[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Exactly. The quality of games nowadays is piss-poor. They look nice and are most of the time pretty bug-free, but there's no story, a good story that is.

Today's game storylines tend to be just a filler, you know, kinda like commercial breaks in a way. The main part is the action, whereas before, the story and the action were one seamless package.

Luckily, there is still few good games coming out now and then, but they're getting very rare. Brothers in arms: Hell's Highway being the last good game for me.

No, crap has always existed, even in the early eighties.
So that's not the reason why video games businesses are failing.
The number one reason is that publishers invest in multi-milion dollar projects, they bet everything on 1 or 2 such blockbuster games and when the games tank at retail the publishers go poof. You have to learn to develop games on a more sustainable basis, for example Stardock finances games that have a well balanced budget. And most of their games are well received, they sell well enough to offset all the costs and still make a nice profit. Unfortunately no other publisher wants to learn the lesson.
Not every videogame has to have a story, right now I'm enjoying a pretty obscure war game called XIII century death or glory. Its pretty amazing stuff, 100% tactical gameplay without the hassle of resource gathering and strategic thinking. Well you know what ? This game has completely passed under the radar. Its such a pity.
Of course another reason people buy less games is because of intrusive DRM. Limited installs on a game I BUY ? No way, publishers aren't getting my money on such a crap product. Publishers are always babbling about piracy etc... but what they fail to mention is that honest customers learn the lesson and walk away from buying DRM infested games (most EA games for instance).