made by a Russian dev studio?\n\nI also vaguely remember this top-down adventure / RPG from early-00s where the main character was awoken by a fairy like in OoT",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Is there some sort of weird propaganda going on here? Both Metro and S.T.A.L.K.E.R were made by Ukrainian dev studios, while you and OP claim Russian. Wtf is wrong with you.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Came here to say this, they always want the good stuff"
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I remember buying my relative in Russia a PS3 like 2 years ago cause those legit are either uncommon or expensive there.\n\nEssentially Russia is a third world country.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Huh? PS3s are neither rare nor expensive in Russia.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Hard disagree. If you know where to look, you can find nearly every single AAA title for free.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Did you miss the part where he said harder to pirate. He didn't say impossible, he said harder and yes things are harder now than they were back in the day and yes I currently can get essentially any game i want for any system for free but that doesn't mean its easier now than it was."
},
{
"body": "Some of them take months before they show up in those places though.",
"replies": [
{}
]
},
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I’m in the U.S. and just bought a PS5 to hook my VR headset up to. I’ve been playing Minecraft and Skyrim there. I’m in Washington State, home to Microsoft. Gaming adds a very positive influence to my life, I do it with many friends. Online, I have been playing GTAO."
},
{
"body": "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was released by a Ukrainian developer GSC Game World based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Check your facts."
},
{
"body": "« Most of young people in Russia are weebs »\nWell I have nothing against Russia (except some really harsh CS games) but I have to tell you to fly from there.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Just an overstatement. He probably meant \"the specific group of young people, who happen to hang out in the same places he usually does\". Sure, there are plenty, but that is pretty much a universal staple in any geeky subculture"
}
]
},
{
"body": "[deleted]",
"replies": [
{
"body": "\\> calls most AAA games a vehicle for western ideologies/propaganda\n\nWell, there definitely could be a point made in some genres, considering their common jingoistic american exceptionalism themes\n\n\\> continues with \"forced diversity\"\n\nlel \n\n\nBut I guess in the last years, the tropes and political messages in many AAA games really got better compared to 10-20 years ago."
},
{}
]
},
{
"body": "In my opinion, y'all aren't missing out on much. AAA games are stale and lifeless, products of corporate greed with little to no overall creative direction. It seems to me similar to blockbuster movies which used to come out every year only to be a remake/rehash written by committee to be the safest product.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Not always. I agree that AAA gaming studios are making games just for making money. Mario franchise is greatest example. It was created by Nintendo just for making money on it. But unlike EA, it creates high quality products and know how to serve players. It's not bad to make games for just money. \n\nI should to mention some hyped indie games like Yandere Simulator and Cube World. They created by one person, but actually are terrible games. YandereDev is toxic person. \n\nI was a guy like you. I believed in this theory. But why I should to play only indie games if we have some good AAA games. Man, there are so many thrash on Steam and eShop. And you know? Valve is a big company. It allows indies to sale their games.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "It’s interesting because to me it seems like countries where PC gaming and mobile gaming are at the top are kind of there for two reasons. \n\n1: Low income level dictating you to work with what you have and to buy general purpose tools rather than luxury focused ones. This automatically makes gaming lean more towards being done on phones and cheap PCs because it’s likely you have one already.\n\n2: Conservative social values putting lesser acceptance of new/experimental media. Most conservative countries tend to view games primarily as a vice rather than an art form. Past, already proven, works tend to be held in value because they’ve proven themselves over time. Opera, classical music, written work, paintings, and more recently film have had time to mature and gain popular artistic credibility. Computer games are still new to a majority of people as an art form. What this leads to is the majority hiding their habit of playing games on more general purpose machines (PCs/Phones).\n\nMy one major caveat to the conservative values is Japan though. However, in general I feel Japan has quite a unique relationship with art in comparison to many other conservative countries. \n\nAlso, this is a bit of an over generalization. I do think it does apply fairly well to most of the word though."
},
{
"body": "Right now I'm relegated to mobile myself for financial reasons\n\nBut spec wise this phone is about equal to a psp, maybe ps2 if fully pushed \n\nThat's not bad for something that can fit in my pocket, I can use for the internet, reddit, everything else\n\nA phone in a nutshell a like a laptop you can fit in your pocket.\n\n\nOf course mobile is the future. \n\nThe only thing hindering it is inferior controls and weaker graphics which is the same thing the consoles had trouble with compared to PC\n\n\nThe future is mobile \n\n\nI mean have you guys seen CoD Mobile at max settings?\n\nhttps://youtu.be/dYe-WGUXv08\n\nThe shit looks as good as an Xbox 360 games in your pocket \n\nBruh nuke town in my pocket \n\n\nFuck you old timers \n\nTime to get my fidget spinners and get use to these touch controls\n\nAin't gonna see me clinging to the past when it comes to gaming.\n\nFuxkin got league of legends coming out soon\n\nhttps://youtu.be/pNjWjwae-us\n\n\nI can see the writings on the wall",
"replies": [
{
"body": ">The only thing hindering it is inferior controls and weaker graphics which is the same thing the consoles had trouble with compared to PC\n\nKinda no because a gamepad is still better than an on-screen gamepad.",
"replies": [
{}
]
}
]
},
{}
]
}