Is Gameplay Finally the Priority for Developers?

Videogame graphics have been on an upward quality trend for as long as games have existed. And for almost as long, they’ve been pried open and inspected by critics and audiences alike. When initial gameplay of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/apr/26/pushing-buttons-unrecord-game" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Unrecord</a> — the photorealistic indie FPS which viewers scarily likened to US police bodycam footage — was released in Spring of 2023, it predictably garnered a healthy dose of media attention for being so believable. But it also wowed gamers for this same reason. Flashy graphics are no doubt a slick thing to show off in press releases and trailers; take the lens off of indie titles for just a moment, look at the trailers for any recent and upcoming AAA releases — your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O6Qstncpnc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Hogwarts Legacy</a>’s and your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq1M_Wc4FIc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Spiderman 2</a>’s — and it’s easy to see an industry focus on visually-striking games. It’s even easier to see why this is the case, after Harry Potter’s interactive prequel-spawn made a cool <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1383190/hogwarts-legacy-game-retail-sales-worldwide/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">$850 million within its first two weeks</a>. <a href="https://medium.com/@My_Two_Sense/is-gameplay-finally-the-priority-of-game-development-4a5b56efdf97">Read More</a>