The video game industry is huge; it's one of the fastest growing industries alongside film. Now with outlets like Steam, Origin, and a myriad of digital distribution platforms gamers have more ways than ever before to play and experience the latest of what the creative minds in games have to offer. There are also more developers many who owe much to crowd funding and self-publishing. So why, with all these creators, retailers, and distributors, don't we see more RPGs?

The primary point of attention is that members of the games industry, like any other industry, are out to make money. Many people have said it before, myself included, that when it comes to games we vote with our dollars. Kickstarter is the perfect example of this. If a project interests you and you want to see it come to fruition you back it financially. It could be the genre, the developer, or an exciting gameplay mechanic that entices you to pledge support. Looking at Double Fine and their crowd funding campaign for Broken Age shows us that a genre once considered long forgotten still has eager and enthusiastic fans. Without digressing too much, this particular game might have benefited a fair bit from the "right time, right place" idiom. Without Telltale Games' The Walking Dead becoming a huge success we might not have other point-and-click adventures like Kentucky Route Zero (which is super cool and very eerie!) or the aforementioned Broken Age.

Still, could RPGs experience a similar revival? It's important to look at the numbers when considering this question. In 2012 the video game industry generated approximately $21 billion in revenue¹. That's a lot of sales. To put that into perspective, if that total were to only be physical retail games priced at $60 it would equate to 350 million games sold. But this number includes handheld, mobile, DLC, and digitally distributed games which made up nearly $15 million of this total. This all indicates that gamers are spending large sums over various platforms and even within games. At the top of the sales charts is the action genre accounting for nearly one quarter of the total revenue.


At least RPGs outsold racing games. Take that Forza 5!

It comes with no surprise that action games represent the top selling genre. They're fun. They're fast-paced. They have explosions! Simply put, they echo whats popular in the film industry. This is not wrong by any means; ever since video games have become bigger and more cinematic they would naturally be influenced by big budget, high grossing movies. From a gamer point of view action titles play an important part in gaming libraries. The gun fights test a player's hand-eye coordination, and reacting to sudden events challenges a person's reflexes and reaction times. These are all vital skills to have in real life, so in a strange way it can be said that action games prepare us for unexpected circumstances. Video games in general have real life benefits. Look at the case of the 10-year-old boy whose Mario Kart playing helped him steer a car to safety (Article here).

It can be, and likely is, argued that Role Playing games can benefit players as well. These games require map reading skills, strategic thinking, and anticipating an opponent's next move. Not an as exciting skill set, but next time you outwit someone thank Fire Emblem.


The unfortunate reality that many RPGs face is that the games usually receive poor publicity and marketing. This ends up with people calling these games "niche," but the case really is that the public and the advertisers have brought about this classification. It's a cyclical correlation that few people buy these games because of the little efforts spent towards promotion. If the next Final Fantasy had TV commercial slots like Fifa 14, or got more attention from the games news outlets the game could have the potential to reach a wider audience. This would ideally translate into greater sales, and ultimately into more games of the genre.

But that's wishful thinking.

Yes RPGs don't have as wide an appeal as other genres, but to debate this ends up in bickering over small things. Games of all genres have noteworthy qualities and nitpicking certain personal gripes just shows fanboyism and unwillingness to try something different of the gaming population. Sure, RPGs are overlooked, but there are too many factors to overcome to completely remedy the situation.

Perhaps the bold new ideas we can see from developers collaborating with genre veterans² will prove that there enough people who love these games to bring forth an RPG renaissance. We'll just have to wait and see.

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