Pretty much what I’ve been saying for almost a decade, mostly in response to “game development is expensive, that’s why AAA games need insert extra revenue streams”. My response has always been that games are bloated with feature creep and if there was an actual issue with development costs the first thing you can cut are features that don’t really add to the game. Not only do you cut development costs but you arguably make a better product.
Nice to get some validation because it’s been a rather controversial opinion. People have argued nobody would buy AAA if it’s not an open world with XP, skills and crafting. Or a competitive hero based online shooter with XP, unlockables, season pass and 5 different game modes. I guess now people don’t buy those even if they are all those things
People have argued nobody would buy AAA if it’s not an open world with XP, skills and crafting.
See, I hate crafting systems. A game advertising its crafting system makes me less interested. Too many things to remember and the game grinds to a halt for several minutes while I navigate menus. Dragon Age Inquisition was particularly bad with entire sessions lost to inventory management. The Horizon games are bearable just because I can generate pointers to the stuff I need and I’m generally swimming in components anyway.
I really wish they were given more time for this game. It was amazing, but now that I know what they cut I keep feeling regret over not having so much more content.
There’s so much Baldur’s Gate 3 there already. If you never cut anything, the game is never “finished”. I think they made the right call. I’d like to see what they’ve got in them next. Perhaps a CRPG with a Starfield-esque setting. Most CRPGs lean on the post-apocalypse sorts of settings.
True, I guess. But I know they had intentionally cut the story and change a few things as a result of that. I guess it’s partly because I just want more.
We all know this was completely necessary at any level, but why the hifi guys? Aren’t they the best bets you could hope to invest in? They make good games that sell decently with less investment than AAA massive failures need.
What a shit-show. As for the nazi bullshit, you should be able to look at your versioning system to find out exactly who inserted the assets. That someone hasn’t already lost their job is troubling.
Game asset development is one of the places where versioning systems are least used. Not only versionong “binaries” is taxing for the system, but even game code itself (¹) is often not version tracked, or controlled at all, with more of a “cowboy coder” approach.
It all stems from most non-online games (²) being sold “as is”, with no intent of supporting them long term; the moment a studio/producer gets the money, they stop caring about their user base, until it’s time to promote the next game. Even games with post-release DLCs, are regularly developed this way, and they end up as a giant clusterf… mess.
If Deck Nine was the “lowest bidder”, with 70-80 hours a week “crunch” months, chances are they cut corners on everything, starting with proper asset versioning.
(¹: engine code is a separate thing, which gets suported across multiple games, so tends to be properly developed
²: online games, and games with microtransactions, tend to be kept in better shape, since their income depends on them working for more than a single playthrough)
At this point, a preowned Steam Deck is so much cheaper than any next gen console might ever be. So the barrier to entry for PC gaming is even lower and from a customer perspective, we know what platform players should go for
Except you definitely make up for it and probably pay more (depending on what hardware cost your comparing to of course) on the consoles. All three consoles have subscription-based services that are more or less required. Some of the controllers for the consoles are as much or more than a keyboard or mouse. You rarely see a price decline of any of the games (especially Nintendo), and certainly nothing as near as what you’ll find on PC.
So consoles are a cheap upfront cost that’s recouped overtime. I’m not saying that consoles are definitely more expensive, but the true cost of ownership is somewhat muddled.
I don’t really agree with that, at least outside of niche situations. The upfront cost on a PC today puts the cost for playing on consoles much cheaper up front such that it would take years to make up the difference, even if you were paying for Game Pass.
My point isn’t some pedantry over PC vs Console and cost nit-picking. Its that consoles aren’t a bad deal. It’s OK for people to own and play games on a console, and they work well for a lot of people.
I’ve been putting together PCs for a while now and the idea that they’re more affordable for playing games than on consoles is becoming more and more of a misnomer. You can thank the major part duopolies for that. I don’t think console companies aren’t greedy or somehow noble, but consoles are still fill a gap and enable people to play games.
After the Helldivers 2 release Sony started talking about getting more aggressive with PC releases, so I think we’re going to see a lot less console only releases.
Game pass is too good for me to resist consoles tbh, the PC app is ass. I can’t be bothered at this point to buy an expensive PC to be able to play AAA games.
I play on both! I like pc for cheaper prices and some different games. I like my xbox to just “plug and play”, it is simple and I don’t have to keep verifying if it will run smoothly. My pc is kinda strong, but not super strong, so AAA titles a no go there
“But, we chased all the trends, even if they were incongruous with the property! Why don’t people want our game Uncle Phil? Oh well, time to go bury it, maybe we can get a tax write off for this like the Batgirl movie.”
Alternatively: “We’ve changed nothing after all the negative feedback, and we’re all out of ideas.”
I don’t think a single publisher platform has any future, AAA games are taking longer and longer to make, there’s no benefit to stay subbed when you can go months without a new game, compared to gamepass that has deals with other devs and publishers so there’s new things to play every month.
I already saved a lot of money just by playing cocoon, jusant and like a dragon Gaiden in the last months since games in Brazil are 10x more expensive than a gamepass sub, and can’t wait for the Persona 3 Remake.
It’s interesting to hear how sanguine they are about putting so much into content that only a fraction of players will see. A year on ending permutations! That’s exactly the kind of thing that being an independent studio makes possible, because corporate AAA producers and publishers aren’t going to go for that.
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