ign.com

simple, do games w Ubisoft Says Skull and Bones Has 'Record Player Engagement', but Fails to Announce Sales

There aren’t many AAAA gamers out there I suppose

CatZoomies,
@CatZoomies@lemmy.world avatar

Ubisoft in 2031:

We’re pushing AAAA gaming forward, to grow our fledgling AAAA Gamer-base! We are excited to introduce AAAA-as-a-Service. We think you’re gonna love our AAAAaS.

Stay tuned in 2032, when we launch our connected AAAA-as-a-Service-Subscription! Now you’ll be able to get ground-breaking AAAAaSS gaming at an affordable value. Paid subscribers will get even more checklists, even more overwhelming map icons, and an even larger empty world with no payoff to explore to complete in our games! Do you love going here and pressing the A button? What if you could complete those map markers while not only pressing the A button to end the mission, but instead, having to swipe your credit card while timing the press of the A button? We feel this rewarding challenge will introduce a sense of pride and accomplishment in gamers, and introduce more money in our coffers.

Gamers:

Dude, just create new innovative games with new IPs that aren’t monetized to hell! We’ll buy those! We miss the old Splinter Cell days.

Uibsoft:

MoNeTiZaTiOn, you say??!! Splinter Cell as a Service, you say?! We hear you loud and clear!

Wolf_359,

Collect 3,000 cells in this wide open world to collect your skins.

Buy 4,000 cells to get this custom pirate skin for your character.

Potatos_are_not_friends,

Of all the self labeled AAAA games, this is easily the best, no contest.

No contest on account of there only being one.

A_Toasty_Strudel, do games w Helldivers 2 Devs to Begin Rolling Out Updates to Fix the 'Most Serious Issues' on PS5 and PC
@A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world avatar

That’d be great. I’ve had the game for a week or so, and most of that time has been spent playing other things because H2 is completely and literally unplayable with the current server issues.

arudesalad,

If your outside the usa you can probably avoid the peak times on the weekends, that’s how I’ve been getting into the servers

AlexisFR,
@AlexisFR@jlai.lu avatar

Yeah, I had to put it down since last Sunday, as server keep being full after 20:00 each evening since then.

BiggestBulb, do games w Xbox Next-Gen Console Confirmed, Will be 'Largest Technical Leap in a Hardware Generation'
@BiggestBulb@kbin.run avatar

I feel like we hear this every single time though. "Largest tech leap in a hardware generation" very much means "we'll bump the graphics a little, we're still targeting 30fps though"

simple,

I’d argue this generation actually did deliver performance-wise, most games release with a performance mode that targets 60fps whereas the PS3/PS4 generation felt mostly stuck to 30FPS.

BiggestBulb,
@BiggestBulb@kbin.run avatar

Honestly, that's fair. Maybe I was being a little too harsh, plus this gen did come with more customizable settings (IE, setting to "performance mode" or "fidelity" mode)

PhAzE,

And often, the fidelity mode is close to or sometimes native 4k, whoch is impressive for a console. Remember when full 1080p was the push?

Zehzin,
@Zehzin@lemmy.world avatar

Well, yeah, this gen is pretty much last gen but 60fps.

Except when it tries to do fancy UE5 features or raytracing then you get that 30 fps with smeary FSR

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Up until recently I think most TVs weren’t 60Hz

TheGrandNagus,

TVs have been 60Hz as standard for a long long long time. We’re talking multiple decades.

Even in the CRT days, almost all TVs (in North America, that is) were rated at 60Hz.

echo64,

30/60fps is always a developer choice. Not related to hardware capability.

That being said, every generation console makers will make the most powerful hardware they can for the price point they are gonna charge. It’s not exactly like Microsoft have any secret sauce here. It’s the same amd/nvidia hardware choices for the price point they think they can sell at that anyone can make a machine with.

MeekerThanBeaker,

I don’t know why you were being downvoted. It’s true. FPS is the developers decision. If a game had like 9 pixels on screen, they could make that game do ultra high framerate.

Developers usually prefer better graphics over framerate however. I just hope that more games allow the choice between graphics, framerate, and a balance between the two… like with Hogwarts Legacy.

Dariusmiles2123,

It’s funny that you enjoy these settings.

Personally I hate these as I’d just want to play the game the way the developers wanted me to play it. I hate that PC influence.

I guess everyone is different 😅

OrangeJoe,

So you hate that PCs are more capable and can display better graphics at higher framerates and have rationalized it to yourself that worse graphics and framerates on a console are “how the developers intended”.

I can understand not wanting to tinker with settings and just load a game up and know what to expect in terms of graphics and framerate, but I just cannot disagree more with what you are saying here. Building games to console limitations and not even giving the option for fidelity or framerate just seems like a step backward.

Dariusmiles2123,

You have a point.

Personally, I was mostly thinking about these options for games developed mostly for consoles.

It’s true that I hadn’t taken into account that some games are developed for pc and downgraded for consoles.

Still, even for such a game I would want the developers to think about their perfect ratio between fidelity and performance.

rdri,

30/60fps is always a developer choice

Yes, a choice to code and optimize the game properly or not is always the creator’s choice.

BURN, do games w Bungie CEO Claims Layoffs Were Due to Destiny 2 Underperformance - IGN

Destiny 2 has overperformed for years. If they couldn’t see the playerbase getting less happy with paying ridiculous sums for seasonal DLC I don’t know what to tell them. Everyone who’s even casually played could have told you this.

D2 has made most of the money it’s going to at this point. There are no new players.

verysoft,

Some of the fanbase finally started to realise they were just being milked.

Mr_Buscemi,

I can’t imagine new players playing the game. I tried getting back in after missing most of the events since the 2nd dlc came out. So much of the story is gone now because they were only part of the event and inaccessible now. Doesn’t even feel like the same game when I went back to it. Tried watching a 2 hour lore video for all the things that happene but that didn’t help.

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

There are new players… We just brought another on last month… It’s really not that bad. The new light stuff has actually been worked into a pretty nice onboarding experience.

BURN,

There’s a couple here and there, it’s not like new players have completely stopped joining, but there’s not that many. I’d guess fractions of a percent of the playerbase have started in the last year.

The new light onboarding really was abysmal when I went through it earlier this year (few months before light fall) and the only reason I made it as far as I did was my brother who has thousands of hours in the game. If it was just me I wouldn’t have made it more than a few hours in before being overwhelmed with too much

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

There’s a couple here and there, it’s not like new players have completely stopped joining, but there’s not that many.

That’s typical when you hit market saturation/have an established game. Look at wow or RuneScape. The revenue comes from the people already playing your game.

The new light onboarding really was abysmal when I went through it earlier this year

You should’ve seen it before beyond light launched.

“Go shoot that, now that, now that. I’m so glad you’re back guardian. Welcome to the tower.”

My friends and I started without anyone to pull us through that mess, and we figured out what to do with Google and just clicking on things. We’ve since grown to a group of like 10ish, but yeah … Like newer people don’t really get what it was like before. It’s not great, but it’s gotten better.

NegativeLookBehind, do gaming w Star Citizen Pushes Through the $700 Million Raised Mark and No, There Still Isn’t a Release Date
@NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world avatar

Is it still a clunky, GPU melting mess?

Iheartcheese,
@Iheartcheese@lemmy.world avatar

I tried it like a year ago? Lasted about 2 weeks before I refunded. It was a stuttery mess for me. They have to reset the servers because they go to crap constantly. Several times a day I would run into some game breaking bug that, when I googled it, I would find people talking about how its been that way for years and then there would be the 15 step 20 minute work around. I remember one in particular…I decided to try crime. Did some smuggling to this (honestly really cool) outlaw base in an asteroid. Once I got there I couldn’t sell. People said its just like that and keep trying. Gave up after a few days of trying to sell there. Any and all complaints about anything wrong with the game are met with frothing screams of the world alpha and thats how things are in gaming when a game is this ‘early in development’

Its a shame because beneath under the Everest size mountain of bugs and poorly optimized crap is my dream space game.

NOT_RICK,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

thats how things are in gaming when a game is this ‘early in development’

Lol

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

It has the potential to be an amazing game. But it probably never will be.

I fire it up once or twice per year. It looks great. Beyond that… it’s kind of fun to explore a bit, but that’s pretty much it. Not sure if anything will ever become of it.

northendtrooper,

If you have a chance jump into the free fly today before it ends tomorrow. 3.23 has been a giant QoL patch and added Vulcan with upscaling.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/…/6865743

DarkThoughts,

It's Vulkan. And from the user reports I've seen it doesn't really seem to affect the still garbage performance.

Asafum,

Well I can say for sure 100% vulkan will not get you any improvements at the moment especially as multi threading isn’t enabled yet, but with dx11 I’ve been hitting 60fps+ when I never did before this last patch. It’s been very smooth as far as my PC performance. Server performance will suck until hopefully later this year after server meshing is enabled and the initial jank is worked out.

CheeseNoodle,

Last I saw it the game was pretty functional in some aspects but we’re now at a point where some of the older assets look 2 generations out of date so the game is accumulating a growing amount of artistic debt where the old stuff just doesn’t fit with the newer stuff anymore.

Thatuserguy, do games w Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda

I’m honestly ready to not support Xbox anymore after this. They’ve been non-stop fumbling the ball with game releases this generation. Hi-Fi Rush was the first game that came out that I felt was phenomenal and such a breathe of fresh air, and they just straight killed the studio anyways. Killing studios that make good games is not how you foster a gaming platform people want to be part of.

canis_majoris, do gaming w Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ‘Has Fallen Short of Our Expectations’, Warner Bros. Says - IGN
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

Warner Bros. Discovery has fallen short of our expectations, the rest of the populace has said.

fjordbasa,

That implies they had positive expectations to begin with

Godnroc,

The bar was on the ground, but you brought shovels and started digging.

Jackthelad, do games w Ubisoft's customer values

Guy in charge of subscriptions thinks subscriptions are the future.

It’s kind of his job to say this.

tacosanonymous,

That’s not exactly what he said. Also, he’s being a little bitch bc Ubisoft+ is a dumpster fire compared to game pass. Finally, the way you say a thing is important. It reveals, character, motivation, etc of the person saying it.

Katana314, do games w Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Falls Out of the U.S. Top 20 Games for the First Time in Six Years - IGN

Time for Mario Kart 9.

4am,

Tour was 9. Apparently they’re working on “MKX” for switch 2, but it’s all just rumors with zero evidence.

superduperenigma,

Mortal Kombat X came out in 2015

magic_lobster_party,

They’re continuing the 7 ate 9 trend?

NegativeLookBehind, do games w CD Projekt Spent Roughly $125 Million Turning Cyberpunk 2077 Around Post-Launch
@NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social avatar

Money they could’ve spent up front, to actually make the game not a total shit-volcano.

Broken_Monitor,

Absolutely, I remember seeing the original preview trailer with the tag line “Release Date: When it’s ready.” And I was like wow mad respect this is gonna rock. What a fucking bait and switch that was.

I can say I am replaying it now on the exact same PC setup I used 3 years ago and it is a completely different experience. No crashes, no glitches (so far), no random naked T posing on my motorcycle (which is kind of sad, that shit was hilarious). The skills system is totally reworked and I put it to hard difficulty and the enemies now put up more of a fight (AI is still kind of dumb tho). Cops actually chase you, you can finally shoot out of your car (there’s also new skills in the skill tree for improving vehicle abilities). Sooo it’s worth revisiting even if you don’t buy the DLC, IMO.

Veraxus,
@Veraxus@kbin.social avatar

But still no metro system! Literally unplayable!

/s

enki,

IIRC, CDPR had delayed it a number of times for just that reason, but were eventually pressured into releasing earlier than they wanted. On PC, there were some minor issues that were quickly patched, but none that negatively affected my playthrough.

iAmTheTot,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

were eventually pressured into releasing earlier than they wanted.

My guy, they developed and published the game themselves. They pressured themselves.

Chozo,

I think he means the developers were pressured by CDPR's upper management. The devs were saying that the game wasn't ready, but management was telling them it had to ship, anyway.

iAmTheTot,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

That's what I just said. CDPR upper management is still CDPR, it's a distinction without a difference.

enki,

It very much is a difference. If you’ve ever worked a corporate job, the relationship between devs and execs is exactly the same as a publisher and studio relationship. The devs did not want to release the game yet, nor do I think they wanted to support legacy consoles, but the shareholders forced that on them.

Trail,

But that does not matter to us as consumers. The product was intentionally released half baked, whether the decision was made by someone within CDPR or outside, it is the same.

I don’t care about their company organisation, I care about the product.

kyle,

Anecdotally, I played on PC at launch, no mods or fixes and had a pretty good time. The most buggy things I encountered were people clipping into my car when driving and forcing me to hit them. Random stuff, but nothing too bad IMHO, not like game crashes, awful lag/latency, save corruption, etc.

Definitely not bug free, I ran into those often, but I felt like they were mostly trivial. As another concession, I did have an above average rig so I didn’t really fall into any of the terrible optimization problems.

aksdb,

I also enjoyed it playing on GeForceNow. I didn’t build up any game specific hype. I only looked forward to the next CDPR game and avoided most trailers and footage. Going into the game without expectations likely helped a lot.

ThunderingJerboa,
@ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social avatar

I mean and there are a ton of people who are super into the far cry games even though I see them as generic games. Like sure people can find the game fun but I was expect CRPG levels of details but what I got was CDPR's version of Far Cry minus the pointless filler with capturing radio towers (thank god for that) but filled with all the other filler from those games. The story writing was pretty good and that was its big advantage but the AI was pretty brain dead, which made the fighting rather dull. Add on top of that on launch you could literally stand in the same exact spot and clear a section of the AI and then repeat ad nauseam. I haven't kept up with far cry since maybe 3 but I have played the Division 2 although that game has many failings one of its biggest pluses was the AI was pretty smart compared to most other AIs in the modern day and I would hope the other "Tom Clancy games" would use a similar AI but who knows.

Like having cyberware only be useful for combat, just feels like a pointless thing. We should have RP/world moments with them but at least in 1.0 there was none. Just the game is filled with so many missed opportunities. The og trailer for this game was sold on the importance of Cyberpsychos but in the game they are just some filler quests that you can get some lore on before you fight them but vanilla you got nothing unique for doing it (apparently in 1.2 you are now given a proper reward for it but it shows how sidelined that "questline" was). Very little destructible terrain. Like I'm not some fanboy who watched every trailer before release. I only watched the 2013 and the E3 gameplay premiere for it before buying the game whenever it released (after seeing it was scored pretty highly by reviewers). It was just a deeply disappointing game where they basically showcased the prologue showing how "reactive" the world was but beyond the prologue the world really doesn't take in account of the things you have done. There are some things but its alot smaller than what was showcased.

dlok,

Yeah same, I had quite a good time with the game on launch with a gtx 2080 but I appreciate the console players probably didn’t have fun.

SRo,

It never was a shit volcano. Maybe don’t have shit taste or try to play it on a toaster.

NegativeLookBehind,
@NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social avatar

Lol you can watch YouTube videos to see how shit it was. There’s really no reason or basis to argue this with the monumental amount of evidence that proves it. Sony pulled it from their online store because it was so bad.

SRo,

Well as I said, don’t play it on a toaster.

NegativeLookBehind,
@NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social avatar

Don’t port your software for a toaster and tell your consumers that it’ll run fine.

taiyang, do games w Capcom President Thinks Game Prices Are 'Too Low' - IGN

I want to mention the concept of consumer surplus since it’s a lesser known economic principle compared to supply and demand.

Put simply, everyone has a price. A static price like $60 will get everyone willing to pay over $60. Some will be willing to pay $90, some $120, and so forth. The latest developments on pricing take advantage of that with horse armor, as those are folks with a higher threshold. On the other end of the spectrum, you have 50% to 90% sales to get the rest of us. Flexible pricing is the main reason companies are doing well, especially in an age of growing economic disparity. Just ask the whales how much they spend!

That said, saying the base price should go up neglects the broader economic situation everyone is in, and the US and Japan hasn’t seen their baseline go up. Sadly, companies should know this, that’s why prices vary by county. Ever buy a game from a Brazilian website? Much cheaper.

Tldr, dudes a short sighted twat, companies already optimize prices.

Maraval26, do games w Steam's Oldest User Accounts Turn 20, Valve Celebrates With Special Digital Badges - IGN

I remember thinking Steam would die in less than 6 months because nobody wanted dematerialised games…

Glifted,

Part of the problem was how poorly steam ran when it was first introduced

Album,
@Album@lemmy.ca avatar

yeah at the time you were forced into it. the won servers were shut down and most peoples computers werent good enough to play CS and have this clunky software running in the background at the same time. it worked but alt-tabbing back then was a gong show and you definitely had the performance hit.

i played CS daily then so the first day was a shit show and I dont think I got much time in that day. mostly just trying to get connected…the servers were overloaded.

JasSmith,

That brings back memories. I used to play ARC on WON. TEN prior to that. Anyone remember Kali? I think it’s still running.

JasSmith,

I still remember that meme with the Valve gear fucking a guy in the ass. Steam was not well received.

Potatos_are_not_friends,

I cursed Valve for forcing me to install Steam to play HL2.

Selmafudd,

I didn’t want it, still don’t. I actively avoided any game that required it but seems I gave up on 23 July 2011

Draconic_NEO,

I pirated almost any game that required it, only ended up signing up in 2018 I don’t remember why at the time but I don’t think it was to buy games since I didn’t buy any until almost a year after creating the account.

SamHandwich,

Wow, same here. I gave up June 30, 2011.

Default,

Skyrim?

SamHandwich,

Oblivion, actually. Skyrim didn’t come out until that November.

shasta,

I thought it was great. I got a physical copy of the Orange Box for $20 and didn’t care that I had to install Steam to play it. After I had it set up and realized I didn’t have to physically go to the store to get games anymore, I like it even more.

Shadywack, do games w Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda
@Shadywack@lemmy.world avatar

I never played Hi-Fi rush, Redfall, Mighty Doom, or The Evil Within. That said it looks like Tango hit their sales and quality strides. Alpha Dog and their Mighty Doom shit-ware deserves the dust bin and closure.

As cold and callous as this all sounds, I read about the Redfall development and it was leadership start to finish on that disaster. The employees, even at Alpha Dog, don’t deserve this treatment. Dinga Bakaba from Arkane Lyon stated it perfectly

Don’t throw us into gold fever gambits, don’t use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.

Fuck me, this part hurts the most, and I highly recommend anyone who didn’t read the article at least look at what was said here. Everyone knows damn well that the corporation has the ability to flourish in keeping all the talented workers who got fucked by shitty leadership, instead the leadership will fail upward and keep ruining projects. Companies have so many chances to really disrupt and show the world a better way and they continually take shallow short sighted routes to cheap monetary victory, discarding humanity along the way. Fuck companies.

simple, do games w Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda

What the fuck? I understand Arkane Austin since they dropped the ball, but why Tango Gameworks? I was secretly hoping they’d make another game like Hi-Fi Rush…

MushuChupacabra, do games w Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda
@MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world avatar

Attention laid off workers from the gaming industry:

I’m one hundred percent ready for working, complete games, that don’t require subscriptions, and can’t be bricked remotely. Make them, and I will buy.

I will buy your products. I will buy them instead of the product being churned out by the companies that cut you.

NuXCOM_90Percent,

I am going to pretend you didn’t mean it this way but that REALLY comes across as telling people who lost their jobs that they deserve it because they didn’t meet your requirements (that weren’t even true back in the day of DOS and BBSes…)

Please… fuck right off with that. The devs at Arkane Austin or Tango aren’t making the decision to add a battlepass or to release a game before it is “done”. They are doing what management requires of them. The same management that then fires them to make sure that the overall branch of the company turns a profit.

You are kicking people when they are down.

LunarLoony,
@LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I agree with your statement. However, what I believe the original comment was saying is that if the developers who have lost their jobs were to get together and make a game as they describe, then they would buy it. The malice was directed at Microsoft and so on.

At least, that’s how I read it…

NuXCOM_90Percent,

Which is still a complete load of demonstrable bullshit.

Getting funding for a team is increasingly difficult. Plenty of studios have talked about the horrors of 2023-2024 and how nobody wants to fund even a small team. And this would not be “take it across the finish line” but a solid 3-6 years before even a chance at a return on investment because these devs wouldn’t even have IPs or past releases to leverage.

But also? Listen to folk like Xalavier Nelson Jr who talk about this. They are fighting the good fight to push back against financiers and publishers to make games “the right way” with monetization models that are what people ask for. And they still get shit on endlessly and ignored.

In a lot of ways, it reminds me of “abandonware” back in the day. For those who are too young, for the longest time it was nigh impossible to buy a game that was even five or six years old because it would not be on store shelves. GoG (back when they were Good Old Games) was specifically designed to update and sell these games. And without invasive DRM to boot.

And suddenly all the abandonware torrent sites just started uploading gog installers. And now we almost never hear the term “abandonware” because… people were always full of shit and just wanted to make an excuse to justify their own actions.

MotoAsh,

It is, in fact, not BS to be mad at a megacorp for cutting valuable and functioning assets, and the fact you do not understand that is hilariously pathetic.

If you’re aware of people and games that do fit, then whining about it and talking about how they get crapped on instead of how cool their sfuff is doesn’t help, either!

You seem to be more willing to paint things negatively than help improve, so why should we listen?

NuXCOM_90Percent, (edited )

Who the fuck isn’t mad at the megacorp?

My issue is the people who use this as an excuse to blame the devs who are just doing their jobs while trying to live their dreams.

Again. There are studios out there who are doing exactly what everyone insists they want AND are doing so in ways that make getting funding difficult. And they get shit on because of a “hot take” on twitter or because their game isn’t as pretty as Call of Duty.

When large groups of people get laid off because of corporate bullshit? The answer is not to say “Hey, you should fucking do better next time”. It is “Fuck corporations” or “fuck capitalism”.

LunarLoony,
@LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Fuck corporations

is precisely what everyone’s been saying this whole time. Nobody’s blaming the devs. Your rant is misplaced.

MushuChupacabra,
@MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world avatar

That (your read) is precisely how I meant it.

MeatsOfRage,

The Indie scene releases a dozen of these every day. The problem is there’s actually too much and most of these fail to ever find an audience.

catloaf,

Cool but most indie devs don’t have the capital to fund the development. They want to make those games, but they have to partner with publishers so they can afford to buy stuff like food and rent while developing before they make any sales.

holeydood3,
greentreerainfire,

Gul Du J’bkat

Doof,

Wow, what hollow platitude

TSG_Asmodeus,
@TSG_Asmodeus@lemmy.world avatar

Laid off workers don’t have the ability to choose these options though. You’re talking about management/marketing decisions.

  • Wszystkie
  • Subskrybowane
  • Moderowane
  • Ulubione
  • Spoleczenstwo
  • slask
  • rowery
  • Pozytywnie
  • muzyka
  • Blogi
  • lieratura
  • giereczkowo
  • nauka
  • esport
  • sport
  • fediversum
  • FromSilesiaToPolesia
  • krakow
  • niusy
  • Cyfryzacja
  • tech
  • kino
  • LGBTQIAP
  • opowiadania
  • Psychologia
  • motoryzacja
  • turystyka
  • MiddleEast
  • zebynieucieklo
  • test1
  • Archiwum
  • NomadOffgrid
  • Wszystkie magazyny