As you might expect from a fan of FromSoftware and of the Dark Souls series, I am really looking forward to the upcoming Elden Ring and have been keeping my eye on any news articles that mention the game. An article caught my eye recently where Hidetaka Miyazaki stated that his graphics team were feeling pressure due to the recent release of the Demon’s Souls remake. However, the statement that I really took away from the article was where he said “Graphical fidelity is not something we put as the top priority”. This sentence felt like a breath of fresh air in a games industry obsessed with graphics and made me think about the fact that, in my opinion, this aspect is easily the most overrated when it comes to video games.
Now don’t get me wrong. I really do love to see games with beautiful graphics. However, I’ve come to realise that games with a non-realistic art-style are generally more appealing to me and hold up better over time. Additionally, a problem that many AAA game developers and publishers are struggling with are the rising costs of developing video games. Video game budgets, in the AAA gaming industry, have skyrocketed and this is due to a combination of higher graphic fidelity along with an increase in marketing costs.
There are numerous problems that this focus on graphics within the video game industry have developed. The first of these problems that I want to touch on is the sales expectations that are expected of these AAA games. A perfect example popped up recently when it was announced that Ghost of Tsushima, a Sony game, had managed to break eight million sales. However, what seemed like good news was very quickly squashed when Jeff Ross, one of the directors of Days Gone and now a former Sony employee, tweeted that Days Gone reached a similar figure but was considered a disappointment by Sony. The idea that a game can sell around eight million units and still be considered a financial disappointment is unbelievably ludicrous and shows the obscene expectations that some video game publishers have now.
Another problem that comes with higher budgets due to graphic fidelity is that game developers and publishers become less prone to taking risks. This is not an issue exclusive to the video game industry as many other creative mediums such as films and TV series also struggle with this problem. However, it’s a fact that the more money that is invested into a project, the more likely it is to become more standard with less risks taken and following a formula that’s been tried and proven. That’s why a lot of AAA games end up becoming very similar with a good example being the number of open-world action-adventure games we see these days.
When I think of the games that I’ve most enjoyed in the past year or two, many of them actually ended up being indie games with low budgets that weren’t afraid to take a risk and try a new idea. These games may be pretty basic from a technological perspective but feature pleasant art-styles and gameplay that feels distinct and fresh. If you want some examples, a game that really surprised me was Path of Giants which is a puzzle game in which you guide three adventurers through various levels, using each adventurer to help the others. I also went back to play the King of Cards campaign in Shovel Knight and was blown away by how beautiful the pixel graphics were as well as how unbelievably engaging King Knight’s platforming was.
Of course, I’m not saying that all AAA games are bad. I’m not a contrarian. My absolute favourite game of the past two years was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which is undoubtedly a AAA game and there are plenty of others that I enjoyed as well. However, I do wish that developers, publishers and consumers would be less focused on graphics, which are expensive to produce, and instead focus on gameplay and story which I consider to be far more important than graphics. Conveniently, these aspects are much cheaper to develop which is why indie games are thriving with creativity.
Ultimately, I feel that graphics have become too overrated when it comes to the various aspects of video games. Too many developers and publishers are obsessed with developing more detailed graphics and consumers are too easily swayed by graphics without thought to story and gameplay. Hidetaka Miyazaki’s attitude that graphics are not his top priority is incredibly refreshing and is an outlook that many others could do with adopting. Let me know your thoughts on graphics and whether you think they are the most overrated aspect of video games, what you think about the rising costs of developing video games, if you think that higher budgets do lead to risk aversion and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.