Benoit Clerc, head of publishing at mid-tier publisher Nacon, has voiced concerns about the current state of the video game industry. He specifically spoke on the sheer number of games being released. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Clerc pointed to market oversaturation as a major challenge, particularly for smaller publishers like Nacon.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Clerc said he believes the industry is suffering from the aftereffects of a post-pandemic boom, where high investment fueled by strong sales led to a surge in development projects. With these projects now hitting the market, players face a flood of titles, making it difficult for any game to stand out. Clerc highlighted Steam’s occasional influx of 50 to 60 new releases in a single day as a stark example of the issue.
This oversaturation, Clerc argues, makes it harder for niche and mid-budget games to reach their target audience as they struggle to compete for attention and marketing resources. Nacon, however, has found success by focusing on specific genre communities like rally racing (WRC), rogue-likes (Ravenswatch), and cricket (Cricket 24). However, even within these niches, Clerc cautions against overpopulating the market and wouldn’t be eager to launch multiple deckbuilding games in today’s environment.
“There are too many games currently on the market. We’re seeing today the results of investment made after [COVID] when the market was bursting, and every game was making a lot of money so there were a lot of investments being made. This is two or three years after that, so the games we’re seeing now on the market were financed in that time and there are simply too many for customers to be able to play them.”
Benoit Clerc
It’s a good point, but this is the same company that made The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. This game did poorly because it was bad, not because of all of the competition. The mediocre title was bashed online and led to the closure of Daedalic Entertainment’s internal development studio. While acknowledging the setback, Clerc views it as a learning experience, emphasizing improved processes and closer collaboration between publishers and developers.
I agree that many games are being released, which may hurt the industry. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 would have been Game of the Year many years ago, but it went up against powerhouses in 2023. So even if it is a great game, competing with other giants hurts the profitability. However, even if The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was released in a dead month, people would still say it was bad.
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