GagBase Logo Explore

Devs Then vs Devs Now: Game Development Comparison

A two-panel comparison meme titled 'Devs Then' (left) and 'Devs Now' (right). The left panel features a muscular man with a confident smile holding a Nintendo 64 cartridge for 'Resident Evil 2,' with text praising past developers for squeezing a 750 MB PlayStation game into a 64 MB N64 cartridge via efficient coding. The right panel shows a Shiba Inu (Doge meme) next to a 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 6' box, with text criticizing modern developers for 300 GB game sizes and unfinished launches. The joke satirizes the perceived decline in coding efficiency and quality control in game development.
Make

Text content

Devs Then: We squeezed a 750 MB PlayStation game into a 64 MB N64 cartridge without sacrificing a single level or video cutscene by writing more efficient and intelligent code. Devs Now: 300 GB (and launches unfinished)

Overview

A two-panel comparison meme titled 'Devs Then' (left) and 'Devs Now' (right). The left panel features a muscular man with a confident smile holding a Nintendo 64 cartridge for 'Resident Evil 2,' with text praising past developers for squeezing a 750 MB PlayStation game into a 64 MB N64 cartridge via efficient coding. The right panel shows a Shiba Inu (Doge meme) next to a 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 6' box, with text criticizing modern developers for 300 GB game sizes and unfinished launches. The joke satirizes the perceived decline in coding efficiency and quality control in game development.

Origin notes

The meme is sourced from 9Gag, created by combining existing images: a stock photo of a muscular man, the iconic Shiba Inu/Doge meme image, and game covers for 'Resident Evil 2' (N64) and 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 6'. It is a user-generated remix using collage/editing methods to humorously contrast historical and contemporary game development practices.

Similar memes

This is a two-panel comparative meme using the viral Buff Doge vs. Crying Cheems Shiba Inu format. The left panel is labeled 'Sony then' and features the muscular, confident Buff Doge, with accompanying text stating 'Playstation is the most powerful device ever for you to play games, that's why you buy playstation', representing Sony's past marketing strategy that positioned PlayStation consoles as high-performance, premium platforms that offered enough value to justify purchase on their own. The right panel is labeled 'Sony now' and features the sad, teary-eyed Cheems dog sitting dejectedly, with accompanying text stating 'I am not porting PS games to PC anymore so you need to buy playstation to play PS games', mocking Sony's 2024 announcement that it would cease porting most first-party PlayStation exclusive titles to PC, framing the decision as a weak, desperate move to force consumer hardware purchases instead of relying on the platform's inherent value.

The Era of Sony Porting PlayStation Games to PC is Over

This is a two-panel comparati…

A two-panel meme contrasting reactions to game announcements. The top panel features the text 'A NEW GAME BY UBISOFT' alongside a group of men in a theater-like setting displaying bored, indifferent body language: slouching, sitting passively, and looking uninterested. The bottom panel contains the text 'A NEW GAME BY EX-UBISOFT DEVS' with the same group exhibiting intense excitement: pointing, leaning forward, cheering, and fist-clenching. The humor stems from the stark contrast in reactions, implying games developed by former Ubisoft employees are more anticipated or exciting than those from Ubisoft itself.

Ubisoft vs. Ex-Devs: Contrasting Reactions

A two-panel meme contrasting …

This is a two-panel comparison reaction meme. The top left text reads "WHEN THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPERS WORKED ON A GAME", paired with an image of a group of men leaning forward, cheering, pumping their fists, and pointing excitedly at something off-screen, showing extreme positive engagement. The bottom left text reads "WHEN THE ORIGINAL DEVELOPERS LEFT THE GAME", paired with an image of the same group of men leaning back with blank, bored, unimpressed and disappointed expressions, showing zero positive engagement. The meme satirizes the common trend of AAA video game franchises being high quality, exciting and well-received when developed by their original core teams, but dropping sharply in quality, becoming boring and underwhelming for players after the original developers leave the project or are replaced.

AAA Game Quality Before vs After Original Developers Leave

This is a two-panel compariso…

A two-panel meme using SpongeBob SquarePants characters to humorously compare PC and console gamers' experiences with new game releases over time. The top panel, labeled 'New game releases' in yellow text, shows Squidward (representing PC gamers) looking at SpongeBob and Patrick (representing console gamers) who are joyfully jumping. Below this, white text reads 'Pc gamers seeing console gamers playing a new game.' The bottom panel, labeled 'After 1 year' in yellow text, reverses the scenario: Squidward is now jumping happily, while SpongeBob and Patrick watch from behind. White text here reads 'Console gamers seeing PC gamers with high Fps and mods.' The joke highlights the common perception that console gamers get early access to new releases, while PC gamers later enjoy superior performance (high FPS) and mod support.

PC vs Console Gamers: A Year Later Meme

A two-panel meme using Sponge…

This meme uses the popular **Buff Doge vs Cheems** format to satirize the contrast between software developers in 2003 and modern developers. On the left, a muscular Shiba Inu (Buff Doge) represents a 2003 "schizophrenic developer" who proudly claims to have built an entire operating system alone using 100,000 lines of code. On the right, a skinny, slouched Shiba Inu (Cheems) represents contemporary developers, lamenting that they've "run out of tokens"—a reference to limitations in AI development tools (like GitHub Copilot or LLM APIs) that modern developers rely on heavily. The joke exaggerates the shift from self-reliant, low-level coding to today's dependence on AI-assisted tools, using the iconic meme's visual contrast to amplify the humor.

2003 Developer vs Modern Developer (Doge Meme)

This meme uses the popular **…

This meme uses a fast food burger analogy to humorously compare video game release practices between the past and present. The top section marked "THEN" displays a complete, full hamburger labeled as the original game, with optional side items (fries and soda) labeled as expansion packs, representing that older base games were fully playable on release with expansions being additional non-essential content. The bottom section marked "NOW" shows only empty hamburger buns as the original game, with all core burger ingredients (lettuce, tomato, patty, cheese) sold separately as DLC, a strip of bacon as a pre-order bonus, and condiments marked as a Best Buy exclusive. The meme criticizes modern gaming monetization that splits core playable content into separate paid purchases, leaving base games incomplete at launch.

Meme criticizing modern game DLC practices using burger analogy

This meme uses a fast food bu…

This is a single-panel illustrated meme set against a solid red background. It features two stylized drawn characters: the left character is labeled 'GAME DEVELOPERS', an angry woman who is shouting, and metaphorically spitting sharp knives from her mouth at the right character. The right character is labeled 'PS4 OWNERS', a man who is visibly injured, bleeding from multiple knife wounds to his chest, clutching one of the embedded knives with a pained, upset expression. The speech bubble from the game developer character reads 'WE WILL NO LONGER RELEASE GAMES ON 13 YEAR OLD HARDWARE THAT HAS HAD A SUCCESSOR FOR 5 YEARS!'. The joke uses a violent metaphor to represent how PlayStation 4 owners feel personally attacked and harmed by video game developers choosing to phase out support for the aging PS4 console, after its successor the PS5 has been available for 5 years and the PS4 hardware is 13 years old.

Game Developers Stopping PS4 Game Releases Meme

This is a single-panel illust…

The meme features a close-up photograph of a Nintendo 64 Memory Expansion Pak, a black rectangular device with a red perforated top. The device displays branding including 'NINTENDO64' and Japanese text. Prominently positioned above the hardware is a sarcastic caption: 'So glad I bought this baby before the RAM shortage.' The humor arises from the contrast between the outdated, low-capacity gaming accessory (which typically provided minimal memory for N64 games) and modern concerns about RAM (random-access memory) shortages affecting personal computers and other devices, highlighting the irony of using such a nostalgic, functionally obsolete product to address contemporary memory supply issues.

Nintendo 64 Memory Pak vs. RAM Shortage Meme

The meme features a close-up …

This two-panel meme satirizes the perceived double standard in Nintendo's approach to emulation. The first panel features a relaxed shot of Squidward Tentacles from *SpongeBob SquarePants* paired with text describing Nintendo's casual use of emulation for their own official re-releases of games. The second panel shows Squidward with an intensely angry, bulging-eyed expression, paired with text criticizing Nintendo's strict, hostile stance against fans who use emulation to play the company's out-of-print, 20-year-old games that are no longer available for purchase. The meme uses the popular Squidward angry eyes template to highlight the hypocrisy between Nintendo's own practices and their enforcement against fan behavior.

Nintendo's Emulation Double Standards Meme

This two-panel meme satirizes…

This is a two-panel reaction meme using the popular 'Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny' template. The left panel features a cheerful, normal render of Mr. Incredible paired with text expressing a common misconception: 'aww, Nintendo had such a wholesome beginning in the early 80's with children's games and characters in video games'. The right panel features a dark, unsettling half-shadowed black and white edit of Mr. Incredible paired with correcting text that reads 'Nintendo DID NOT start in the 1980's'. The joke plays on the lesser-known fact that Nintendo was founded much earlier, in 1889, originally as a playing card manufacturer, contrasting the common public perception of Nintendo as a modern 1980s video game company focused on family-friendly content.

Humble Beginnings Nintendo Fact Check Meme

This is a two-panel reaction …

This meme repurposes a viral photograph of actor Kieran Culkin from the 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards, where he reacted to winning an award by covering his face in an exhausted, overwhelmed manner. The top text caption reads: *Call of Duty creators when they realise they just got another story for a new game*, which uses sarcasm to joke about the yearly release schedule of the *Call of Duty* video game franchise. It implies that the franchise's developers are burnt out from the constant pressure to produce new content annually, framing the arrival of another story idea as an additional burden rather than an exciting opportunity.

Call of Duty Creators When They Get Another Story Idea

This meme repurposes a viral …