SweetieGames

Games being pushed back months or even years is commonplace in today’s gaming landscape. There’s even a running joke about the amount of things happening before we get GTA6, which has now been pushed back until May this year. Part of the reason that mainstream games take so long to make is that they’re extremely detailed, with current gen games often looking lifelike. Of course, everyone wants the games they play to be as polished as possible on launch day, especially as games are now so expensive, but how much detail needs to be in a game? Do we need games to be photo realistic?

Today’s mainstream games are often huge and expansive, allowing players to explore a huge landscape and interact with thousands of characters and objects. Of course, this takes a huge amount of time to create, develop and integrate; sometimes aspects get scrapped completely after all of that work! When every single object, character and interaction, right down to the leaves on a tree or a blade of grass also looks like it could be a film with how realistic it is, of course creating the game is going to take time. However, despite being impressive, I don’t think it necessarily makes a game that much better. I’d actually prefer if games took less time to make, were cheaper and didn’t necessarily look photo realistic!

It’s been great to see how technology has developed over the years, allowing for games and graphics to look as sleek and polished as they do. However, at this point in time, those graphics come at a steep time and monetary cost. Games can sometimes cost more than what a person can make in one shift at a retail or hospitality job, and a game isn’t necessarily hugely improved by super realistic wood chopping graphics or fur that looks just like a real cat’s. So why allow it to add huge amounts to the production and overall sale cost?

Games were enjoyed for decades without looking super realistic, and there’s plenty of people who are looking for distinctive graphic design and artwork in their games today. Pixel art in games is still hugely popular, and earlier gen games that aren’t as realistic looking are still widely beloved as fantastic and essential gaming experiences. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say that someone needs to play a game purely because it looks realistic.

Just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean that it’s a necessity. While these graphics are expensive and difficult to produce, I feel it wouldn’t hurt for games to take a small step back to allow for less developer burnout, shorter development times and lower prices for companies and consumers alike.