The little ones have determined the year 2021. Because many blockbuster projects have either been postponed until 2022 or have appeared in a difficult state (Hello, Battlefield 2042!), in 2021 little pearls like Valheim, It Takes Two oder Loop Hero in the spotlight. And even midrange games funded by big ones like Deathloop, Outriders or Age of Empires 4 got more attention than in a “normal” blockbuster year.
That’s great because it shows how diverse gaming can be. At the same time, many large publishers revealed a problem in 2021: They lack the strength to innovate traditional design ideas. Instead of creativity, monetization often rules.
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Micha and Dimi discuss why exactly in a review of the year with Human Nagafi, management consultant at 1789 Innovations, Podcaster at Corporate Therapy and member of the GameStar family, since he regularly records company analyzes for GameStar Plus together with Micha – most recently on the subject of blockchain and NFTs, for example.
Only one publisher that we almost wrote off in the past seems to be doing a lot right now: Microsoft. Sure, the Windows Store is still … functional. But how Microsoft deals with Age of Empires, how they let their development teams work (e.g. Obsidian on Avowed) and how they expand the Game Pass to an ever larger offer (including the risk of monopoly) – there is clearly a plan behind it.
Valve, too, continues to work on not meeting our expectations (Half-Life 3, Steam 2.0), and instead comes up with the Steam Deck, a portable Linux console.
So there was not a standstill in the game industry everywhere – but in many places, which can also be seen in the many remakes, reboots and remasters of the year 2021. And the success of the little ones. Because what the big ones lack in creativity, small teams easily make up for it.
It’s just a shame that this situation threatens to disappear again next year. Because in 2022 a real blockbuster wave is rushing towards us.
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We would also like to warmly recommend our new podcast »What are you playing like that?«, In which members of the GameStar editorial team and also guests present their current favorite games. You can read more about where you can hear “What are you playing?” In this article.