What do you think will be the next genre to evolve and blow up in popularity?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It seems like most of the popular videogame fads/trends/genres did not come out of thin air. They were around for a while before someone took it and innovated it and it blew up:


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JRPGs: DQ and FF took the Ultima/Wizardry format, simplified it for consoles, removed frustrating stuff like too much RNG, gave it beautiful art, presentation, and memorable music. Then you get to FF7 which further elevated the presentation with 3D camera angles and elaborate cutscene attacks and a fast paced story with lots of mindbending twists made in vogue by Evangelion.

RTS: the factions were relatively the same. Then Starcraft made three factions that both looked and played and felt very different from each other, and gave it better art. Became a mega hit in Korea because Korea had a ban on consoles so people went to internet cafes, which means playing short play sessions or matches of online games.

Console shooter: Halo and CoD took the PC shooters and adapted them to console and marketed them to monster drinking dudebros and their friends.

MMO: WoW looked very good as a 3D game with good aesthetics while also able to run on affordable hardware. The game is much more intuitive so people can start and have a good time right from the get go. Opt in/opt out faction war to get people more invested. Huge continents, no loading screens unless you enter a dungeon or go to the other landmass.

MOBA: started as a custom map for Starcraft 1 and then WC3 before blowing up with LoL. Short matches where you build up a cool character of your choosing (each plays differently), with some lite strategizing with four other players against an enemy team of players. LoL increased the production values with better art, regular releases of new characters, and marketing. Is the first game to really bank on selling individual characters. Also, lots of costumes/skins you can buy.

Console WRPGs: Oblivion, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout 3, etc, took the very complicated and unattractive PC WRPGs, simplified them, and improved the visuals (somewhat). ME and DA have camera angles that make the game look like a movie.

Minecraft: I think this might be the only genre that did not have a history of well known predecesdors before MC happened. Didn't have a big marketing campaign behind it either. Truly a black swan.

Open world: Skyrim and GTA were big so some devs like Ubisoft decided to make a big world and copypaste a lot of stuff across it to give the idea that consumerd are getting a lot of bang for their $60. The epitome of low quality in large enough quantity apparently being worthwhile enough to millions of people.

Hero shooter: Overwatch took the team shooter but simplified it, made a larger cast of characters with visual variety and different powers. Good art quality. Also got people really invested in the characters despite there being no campaign.

Gacha game: blew up with GBF and FGO then with Genshin and HSR. JRPG devs who did not survive the transistion to 3D HD went to handheld and then mobile. They were joined by devs from the dying VN genre and made a free classic Final Fantasy/VN hybrid on smartphones (everyone has one by now) with good art, voice acting, and music, and used the emotional power of anime and the idea that LoL and OW got close to and get people very invested in the characters via the VN story and the marketing, and then make people gamble for the individual characters. Genshin and HSR come in and add 3D graphics with more gameplay (open world in Genshin's case) and make the games available on consoles and PC too to convince normies that they are real games now.

Fortnite: took the console shooter but changed the match gameplay loop from constantly respawning and zerg rushing towards the enemy's side of the map, to every man for himself (or a small party amonst many) with one life and an escalating match as most competitors are eliminated and the survivors are pushed into the center. Easy to jump into another match if you die early and intense if you make it to the end. Also better art than the contemporary brown looking shooters and available on all platforms. Lots of crossover promotions like Star Wars and Marvel.


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So it seems we can look at current genres or type of games, and then predict which ones with some streamlining or rearranging of the gameplay loop, and an elevation in aesthetic quality and presentation will become a breakout hit and spawn a genre of imitators? Will 4x do better with some simplification and a facelift?

[Tweed]

Creature collectors are flooding the market.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Creature collectors are flooding the market.

Mihoyo announced a short while back that they are making one (Honkai Nexus Anima). I wonder if with their Genshin and HSR billions if they will be able to capture lightning thrice and make a real competitor to Pokemon.

[DemoGraph]

AFAIK, the most popular and profitable games in the world are, like, Clash of clans, Bejeweled and the like.
Bejeweled is Tetris for morons (with gacha, I think).
CoC is, I think, a farm with some PvP raiding.

Hearthstone is MTG for *******, it also seems to be pretty popular.

So the recipe for success is simplification and shortening of gameplay session.

I think that RTS, TBS, farms and crafting games are in serious need of revival.

Creature collectors are flooding the market.

I don't know any. Which are the best?

Edit: to reply myself: cassette beasts, pal world, moonstone island. All seem to fit, quality unknown.
Special mention - cloud meadow

[J1M]

Don't forget autobattlers and "survivors" genres, which are about as close to ProgressQuest as you can get and still be a game.

If you look at the macro trend it is from "hobby" to "activity". So look to lower complexity, lower barrier to entry, lower input complexity, games that fit in that magical 20 minute window for an atomic experience.

We are not far off from the next hit genre being a multiplayer activity where people shout their input at the screen together and then watch a 15-second AI generated video together before repeating the process a few times to create a two minute instagram video that is automatically posted to their feed.