2020 in gaming

I sometimes look up games I read in the papers that are supposed to be the "hottest thing". I looked up Among Us and thought wtf is this, and why would anyone want to play it?? I still have no idea what Animal Crossing is - a Pokemon/Stardew mash-up?

Best selling game stats are distorted by not including digital sales which comprise 98% of PC games.

Read the headline expected something different. Lets just say 2020 in gaming personally sucked to me. In fact the whole year itself sucked like nothing ever before it.

Now on topic looks like Mobile continues to expand and assimilate more of the pie.

It's opposite for me when it comes to videogames.
2020 was awsome!

When it comes to RL, then yeah, 2020 sux balls. Almost the whole year my social life was zero. Got some severe depression basically being forced into home custody.
I'm aware some people adore being alone and never see anyone for weeks, I just can't, if this continues much more I'll end up in an institution where lobotomies are performed on a whim.

Originally Posted by joxer
It's opposite for me when it comes to videogames.
2020 was awsome!

Must have bad tastes in games then or play small indie games.

Anyhow I don't play console games and not many AAA games interested me this year either. As Wasteland 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't make the whole year better.

Also I'm not interested in Genshin Impact or Troubleshooters either.

Wasteland? Good lord, no wonder your year is ruined.
I dodged that mmo garbage.

You don't have to be interested in all games out there, the year provided a shitton of titles for every player type, I couldn't find time for everything.

Not really look at the RPGWatch release list. Many don't even interest me.

Link - https://www.rpgwatch.com/games/releaselist.html

I probably bought nine new games this year at best.

Thanks @porcozaur very interesting!

Must be some non calendar related cutoff in the numbers because no way did 13 million sales not crack the top 10 list.

It was a crappy year in a lot of ways, but it was quite a good year for gaming, for me. I finally got to play Cyberpunk 2077, and it mostly lived up to my hopes. The Last of Us 2 is one of my favorite games ever. FFVII Remake was a positive surprise and now I have its sequels to look forward to. AC: Valhalla might be my favorite AC game (and I'm an AC fan), and Ghost of Tsushima was a very solid title. PC games like Hades and Griftlands were a lot of fun.

Because of the numerous Cyberpunk delays, I also ended up intentionally distracting myself by going down a few rabbit holes. First was returning to play JRPGs for the first time in years. That was only semi-successful (I determined that I still think most of them suck), but it was a fun diversion for a while. Then came playing fighting games for the first time in many, many years. That was more succesful. And third, trying miltary strategy games/"counter shufflers", a sort of strategy game I had little experience with. That was fun too.

So despite Wasteland 3 moderately disappointing me and games like Vampire Bloodlines 2 never showing up, I played a heck of a long and varied list of good games this year.

I played mostly EQ2 this year, from Feb to about 2 weeks ago. I also re-played six classic games and four new ones, including Persona Four and Cold Steel Three. That latter one might turn out to be my favourite of the year.

What I notice since several years is this :

Meanwhile video games go up
toy shops go down and die out.

You just need to look at the towns : How many toy shops have closed within the last 10-20 years ?

And how many youngsters are playing ideo games instead ?

I don't see toy shops anymore, and even those with long traditions like Bonn's [Bonn = former capital of Germany] "Puppenkönig" close.

Meanwhile, amazon becomes big and video games are selling fast.

I find this disturbing, that children don't learn to use their minds with creativity anymore. And that they unlearn to build things like with Lego. With their hands and minds alone.
Video games are taking away the ability to IMAGINE things, because videi games are nothing but pre-rendered dreams. No own dreaming necessary anymore ! No creativity needed anymore !

I begin to wonder whether craft professions are suffering from that, too …

Many shops have to end their business as simply less people buy in physical stores. More and more people buy online. Especially now with Corona.
Maybe less toys are being sold. Who knows what the reasons are. It might be that there are less children to buy them for.

As someone that's been disabled for almost twenty years now, I find the convenience of being able to shop online quite wonderful. I do, however, always try to shop locally from those that maintain an online presence, I fail to see why a brick and mortar store shouldn't be able to do both. Diversity is the key to success in many areas, has been for decades, you can either complain/whing about it, or see an opportunity and strive for excellence.

Mobile being in the lead is good. It means a considerable amount of suits are focused on ruining those games rather than PC/console games.