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Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

I'd argue it's not just lockdown. This has been an epic release year: Animal Crossing, Half Life Alyx, Doom Eternal, Gears Tactics, Valorent, Sea of Thieves. And on and on. Paper Mario: Origami King trailer looks like so much fun there is no reason to leave the house this summer ;)

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As someone who works in the video games industry, I can guarantee it is the lockdown. Stay at home orders align really closely with significant lifts in new players, increased hours played, and many other core metrics across the industry. And many games have seen significant lifts in their existing live service performance (not just new games).

I also work in games and I can confirm this too - even our older games which had dwindling player numbers have gotten a massive increase in player numbers in the last 2 months. In some cases we've had to spool up our network infrastructure to levels higher than at launch, since the numbers are so high.

Also could be a large uptick in unemployment. Lots more people sitting at home with nothing to do. Games are on sale most the time and can be had for 10-15 dollars on steam. That's the same price as a case of beer in some places and you get far more entertainment hours out of a video game than a six pack.

Uptick in console sales (far more expensive than $10-15) suggest money isn't the sole motivating factor. If it really were, you'd expect people to flock to netflix and other streaming services which are cheaper

At least personally part of it is that I also have more hours in the day due to no commute that I can spend on other things, including gaming.

Half Life Alyx

Big name, but random googling says Half Life Alyx sold 50k vs.... Animal Crossing at 11 million+ by March 31.

I'm not sure Half Life Alyx has any relevance as far as volume of play goes ;)

Off by a factor of 10, looks like it was 500k but still, I think that is a function of VR headset ownership which is only at like 2% of the market or something. Adjusted for the market it was likely pretty big. I grant that within the wider videogame market it is not nearly as relevant though.

Although I’d argue the real goal of Alyx was to entice more people to take the VR plunge. That’s bad luck with the pandemic, as I’m sure the $1k price tag (more if you need a better computer too) is hard to do for many in this climate.

You don't need the Valve Index to play Half-Life Alyx. Windows Mixed Reality VR headsets can be had for under $300.

You still need a gaming PC though, lots of relatively casual gamers (like myself) still only have consoles.

You need to be able to clear out enough space to wander around a room blindfolded, too. That's really at a premium right now if you're not living alone; kids, roomies, parents, and spouses are all fighting for space in homes that were perfectly adequate when everyone went out to work or school most of the day.

>You need to be able to clear out enough space to wander around a room blindfolded, too.

You really don't. I have a 3ft by 3ft playspace (at most), and I played through Alyx (as well as tons of other VR games) just fine. Sure, having more space would've made it a little bit better, but the overall experience is just as great.

The Oculus Rift has been out of stock since March when the pandemic started. It's really hard to find VR headsets right now.

It's funny it took them this long to add something like that.

Most companies when they introduce a platform do try to push it with some of their own high profile content. Valve not so much until recently.

The whole reason Steam exists is because Valve pushed it with high-profile content, over a decade ago - initially Half-Life multiplayer (To a ton of community backlash), followed by Half-Life 2, as Steam exclusives.

It's only been the past several years that Valve has completely stopped making games, and started working on other things.

I would guess it took quite a shift for the Valve of today to make Alyx. I barely even think of them as a game dev anymore.

There was the Orange Box, which was an absolutely fantastic deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box

Pretty good guess. 1.91% of people who have Steam accounts have a VR headset. Up .62% with the release of the new HL game.

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

I have multiple VR devices and for some reason, even with SteamVR active and my Index plugged in the last hardware survey didn't register my VR device, so its possible that the number is actually much higher than reported.

And.. even finding a VR headset at MSRP has been a real challenge. The wallet was willing, but the inventory was weak.

They are selling out continuously, I have a rift s but still choose to get the notifications when various headsets are in stock and it takes less than 30 minutes for them to sell out again. Supply chain issues from COVID are very real but the demand is pretty apparent regardless

SteamSpy figures put it at 1,000,000+ but I don't think they're that reliable.

I just had a look and sales must be around 2 million so far. Confidence interval 1-3 million.

It's easy to estimate roughly from the steam data that is publicly available.

Girlfriend Reviews said of Alyx "now we are all backseat gamers", regarding the imbalance of people watching the game be played on Twitch vs actually playing it themselves:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m67wYSTgvus

I think the gaming world is a lot more fractured than it used to be. Titles that are still big names, I don't think command the % of gamer eyeballs as they used to, or at least not as much.

Much like music, movies, pretty much all media.

I think it might have to do with the fact that it is a VR game requiring a VR rig, which isn’t that common yet.

Not that you are wrong, but i feel like it would be more interesting to see those numbers in the context of the entire install base. Like, number of sales compared to the number of those devices in people’s hands.

As a percentage of users on its platform it’s huge.

That's the norm on a niche, expensive, enthusiast-dominated gaming platform though, right? Release anything even half-decent (not saying Alyx isn't better than that, mind) and almost everyone buys it, because they must really want to play games on it if they've got the platform, and there's relatively little high-quality content tailored for it (so far).

I'd argue it's not just lockdown

I saw a news article a couple of weeks ago that in my city, Xboxes, Switches and PlayStations are very hard to come by. I don't think people are dropping hundreds of dollars mid-cycle to buy new machines for the games.

To a much lesser extent, I have done this, too. My local used video game store started doing free home delivery, and I picked up a half-dozen Atari 2600 carts that were missing from my collection. But for me, in addition to needing the distraction a game provides, I need the comfort and familiarity of the big wood-grain beast and simple joysticks.

I would even say it is nearing end-cycle for consoles, given that we'll see a next-gen Xbox and PS by the end of this year.

Historically, console cycles tend to overlap significantly; and I actually think the next-gen consoles will see very slow adoption curves. There's not that much difference between the current gen Series X/Pro and next gen from a capability standpoint, and the business model has shifted to where the games themselves are the platforms (Minecraft, Fortnite, Overwatch, etc). Exclusives don't move systems the way they used to (unless you're Nintendo).

And the market has seen enough console release cycles now that the average consumer knows the first releases will an even smaller jump than the system will be able to hit with more mature development.

I know that Switches were sold out even before the lockdowns thanks to Animal Crossing.

No, it's the lockdown.

I haven't played games in 10 years. But during lockdown here in South Africa, the only way to stay in touch with my friends 20km away is to have a fat chat on Discord and play some games.

Additionally pretty much all of my friends have been super hyped for a few other recent releases: Streets of Rage 4 and FFVII Remake.

One friend even mentioned he hasn't been nearly this excited about video games since childhood.

There's a few new releases I'd like to get, but I'm too busy with the games I already have, so I'm holding off.

Lockdown has increased video game consumption beyond newer releases, the price of Wii consoles and Wii Sports has increased, for example, which shows an increased demand for a console that came out 14 years ago.

So it's a combination of a strong new releases, a big reduction in options for other leisure activities, and literally millions of newly unemployed people.

Streets of Rage 4 got me back into gaming after a couple years away from it.

It's still not SOR2, but one of the best sequels ever.

I don't play beat-em-ups, but I heard good things about the River City Ransom sequel/spin-off River City Girls that came out a few months back.

I dunno, i've been playing a lot more video games than I have in years and none of them are new releases. I spent about a month on Dark Souls, another on Bloodborne, now Bloodstained and The Messenger. None of those were released this year and i've bought all of them in the last couple months.

Exactly. I just bought a Switch Lite and I'm playing Breath of the Wild for the first time. It has been 15+ years since I played a Zelda game seriously (last one I played was Wind Waker), and I am just blown away. I'm lucky to be working, but the child in me wishes I was on summer break.

Likewise. But gaming feels more pointless to me than ever. I have a hard time describing it. But games that lack a clear goal and don't guide you towards that goal are where I feel it the most. For in instance Cities Skylines building out cities leaves me feeling empty instead of accomplished. I used to treat Skylines and Civ like solitaire - play a few hours mindlessly to burn away a bit of time. But even solitaire would probably not leave me feeling like this.

Playing lately Phoenix Wright, Cities Skylines, Alien Isolation (snagged it at $2), RDR2.

>For in instance Cities Skylines building out cities leaves me feeling empty instead of accomplished.

Actually, I understand exactly what you mean. I spent yesterday trying that game. I ended up getting it for free. In the beginning it was fun, I was excited to watch the city grow. By the time I finished, I felt like I'd just wasted hours doing absolutely nothing. Everything was shallow and pointless. Didn't help that all the stuff I wanted to do and thought I might be able to do was stuff that was locked behind a bunch of dlc, that I didn't find out about until I'd gotten kind of sick of it and read a bit about the game.

I recently started playing Cities and felt the same way.

But then I also started playing Minecraft again on server set up by a friend of a friend. And the feeling is completely different. While most of us (5 players) spend out times doing our own thing much of the time, just the occasional visit (and surprises left behind) makes all the 'pointless' home improvement feel worthwhile.

And it actually is, to a degree. I'm chatting with the other players (some of whom I've never met IRL) about strategies, what to get where, and interesting things to do. And while our homes are far apart and we rarely visit each other, we're working on a massive railroad project to connect all of these homes.

I forgot how much fun this 'pointless' stuff can be when there's a social component to it!

This has been the magic of Animal Crossing for me too. Honestly it barely even counts as a multiplayer game -- you can essentially just visit each others' islands and run around making animated gestures -- but somehow being able to have a friend or brother or sister come check out your island (and being able to visit theirs) transforms the game and gives meaning to everything you're doing.

Beyond that, I've been sharing an island with my partner, and it's just been a joy-filled adventure getting to see the work each day that the other has done on the island and their house.

It depends upon what you're trying to accomplish, but there are plenty of mods that remove some of the frustrations of the game.

That being said, I do agree with the emptiness of the accomplishments feeling. I suspect that it comes from putting a lot of effort into creating something only to realize that it has no value outside of the game itself.

I don't think it's just that. People are just buying more. I run a smallish hobby site and monetize it with Amazon affiliate links. I've had Black Friday-tier sales all of April and May.

I suspect Amazon's numbers for this quarter are going to surprise a lot of people

Congrats on your success, I suspect they're not gonna be surprising for many. People can't spend in stores and are home all day, Amazon seems like a natural, almost obvious, winner. People who haven't seen a downturn in income have seen a reduction in places where they can spend money, not a reduction in reason to spend money.

That's not entirely true, expectations are not solely based on "I have a job" they are also based on the expectation of "Can I get a new job if I lose my job" among other complexities, there will certainly be a reduction in marginal propensity to consume even among those who have maintained their employment.

So yes, Amazon may well be a winner because of the shift, but they are winning a larger fraction of a smaller pie.

And the second half of the year is stacked too with CP2077, Valhalla, Godfall, and a Hollow Knight sequel at least. And there’s going to be more big titles announced at the E3 substitute events in the next month or so. And the next gen consoles will launch in the fall.

Dying Light 2, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, quite possibly Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian also said announcements concerning their Divinity series are coming), Crusader Kings 3, this year is looking to rob my wallet and my time.

> Crusader Kings 3

I never thought I'd have child-like excitement for an upcoming game again until I entered the world of Paradox.

Since you mentioned Hollow Knight: Silksong, it's also worth keeping an eye on Axiom Verge 2, as AV was another excellent roguelite (HK was better but AV was still very good to great)

Sea of Thieves came out in 2018.

Paper Mario: Origami King was announced yesterday.

The Final Fantasy VII remake has been huge, too.

Isn't Sea of Theives a two year old game?

Poster must be a PC gamer who doesn't use the Microsoft store (like most PC users who'd identify as gamers, probably?). It hit Steam this year, was on XBone and MS Store in 2018.

Personally, I'd forgotten there was a MS store until I looked this up just now.

And lord was it annoying as fuck to get off Microsoft store. It was something like a 50gb download and it could get version desync, the only way to get around was (in my experience) was to completely wipe it and reinstall. But completely wiping was ALSO super hard to do, because it was saved in like... $APPdata or some weird hidden folder.

All this on top of the fact that my c:/ drive is tiny and I want to install my games on an external harddrive. In fact I think I had a double install going at one point.

Long story short the microsoft store sucks.

I'm glad I've avoided it so far. I already have three stores I use and that's at least one too many, but Epic won't stop showering me with free games (I've bought one and have a library of... 30ish? Maybe more?) so I keep them around for now.

I'm surprised that the %APPDATA% folder is so mysterious and confusing for someone posting on HackerNews in good faith..

I would certainly find it mysterious and confusing to find a game installed to %APPDATA%, and I've been a PC gamer for over two decades. Saved games and config files, sure, possibly mods too, but if a game installed somewhere without asking first I'd expect it to be in %PROGRAMFILES% or %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%. Either way, as the owner of a PC with multiple SSDs I'd be somewhat miffed by not being asked first where the game should be installed, as I put most of my games on my D: drive, which is much larger (but slower) than my C: drive.

Generally speaking, people don't like being called liars, or idiots.

I'm sure it differs from company to company, but I work on the multiplayer servers at Jackbox games and it's very clear that people are playing a lot more than they were at this time period last year.

My entire family and many friends play the entire Jackbox games, over Zoom. Jackbox 3 (with Trivia Murder Party and Quiplash) is the undisputed favorite. I ended up buying all six Jackbox game sets, because demand to play is so high. I’m kinda surprised Jackbox servers aren’t melting down with the demand.

It’s amazing that the market is so big that I’ve only played ONE of those games (Doom, and only briefly... It’s not grabbing me for whatever reason) as a self-professed gamer (mostly action-RPG’s and stealth/strategy games)

Lately I’ve been playing Wolfenstein Youngblood in co-op with a friend on the Left Coast, and Phantom Doctrine also (neither of which are new games), and having a blast with both.

Animal Crossing... I just don’t understand the appeal

>Animal Crossing... I just don’t understand the appeal

It's basically The Sims mashed up with Minecraft mashed up with a cute animal aesthetic. Those things are insanely popular, but it's totally understandable that they're not universally appealing either.

Disco Elysium too--A unique text-heavy RPG with some great writing and other character elements/buffs I haven't seen before. I'm usually a selective console gamer--maybe three or for titles a year, but got Disco running on a seven year old Macbook, and I'm loving it.

Meh, nothing exciting.

Doom 2016 v Doom Eternal: same shit Valorant: it's in beta so I'll give it some slack but it's pretty boring Half Life: Alyx: a VR game. lol Valve. Much rather get a Source 2 update for CSGO

Atleast GTA V is free on the Epic store.

I dunno man, Valorant is pretty sick. Me and my friends play maybe 3-4 matches of competitive Valorant per day and we absolutely love it. Way better than CS:GO, though the maps aren't as good. And what's wrong with Alyx being a VR game?

Unfortunately, I'd expect this to slow down :( Tons of companies have announced delays due to Work from Home conditions, and with E3 cancelled developers aren't under as much pressure to rush out announcements and release dates

Idk. cdProjektRed has a good track record. There is a lot of marketing money still being spent, and subsequent hype being built, on/for Cyberpunk 2077.

My team doesn't seem to have lost much productivity

Most of those games are not that good. Uptick in traffic is perfectly correlated to school closings.

As a Gears fan, Gears Tactics is a money grab.

Gears 5 was CoDified, still happily playing Gears 4 though.

MCC for PC just came out. Can't believe I can play Halo 2 again!

No way a turn based tactical game is money grab. More like a niche nod to hardcore fans. They haven't even released it on consoles yet.

No ffvii remake in your list?

Didn't Sea of Thieves originally come out in 2016? What are you talking about?

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