Summary
- Not all trends are good; some, like Tower Climbs, have overstayed their welcome.
- Trends like Remastered Remakes can feel like a cash grab by publishers.
- Rising game prices, like those over $70, may alienate gamers and hinder accessibility.
Sometimes, trends are a good thing. They get people talking, provide something familiar, and can even bring people together under the right circumstances. They are often the result of popularity, after all, and something doesn't become popular unless people like it. While there is a danger of overdoing it, trends becoming worn out is part of the deal. It makes room for the next trend, and that's a good thing.
Open-World Games That Created Trends
These open-world titles ended up being highly influential for the genre, kicking off trends that are still seen even in today's formula.
What's not a good thing is when trends refuse to die. They hang on by the skin of their teeth, often becoming cringey if not outright detestable by the time they go away. These trends exist in gaming just like they do anywhere else, and while not all of them were negatives when they first cropped up, they've been around for so long that it would be nice to see them finally breathe their last.
Season Passes
From Transparency To Predatory
Not that long ago, season passes (also known as Battle Passes in some games) were seen as a positive step in making live-service monetization more transparent and less akin to gambling. They didn't outright replace loot boxes, but the goal was to gradually shift away from randomized rewards to a more predictable system, and for a time, it worked.
However, before long, season pass rewards began to shift away from concrete prizes like skins, sprays, and emotes and more towards in-game currencies. Those currencies are drip-fed in between more concrete rewards, and they can then be spent on more exciting rewards than what's offered in the season pass when players have accrued enough. It's not the worst monetization system in the world. Still, there has to be a better way to both reward player investment and offer a degree of transparency about what those rewards are , without hiding them behind multiple currencies that only encourage players to spend more money.
Tower Climbs
Reach The Place To See The Map
Once upon a time, in the ancient year of 2007, Assassin's Creed tossed its players into an open world that was loaded with things to do, but very little of it was visible on the game map. Instead, due to that game's focus on parkour mechanics, players had to climb to the highest point in every area and "Synchronize," using the view from on high to fill in the map with everything from side quests to collectibles. It was an effective way of getting players to engage with the game world, and because of its success, Ubisoft began implementing similar systems in its other open-world games.
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With Assassin's Creed Shadows changing the series' approach to viewpoints, perhaps those changes would befit another Ubisoft franchise as well.
Before long, the trend spread to open-world games from other major AAA developers, and it has yet to go extinct. From Horizon Forbidden West to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, players are constantly faced with climbing nearby towers to reveal the area map. Even Death Stranding 2 uses a similar mechanic, albeit players only need to connect each region to the Chiral Network, with no climbing involved (other than any hill climbing done during their trek to the facility). The thing is, Elden Ring proved that players are fine with exploring and finding their way to an item that will reveal the map, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 proved that simply venturing into undiscovered areas was an engaging way to reveal the map. Tower climbing isn't the only mechanic that works in this regard, and yet developers continue to lean on it.
Remastered Remakes
Does Every New Console Need A Full-Price Re-Release?
There are times when an old game can massively benefit from a remake or remaster. Some recent examples, like Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4, Silent Hill 2, and Demon's Souls, did wonders in fixing up old classic games by adding modern gaming sensibilities and state-of-the-art graphics. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 7 went a step further, turning the original game into a trilogy of remakes that expand upon the existing while also branching off into new narrative territory.
While the reason behind those remakes is clear, and the value is there for players to reinvest in classic experiences, other remakes lack a similar justification. It took just two years for Sony to decide that Marvel's Spider-Man needed a remaster. Until Dawn got a wholesale remake less than a decade after its original release. And let's not even get into the absurd (and verging on confusing) number of remakes, remasters, and ports that the two Last of Us games have received. This trend is starting to feel less like an appeal to gamers' nostalgia and more like a way for publishers to squeeze a little more cash out of their old releases, rather than looking to new releases and IPs to earn their profits.
Sales On Deluxe Editions Only
More Expensive Editions Reduced To Standard Edition Prices Isn't Really A Sale
Not every gamer can afford to buy full-priced games at launch. Video games, especially major AAA releases, have become expensive, and between the costs of software and hardware like consoles and controllers, gaming is an expensive hobby. Thankfully, many games get discounts within a year of their release (barring some major exceptions, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), which opens the door for lower-income players to get in on the fun.
However, an unfortunate trend has cropped up in this corner of gaming as well. Instead of putting the standard editions of games up for a discount, some games only see their deluxe editions reduced in price. The result is that players are faced with two options: buying the standard edition at full price, or buying a deluxe edition that was reduced in price... But now goes for the same price as the standard edition. There are plenty of games out there—many of them on sale—and gamers are spoiled for choice, but it feels like a slap in the face to wait for a new release to go on sale, only for the purchase cost to be just as prohibitive as it was at launch.
Bonfire Takeover
The Homogenization Of Checkpoints
Today, there is no ignoring Soulslikes. What began as an innovation in the action RPG genre has effectively become the action RPG genre. If Summer Games Fest 2025 had one clear takeaway, it was that there are a lot of Soulslike games on the market, and a lot more of them on the way. Even games that aren't Soulslikes often feature mechanics inspired by FromSoft's pioneering efforts, such as stamina meters, frustratingly difficult boss fights, and the equivalent of Dark Souls' bonfires. From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to Control, "bonfires" have become the go-to checkpoint system in gaming.
There's nothing wrong with this checkpoint system, either. It's very effective, giving players everything they need for gear and skill management in one location while still making them work to earn their progress. It's just that the system is showing up everywhere. Two issues stem from this: One, it discourages studios from trying something new, because "it's the system that works." The fact is, FromSoftware came up with bonfires to work around the trend (at the time) of autosaves following every combat encounter. Second, it grows stagnant, particularly in games that aren't suited for it. When a game has a bonfire, a playable cutscene spent walking down a hallway, followed by another bonfire, they stop feeling like the sought-after safe havens that they were originally designed to be. It would be nice to see some developers innovate on the idea of checkpoints to shake things up.
Gamer-To-Gamer Hostility
We Don't Have To Like The Same Things, Because We ALL Love Video Games
This is nothing new, but there is a persistent vitriol between gamers that is completely unnecessary. There may be no other hobby in the world where participants are this rude to each other. From Game of the Year conversations to personal preferences, a "my way or the highway" attitude frequently ruins discussions about the gaming industry, be it online or in-person. For example, look no further than the response a player gets when they go so far as to suggest that they enjoyed Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Even professional game reviewers, both independent and contracted, were called "paid shills" for speaking positively about BioWare's latest release.
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This is only one side of the issue, though. At the end of the day, game developers love video games just as much as the rest of us, so much so that they pour their livelihood into crafting games that they hope players will enjoy. That doesn't mean it always goes well, and sometimes games don't release in a finished state, or just aren't very fun. Regardless of a game's release state, the people who made it do not deserve to receive death threats as a result. From CD Projekt Red to Naughty Dog, no game is more important than the lives of the people making it. It's a trend that gives all gamers a bad name.
Gradual Price Increases
The Ceiling Has Been Reached
Younger gamers may not remember this, but there was a time not that long ago when a AAA game cost $60 on launch day. Around the beginning of the current console generation, in conjunction with the 2020 pandemic, that price was increased to $70. We haven't even reached the end of that same generation, and already, games are increasing their prices again.
Most notoriously, Mario Kart World, the sole launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, sold for $80, and while The Outer Worlds 2 has gone back on its previously-reported price increase, there are rumors that other big releases, such as Grand Theft Auto 6, Fable, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, will be matching that $80 price tag.
This trend threatens to take gaming from a relatively accessible hobby to one that only people with some degree of wealth can consistently enjoy. Moreover, it's hard to justify such a price increase, even for huge releases like GTA 6, when a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can launch with a $50 price tag and succeed. The fact of the matter is, the average cost of video games has reached its ceiling, and trying to drive prices up further is only going to drive people away from buying new games.
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