The Hustle

The first thing that popped out at me when visiting my local game's shop was browsing the shelf of PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube games, and seeing right next to your God of Wars, FIFAs, Halos, and Elder Scrolls, were games like…

The Hustle: Detroit Streets.

Just looking at my relatively modest collection of 6th and 7th gen games, the variety in styles and budget is all over the place. There's everything from 007, Matrix, and Star Wars, to multiple racing, shooter, and action games no one's ever heard of by times no one has ever heard of.

Does anybody remember Geist for the Gamecube?

I didn't...

It's something I should've realized sooner, but this is may be part of why you so often see the sentiment that gaming has gotten worse, that it lacks the variety, and experimentation of before.

It's not because it actually is.

The middle market is absolutely filled to the brim with video-games of all the variety of yee olden days via games like Control, Payday, Vermintide, Disco Elysium, Ghostrunner, Ready or Not, and so much more. That's not even including the indie scene…

But that's not the same thing as walking into a gaming store, and seeing the biggest games released by publishing titans like EA, Sony, and Microsoft, sitting right next to The Hustle: Detroit Streets.

Remember Rockstar's Table Tennis?

I'm not asking for a sequel, but at the time, this quaint, simple, low-key tech demo was one of the best-selling games for the console, something that I don't think anybody could imagine happening today.

It'd be like Activision kicking off the PS5 launch with a Hacky Sack Sim, and outselling Demon's Souls.

Now granted… 

We are playing even more advanced versions of Table Tennis with equipment more expensive than an Xbox 360, but the little middle market studios and indies making these games, while just as good if not better than games of peoples childhoods, they're sold and distributed in a completely different manner, one where players themselves must deliberately seek them out, something which is not just hard to do when there's hundreds of games being uploaded every hour, but also, not something tangible.

Typing searches into Google just isn't the same experience as going to a store, or even renting a copy from a local store.

Now is this something I personally have a big vested interest in?

Not exactly.

I lived on an Island most of my life, so going to gaming stores and sorting through the endless shelves of games was something I didn't do very often, but to all the people who grew up with that since being able to walk, it makes sense why not seeing Table Tennis sit next to a copy Halo 3 any more seems like a downgrade.

Hopefully services like Game Pass is truly helping them find the unique games they can fall in love with, though even that comes with its own concerns.