# attention economy

Nostalgia and attention constraints are increasingly determining what gets made, how it is sold, and how much time players commit. Diverging storefront policies and leadership changes in major franchises signal shifting control over curation and development. Strong engagement around build flexibility and replay decisions points to demand for designs that respect time and agency.

An avalanche of upcoming releases is testing how much time players will give to individual titles, with debates over bloated side content and pacing underscoring an emerging demand for tighter design. Breakout traction for smaller, personality-forward games—such as Escape From Duckov surpassing 500,000 copies—shows curation is becoming decisive. Parallel scrutiny of a Saudi-funded acquisition involving EA signals that ownership and policy risks now factor into how players assess value.