What I’ll Remember About The Video Games Of 2024 ► Ludology Now!

Now that we’ve officially reached the end of the year (or, as December 31st is officially known, my birthday) it’s time to take a look back and examine the video games of 2024. I’m not talking about a “Best Games of 2024” list, we’ve discussed that enough both as a site and as a society already. Instead, I just want to take this moment, right on the precipice of whatever 2025 may bring, to look back at where we’ve been.

It was quite a year. From well over 5,000 layoffs across the industry to studio closures, lawsuits between publishers, and multiple influencers and studio leads being outed as horrible people, it’s easy to have a negative outlook. That being said, it hasn’t been an awful year overall – just a difficult one. There are many good things, and important lessons, that should be remembered in 2025 and beyond.

“AAA” Video Games Have A Scope Problem

Apart from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, (which I discussed at length in our Joy of Punching Nazis issue a few weeks ago,) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and perhaps Helldivers 2, I cannot think of a single big studio video game in 2024 that didn’t aim too high and miss drastically. As a purely anecdotal example, even the most die-hard JRPG fans I know got bored while playing FF7 Rebirth because of all the minigames. That’s like a Catholic getting bored at a crucifixion.

In contrast, we’ve seen an absolute surge in popularity when it comes to excellent small-scope, focused titles. Balatro, Mouthwashing, Animal Well, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, Starstruck Vagabond, Mind Over Magnet, and Pacific Drive all come to mind. Then there’s games like Caves of Qud and UFO 50, which have no other comparable experiences and cannot be grouped into previously established categories. These are excellent, but they should be happening outside of the indie space as well.

While writing this article, the New York Times published a piece called Video Games Can’t Afford To Look This Good, which describes in detail how, among other things, “investing in graphics is providing diminished financial returns.” While good, I think this article fundamentally misattributes far too little responsibility to CEOs, board members, and other people in leadership positions.

Games have the potential to make more money than ever before, but it seems like nearly every publisher spends too much on the hope that they will turn into the next GTA Online, the next Fortnite, the next Helldivers 2. 2024 video games saw a lot of big swings followed by big misses: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, Skull and Bones, and Concord all likely saw massive losses for their publishers. Everyone wants to be the next big thing, but while World of Warcraft, FFXIV, Fortnite, Dead by Daylight, League of Legends, Valorant, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone exist, it’s an uphill battle.

2024 Video Games to the tune of “We Didn’t Start The Fire” (with citations)

Arctic Egg s, Tekken 8,
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank.
Pepper Grinder, Balatro,
Botany Manor, Skull & Bones.
Hellblade 2 and Graven.
Last of Us Part 2 again.
Nightmare Kart, Erdtree,
Like a Dragon Hawaii.

Willis Gibson’s Tetris win,
Toys for Bob free again,
Embracer Group screws GDC,
FromSoft snuggles Sony.
Disney invests in Epic Games.
Atari revives Infogrames.
QA workers unionize,
Suicide Squad’s small player size.

We didn’t start the fire,
But we’re quite complicit and we must admit it.
We didn’t start the fire,
And it’s not stopping without us starting.

Helldivers, Frostpunk 2,
Caves of Qud and Planet Zoo.
Prince of Persia lost a crown,
Souls-y crabs, Shadows of Doubt.
Silent Hill 2 remade,
Zelda finally gets a game,
Pacific Drive and Hollowbody,
Indika and Crow Country.

Game Informer, Take-Two,
SIE and Sumo Group.
Twitch, Discord, Unity,
EA, SEGA, Bungie.
EVO, Tokyo,
Krafton saves Tango.
Microsoft and Riot Games,
CEO’s can’t be to blame.

We didn’t start the fire,
But we’re quite complicit and we must admit it.
We didn’t start the fire.
Let’s not forget Kotick was on the list.

Great Circle, Persona 3 ,
Mouthwashing, new Mario Party.
TopSpin smack, Concord splat,
Cancelled and your money back.
Sun Wukong, Stumble Guys,
Lorelei’s cool Laser Eyes.

Nintendo Music, Pokémon App,
VR Batman, Astro’s back,
Olympic Esports get their start,
UFO 50 work of art.
Palword sued by Nintendo.
Buy a PS5 Pro.
FF7 running long,
I used to really like this song.
Star-struck Vagabond,
Game devs run from Elon.

We didn’t start the fire,
But we’re quite complicit and we must admit it.
We didn’t start the fire,
And it’s not stopping without us starting.

2025 Is Just A Number Between 2024 and 2026

Image of the message "It is now safe to turn off your computer"

There’s no real difference between years. We use them to quantify a certain period of time, because as humans our brains are intrinsically drawn to numbers and organization. There is no fundamental change between January 1st and December 31st. All it means, really, is that those lucky few who were able to take the holidays off are one day closer to going back to work.

The layoffs will continue. The cancellations and delays will continue. All the things you hated about 2024 video games won’t magically disappear. But that’s okay. Incremental progress is still progress. Everything that happens does leave a lasting echo, a butterfly effect on everything that happens next. Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was horrible, but we haven’t seen anything like that since. That’s progress.

Suicide Squad taught the industry a lesson. Balatro taught the industry a lesson. UFO 50, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, Palworld, Infinity Nikki, all of them taught the industry different types of lessons, all of them worth learning, very few of them intentional. Going into 2025, I remain extremely hopeful for this industry. Things are hard for developers, things are hard for journalists, but things will change. New normals will be found.

I’m incredibly grateful to you, reader, for helping to support independent games media just by being here on Bonus Action. Click an ad to help keep the lights on, if you have the time. There’s also a Patreon if you are so inclined – those of you who enjoyed my free Christmas Recall game last week can look forward to a Patreon-exclusive thing coming in 2025, along with other benefits. I don’t like doing calls to action much, but it’s my birthday tomorrow and that means I can do whatever I want.

Happy New Year, everyone.