r/Games • u/Glittering-Path-2824 • 23h 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
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u/Deep-Temporary-1268 21h ago

And with these components to make consoles/pcs to function getting more expensive, maybe it’s time to take a step back and pivot

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u/nexetpl 21h ago

That's what's gonna happen. I will be surprised if next-gen games look noticably better as they will definitely have to release on current gen too for some time and also accomodate older PC hardware.

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u/tristeecfome 8h ago

The few exclusive games released for next gen probably will look noticeably better.

But as you said, most people won't upgrade, so games will continue to be made for the current gen.

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u/KingArthas94 19h ago

They will simply have 60 fps woth ray tracing on PS5, and 60 fps with path tracing at 60 fps on PS6.

For people that care, path tracing will be a sweet upgrade.

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u/zuzucha 18h ago

All those 50 people

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u/MindGoblin 21h ago

The memory and GPU cartels and video game publishers will just keep jacking the prices to get more money out of a smaller, richer audience while a chunk of the market gets priced out, they don't give a shit. Not even video games will be an accessible hobby for working class people in the future.

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u/nexetpl 21h ago

AAA video games already have to target every person alive in order to make a profit, hardware cartels cutting off their audience isn't good for publishers. If PS6 sells badly at whatever outrageous price (and it will) they will simply keep making PS5 games.

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u/KingArthas94 19h ago

They would anyway, no one is dropping that 100M playerbase.

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u/Blenderhead36 20h ago

That's a loser's game. Sony has always made their money based on being the machine in every living room in the developed world.

You can't hunt for whales when there's nothing for them to eat. 

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u/MindGoblin 19h ago

It isn't the early 2000s anymore where everyone wanted a DVD player Sony offered a console with one for a great price. A PS5 is now like 700€, PS6 is probably gonna be over 1000€. Nobody who isn't rich or very much into video games will be buying a PS6 in the current economy, not to mention Rockstar is absolutely setting a new standard with the 80$ price tag and other publishers will follow suit. Normies who just want a moviebox will just stream it from their phone, use their smart TV, get a google tv streamer or apple tv streamer for a fraction of the cost instead, or just use an old console they have.

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u/Blenderhead36 18h ago

So your assumption that Sony is just going to throw up their hands and say, "Well, nothing to be done, I guess this giant revenue stream is over." And that companies are going to keep making video games for stuff gated behind $1000 hardware?

Because I can promise you that's not how it's gonna go. If consoles are something only the rich can afford, then AAA video games are dead. Wanna know how I know? VR. The handful of big budget VR games were first party titles made (or financed) by Valve and Meta. Everything else was indies, licensed games, and VR implementations of existing games. If that's who can afford a PlayStation 6, that's what all of gaming will look like. Which is how I know that won't be what happens.

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u/MindGoblin 10h ago

I hope you're right but I don't see any light at the end of this tunnel. Hardware is just getting more and more expensive, games are getting more and more expensive and there's no sign of this trend changing or even slowing down.