10 Gaming Trends That Players Didn’t Realize Marked the End of a Generation Until Years Later

Given video games' connection to technology, the interactive medium's growth has been exponential, evolving from a niche industry with specific consumers to a global ecosystem encompassing all demographics.

In this context of remarkable evolution, games have undergone drastic changes at a speed unmatched by any other human endeavor, leaving us with numerous pivotal moments in a very short time.

The result? Countless farewells to ideas, genres, franchises, systems, and more that, due to market forces, didn't ultimately succeed as well as the alternatives that replaced them.

So, if you're interested in learning about these elements that have left us over time, I recommend reading this list of ten gaming trends that players didn't realize were the end of an era until years later.

10 Stealth Genre

Reduced to a Mere Accessory

When Dishonored 2 was left out of the Game of the Year nominations in 2016, it marked the start of what I've identified as the greatest decline the stealth genre has ever experienced.

Unlike the era when it reigned supreme with franchises like Thief, Sly Cooper, Syphon Filter, Tenchu, and others, we now find ourselves in a world where stealth has been reduced to a mere accessory in action games.

Whether a game allows you to be stealthy or forces you to be is a world of difference, and the number of games that focus on the latter is so small, especially among big-budget productions, that it's almost difficult to call it a genre at this point.

To say that stealth is a trend might be an inaccurate understatement, but this approach is precisely what best explains its current state, devoid of titles that elevate it to the same heights it once enjoyed.

It's been a decade (or more) since the last Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell, or Deus Ex installment, and although franchises like The Last of Us and Assassin's Creed lean towards it, it's impossible to say that the stealth genre is alive.

9 Movie Tie-In Games

The Most Painful Loss

There was a time when video games were seen almost as an accessory to the film industry, resulting in many “movie tie-in games” released to maximize the reach of an upcoming film.

GoldenEye 007 in 1997, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003, The Matrix: The Path of Neo in 2005, X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009… This lasted for many years, until video games outgrew the trend.

With each new generation, creating a video game wasn't simply an arcade adaptation of the film's events, as it involved a level of investment, production, dedication, talent, and time that directly rivaled what was needed for a movie.

The situation has changed so much that, currently, video games like 007 First Light are a complete work by themselves rather than a companion, exemplifying the way in which films are represented within the interactive medium in the last decade.

8 Extreme Sports

Only Skateboarding Survived

Although it may seem surprising given their complete disappearance, there was a time when extreme sports video games were commonplace in the gaming industry.

Series like SSX were popular on every platform they were released on, as their more fantastical and unrealistic style, much like the racing genre, resonated far more with the public than any attempt to replicate reality through simulation.

With disciplines like snowboarding, bungee jumping, skiing, or sky surfing, the options were endless and exciting, but eventually, the desire for realism stifled the passion for these activities.

Currently, only exceptions like skateboarding have escaped complete oblivion, as the rest have been discarded. Sometimes, especially among indie games, vestiges of this trend can be seen, though the industry as a whole has completely moved on from it.

7 Toys-to-Life

A Fantasy Long Forgotten

If we were to make a list of the best toys-to-life video games, we'd inevitably have to go back to the beginning of the century to find examples, unless we included LEGO games.

These endearing plastic constructions are the only thing keeping a massive movement alive that once produced gems to enjoy year after year, but lately has relied on specific names to avoid disappearing completely.

The interests of children and young people have changed considerably over the years, and instead of playing games based on the toys they own, the equation has been broken, turning video games into the new toys, such as Roblox or free mobile titles.

With the chain broken, there's no need to adapt anything from real life; instead, toys are created directly for the digital world, which completely erases the magic of feeling like you were bringing those figures that accompanied you throughout your childhood to life.

6 Mascot Platformers

Icons of an Extinct Generation

Within the symmetry that existed between video games and toys, companies fought to establish charismatic and recognizable figures as representatives of their brands, leaving us with a plethora of mascot platformers.

Crash Bandicoot, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Rayman, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro, Mario, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter… So many video game icons were born during this era that, even if they tried, it couldn't be replicated today.

However, it's not even a goal that's being pursued, because, with exceptions like PlayStation's Astro Bot, we went from having a title of this kind every few months to practically never seeing them.

Ultimately, the platforming genre itself has experienced a significant decline in popularity, particularly compared to its golden age, so it's not surprising that this is the new reality, though it still hurts.

5 Multiplayer Modes in Single-player Games

Forced Competitiveness with a Shoehorn

To be honest, not all the trends that died out are an irreparable loss for video games, as I'm grateful that developers have stopped forcing multiplayer modes into purely single-player games.

I suppose it didn't really hurt that titles like BioShock 2, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, or Spec Ops: The Line had these modes, since I could simply choose not to use them, yet they did have an impact because developers had to dedicate time and money to creating them, sacrificing other elements along the way.

The return on investment of time and money wasn't worth it in practically any case, because however fun they were, they didn't feel like the experience's core, and most felt unfinished and inadequate.

I wouldn't go so far as to say they were bad, and games like The Last of Us prove it, but they were never the main reason to buy a game, so it was only a matter of time before they became more naturally integrated (like Elden Ring) or disappeared.

4 Motion Control Systems

High Investment, Low Return

Speaking of large investments that never fully recouped their creators' expenses, motion control systems, Nintendo aside, are among the most unsuccessful attempts to integrate new technology into the everyday world of video games.

Endeavors like PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect never managed to penetrate the mainstream market, generating financial losses for Sony and Microsoft due to the high costs of researching and developing these technologies.

The games that used them weren't particularly memorable, and the mechanics were clunky and awkward, completely incapable of replacing traditional controllers as the primary means of translating player input to the screen.

I'm not including virtual reality in this discussion because, in a way, attempts to make it viable continue, but at this point, only Nintendo can claim to have tamed the feral beast of motion controls.

3 Fixed Camera

Horror and Hack and Slash Games Pay the Price

Between the time's technical limitations and the constant admiration video games professed for cinema, the fixed camera was a steady constant, until games like Resident Evil 4 completely changed the dynamic.

Although it took years for all genres to finally succumb to the idea of ​​giving the player total control over what they see and when they see it, especially within the horror and hack-and-slash genres, the practice of set, deliberate, and artistic shots did much to advance the medium's aesthetic and narrative capabilities.

God of War 3 stood as this practice's last great representative, though it eventually yielded, just as Silent Hill, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil itself did, all of which shed the burden of having to meticulously plan every shot in every scene.

And it's understandable, of course, but when you replay titles from the past and see the creative and communicative maneuvers that could be achieved through the fixed camera, that's when you most appreciate both its use and the attempts of indie games like Signalis or Tormented Souls to recover it.

2 Cover Shooters

Too Slow for Modern Times

Third-person shooters have had their ups and downs over the years, but Gears of War and Uncharted cemented them firmly in the public consciousness by abandoning Max Payne's stylized approach and prioritizing the utility of cover.

Since Epic Games and Naughty Dog unleashed their titans, the entire genre followed suit for years, though their slumber led to the subsequent disappearance of this and any alternative to over-the-shoulder shooting.

Aside from hybrids like Saros or Helldivers 2, pure TPS games are no longer seen as they once were, as this generation hasn't seen the release of any (Gears 5 was published in 2019), and the only ones on the horizon are few and far between.

It may be time to embrace the style of studios like Remedy Entertainment or games like Vanquish, but until that happens, I fear that third-person shooters will hardly ever be what they once were.

1 Real is Brown

An Overused Filter

Like any medium that is growing and struggling to find its identity, it occasionally goes through trends that seem questionable in retrospect, as is the case with the so-called “Real is Brown” trend.

At the height of the tension that video games experienced in establishing themselves as a mature medium for all audiences rather than a children's toy, developers opted for desaturating and heavily tinting the colors for the sake of realism.

In the process, titles like Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted had an extremely muted tone to feel serious, harsh, and cinematic, at least until the eighth generation of consoles and indie titles arrived.

During the last decade's generational beginning, the practice of curtailing aesthetic appeal with these types of filters was unilaterally abandoned, and the colorful nature that would characterize video games to this day began to be embraced.

Historical context explains why it was like this, yet we must be completely grateful that the need for external validation eventually ended, and the studies were able to give free rein to their colorful imagination.