I’ve noticed something of late, looking at all of the games that we’ve had for all of the consoles that we’ve had. Every generation of console, we get fewer and fewer games. So are the games not as good? Or perhaps, more accurately, are there fewer games with each generation that are good?

I don’t know.

I was looking at our shelves of video games today and there’s a very clear pattern. Going back to the PS2, which is the last Playstation console that we had, we had  tons of games. Well over a hundred at least. If I remember right, we had a similar number for the original Playstation. Then, we moved to the Xbox 360, where we have a fair number of games, a couple of rows or so. Then, the Xbox One, where we have less than half of that. That seems to be the pattern. The Xbox 360 had less than half of the games as we have for the PS2 and the Xbox One has less than half of the games that we have for the 360.

It even holds true, perhaps more so, with Nintendo. Even for the handhelds, we have 5x the games for the 3Ds as we do for the Switch. I’d have to go and look, but I’m pretty sure that’s held true for their consoles as well (counting the Switch as a handheld or console, it’s about the same). Even ignoring some of the real dogs like the Wii U, which we have, every generation of console, there were fewer and fewer games worth buying.

Some of that could be the fact that, earlier consoles, we had young kids who played a lot of games, so I went back and looked at only games that I’ve personally played, that were purchased specifically for my consumption and even there, the numbers are far less. It’s not quite as dramatic, of course, but the trend is still there.

You can’t even chalk it up to changing tastes because of the games that I’ve bought for personal consumption, I’d still go back and play them today. In fact, looking at the number of games for each console that I’ve been personally disappointed with, that number seems to rise with every new console. It’s not a matter of cost since I’ve always bought every new game that I wanted, cost be damned. It doesn’t have anything to do with playing on PC, since I can’t remember the last game I bought on PC. I used to play a lot more there, now, I virtually never do.

So what gives? Are the games just getting worse? I went and looked at a single franchise, Halo, to see where it went wrong. I loved Halo, right up until Halo 5, at which time the franchise started moving more to online multiplayer play and I refuse to do that. I haven’t bought a single Halo game since. Same with Call of Duty, although I was never a serious player, but the second it went from single-player to multi-player, I stopped buying in. Any games that are primarily online multi-player, I just don’t buy because I have zero interest. Maybe that’s a big part of it.

Another trend I’ve noticed is that a lot of old games, and I mean really old games, are being remade for new consoles. Sorry, I played those games already. I’m not going to buy them again. Whether you’re talking about yet another release of Skyrim or something that came out on the NES in the mid-80s, I’m not interested. Come up with something new. I have no nostalgia to speak of. It’s the same thing that’s happening in movies. Tons of reboots, remakes and sequels, very little quality new content.

I have no clue what’s going on with modern media but I’m rapidly losing interest in it and I know I’m not alone. It’s no wonder media producers are terrified because they don’t seem to know what their paying audience wants. We just want good games and movies. High quality, well-written, well-coded, not buggy, ways to have fun. It honestly can’t be that hard, can it?