You seem to have some impressive confirmation bias going on. What makes you think gaming is dead? The only real argument here, which you aren’t even making, is mobile gaming market, but that seems almost remarcably as if it’s created a new market and not really affecting pc/console gaming.
I have tried to play NMS four separate times now. I just cannot get past a certain point where it feels like repitition towards some kind of story line that is always one stept away of “something interesting”. The mechanics of the gameloop are maybe a bit too obvious, which takes away form the immersion. I end up shelfing it because something else catches my goldfish like attention. Then a year later a major update comes out, and I think “maybe it’s good now”?
I’ve been a huge fan of CDPR since the witcher 2. I love the world of cyberpunk. The combination seemed like a dream come true. So, I deliberately held out on absolutely any and all spoilers. It was not easy.
I bought a new computer for the game. I booked a two week vacation to play the game.
And, I mostly enjoyed it. It was a little bit underwhelming, and some systems seemed a bit contrived. But, it was still fun, with some amazing city design. Definitely not something that I would call GoTY.
Then, I looked at all the outrage, and I looked at the promotional material. And, oh boy, did that seem fraudulent. Like, “how come no one went to jail”-fraud. Pretty straight up lying about every part of the game. And why? I don’t know, but it seriously stained my view of CDPR.