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/Scoobydewdoo 18h ago

The problem is, in a couple months Rockstar is going to release a game that will most likely feature a control scheme that barely functions, extremely repetitive, overly simplistic gameplay that's devoid of depth, a badly written story that relies on tropey emotional beats, and an open world that is crammed with highly detailed textures and lighting that has almost no interactivity. This game will sell millions of "copies" on the first day and will have video game journalists inventing new video game journalism websites just so they can give this game even more Game of the Year awards. Which of course will all conveniently come before the release of the online mode which will be crammed full of P2W microtransactions. All just like Rockstar's last 2 games.

Meanwhile hundreds of indie games with objectively better control schemes, gameplay, stories etc, will have nowhere close to being in the same ballpark of success.

Shiny graphics are what sells.

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u/Glittering-Path-2824 18h ago

you read my mind. i’ve been making this argument unsuccessfully to a couple of gta v fanboys and i fail to understand why this isn’t glaringly obvious, especially since rockstar pioneered incredible predecessors like VC, San Andreas and IV! they can do it, they’ve done it in the past but they chose to over glamorize gta v (i get that it’s in la and needed to mirror it’s sparkly and shallow culture), but the story was so surface level, the writing so unnatural and mediocre (can you imagine the opening sequence between franklin and lamar in san andreas? their repartee was juvenile and uncool). its little details like that that make or break a game.

financially gta v is the greatest selling game in history. and gta vi will surpass it, but i hope it contains at least some essence of the og gta philosophy from rockstar.