The Business: The Collapse Is Still Ongoing

The collapse claims another.

Kira has the context.

New World is now a zombie game.

You're going to see this happen more and more as (a) the collapse continues and (b) the dominant Network Effect flexes its power by proving why it's the dominant Network in that niche. For MMOs, that's World of Warcraft; it's the game that everyone knows and will agree to play, such that it defines what MMOs are and how they work, confirmed by would-be alternatives only able to change up the variables- a practice that, inevitably, ends up feeding the winning Network just as Ryan Dancey said would happen 25 years ago.

You're going to see this more and more.

CCGs are going to collapse on Magic. Wargames on 40K and Historicals. Adventure Games on D&D. Normie games will fall back on The Games Everyone Knows (Monopoly, Uno, Clue, Catan). Risk-taking by going outside the Network is already falling off, and what is now slow will become sudden within the next year or so.

In the Single-Player space, this will be a collapse on Brand and Genre; only the proven forms will survive, and only the proven Brands therein will remain strong while all else struggles. Be ready for more Metroidvanias, more Roguelikes, more knockoffs of Vampire Survivors, and so on.

This is the time to hunker down, retreat, retrench, and prepare for the next window of expansion- not the time to launch, to risk, to dare as it's clear that this is a Dying Time that needs be weathered.

Winter has come. Sit out the cold and the snow, doing that underground planning and preparation, so that when Spring comes you are ready to act- to move.