Who/what has made the greatest contribution to gaming in Gen8?

... Is it a person? A developer? A game itself? We know it's not EA, but the rest is up for debate...

Just some examples...

We've seen BIG games like God of War reinvent a franchise and show that games don't have to be married to their initial designs. .

Microsoft championed backwards compatibility and began game pass which has changed the landscape....

Sony championed exclusive games and putting weight behind their studios talent.

Nintendo has literally put big screen gaming in our hands on the go!

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Point is, we spend a lot of time critiquing every move the gaming nebulous makes, but despite the errors of things like micro transactions and loot boxes, this hobby is moving forward.

In your estimation, who or what has made the greatest positive contribution to gaming in gen 8....?

Indie developers

Pretty much this.

They had a rough time of being accepted, often derided as being "artsy" or "hipster" or any number of things, but their games are so much more enjoyable than AAA gaming these days.

Another vote for Indies

Ya know what? A while ago I was one of those people (and still kinda am today) but seeing the state of 3rd party AAA gaming today... I have to agree. I mean, I still think most indie games are often praised for being unique rather than enjoyable (struggling to beat Undertale atm, for ex) but 3rd party AAA gaming has sunk to a new low lately with MTX, loot boxes, following trends everywhere like with battle royale, loot driven games with repetitive gameplay, etc, etc, etc... yeah, f*ck it. 1st party AAA gaming is still king imo though

Sony saved console gaming. MS had a vision that was totally different from what people wanted. They wanted to give gamers a 720p machine and Kinect, and no physical media or ability to buy used games. The Xbox One was to be an entertainment machine, not a gaming machine. And Nintendo pretty much gave up on competing with Sony directly. Sony tries to push the medium forward. They really do try to make a console that can be loved by all kinds of gamers. I also commend them for trying to popularize VR.

Indie developers & Nintendo had made good contribution to the world of Gen 8.

I think the adaptive controller from MS is incredible and truly highlights this gen. The changing digital landscape has also been a focal point, for good or bad.

For me, it's Nintendo... The switch design is something I've LONG desired and I feel that Nintendos choice to cater to the convenience of gaming as opposed to simply upgrading hardware was wise and created an avenue that will keep me gaming further into my extremely busy life.

Gaming, to me will be worse if the switch design were to now exit the fray.

In terms of changing the landscape, I vote Microsoft. Xbox game pass was a big step forward and I expect other companies to follow suit. Their push for BC also will reflect in future consoles. Sony did much better this gen but I don't think their performance will significantly impact the future. They stuck to their gaming roots.

I would have to say Indie developers myself. This isn't the gen that Indie's started out, but this is the gen where they've become much more widely accepted as substantial game experiences and sometimes standing tall with the big AAA games of today. I think that is significant because there's long been a stigma against indie games for not being taken seriously, and I was once guilty of this stigma too. It still exists today but that line is growing thinner.

Indie and AA devs picking up the slack making awesome games while AAA gaming is chasing the latest monetization trend.

Indie devs for sure.

Electronic Arts for pushing lootboxes so hard the government got involved making them, and all the other weasels more mindful of business practice in the face of public perception.

I’d say Nintendo with the Switch but we all know it’s gen 9. :P

Valve for continuing to improve Steam.

Can't see anything else driving the industry.

Why won't people take my trackball pad seriously?!

Pretty much what @SolidGame_basic: said.

I would actually give credit to gamers everywhere that showed they weren't going to support the policies that Microsoft offered up during their E3 2013 reveal.

If it weren't for the outcry from gamers, Sony may have ended up adopting similar policies to Microsoft. Due to the outcry though, they took advantage of that and took the "Friend to the Gamer" approach instead. Hopefully this continues into next gen.

@jackamomo: Aww that's adorable, did you draw it yourself?

Indies and Sony.

Indies for the amazing innovative games they make that continue to shame AAA publishers. Sony for saving the console industry from being a wasteland of DRM and spy cameras like Microsoft wanted. If Sony had gone the Microsoft route, the console market as we know it now would have been doomed. Their decision to stay away from DRM and lean on their past traditions of delivering no bullshit consoles saved the console gaming space.

@mandzilla: revolutionaries are always mocked by sheep.

@jackamomo: Wasn't mocking lol. ?

@mandzilla: sure.

Where's your innovative industry changing idea, rendered in pencil with no rubbing out and passable perspective?

I'm waiting...

HTC for introducing room-scale VR tracking.

Most people don't realize it yet because most people have not experienced true room-scale VR yet due to the expensive price, but room-scale VR tracking technology is the greatest innovation of this generation by far. Without room-scale tracking, VR is just a gimmick, but with room-scale tracking, it's the biggest game-changer since the jump from 2D to 3D.

@mandzilla: nice. hands free. like it.

@jackamomo: Thanks. I'm thinking with those and a traditional controller you could play MMOs on console or something.

It's still at the drawing board stage though.

@mandzilla: i was thinking you could eat your dinner and not have to stop playing.

@jackamomo: Woah! ?

I'll join in.

I was a guy that didnt mind the indies but was all about AAA until a couple of friends here pointed me towards great indies. They really have made some of the best and challenging games in a time of hand holding set pieces.

@cainetao11: yeah I really think there was a problem last gen with a lot of them coming in at mobile app quality and it's led to a lot of great games getting overlooked this gen

Pretty sure we can thank Blizzard for standardising lootboxes and gambling in our full priced games.

Obviously not too many people are going to say Xbox. Microsoft can create the Heavens and still not get much/any credit.

@brimmul777: despite the crusty fanboy insecurity in some, Microsoft has every hit to due with the good gaming today than anyone.

I mean the answer is obvious. I'm not going to try to pretend to know who actually started it but Bluehole gets the credit for the battle royale craze. They can be considered a genre now. I think on consoles these games have potential to show the biggest leap next gen. To get them to run they actually look like psvr games sub 720p on xbox one s. The gameplay novelty is already there and the tech has the biggest growth potential. Therefore they are going to effect the next generation as well.

The launch and lack of great AAA games other than Halo Gears Forza is all anyone wants to notice. But Ori, Cuphead, Rare Replay, not just BC but a commitment that there will be BC from now on, gamepass and releasing games to it are all great things for this gamer.

My vote goes to indie devs also.

Have to give it to Sony

Pushing standards & making VR more accessible to a wider audience

Indies in general. Thanks to them, not only we have modern gaming available, but also most 8 and 16bit genres back from dead.

As much as I dislike nVidia (I don't buy their stuff) I'm glad they're pushing ray tracing. It's going to be a good 5 years or so before we really feel the benefits of it, but that ground needed to be broken.

I'm gonna say Playground games for the exceptional Forza Horizon games, no other racers this gen comes close, and the next best is T10.

Sony has contributed the worse this gen, PS+ (that the cows blame MS for to this day lol) & shit like PS Now, and doubling down on movie games.

Definitely not MS for sure lol. Left to them we would be in a wasteland of DRM, TV, and spy cameras for the NSA in our homes.

If Sony had gone their way the home console market would have been dead and everyone would be gaming on Nintendo handhelds or PC. There is a reason Sony got this kind of reception at E3 2013 and it wasn't because they followed Microsoft's dumb ideas.

VR in general.

I can admit, I do see myself as a Nvidia fanboy cause I been a fan of their GPU for years, they do produce the best of the best a PC gamer can offer when it comes to the high-end PC. I do like what I'm seeing from Raytracing, yes it is still in the early stage of it's life, it'll be awhile before it's ready for prime time indeed.

AMD isn't gonna jump on it though, but then again, I'm glad they are just sticking making good CPU because I'm still enjoying my Ryzen 7 2700X.

Microsoft easily in #1, they deserve a Nobel Prize for greatness:

-Minecraft has become the greatest selling game of all time, and is biggest game in the world. Doing unpresadented things like

-Microsoft has taken controllers light years ahead of everyone with their adaptive controller, build your own controller, and Elite Controller.

-Microsoft made the Netflix of gaming with the Game Pass, maybe they didn't invent it, but like Nintendo does with everything, Microsoft popularized it.

-Xbox has more unique features than all PlayStation's combined. Putting 4K Blurays in every home, Alexa Support, Play Anywhere, Backwards Compatibility Disc suppport going back 2 generations and enhancing these games without charging more money, remaster a game released that gen just to make it even better like in ReCore and MCC.

-Microsoft has brought the power of the cloud to give you something you could only get if 20 Xbox's were taped together, if that isn't incredible, I don't know what is. Pretty much Xbox has become to dig past surface and many things that till enrich our lives next gen.

Considering Sony didn't do anything for half this generation, have a hard time giving them "greatest" contribution, I think they've made big contributions, but mostly negative crap and anything positive they've done is stained by ponyism. Maybe they made Gen 8 much more cozy for all the people who had to live with PS3 for years, but really wasn't a contribution to gaming as a whole.

As someone who only plays SP games I feel like Sony has done well this gen. They have released a top tier SP (or more) game every year. It's not like they are the only ones doing it but def the company contributing the most.

This.

Microsoft. BC and Gamepass are revolutionary, but they also have two of the biggest franchises in two of the biggest genres of gaming. Racing and shooters. Forza and Halo’s entire catalogue is available only on Xbox.

The willingness of developers to embrace the PC platform. There are fewer console exclusives now than ever. Even MS is bringing their games to PC through Play Anywhere. Plenty of Japanese developers are now taking PC seriously too. Having access to so many games on the best platform is amazing and has been the best thing that has happened this gen.

MS have made strides trying to get the platform back on track and appease gamers with gamepass. Sony have made single player games important again and Nintendo have revolutionised hybrid gaming.