With new Steam games releasing every day, PC gamers are spoiled for choice regardless of their genre preference. Looking for visual novels on Steam that offer gripping stories? There are plenty to choose from. Soulslikes? Yep, they’re a dime a dozen, from PS1-themed Soulslikes to co-op-centric affairs. Friendslop, building games inspired by Satisfactory, survival games, farming simulators — you name it, and Steam has multiple games that fit the description. However, there’s one upcoming Steam game that is truly unique, because it offers, well, nothing to its audience.
As someone who spent years Trophy hunting on PlayStation, I’ve played my fair share of “nothing” games to pad my stats and get some cheesy Platinums. Yet even these games offer something for players to do, be it a mini-game, clicking mechanics and silly jokes (looking at you, My Name is Mayo), or some kind of narrative. Nothing: The Game, though? It’s exactly what it says on the box, as players will be greeted with a black screen for the entirety of their time spent in this “game.” Despite its nonexistent gameplay, though, the game does serve a purpose of some sort.
Why Does Nothing: The Game Exist?
Normally, this is where I’d detail all the features the Steam game in question has to offer, but Nothing: The Game has no features to its name. There’s a movement pad in the bottom left corner and an arrow in the bottom right, with the rest of the screen being covered in complete darkness. The developer of the game referring to themselves as Nobody The Developer is clearly doubling down on the gag, while a price point for Nothing remains a mystery. Curious gamers can add it to their Steam wishlists to keep an eye on it ahead of its March 13 launch date, though.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Nothing may seem like a silly gag game to troll one’s friends with — imagine getting a Steam gift and opening it to realize it’s nothing — but there’s a proper agenda behind the game. As shown in the 25-second glimpse at “real gameplay footage” (you guessed it, there’s nothing going on), Nobody the Developer makes the message clear: Nothing is a criticism of AAA games that break their promises. Not only does Nothing deliver on what it says it is, but it’s described as automatically being “a better deal than wasting 70-80 bucks on a AAA game that sucks”. In the developer’s own words, Nothing is a protest vote as much as it is an actual video game.
What the goal of this experiment actually is remains unclear. Perhaps Nobody is looking to get hundreds of players on Nothing at the same time, using the all-time peak statistics as a figure that “X gamers would rather play Nothing” than whatever AAA games sparked its creation. Alternatively, maybe Nobody wants to gather up dozens of Steam reviews that agree with their argument about the state of AAA gaming, using them in a push for change. No matter what, though, dropping a black screen on the Steam store is certainly bold, and it will be fun to see if there are any Easter eggs snuck into the Steam achievements or “gameplay” for fellow dissatisfied gamers.
Nothing: The Game’s Targets Remain a Mystery, But Its Point is Clear
Because at this point we would rather play NOTHING than what most of these american AAA game studios are putting out.
The exact games Nothing: The Game is striving to critique are a mystery, as it’s simply “most” AAA games that are apparently the issue. It’s not hard to theorize about the candidates, though. Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch broke promises, as did Overwatch 2 failing to deliver PvE, though both games have since made incredible recoveries. The original Watch Dogs’ graphical downgrade comes to mind, as do franchises like Battlefield and Call of Duty that are regularly dubbed disappointments by their fans. “American” studios are specified in the above quote, though, so some of the latter candidates seem more likely than CD Projekt Red as big offenders. While there are plenty of beloved AAA games, including new releases like the hugely successful Resident Evil Requiem, Nothing: The Game does reflect a common sentiment around big budget releases as of late.
