Shooter Monthly #1: Battlefield Revolution, Arc Raiders Evolution, and the ABI Mystery – YouTube
This isn’t a new gripe — the video game community frequently debates how genres should be named. We already use labels derived from standout titles, like roguelikes, metroidvanias and soulslikes, and fans still argue over whether a given release — for example, Silksong — belongs in one category or another.
What Sides highlights is the other extreme: defining a whole genre by a single gameplay element. That approach groups together games that can be otherwise very different. Both Grand Theft Auto and Pokémon Legends: Z-A are open-world games, yet their audiences barely overlap. The same confusion produces labels like calling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a “J’RPG” or letting a title like Skull and Bones describe itself with a word salad — in that case, a “naval online action RPG.” Genre naming will likely remain messy as long as developers, marketers and players use different reference points.
As Destiny 2 faces falling player numbers, a missing roadmap, and another abandoned in-game currency, Sony now concedes the MMO has underperformed since Bungie’s $3.6bn acquisition.
