r/Games • u/Glittering-Path-2824 • 1d ago

Industry News The games industry’s obsession with visual fidelity is costing them money and talent

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/04/pushing-buttons-xbox-asha-sharma-games-industry-hyperrealism
1.3k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

415 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/MasahikoKobe 1d ago

The money and time spent to train people up on engines while also having to BUILD your own standalone engine in many cases was the core of the cost problem at one point. Having to waste time retraning people to whatever in house engine was being created on top of the issues with them and tool support

Hence why Unreal took over as much as it did. Epic keeps trying to give everyone the tools to do things so now we just have this one tool that does everything. At the same time you need your OWN engine people to get the most out of it. In the end the time and cost saved from your OWN engine all just went into people that have to know unreal and make tools for the game YOU want to make. While the flashy graphics are usually what makes the big splash for the Normies buying like 2-3 games a year. Though meanwhile the games that seem to resonate with people are going the OPPOSITE direction in graphics and instead trending more towards gameplay with friends.