The 10 WORST Things About Gaming in the 2020s
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VOICE OVER: Ty Richardson
WRITTEN BY: Ty Richardson
There have been some great innovations to come from today's video games, but since the start of the ninth generation, some things have gone downhill. For this list, we'll be looking at the most unfortunate or downright frustrating aspects about gaming in the modern era. Our list of the worst things about gaming in the 2020s includes The Plague of Live Services, Crowded Cemeteries of Forgotten IPs, Constant Advertisements, Limited Storage Space, and more!
Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re giving you our list of the 10 Worst Things About Gaming in the 2020’s. Look, there has been some great innovations to come from today’s video games, but since the start of the ninth generation, it seems things have gone downhill. What do you think about the current state of the games industry? Has it stagnated your interest or have you found your own corner to enjoy games? Let us know in a civil manner down in the comments. Seriously, let’s leave the fandom out the door for once and have an actual discussion; there’s enough disgusting fanboys running around as it is.
Ever since we nabbed our PlayStation 5, we have noticed one issue that has become somewhat frequent - the crashing. The PlayStation 4 was pretty bad when it came to random crashes, but the PlayStation 5 has been noticeably worse. That isn’t to say every PS5 is doing this [probably], but for us, it’s not uncommon for the Seto Kaiba box to crash upon booting up or crash when launching a game or crash when loading menus in the PlayStation Store. This happens about once a week or so, and we don’t recall this being much of a problem when playing, say the original PlayStation or even the PS2. The Xbox Series S has also crashed on us a handful of times, though it hasn’t been as frequent. It’s almost like packing in more power for these things is causing more problems.
Now, controllers aren’t as much of a problem these days as they used to be. We’ve come a long way since the awkward pitchfork we used for the N64 and the Duke from the original Xbox console. But the DualSense, for how neat it is with its haptic feedback, has reportedly caused some players some serious hand pain. As far as controls with software is concerned, there have been so many games forcing console players to use freakin’ cursors to navigate menus. If we wanted to awkwardly sway a cursor around menus and inventory screens, we would have gotten the game on PC! Why are the shoulder buttons not being properly utilized? On top of that, many AAA games impose a “hold button” prompt for just about every basic action like picking up an item or opening a door. Anything for realism, right?
It’s kind of funny how back in 2018, we received flak for criticizing “Star Wars Battlefront II’s” bloated file size, which had reached a whopping 91GB, taking up roughly twenty percent of the base PS4’s standard storage space. Fast forward to today where AAA games have been regularly making headlines for the obscene amount of storage space they’re demanding across all platforms. We’re talking an average of over 100GB, sometimes 120GB! Some point to a problem with developers not knowing how to compress files while others conspire that this is done to bully other games off of players’ consoles. Who knows - let’s just keep asking for hyper realistic graphics at 4K resolution and eventually we’ll figure out the reason behind storage problems.
What’s so odd about AAA gaming taking up so much storage space is that much of the quality has been all over the place, especially in the PC space. Fork over your hard-earned seventy dollars for broken gameplay, performance issues, and a plethora of bugs and glitches. Since the price hikes began, AAA publishers have yet to justify their decision with the awful work on display. Just look at “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”, “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty”, “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla”, “The Last of Us: Part I”, and of course, the “Pokemon” games of the last few years. We are told that games are getting too expensive to make, but does that justify the lack of quality? Is that supposed to excuse horrible monetization or constant frame dips? Seeing how some AAA publishers go through massive layoffs right before reporting “record profits”, we fail to believe the price hike was deserved.
It is truly a shame how much “Call of Duty” continues to swallow up any and all attention in both the gaming community and games media. We can understand why “Call of Duty” is as big as it is, but we can’t help wondering how much of its popularity is because people are attached to what it was in 2009. Regardless, there’s no denying that “Call of Duty” has gradually caused people to start resenting it. It’s a series known for having massive cheating problems, gets a new title every single year, and has become the primary focus of just about every studio under Activision-Blizzard. And it’s interesting to see bigger gaming outlets make the same criticisms while at the same time churn out guides, tips and tricks, and forget whatever controversy faster than Activision forgot about all of their other IP.
Ever since “Fortnite” exploded in 2017, just about every game company - big and small - has put all of their focus into trying to build their own money printer. We get it; the dream of chasing a possibly infinite source of wealth is tantalizing. The problem is that there are so many games that try to wedge in live service elements at any given opportunity, and so many companies fail to understand that the market is severely crowded. As if the wave of games getting shut down wasn’t a sign of the trend dying, PlayStation is taking a gamble on at least a dozen live service games still in development by their first-party studios…and Bungie gets to say what projects live to see the light of day. Whatever happened to making, you know, VIDEO GAMES? Well, if you want to buy video games, there are many AA and indie publishers that will cater to you.
It’s bad enough that AAA publishers force players to stay online all the time just to play a game solo. (Looking at you, “Diablo IV”.) But what’s more annoying is how frequently we’re advertised to. Remember when we got Rockstar Energy in our “Mad Max” game? How about when we booted up “Mortal Kombat 11” so we could see a “Hogwarts Legacy” banner on our screen? Don’t you just love being assaulted with news about “Fortnite’s” new season every time you boot up your PS5, or see a portion of your Xbox’s dashboard be delegated to a sponsor? Meanwhile, when you hop onto your Switch, any and all advertisements are shoved into a single news section. At least one platform is keeping our consoles serene.
Now, this was bound to happen sooner or later, but so many developers who have made our favorite games have made their exits or are about ready to. Shigeru Miyamoto has been talking about retirement these last few years as he progresses into his seventies. Masahiro Sakurai may or may not be making one more “Smash Bros” game and has also been talking about retirement. Todd Howard, now in his early to mid-50’s, is eyeing “The Elder Scrolls VI” as his last game before retirement. Shinji Mikami announced his retirement and departure from Tango Gameworks back in February 2023. Amy Hennig is currently working on a game with Lucasfilm Games and Skydance New Media, but is also approaching sixty, so who knows how long we might have her creative genius before she announces her exit from games. And that’s all without getting into the devs who have exited because of scandals.
As “Call of Duty” and “cinematic” open world games continue gobbling up everyone’s attention, we have found ourselves in a sea of dead IP that may never return. Even when fans are being vocal about wanting certain franchises, most publishers have shown that they’d rather keep belting out the same products. We have been seeing this attitude with PlayStation after the American offices fought with the Japanese offices over the brand’s power, eventually leading to Japan Studio’s closure. Like we mentioned earlier, Activision is making all of its studios work primarily on “Call of Duty”. Xbox, on the other hand, is too busy feeding the Game Pass machine. Where’s Crash Bandicoot? Where’s our new “Twisted Metal”? Where’s Spyro, Banjo, “Legacy of Kain”, “Vampire: The Masquerade”, “Star Fox”, “PaRappa”, “Resistance”, or “Killzone”?
Over the last few years, acquisitions have become rampant, and in some cases, outright annoying. Some folks have spent the last eighteen months playing corporate cheerleader for Microsoft as the conglomerate fought the FTC and CMA over its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. In response, Sony has been scooping up studios for the PlayStation family like Bungie as well as studios that have yet to put out their first game. Rumors have been circulating over whether Square Enix will become a part of PlayStation or not. Embracer Group has found its massive purchases have become a financial thorn, leading to massive layoffs across its near-100 companies. Needless to say, there are obscene amounts of money being thrown in every direction. “But games are expensive to make!” They sure are.
Crashing With No Bandicoots
Ever since we nabbed our PlayStation 5, we have noticed one issue that has become somewhat frequent - the crashing. The PlayStation 4 was pretty bad when it came to random crashes, but the PlayStation 5 has been noticeably worse. That isn’t to say every PS5 is doing this [probably], but for us, it’s not uncommon for the Seto Kaiba box to crash upon booting up or crash when launching a game or crash when loading menus in the PlayStation Store. This happens about once a week or so, and we don’t recall this being much of a problem when playing, say the original PlayStation or even the PS2. The Xbox Series S has also crashed on us a handful of times, though it hasn’t been as frequent. It’s almost like packing in more power for these things is causing more problems.
Controls With No Control
Now, controllers aren’t as much of a problem these days as they used to be. We’ve come a long way since the awkward pitchfork we used for the N64 and the Duke from the original Xbox console. But the DualSense, for how neat it is with its haptic feedback, has reportedly caused some players some serious hand pain. As far as controls with software is concerned, there have been so many games forcing console players to use freakin’ cursors to navigate menus. If we wanted to awkwardly sway a cursor around menus and inventory screens, we would have gotten the game on PC! Why are the shoulder buttons not being properly utilized? On top of that, many AAA games impose a “hold button” prompt for just about every basic action like picking up an item or opening a door. Anything for realism, right?
Limited Real Estate
It’s kind of funny how back in 2018, we received flak for criticizing “Star Wars Battlefront II’s” bloated file size, which had reached a whopping 91GB, taking up roughly twenty percent of the base PS4’s standard storage space. Fast forward to today where AAA games have been regularly making headlines for the obscene amount of storage space they’re demanding across all platforms. We’re talking an average of over 100GB, sometimes 120GB! Some point to a problem with developers not knowing how to compress files while others conspire that this is done to bully other games off of players’ consoles. Who knows - let’s just keep asking for hyper realistic graphics at 4K resolution and eventually we’ll figure out the reason behind storage problems.
Randomly Generated Quality
What’s so odd about AAA gaming taking up so much storage space is that much of the quality has been all over the place, especially in the PC space. Fork over your hard-earned seventy dollars for broken gameplay, performance issues, and a plethora of bugs and glitches. Since the price hikes began, AAA publishers have yet to justify their decision with the awful work on display. Just look at “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”, “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty”, “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla”, “The Last of Us: Part I”, and of course, the “Pokemon” games of the last few years. We are told that games are getting too expensive to make, but does that justify the lack of quality? Is that supposed to excuse horrible monetization or constant frame dips? Seeing how some AAA publishers go through massive layoffs right before reporting “record profits”, we fail to believe the price hike was deserved.
CoD is LIFE
It is truly a shame how much “Call of Duty” continues to swallow up any and all attention in both the gaming community and games media. We can understand why “Call of Duty” is as big as it is, but we can’t help wondering how much of its popularity is because people are attached to what it was in 2009. Regardless, there’s no denying that “Call of Duty” has gradually caused people to start resenting it. It’s a series known for having massive cheating problems, gets a new title every single year, and has become the primary focus of just about every studio under Activision-Blizzard. And it’s interesting to see bigger gaming outlets make the same criticisms while at the same time churn out guides, tips and tricks, and forget whatever controversy faster than Activision forgot about all of their other IP.
The Plague of Live Services
Ever since “Fortnite” exploded in 2017, just about every game company - big and small - has put all of their focus into trying to build their own money printer. We get it; the dream of chasing a possibly infinite source of wealth is tantalizing. The problem is that there are so many games that try to wedge in live service elements at any given opportunity, and so many companies fail to understand that the market is severely crowded. As if the wave of games getting shut down wasn’t a sign of the trend dying, PlayStation is taking a gamble on at least a dozen live service games still in development by their first-party studios…and Bungie gets to say what projects live to see the light of day. Whatever happened to making, you know, VIDEO GAMES? Well, if you want to buy video games, there are many AA and indie publishers that will cater to you.
Constant Advertisements
It’s bad enough that AAA publishers force players to stay online all the time just to play a game solo. (Looking at you, “Diablo IV”.) But what’s more annoying is how frequently we’re advertised to. Remember when we got Rockstar Energy in our “Mad Max” game? How about when we booted up “Mortal Kombat 11” so we could see a “Hogwarts Legacy” banner on our screen? Don’t you just love being assaulted with news about “Fortnite’s” new season every time you boot up your PS5, or see a portion of your Xbox’s dashboard be delegated to a sponsor? Meanwhile, when you hop onto your Switch, any and all advertisements are shoved into a single news section. At least one platform is keeping our consoles serene.
An Exodus of Legends
Now, this was bound to happen sooner or later, but so many developers who have made our favorite games have made their exits or are about ready to. Shigeru Miyamoto has been talking about retirement these last few years as he progresses into his seventies. Masahiro Sakurai may or may not be making one more “Smash Bros” game and has also been talking about retirement. Todd Howard, now in his early to mid-50’s, is eyeing “The Elder Scrolls VI” as his last game before retirement. Shinji Mikami announced his retirement and departure from Tango Gameworks back in February 2023. Amy Hennig is currently working on a game with Lucasfilm Games and Skydance New Media, but is also approaching sixty, so who knows how long we might have her creative genius before she announces her exit from games. And that’s all without getting into the devs who have exited because of scandals.
Crowded Cemeteries
As “Call of Duty” and “cinematic” open world games continue gobbling up everyone’s attention, we have found ourselves in a sea of dead IP that may never return. Even when fans are being vocal about wanting certain franchises, most publishers have shown that they’d rather keep belting out the same products. We have been seeing this attitude with PlayStation after the American offices fought with the Japanese offices over the brand’s power, eventually leading to Japan Studio’s closure. Like we mentioned earlier, Activision is making all of its studios work primarily on “Call of Duty”. Xbox, on the other hand, is too busy feeding the Game Pass machine. Where’s Crash Bandicoot? Where’s our new “Twisted Metal”? Where’s Spyro, Banjo, “Legacy of Kain”, “Vampire: The Masquerade”, “Star Fox”, “PaRappa”, “Resistance”, or “Killzone”?
Tis the Season…of Acquisitions
Over the last few years, acquisitions have become rampant, and in some cases, outright annoying. Some folks have spent the last eighteen months playing corporate cheerleader for Microsoft as the conglomerate fought the FTC and CMA over its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. In response, Sony has been scooping up studios for the PlayStation family like Bungie as well as studios that have yet to put out their first game. Rumors have been circulating over whether Square Enix will become a part of PlayStation or not. Embracer Group has found its massive purchases have become a financial thorn, leading to massive layoffs across its near-100 companies. Needless to say, there are obscene amounts of money being thrown in every direction. “But games are expensive to make!” They sure are.
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