Game Mode: The Gaming Industry In 2024

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🗓️ 31 December 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

2024 was a hard year for people who make games — the industry saw mass layoffs and increasing consolidation. But for the people who play them, releases didn't slow down.

Indie developers released games like the monster-hunting game "Palworld" and "Animal Well," an expansive puzzle game.

Big developers moved some releases back — like new additions to the "Assassin's Creed" and "Grand Theft Auto" series. Remakes of legendary titles from the "Silent Hill" and "Final Fantasy" series delighted longtime fans. And "Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" saw Princess Zelda take a leading role.

In this installment of Game Mode, we get into the video games of 2024 and what this year can tell us about the state of the video game industry.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025?
0:04.9	We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year.
0:09.4	Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.
0:25.1	2024 was a hard year for people who make video games.
0:30.5	The industry saw mass layoffs and increasing consolidation, but for gamers, the releases didn't slow down.
0:32.2	Indie developers had releases like the monster hunting game, Pal World, and Animal Well,
0:37.1	an expansive puzzle game.
0:38.7	While big developers moved back some releases,
0:41.4	like new additions to the Assassin's Creed
0:43.4	and Grand Theft Auto series,
0:45.7	fans of familiar series still had new games to dive into,
0:49.1	like remakes in the Silent Hill and Final Fantasy
0:51.4	series, and Legend of Zelda,
0:53.7	Echoes of Wisdom.
0:56.8	In a high rule without link, the fate of the kingdom is now in Zelda's hands.
1:04.9	We asked you about your favorite games of the year. Here's what Josh told us.
1:08.8	A lot of the games I played this year were remakes or
1:13.1	revisits to familiar franchises such as Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, the Eldon Ring
1:18.6	DLC, Shadow the Erd Tree, which I probably dropped 50 hours into. But my most favorite this year was
1:24.8	Silent Hill 2, the remake. The original came out in September 2001.
1:29.5	And it was a really terrifying game. And the remake is probably even more horrifying and spooky.
1:35.0	But also it has such a great narrative. There's a lot of subtext meaning that people can pull from it.
	...

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