By Ney Castro

Remember when discovering a great new game felt like magic?

That moment when a friend tipped you off, or you stumbled across a weird, wonderful title in the corner of a store — or on the front page of Steam? That feeling’s rare now. Not because great games aren’t being made. But because the systems meant to surface them are overloaded, outdated, or outright broken.

Discovery Is Broken

Game discovery — how players find what to play next — is in crisis.
Newzoo reports that Steam discounts are now 4x less effective than they were in 2019. Let that sink in. The platform responsible for nearly every indie breakout hit in the last decade is struggling to help games get seen. That’s not just a Steam problem — it’s an ecosystem issue.

Every channel devs used to rely on — storefront placement, influencer shoutouts, press coverage — is now fragmented, expensive, or oversaturated. Visibility is a paid luxury, not a merit-based reward. Players, meanwhile, scroll endlessly, defaulting to safe bets like Call of Duty or Fortnite, not because they’re always in the mood, but because they’re overwhelmed.

Creators Are Chasing Trends, Not Visions

This discovery drought has consequences. It forces devs — especially smaller teams — to build for the algorithm. We’ve seen it:

• Roguelike deckbuilders because Slay the Spire blew up

• Cozy farming sims because Stardew set the bar

• Extraction shooters because someone’s chasing Escape from Tarkov These games aren’t bad. But the industry is cannibalizing its own creativity in pursuit of discoverability. And it’s risky. Because even when you follow the trends, the platforms don’t always reward you.

Players Want More Than What They’re Getting

Gamers aren’t bored of gaming. They’re bored of sameness.
Look at the rise of itch.io hits, or the popularity of retro game revivals. Players want to discover. They just can’t do it easily.

That gap between interest and access is a discovery failure. And it creates an opportunity for anyone willing to rethink how games are surfaced, shared, and celebrated.

The Takeaway

Discovery isn’t a UX problem or a marketing problem — it’s a structural one.
Platforms built for the last decade can’t solve the problems of this one. And if we keep relying on the same levers to push games, we’ll keep seeing the same results: fewer breakouts, more copycats, and a frustrated player base.