I dont think numbers mean that much, after all i remember many old games were made by a small team and they were amazing. And the indie games like Outer Wilds prove that too.
Its just that a lot of devs and especially devs in the west are having their priorities on the wrong things.
When they make a game their sole and major focus goes into Twitter approved political and social values first and foremost, then after that (and after graphics and cinematics) they will try to think about making good and creative gameplay systems and creative worlds and great atmosphere.
For example they probably worry and put so much work and thought over voice acting being authentic in the sense that a latino voices a latino character, asian voices asian character and so on... Then they will try their best to insert every facet of life and diverse cultures in the game at the expense of coherent worldbuilding. They will try to do as much gender representation as possible, they will try to have the game SAY something, like have a political message or a social message or something, it cannot be just a story without those things, they have to think hard of a way to include them.
And just for the record im not dunking on those things, if they exist naturally cool, its hard for them to exist naturally all at once so hence why they go out of their way to force them all into a single product but yeah, i think some people got the idea.
What i mean is all of the stuff that actually matter in game quality come secondary.
And i obviously didnt tackle the microtransaction and scam part of the industry as well like Blizzaard.
So anyway what i mean by this post is that numbers of developers isn't really a huge factor imo, its just that some people are interested in making quality video games through talent, passion and love for the medium, and some other people are just interested in making money and appealing to social trends through virtue signaling and preachy activism.
If you play Bloodborne you notice its first about being a game, a creative lovecraftian nightmare with subtle storytelling, great art, intense atmosphere, great gameplay system and generally a lot of passion and talent. It doesnt matter who voiced who, or what gender or culture or whatever that thing was. Its art, its game quality.
Then you play a western game like the Saint Row reboot and its soulless crap filled with twitter tier writing and art quality, its junk.
P.S obviously i picked a somewhat extreme example to make the point more clear, but there exist more example too, just a bit more controversial.
www.ungeek.ph
