The 2020s have had their share of great video games, but overall, the state of gaming can best be described as so-so. Even though there are fantastic games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Astro Bot and new hardware like the Switch 2 and Steam Deck, there are serious problems with the gaming industry.
Between studio closures and censorship, gaming is a far cry from where it was even a decade ago. Fewer games were released in the mid-2000s through early 2010s, but there were more exciting titles, and the gaming community was less fractured. Gaming’s gotten worse, and the industry needs to look back to this period to get things on track.
Video Games Need to Recapture the Excitement of Earlier Eras
Looking back 10 or even 20 years ago, it’s clear the gaming industry was in much better shape then. There was a wonderful mixture of brand-new franchises and exciting new entries in existing series, and it felt like games were getting bigger and better every year.
One of the best examples of that is Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, which is one of the greatest Mario games of all time. It felt like the kind of leap forward that Super Mario 64 was back in the ’90s, and soaring through the galaxy and landing on planets felt incredible.
Of course, Nintendo wasn’t the only one innovating. The first Dead Space game felt like it was taking the survival horror genre to new and exciting places thanks to its innovative sound design and impressive visuals.
Existing franchises were evolving, and Call of Duty games made during this period felt like movies thanks to their state-of-the-art graphics and orchestral soundtracks. First-party franchises, like Xbox’s Halo and PlayStation’s God of War, were also steadily improving.
Games were doing incredible things, but beyond that, the industry was offering something for everyone. Not only were there games for people of all ages, but there was something for people who hadn’t played games before. Consoles like the Wii and the Nintendo DS were designed with mass appeal in mind.
Indie Gaming Is Becoming Oversaturated
While AAA gaming was thriving from the mid-2000s through the early-2010s, indie games were also exploding in popularity. Thanks to services like Xbox Live and Steam, it was easier than ever for indie developers to find an audience.
It was during this period that Minecraft was released, and it went on to become the best-selling game of all time. Other titles, like Super Meat Boy and SCP: Containment Breach, laid the path for a new era where games didn’t need a huge budget to succeed.
Indie gaming hasn’t gone anywhere, and many would argue that the AAA gaming era has ended. However, indie gaming has grown so much that the market is overcrowded.
Almost 19,000 games were released on Steam last year, and even more came out this year. The sheer number of titles means most games are being ignored. For every Hollow Knight: Silksong, there are hundreds of titles that hardly anyone has played.
Consoles Are Turning Into Gaming PCs
In the ’80s and ’90s, consoles were often seen as toys, but by the mid-2000s, they had evolved to the point that gaming was seen as a viable alternative to other forms of entertainment, like movies and TV. On top of that, consoles began to put a greater emphasis on internet connectivity.
Online gaming exploded during this time, allowing people to play games in new ways, and that wasn’t the only innovation in the industry. The Wii popularized motion controls, and the DS had a touchscreen gimmick that led to some truly creative games.
By the early 2010s, however, the growing smartphone gaming market began to eclipse these kinds of innovations. Video game consoles continued to become more powerful, but they also became more similar to gaming PCs.
Nintendo’s consoles still have a unique identity, but its competitors, the Xbox Series S/X and the PlayStation 5, aren’t that different from each other or gaming PCs. The only thing that sets them apart is console exclusives, and with series like Halo and Forza coming to PlayStation, even that feels less important.
Price Hikes Are Making Gaming Too Expensive
In 2025, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles all saw price hikes, and game prices have been on the rise as well. Gaming is becoming an increasingly expensive hobby, and many people are being priced out.
It doesn’t help that subscription services have become a major part of gaming. Gamers now have to subscribe to services like Nintendo Switch Online to access a game’s online features, and many older games are being locked behind these paywalls as well.
Some consoles have backwards compatibility, but many developers are releasing new versions of games for every new console, leaving gamers to pay for the same titles more than once.
From the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, the gaming industry took a big step forward, but since then, it feels like things have been moving backward. Games in 2025 don’t look that different from games in 2015, but they’re more expensive and less innovative than they were in the past.
It’s time for the gaming industry to look back to the past and offer something for every gamer the way the industry did back then. Gaming used to feel like it was for everyone, and it’s time to return to that.