Is Gaming Getting Less Violent? 33% Of E3 Games Were Non-Violent

Are video games becoming less violent? That’s the question being asked after 33% of E3 2021 announcements were non-violent indies.

In a report from Gamesindustry.biz, they compared the video game announcements of E3 2019 to this year and the findings were quite surprising.

For example in 2019, out of the 239 games, only 41 (17%) games were considered non-violent. 17 of the 41 “non-violent” games were from major AAA publishers, which includes titles associated with ID@Xbox and Square Enix Collective.

Comparing this to E3 2021 (including Summer Games Fest), out of the 349 video games announced, 115 titles were considered non-violent. That amounts to 33% of the announcements!

Gamesindustry.biz made a valid point that fewer publishers attended this year’s E3. This may have had an impact on the statistics. For example publishers such as PlayStation and EA gave E3 2021 a miss.

Out of the 115 video games considered to be non-violent, 63 of them were indies, representing 54% of the 115.

What can be considered a violent video game?

Violent video games can be considered to be quite a vague term. The level of tolerance, and acceptance is in the eye of the beholder. Not all indie games are non-violent and many AAA games are also non-violent. GamesIndustry.biz does highlight how they judged what is non-violent and violent too. Some of their criteria means that even games that would receive a family friendly age rating can still be classed as non-violent.

Admittedly, I like some of my games or movies to be violent. That said, it’s certainly not the be-all and end-all. For example, I don’t like my media to be violent just for the sake of it, it’s got to be a natural fit.

Likewise, I don’t like it when video games that were once violent become watered down to appeal to a mass audience.

Whether a video game is violent or not, I’m happy either way as long as it’s a natural fit. What are your thoughts on this topic? Let us know across our social media channels.

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Featured Image Credit: Ubisoft / Bluecurse Studios