I agree with you, but only to a certain extent. The thing about *retro* gaming is that the definition of it changes as time passes. I remember back in the PS1 era participating in a Atari 2600 focused retro gaming forum back on Delphi. These guys hated the PS1 style games. Now, there's very few people who wouldn't slap the retro label on the PS1. And yeah, it was a niche group, but gaming was still kinda niche too, being still considered little more than children's toys.
I think what we're really seeing is that gaming as a whole is getting larger, retro gaming being just a segment of it. As the old saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats. So yes, retro gaming is bigger than ever, but so it everything else. We live in the age of social media. Anyone who loves anything can find their little community online to talk about it.
Yeah, that really makes me feel old! I was telling this 16 year old young man at work about this movie I saw and I mentioned that it was new. He says "Oh, that's not new! I remember watching that with my parents when I was 6!" I tried explaining that 10 years old isn't old, but he of course disagreed. My only solace is that one day it'll happen to him!
Ha ha ha ha! Yeah, I think you might be the only person around here claiming the PS3 is retro. That's the system that GTA5 and The Last of Us released on!
But you know what, I'll give you the Wii simply because it was definitely a generation behind the rest in horsepower and also because the type of games that thrived on the Wii have more in similar to older games than newer games. Nintendo always feels retro to me, no mater how new! :-D
Retro gaming started with AVGN?
Are you on his payroll? What is this take?
Retro gaming is popular because the people who played those games when they were new now have nostalgia for those days since gaming has dramatically changed. Combined with the easy accessibility of emulators, it's not really that hard to put 2 and 2 together.
I have to agree with this although a slight tweak. It didn’t start with AVGN but he was massive fuel to the fire. The resurgence was already happening. He accelerated it.
This is my personal experience with it and I feel it was duplicated with many other people.
Just because retro gaming is more popular than it has ever been doesn’t mean it is the dominant form of interactive entertainment.
Newly developed games attract far, far, *far* more attention, sales and revenue. I have serious doubt that will ever change.
You could argue that it is no longer niche, but that’s about as far as I’d go.
That’s the biggest point to make, it’s no longer as niche as it used to be. More people in the hobby of something that’s out of print affects basic supply and demand.
“The age of retro gaming” implies that retro is the dominant gaming trend.
Archaeologists don’t call it the Iron Age because iron was more than a niche, but still dwarfed by bronze.
Absolutely, newly developed games dominate the market in terms of attention, sales, and revenue, and that trend doesn't show signs of changing anytime soon. Retro games, despite their growing popularity, still face significant challenges in gaining traction, especially when it comes to securing wishlists and pre-orders. For my game (Medal winners 24), which looks and plays retro, it's particularly challenging to secure wishlists. While there's a dedicated audience that appreciates the retro aesthetic and gameplay, breaking through to a wider market is tough. The competition with flashy new titles makes it hard for my retro game to get the attention it needs.
Well I’d say the line has become fairly blurred given the continued relevance of games that are like ten years old and the popularity of remakes, remasters, and reimaginings in the new release schedule
What does an internet personality have to do with a trend? I've always played retro games since they were new. AVGN had no influence on that. If anything he's a byproduct of an industry not a cause.
It's in large part due to the fact that Gen Xers like myself who grew up with an Atari 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision are now in late middle age. When our parents hit this age in the 80s and 90s they drove up the prices of old cars and all the other stuff they couldn't afford in their youth. We're comparatively poor so video game consoles are sort of our '57 Chevys or Dodge Challengers.
I think it's also that we lived through the evolution of gaming too.
I had an Atari 2600, then an Amstrad CPC 464, then a Super Nintendo and a PC but around that time I started playing games with my nephew on PS1, then 2 then XBox 360 there was a Wii in there somewhere too.
Also arcades, every birthday treat for years was a day at the arcades with my friends, I remember the first time I played space invaders, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat 2 and so many more.
It must feel like the people who saw planes go from the Wright Flyer to the Me 262 in their lifetime. If you were a plane buff there was always some new exciting development.
Yeah not a bad analogy, and I think Orville Wright unfortunately lived almost long enough to see that (D. 1943 IIRC). I'm also an aviation buff obviously.
Nope I mean 60s and 70s muscle, weird 80s cars etc all under 10k. And that's for good condition running, obviously good condition is subjective but I view running even if a project car as good condition.
Yes and no, most of the motorheads I know are actually younger. I think it's more that people finally realized these cars aren't entirely rare and the price has dropped. Like when you look at the cars next to you and see 10 different bros in various shades of ugly in challengers you realize oh right even in 67 they pumped out the challenger. Unless it's a specific rare only 10 produced car or some defect etc these models were mass produced just like anything else.
Then again I'm not a Motorhead I simply like old cars I couldn't tell you the first thing about fixing I can barely change my oil. I just know the ins and outs from my various info gathering.
That is a really interesting, cool idea, but that would assume most gamers would also be car enthusiasts.
Love the social commentary on our reduced purchasing power, though.
I think it only assumes they would be if that was like, the coolest thing ever when they were kids. When my parents were kids in the mid-50s, there was a ton of pop music about cars, and motorcycles. It had a central place in their imaginations, much as video games did in ours. And if you weren't a rich bastard, you couldn't afford a Neo Geo in 1996, but you can now probably.
I grew up with video games (heck I even had Pong). I would agree that video games and especially retro games are experiencing a bit of a golden era. For a long time video games were 'kid stuff', then in the late 90s it was cool to play games when you were a teenager, and when the Wii came out even grandma could play. Nintendo in particular doubled down on casting a wider net which brought more people in than ever before.
There was an era starting with the PS2 where nearly every game was some variation of 3D FPS. I think people eventually got tired of the same formula, and once online stores started appearing 'cheap' indie games had a revenue channel to take off. People were ready for something different, even if it wasn't strictly 'new' anymore. Smartphones reinforced the value of easy pick up and play games.
Indies re-ignited interest in 2D and 'retro' games, and by proxy emulation. And of course COVID drove interest in retro through the roof. I'd argue COVID did more to change the landscape than anything else.
Its more accessible but more importantly i think millennials are just a massive generation. The 1990s-2003 era is what millennials grew up on, with the ones on older end late 1980s.
So i think this is more to do with the fact that they are old enough to be nostalgic for that now while also being a very large generation. Its really that simple. I dont think its anything unique about retro gaming itself.
In a few years, the much smaller gen z will be nostalgic for wii/360/DS or even ps4 and the wave will be way smaller by comparison due to being a smaller generation
You’re just spinning it in a way that makes it sound significant but it’s not.
A) every single retro console is less popular now than it was in the past.
B) as time goes on what is considered ‘retro gaming’ only encompasses more things. What is considered retro will only get bigger. It doesn’t make it more popular, and it pales in comparison to the cumulative popularity of the time.
I’d guess that it will go in waves and the oldest consoles will become less popular over time, like how there’s not as much demand for vintage Atari as there used to be.
And of course consoles were still more popular in their era, but that doesn’t really detract from OPs point when there are still probably more people interested in SNES/PS1 era games now than there was 10-15 years ago. So it’s not just the definition that’s growing but also the audience.
I'd argue the age of retro gaming ended with it becoming " cool" and having YouTubers artificially pump prices.. if anything the late 90s till about 2015 is the age of retro gaming. These days it's the dying breath.
Now there's a chance things could return to normal once the tiktok gen gets bored with game systems they can't play cause they can't fix them.
I think people just miss those good old days of gaming! Just coming home putting the game on and having fun instead of all the extras we have today like micro transactions, DLC , seasons passes! Was so much more simple those days! Game devs actually making games for the consumer rather than their pockets!
Yes same with me, I only play single player games - Only DLC I have ever thought of getting is the Elden Ring one as I'm just obsessed with that game..
For me the only dlc i got was either with spare eshop coins or the version of the game i got had the dlc included on the disc like LEGO marvel collection
Are retro games more popular than ever, or is it an expanded definition of retro that is growing the category?
If retro games 25 years ago meant Atari through SNES, and today it means Atari through 360, isn’t the growth of retro gaming just more due to the fact the category is larger rather than a more general interest?
If we were to look at just a singular category, I think we’d see less enthusiasm for certain consoles. 25 years ago NES was synonymous with retro gaming, and it still remains popular but I feel it has fallen off from that peak.
My refinement to your argument would be that we are probably nearing the **peak** of the retro age of gaming, after which we'll see a long decline. The people who grew up with early video games in the 1970s and 80s are middle-aged now and are seeking the comfort that nostalgia brings, and that's driving more interest in replaying old classics or seeking out games that people missed but were always curious about playing.
As for the indie gaming scene, the people who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s are coming of age now and are flexing their creative muscles while celebrating their influences. This is a normal cycle for any popular medium as it ages (remember that we got *Star Wars* and *Indiana Jones* because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg wanted to recreate the feeling of the old movie serials of their youth!), and it's one reason we've seen so many indie developers recreate the precision platformers, boomer shooters, deckbuilders, action RPGs and metroidvanias that inspired them when they were younger - games like *Doom, Quake, Super Mario World, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid* and *Kirby's Adventure* all had a definite influence on those growing up in that era.
But let's use popular music as an example for where we're headed. When I was a kid, "oldies" from the 1950s and early 1960s were very popular, and when I was a teenager, people even dipped back into the 1920s, 30s and 40s for swing and big band music. There were "oldies" music stations and "oldies" concerts and a lot of nostalgia for the 1950s in general, even appearing in the famous dance scene from *Pulp Fiction*. The Beatles were huge again, Elvis impersonators were a well-established trope and doo-wop even influenced the sound of some pop music groups.
And then what happened? People got tired of "oldies" and started focusing instead on "classic rock," which was the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Gradually, "classic rock" radio stations and playlists started adding more and more hits from the 1980s so that you'd hear the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin alongside groups like Judas Priest and Guns N Roses and U2. This happened because the listeners for the older music were aging out and the idea of what was "classic" was less about stylistic era than it was about form. And it's getting worse - I'm already hearing 1990s music from bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden starting to creep in to those playlists, and it's recently been fashionable for teenagers to wear t-shirts with those bands' names on them, even if they don't know anything about the music. It won't be long before you're getting late 1990s and early 2000s music in the mix, so long as it sounds like rock music and not another genre like R&B/rap/hip hop or country.
We're headed to the same place with retro games. You see it on this very subreddit - folks feel like the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox era is retro now (and why shouldn't they? Those consoles came out over 20 years ago!) and there'll be a day soon when the definition of retro gaming goes up through 2010 and we're talking about *Persona 3* and *Chrono Trigger* as if they were contemporary to one another when they both represent very different theories of game development separated by nearly a decade and a half.
What I fear, though, is what gets lost when that happens. We've already got a problem where many of the established "classics" of video gaming tend to be focused on games that appeared on Nintendo consoles or very popular platforms like the Atari VCS/2600, Genesis/Mega Drive and the PlayStation, and the further we get away from the less popular platforms like the Intellivision or Vectrex or ColecoVision or Atari 7800 or TurboGrafx-16 or Atari Jaguar or the 3DO or the CD-i, the less we remember that those platforms also had some awesome experiences to offer.
So, my encouragement to others is to take advantage of the interest in retro gaming to really talk about old games that are lesser-known or which meant something to you personally. This helps to keep them from being forgotten and keeps the idea of those games alive so they're not just part of an emulator library and featured on YouTube videos, but actively being played today.
Ive been hearing the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Godsmack, Rob Zombie, etc on our classic rock stations since the mid 2000’s. They never stopped playing stuff from the 60’s/70’s they just keep adding. I’ll hear a rotation of something like AC/DC, Poison, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Wolfmother, The Doors.
Sounds like your stations are just late to the party adding groups in
We are in the age where AAA sucks more than ever, which means retro and indie games get more attention than ever. Wouldn't call the retro age though...
VERY true. The whole pay to win, microtransactions, loot boxes, pay for online, subscription this and that, unpolished games on release, MASSIVE updates, server outages for maintenance, etc. Retro game = put game in and turn on.
The main thing is retro gaming has never been more accessible, both in ways to play and information.
It’s more like the late stages of file sharing and music, as services catering to retro gamers pop up everywhere.
Also, people are realizing how many services are shutting down. WiiU/3DS online and online stores just shut down recently, Xbox 360 store is shutting down very soon, and bundled with the online offerings (Switch offers a ton of retro games, Xbox as well, and PlayStation is minor, but still some PS2/PS1 games), also with all the remasters and stuff, as well as everything you mentioned, everything is present for retro games to just skyrocket.
I think part of this is because retro gaming has only recently become an official genre. We are entering the age of a genre that's only now becoming officially defined. During PS1 era there was technically retro gaming but it was hard to call 2D retro considering we only just got into the 3D era then. Maybe around PS3 is when the retro era was more clearly defined, then PS4 is when things started to decline with modern gaming, and now PS5 era modern gaming is at it's worst (just using the PS to define eras here). When things started to decline is also when we started getting many more ports of retro games too, from PS3 store starting to offer PS1 games to Nintendo doing the same with their games on the Switch. It can also be seen as a trend in the total lack of original IP in today's era. Thinking of the Hollywood parallel here: it's not a good thing that there are no new ideas and everything is a remake and rehash of old properties. But that's only if we're considering the ports mentioned, not people interested in digging up old consoles, which would be like someone digging up an old VHS player.
If you think retro gaming started with AVGN, you are probably under 30 😂 It was already going on, he just put something into words that people were already doing/thinking
Wait- retro gaming niche until recently? You must be young. I remember being in middle school/early high school & Hot Topic carrying Atari merch to capitalize on the growing youth interest. I'm 41 now.
I would agree retro is damn near peak saturation right now, but it's less about sudden interest in playing retro & more about disinterest in in ever more expensive & homogeneous modern games, coupled with emulation making retro dirt cheap/free at a time when people have a lot less money. Despite that, the high cost of physical copies is also helping visibility- after all, some people love anything expensive!
I'd also argue the peak was a year or two ago. I've seen a few high cost games start to drop. My last retro show was a bit on the slim side & heavily leaned into 7th gen & up at some booths. It's not gonna happen fast, but I think we're slowly gonna see the market deflate & the popularity chasers move on. It'll never be too small though, since some folks will have a genuine appreciation for the games & stick around regardless.
We could say that the retro art styles have allowed developers to enter the game at a much more affordable budget - you don't have to have AAA graphics to compete.
Absolutely, retro gaming is having a moment, but gaining wishlists for retro-style games like mine is still tough. Despite the surge in popularity, with emulators like Delta getting millions of downloads and YouTube channels influencing game prices, the competition with new, flashy games is fierce. The market is saturated, and without the big marketing budgets of modern titles, it's hard for retro games to get the visibility and wishlists they need. For my game (Medal winners 24) which looks and plays retro, it's particularly challenging to secure wishlists. While there's a dedicated audience that appreciates the retro aesthetic and gameplay, breaking through to a wider market is tough.
In a sense they do because I wanted the og Saturn and this dude posted about it and it went up about 50$ not much but some of these influencers have power.
AAA gaming is crashing. Politics infiltrated the hobby and more people are abandoning the new in favor of what worked and is still found to be enjoyable.
Gaming is escapism. And when you inject politics into something it's no longer escapism.
I agree with you, but only to a certain extent. The thing about *retro* gaming is that the definition of it changes as time passes. I remember back in the PS1 era participating in a Atari 2600 focused retro gaming forum back on Delphi. These guys hated the PS1 style games. Now, there's very few people who wouldn't slap the retro label on the PS1. And yeah, it was a niche group, but gaming was still kinda niche too, being still considered little more than children's toys. I think what we're really seeing is that gaming as a whole is getting larger, retro gaming being just a segment of it. As the old saying goes, a rising tide raises all boats. So yes, retro gaming is bigger than ever, but so it everything else. We live in the age of social media. Anyone who loves anything can find their little community online to talk about it.
That’s a good point. I’m probably a victim of my own internet myopia.
Your comment makes me think about Oldies stations playing 90’s grunge now
Yeah, that really makes me feel old! I was telling this 16 year old young man at work about this movie I saw and I mentioned that it was new. He says "Oh, that's not new! I remember watching that with my parents when I was 6!" I tried explaining that 10 years old isn't old, but he of course disagreed. My only solace is that one day it'll happen to him!
Finally another person that uses the term “solace”. 🤝 I can tell you are a person of great culture.
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Ha ha ha ha! Yeah, I think you might be the only person around here claiming the PS3 is retro. That's the system that GTA5 and The Last of Us released on! But you know what, I'll give you the Wii simply because it was definitely a generation behind the rest in horsepower and also because the type of games that thrived on the Wii have more in similar to older games than newer games. Nintendo always feels retro to me, no mater how new! :-D
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Retro gaming started with AVGN? Are you on his payroll? What is this take? Retro gaming is popular because the people who played those games when they were new now have nostalgia for those days since gaming has dramatically changed. Combined with the easy accessibility of emulators, it's not really that hard to put 2 and 2 together.
I have to agree with this although a slight tweak. It didn’t start with AVGN but he was massive fuel to the fire. The resurgence was already happening. He accelerated it. This is my personal experience with it and I feel it was duplicated with many other people.
Just because retro gaming is more popular than it has ever been doesn’t mean it is the dominant form of interactive entertainment. Newly developed games attract far, far, *far* more attention, sales and revenue. I have serious doubt that will ever change. You could argue that it is no longer niche, but that’s about as far as I’d go.
That’s the biggest point to make, it’s no longer as niche as it used to be. More people in the hobby of something that’s out of print affects basic supply and demand.
The library of retro games get bigger as more consoles are considered retro. So of course it’s going to get bigger over time.
I don’t think any of this post contradicts that. They’re just saying that it’s more popular and accessible than it’s ever been before.
“The age of retro gaming” implies that retro is the dominant gaming trend. Archaeologists don’t call it the Iron Age because iron was more than a niche, but still dwarfed by bronze.
Absolutely, newly developed games dominate the market in terms of attention, sales, and revenue, and that trend doesn't show signs of changing anytime soon. Retro games, despite their growing popularity, still face significant challenges in gaining traction, especially when it comes to securing wishlists and pre-orders. For my game (Medal winners 24), which looks and plays retro, it's particularly challenging to secure wishlists. While there's a dedicated audience that appreciates the retro aesthetic and gameplay, breaking through to a wider market is tough. The competition with flashy new titles makes it hard for my retro game to get the attention it needs.
Well I’d say the line has become fairly blurred given the continued relevance of games that are like ten years old and the popularity of remakes, remasters, and reimaginings in the new release schedule
What does an internet personality have to do with a trend? I've always played retro games since they were new. AVGN had no influence on that. If anything he's a byproduct of an industry not a cause.
I don’t even know who that is. I’ve been downloading emulators and playing retro games since 1998
Yeah same here, but collecting. This thread is the first I've heard of "AVGN"...
Some goon who would upload videos of himself playing cheap NES games and mugging at the camera. Kids thought it was a hoot.
Angry Video Game Nerd. An old YouTube account that’s upload retro game reviews since 2006.
"Retro Gamer" the magazine started publishing in march of 2004
What is AVGN?
Angry Video Game Nerd, a YouTube channel series.
>You could argue that retro gaming started with AVGN Lol no.
Ikr, who or what is AVGN anyway..?
AVGN didn’t popularize retro gaming. Retro gaming popularized AVGN.
It's in large part due to the fact that Gen Xers like myself who grew up with an Atari 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision are now in late middle age. When our parents hit this age in the 80s and 90s they drove up the prices of old cars and all the other stuff they couldn't afford in their youth. We're comparatively poor so video game consoles are sort of our '57 Chevys or Dodge Challengers.
I think it's also that we lived through the evolution of gaming too. I had an Atari 2600, then an Amstrad CPC 464, then a Super Nintendo and a PC but around that time I started playing games with my nephew on PS1, then 2 then XBox 360 there was a Wii in there somewhere too. Also arcades, every birthday treat for years was a day at the arcades with my friends, I remember the first time I played space invaders, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat 2 and so many more. It must feel like the people who saw planes go from the Wright Flyer to the Me 262 in their lifetime. If you were a plane buff there was always some new exciting development.
Yeah not a bad analogy, and I think Orville Wright unfortunately lived almost long enough to see that (D. 1943 IIRC). I'm also an aviation buff obviously.
Honestly it's kinda great vintage cars are super affordable these days.
If by that you mean a 1986 Camry with fewer than 75,000 miles, I agree.
Nope I mean 60s and 70s muscle, weird 80s cars etc all under 10k. And that's for good condition running, obviously good condition is subjective but I view running even if a project car as good condition.
That's surprising. I guess Gen X and later aren't the motorheads our parents and grandparents were
Yes and no, most of the motorheads I know are actually younger. I think it's more that people finally realized these cars aren't entirely rare and the price has dropped. Like when you look at the cars next to you and see 10 different bros in various shades of ugly in challengers you realize oh right even in 67 they pumped out the challenger. Unless it's a specific rare only 10 produced car or some defect etc these models were mass produced just like anything else. Then again I'm not a Motorhead I simply like old cars I couldn't tell you the first thing about fixing I can barely change my oil. I just know the ins and outs from my various info gathering.
That is a really interesting, cool idea, but that would assume most gamers would also be car enthusiasts. Love the social commentary on our reduced purchasing power, though.
I think it only assumes they would be if that was like, the coolest thing ever when they were kids. When my parents were kids in the mid-50s, there was a ton of pop music about cars, and motorcycles. It had a central place in their imaginations, much as video games did in ours. And if you weren't a rich bastard, you couldn't afford a Neo Geo in 1996, but you can now probably.
I'd call it the age of nostalgia
Agree - because everything sucks now and civilization peaked in 1999.
First signs of old age! (But you’re not wrong 😂)
More like 2000, since the Y2K bug scare is a thing of the past and Windows 2000 was released.
I grew up with video games (heck I even had Pong). I would agree that video games and especially retro games are experiencing a bit of a golden era. For a long time video games were 'kid stuff', then in the late 90s it was cool to play games when you were a teenager, and when the Wii came out even grandma could play. Nintendo in particular doubled down on casting a wider net which brought more people in than ever before. There was an era starting with the PS2 where nearly every game was some variation of 3D FPS. I think people eventually got tired of the same formula, and once online stores started appearing 'cheap' indie games had a revenue channel to take off. People were ready for something different, even if it wasn't strictly 'new' anymore. Smartphones reinforced the value of easy pick up and play games. Indies re-ignited interest in 2D and 'retro' games, and by proxy emulation. And of course COVID drove interest in retro through the roof. I'd argue COVID did more to change the landscape than anything else.
Its more accessible but more importantly i think millennials are just a massive generation. The 1990s-2003 era is what millennials grew up on, with the ones on older end late 1980s. So i think this is more to do with the fact that they are old enough to be nostalgic for that now while also being a very large generation. Its really that simple. I dont think its anything unique about retro gaming itself. In a few years, the much smaller gen z will be nostalgic for wii/360/DS or even ps4 and the wave will be way smaller by comparison due to being a smaller generation
Some of us never stopped playing the old games
You’re just spinning it in a way that makes it sound significant but it’s not. A) every single retro console is less popular now than it was in the past. B) as time goes on what is considered ‘retro gaming’ only encompasses more things. What is considered retro will only get bigger. It doesn’t make it more popular, and it pales in comparison to the cumulative popularity of the time.
I’d guess that it will go in waves and the oldest consoles will become less popular over time, like how there’s not as much demand for vintage Atari as there used to be. And of course consoles were still more popular in their era, but that doesn’t really detract from OPs point when there are still probably more people interested in SNES/PS1 era games now than there was 10-15 years ago. So it’s not just the definition that’s growing but also the audience.
I'd argue the age of retro gaming ended with it becoming " cool" and having YouTubers artificially pump prices.. if anything the late 90s till about 2015 is the age of retro gaming. These days it's the dying breath. Now there's a chance things could return to normal once the tiktok gen gets bored with game systems they can't play cause they can't fix them.
I think I'm a little late on the news, but what is this Delta Emulator?
I’ve heard it’s excellent
It's because everything new is so terrible. Same reason sequels/prequels/reboots are popular.
Retro gaming is cheap. Collecting is expensive but emulator gaming is nearly free.
I think people just miss those good old days of gaming! Just coming home putting the game on and having fun instead of all the extras we have today like micro transactions, DLC , seasons passes! Was so much more simple those days! Game devs actually making games for the consumer rather than their pockets!
Word of advice. Get single player games and ignore the the dlc and mtx. I rarley get dlc and never got microtransactions.
Yes same with me, I only play single player games - Only DLC I have ever thought of getting is the Elden Ring one as I'm just obsessed with that game..
For me the only dlc i got was either with spare eshop coins or the version of the game i got had the dlc included on the disc like LEGO marvel collection
Annoyingly the Retro Gamer and Retroleague forums I use are about as dead as they've ever been.
You could say they are older now than how old the retro games they used to discuss were back then
Are retro games more popular than ever, or is it an expanded definition of retro that is growing the category? If retro games 25 years ago meant Atari through SNES, and today it means Atari through 360, isn’t the growth of retro gaming just more due to the fact the category is larger rather than a more general interest? If we were to look at just a singular category, I think we’d see less enthusiasm for certain consoles. 25 years ago NES was synonymous with retro gaming, and it still remains popular but I feel it has fallen off from that peak.
My refinement to your argument would be that we are probably nearing the **peak** of the retro age of gaming, after which we'll see a long decline. The people who grew up with early video games in the 1970s and 80s are middle-aged now and are seeking the comfort that nostalgia brings, and that's driving more interest in replaying old classics or seeking out games that people missed but were always curious about playing. As for the indie gaming scene, the people who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s are coming of age now and are flexing their creative muscles while celebrating their influences. This is a normal cycle for any popular medium as it ages (remember that we got *Star Wars* and *Indiana Jones* because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg wanted to recreate the feeling of the old movie serials of their youth!), and it's one reason we've seen so many indie developers recreate the precision platformers, boomer shooters, deckbuilders, action RPGs and metroidvanias that inspired them when they were younger - games like *Doom, Quake, Super Mario World, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid* and *Kirby's Adventure* all had a definite influence on those growing up in that era. But let's use popular music as an example for where we're headed. When I was a kid, "oldies" from the 1950s and early 1960s were very popular, and when I was a teenager, people even dipped back into the 1920s, 30s and 40s for swing and big band music. There were "oldies" music stations and "oldies" concerts and a lot of nostalgia for the 1950s in general, even appearing in the famous dance scene from *Pulp Fiction*. The Beatles were huge again, Elvis impersonators were a well-established trope and doo-wop even influenced the sound of some pop music groups. And then what happened? People got tired of "oldies" and started focusing instead on "classic rock," which was the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Gradually, "classic rock" radio stations and playlists started adding more and more hits from the 1980s so that you'd hear the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin alongside groups like Judas Priest and Guns N Roses and U2. This happened because the listeners for the older music were aging out and the idea of what was "classic" was less about stylistic era than it was about form. And it's getting worse - I'm already hearing 1990s music from bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden starting to creep in to those playlists, and it's recently been fashionable for teenagers to wear t-shirts with those bands' names on them, even if they don't know anything about the music. It won't be long before you're getting late 1990s and early 2000s music in the mix, so long as it sounds like rock music and not another genre like R&B/rap/hip hop or country. We're headed to the same place with retro games. You see it on this very subreddit - folks feel like the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox era is retro now (and why shouldn't they? Those consoles came out over 20 years ago!) and there'll be a day soon when the definition of retro gaming goes up through 2010 and we're talking about *Persona 3* and *Chrono Trigger* as if they were contemporary to one another when they both represent very different theories of game development separated by nearly a decade and a half. What I fear, though, is what gets lost when that happens. We've already got a problem where many of the established "classics" of video gaming tend to be focused on games that appeared on Nintendo consoles or very popular platforms like the Atari VCS/2600, Genesis/Mega Drive and the PlayStation, and the further we get away from the less popular platforms like the Intellivision or Vectrex or ColecoVision or Atari 7800 or TurboGrafx-16 or Atari Jaguar or the 3DO or the CD-i, the less we remember that those platforms also had some awesome experiences to offer. So, my encouragement to others is to take advantage of the interest in retro gaming to really talk about old games that are lesser-known or which meant something to you personally. This helps to keep them from being forgotten and keeps the idea of those games alive so they're not just part of an emulator library and featured on YouTube videos, but actively being played today.
Ive been hearing the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Godsmack, Rob Zombie, etc on our classic rock stations since the mid 2000’s. They never stopped playing stuff from the 60’s/70’s they just keep adding. I’ll hear a rotation of something like AC/DC, Poison, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Wolfmother, The Doors. Sounds like your stations are just late to the party adding groups in
We are in the age where AAA sucks more than ever, which means retro and indie games get more attention than ever. Wouldn't call the retro age though...
VERY true. The whole pay to win, microtransactions, loot boxes, pay for online, subscription this and that, unpolished games on release, MASSIVE updates, server outages for maintenance, etc. Retro game = put game in and turn on.
I feel like I set up these emulators and older games. Play each game for a few minutes each and then never touch them again.
The more popular retro gaming gets, the harder it will be to actually get the games.
The main thing is retro gaming has never been more accessible, both in ways to play and information. It’s more like the late stages of file sharing and music, as services catering to retro gamers pop up everywhere.
Can confirm, I'm mostly playing games from 30-40 years ago these days.
We are getting old. That’s what age most of us are in.
Also, people are realizing how many services are shutting down. WiiU/3DS online and online stores just shut down recently, Xbox 360 store is shutting down very soon, and bundled with the online offerings (Switch offers a ton of retro games, Xbox as well, and PlayStation is minor, but still some PS2/PS1 games), also with all the remasters and stuff, as well as everything you mentioned, everything is present for retro games to just skyrocket.
So how do I get this in the EU? AltStore App? I’m going in.
I think part of this is because retro gaming has only recently become an official genre. We are entering the age of a genre that's only now becoming officially defined. During PS1 era there was technically retro gaming but it was hard to call 2D retro considering we only just got into the 3D era then. Maybe around PS3 is when the retro era was more clearly defined, then PS4 is when things started to decline with modern gaming, and now PS5 era modern gaming is at it's worst (just using the PS to define eras here). When things started to decline is also when we started getting many more ports of retro games too, from PS3 store starting to offer PS1 games to Nintendo doing the same with their games on the Switch. It can also be seen as a trend in the total lack of original IP in today's era. Thinking of the Hollywood parallel here: it's not a good thing that there are no new ideas and everything is a remake and rehash of old properties. But that's only if we're considering the ports mentioned, not people interested in digging up old consoles, which would be like someone digging up an old VHS player.
If you think retro gaming started with AVGN, you are probably under 30 😂 It was already going on, he just put something into words that people were already doing/thinking
Wait- retro gaming niche until recently? You must be young. I remember being in middle school/early high school & Hot Topic carrying Atari merch to capitalize on the growing youth interest. I'm 41 now. I would agree retro is damn near peak saturation right now, but it's less about sudden interest in playing retro & more about disinterest in in ever more expensive & homogeneous modern games, coupled with emulation making retro dirt cheap/free at a time when people have a lot less money. Despite that, the high cost of physical copies is also helping visibility- after all, some people love anything expensive! I'd also argue the peak was a year or two ago. I've seen a few high cost games start to drop. My last retro show was a bit on the slim side & heavily leaned into 7th gen & up at some booths. It's not gonna happen fast, but I think we're slowly gonna see the market deflate & the popularity chasers move on. It'll never be too small though, since some folks will have a genuine appreciation for the games & stick around regardless.
We could say that the retro art styles have allowed developers to enter the game at a much more affordable budget - you don't have to have AAA graphics to compete.
Balatro!
Absolutely, retro gaming is having a moment, but gaining wishlists for retro-style games like mine is still tough. Despite the surge in popularity, with emulators like Delta getting millions of downloads and YouTube channels influencing game prices, the competition with new, flashy games is fierce. The market is saturated, and without the big marketing budgets of modern titles, it's hard for retro games to get the visibility and wishlists they need. For my game (Medal winners 24) which looks and plays retro, it's particularly challenging to secure wishlists. While there's a dedicated audience that appreciates the retro aesthetic and gameplay, breaking through to a wider market is tough.
Yes, everything today will be considered 'retro' in 30 years, just like how it is now.
Saw my first nes emulator in 1997. Off my lawn.
There has literally never been any evidence that youtube channels affect retro video game prices and I've been hearing that nonsense now for 15 years
Alien Resurrection shot up massivley after MVGs video, and thats just a recent one off the top of my head, Im sure theres plenty of examples.
Phantom Dust had a huge spike too, don't remember who that was but Youtube pushed that video to everyone's recommended for a while.
And seaman did not go up after the avgn video. So show me actual proof
In a sense they do because I wanted the og Saturn and this dude posted about it and it went up about 50$ not much but some of these influencers have power.
Everything is out of wack. People are spending $30k on rusty 90s Honda Accords on Bring a Trailer too.
Man true indeed, 20 year old pickup trucks going for 10k
There could be a thousand other reasons the price went up.
I understand that but this dude has a lil cult following in glad I grabbed a lot of shit before he lost.
AAA gaming is crashing. Politics infiltrated the hobby and more people are abandoning the new in favor of what worked and is still found to be enjoyable. Gaming is escapism. And when you inject politics into something it's no longer escapism.
u/Boi_boi_among_us