The Future of RTS
Some problems I&#x27;d note for any resurgence of the RTS genre:<p>* There hasn&#x27;t been a huge RTS hit in ages, so large studios aren&#x27;t going to push large chunks of cash into them. It&#x27;s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you may disagree with whether large studios should act this way, but that doesn&#x27;t matter, because the observable fact is they do.<p>* RTS games are still pretty expensive to make well. There hasn&#x27;t been a breakout indie RTS, and nobody has established a default cheap art style for these. It&#x27;s not like platformers where the world has accepted we can get away with pixel art forever.<p>* Streamers rely on their ability to self-commentate, but nobody can play an RTS while talking.<p>* Even back in the heyday of RTS, everyone I knew played custom maps rather than the actual RTS. I&#x27;m pretty sure that crowd is all in Roblox or modded Minecraft these days.<p>And some bright spots:<p>* People &#x2F;are&#x2F; trying to make indie RTS games, more than I&#x27;ve ever seen before.<p>* Tooth And Tail managed to look great while using pixel art. It&#x27;s very high-production pixel art, but more importantly it&#x27;s only one unit facing. Indie RTS costs will go down as people experiment with that.<p>* The game randomizer community keeps building new community-run tournaments and fan commentated races. This means there&#x27;s an increasing amount of talent available in the wider gaming community for organizing tournaments and commentating.