The Fall of Western Video Games: The Trip (Part One)

Another year has come and gone, with it, another colorful collection of video games to decorate our shelves.

We were graced with some absolute gems this year. We got challenging games in the form of Black Myth: Wukong, an action Role Playing Games (RPG) adapting the Chinese fable Journey to the West. Remakes of beloved series like SILENT HILL 2 and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth are responsible for reimagining classics in the modern age. We also had a lot of indie hits this year, like Neva, a beautiful tale of friendship in a grim, cruel world, and Mouthwashing, a surreal horror story that exposes the darkness of the human condition.

As is tradition with every year, The Gamer Awards were hosted at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, a riveting and (un)predictable ceremony honoring this year’s gaming achievements and showcasing what is coming next year. Every aspect of game development is celebrated and commemorated here, from direction and innovation to music and narrative.

The following games were celebrated for contributing to a beloved and timeless media. However, one thing became glaringly apparent about this year's games. To best showcase that, here is a list of a couple of the winning games.

Game Awards 2024

• Astro Bot (Team Asobi, Japan)

  • Game of the Year Award

• Balatro (LocalThunk, Canada)

  • Mobile Award

• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (Square Enix, Japan)

  • Music Award

• Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science, China)

  • Direction Award

• Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero, Japan)

  • Narrative Award

• Neva (Nomada Studio, Spain)

  • Impact Award

• SILENT HILL 2 (Bloober Team, Polish)

  • Audio Award

• Dragon’s Dogma 2 (Capcom, Japan)

  • RPG Award

• Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios, Sweden)

  • Multiplayer Award

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (From Software, Japan)

  • Art Award

Did you catch it? Every game this year was won by either Asia or Europe. Not a single game from America made the cut this year. There was one nomination, but that was it. This list isn’t just my cherry-picking choices; there were no stand-out Western games.

Asia's dominance of the gaming market is nothing new; this is the homeland of Nintendo, after all. Some of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time have come from Japan alone.

Like the continent, Europe's video games are incredibly diverse and always bound to reach a broad audience. Even European indie developers often find success in this field.

However, at least a few Western games always make the list every year, but for the first time, not a single one made it to the final award ceremony.

Why?

Well, the reason is obvious…They suck. Like, really suck. I’m talking about games so bad they aren’t even worthy of being designated time-wasters levels of suckage.

How can I be so sure of that? I’m so glad you (probably) asked!

The downfall of Western gaming has been well-documented for some time now. Many prestigious members of the gaming community have even claimed that Western triple-A games are dying, as they haven’t made a significant profit in years. But I think in the afterglow of the Game Awards ceremony, American developers are finally wisening up to what their player communities have been trying to tell them for years:

Your games are boring. You are so focused on being politically correct, monetizable, and formulaic that you’ve missed the entire point of what a video game is supposed to be: Escapism.

The fall of Western development ultimately comes down to three factors: gameplay, monetization, and politics.

Gameplay - Copy/Paste

The most important aspect of video games is, of course, the gameplay. Without it, you don’t have a game!

Every development decision should involve gameplay. How does the story impact the game mechanics? What kind of music best suits the tone? Should we make a platformer or a role-playing game?

Unfortunately, Western games have done away with this aspect of game design and instead focus only on making sequels to build off already existing formats and mechanics, spin-offs that do nothing different than the game they originally derived from, or, worse, make yet another soulless first-person shooter (FPS) or third-person shooter (TPS).

Once upon a time, America was famous for innovating and elevating already-existing genres to new heights. You could easily argue that the West was solely responsible for the rise of the FPS genre!

America is the birthplace of masterpieces like Borderlands, the game that popularized the looter-shooter genre. Fallout is an open-world role-playing game with shooter elements, two genres rarely combined, let alone done effectively. BioShock is a story-rich, philosophical take on an otherwise glorified and oversaturated genre.

But it isn’t just FPS games America was famous for. They were responsible for some of the most well-known and critically acclaimed games to date! World of Warcraft, Psychonauts, and The Last of Us originate here.

All of these games have their place in the Western Hall of Fame. You might have noticed that all the games used as examples emerged between 2004 and 2013. This isn’t just because these were the glory days of American gaming but because it shows how creative and innovative these games were for the time.

The FPS genre is a shell of its former self. Every other game from the genre is the same; there is no apparent gameplay difference between Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Destiny 2, both games that came out this year. Sure, these games are fine, fun sometimes, but mostly fine. You won’t be jumping out of your seat with how mind-blowing it is; it’s a lukewarm experience.

However, being lukewarm isn’t enough. You must be good if you want people to replay your game and join the fanbase.

Western Games have been creatively bankrupt for a long time now. In the last few years, every other release has had the same mechanics or a poorly thought-out concept.

Continue to Part 2!