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Comment by dopeboy | Hacker News Reader

As a die hard command and conquer fan (I play exactly one game these days, C&C generals), me as well. I have a recurring dream of creating a successor to C&C.

What obstacles do you see to the RTS genre? Any reason why the big dogs (EA, etc) have not gone back into the genre?

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The market's moved elsewhere, developing a triple-A game of any genre takes roughly the same amount of effort, however strategy has a small overall market share compared to FPS, RPG, mobile, etc. FPS games might have around an 8x larger market, but don't take 8x as much effort to build, so that's what gets approved.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/189592/breakdown-of-us-v...

Couple that with studios (or publishers...) often preferring to re-skin their existing IP and you get Call of Modern Warfare XVII: Rehash Edition, or Skyrim for your Smart Fridge.

Makes sense. Do you think there's space for an indie shop to make a successful RTS? Successful being, say, $1M in sales?

Yeah I think that an indie studio would be best placed to thrive in that genre. If they could create an RTS that scratches the itch just right, the lack of big name competition would probably be an advantage that would make it easier for them to make a splash.

Stormgate is being hyped p hard as the next big indie RTS.

Hello fellow Generals fan! Truly an amazing game, the gameplay videos of the unreleased Generals 2 game make me really sad.

Just finished a match. GLA demolition vs China nuke general.

I've seen that video - looked really nice. Disappointed as well.

not grandparent, but this topic is oft-discussed (but with no clear resolution!) on r/realtimestrategy

imo, the biggest obstacle is the combination of

a) RTS not being well-understood

b) sweaty streamers broadcasting the idea that the games are "solved"...but only enough to criticize you for not being "optimal," not enough to actually help you approach the game.

These add up to a very intimidating picture, unwelcoming for newcomers.

I hate "meta" culture in gaming (as in "this is the 'perfect meta' and you're an idiot if you do anything different").

How do people think "new metas" get discovered? By people trying new stuff! This kind of cargo cult thinking means that we lose all creativity in gaming while also getting stuck on local optima.

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