In hindsight, the AAA era didn't die from political messages in gaming.
It died from something far simpler: every single developer was going to E3 and showing fake as shit demos. Their response when this was cracked down upon by the media and gamers was to simply show mobile-game tier trailers that show you nothing.
Something like the Prey 2 trailers/gameplay footage or Star Wars 1313 is the kind of thing that leaves impact on people more than say, a mobile game tier trailer. Even the old CoD trailers were like this, I remember the AW reveal with actual gameplay footage of a level and gamers would be hyped up at this new sci-fi FPS until realizing it was a CoD game and their expectations for that series were "I want MW2, like in 2009, but with a new coat of paint".
But because developers were going to E3 with bullshot technical demos like CP2077, Aliens Colonial Marines, or Watch Dogs, only for the final game to be nothing like the trailers, that era is over. Hell, even the Halo 2 demo from 2004 was as real as a propaganda village. Only years later, thanks to a mod team with blessing of 343 and files leftover from this demo, was this actually playable and only on a far more advanced PC with a later version of the engine.
The political messaging in the latest games is just the icing on the cake. They can't even sell games like they were able to just 10-15 years ago. Instead all you get with the new Naughty Dog game is some trailer of the story and that's it. There isn't even a highly scripted demo like with TLOU1:
https://youtu.be/kbLOokeC3VU
Now compare that to the new Naughty Dog game, and you'll see nothing more than a trailer for some movie you'd see in a theater that you don't want to see. There's absolutely no gameplay. Just ripping off scenes from Akira and the safest 80s nostalgia.
https://youtu.be/V0x8olX_p3o
@udongle @Pawlicker @kamehamic GIVE ME BACK MY MSAA FFS
@udongle @Pawlicker @kamehamic I say this all the time, but I genuinely think that metroid prime remaster is better looking than most of the slop that has come out in the past 5 years.
@beardalaxy@gameliberty.club @udongle@mugicha.club @kamehamic@poa.st Nintendo also knows how to optimize their own hardware or design games solely around their one piece of hardware.
There's a theory that Nintendo designs their hardware for their games, and only their games, and nobody else or their games. Turns out, it's not even that wrong because Nintendo first party games tended to look so much better than third party games in the Wii/Wii U era. Their devs didn't need a 360, but the rest of the world wanted one and it showed.