/vr/ - Retro Games

Older games had smaller budgets, smaller teams, and there were more lax producers who let their developers do what they want and if it made enough money they'd get to make another one.

But as games started to see more Hollywood levels of investment/profit with game publishers forming big corporations with share holders to answer to and marketing professionals given power over design decisions, it became harder to find a place to work that would consider child killing in vidya to be acceptable and not an unnecessary financial risk. After all, the news loves to sensationalize edgy details in vidya like it's what the vidya is all about, and shareholders who probably don't even play games see that news and get pissed off thinking their company is making school shooting games.

Maybe child killing will have a comeback with indie games or if there's another vidya market crash and AAA devs get their full freedom back (albeit with a smaller budget, but most of today's AAA budgets are probably marketing costs anyway).