Developing games sounds like a fun job with a lot of simple rules to follow, but there are issues in development that are still presenting themselves now, and even new ones thanks to more technology.
I will be looking at two different types of issues games can experience in the development phases.
Publicity
Although this doesn't seem like it would be much of an issue early on, the main hope of creating a game is make a lot of money. If games aren't marketed well, or not aimed at the right groups, it can become a problem for the companies makin those games.
This is a bigger issue for Indie game companies, who already have issues getting their brand out there in a positive way. If their games aren't successful it's even harder to advertise for it on a smaller budget. This is why only a few Indie games are very well known.
Small amounts of publicity can be good for the players of the game, as on a large networking game would be slow with a lot of players.
Too much publicity can make a game seem addictive, and scare off a lot of potential players, or make the first players lose interest. Because new games are always coming out, older games will slowly become irrelevant.
Originality
This is more of a design issue, and can be done on purpose or subconsciously. Originality is a big part of giving a game its own identity. The more interesting the ideas, the more players will be intrigued by the game. Naturally, having a defining style is always interesting, however there is always one issue which is almost unavoidable.
There have been so many games with so many stories and so many characters that it's almost impossible to create a unique character with unique traits. Developers are constantly trying to create different characters that no one has seen before, but they will always receive some criticism that their character looks like this other character. A lot of the time they are accused of stealing, which sometimes may be the case. But other times it's completely coincidence.
It's a vicious cycle of designing, checking, finding something similar and then making changes to the designs. It's a lot of work to create even one out-of-the-ordinary character, but to make a completely original game is impossible.
Some plus sides to taking ideas is that you'll already know what works for things and what doesn't. It's useful to have everything in a game contrast and compliment at the same time, and a design would be the most out of place if gotten wrong.
There are many other issues and annoyances within all sorts of game design, but these are the two I chose to write about. I think these two issues are some of the most pressing of all the Game Industry, and what is worse is that there aren't many solutions to either.
During research I have used my own knowledge combined with what I had to explain what I found. I have seen a lot of under-hyped games which are absolute masterpieces and characters who lookalike, and haven't been criticised.
Overall, there are a lot of issues with Game Development of any kind, and some of them cannot be fixed.