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PushButton, do games w Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

It’s not the customers like stories or not; it’s customers want good stories.

If that guy’s aiming is that bad at reading the market, it might be just a good thing he is not going the story path.

It sucks for the people being layoff though.

circuitfarmer, do games w Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell
@circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

They sell fine. Look at BG3.

What they don’t do is make money hand over fist without the need to design more product, as happens with subscription-based, game-as-a-service multiplayer titles. Some companies don’t want to make good games. They just want to make good money.

makyo,

And ignoring all the attempts at a game-as-a-service that fail

ILikeBoobies,

More expensive and less profit

Like the other person pointed out with GaaS you don’t even need to finish the game before you start making money

However BG3 had a big already established IP and successful Divinity games beforehand

I will give you some advice that I was given “you need a hit before you can have a hit”

LovableSidekick, do games w Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

Sad but I can see their point, considering that most customer attention spans are limited to memes now.

ByteOnBikes,

You’re not wrong at all.

Baldurs Gate 3 was a surprise success. But then again, it took them many years and many Divinity games.

Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk also are narrative darlings. But CD Projekt took a lot of chances over the years to get here.

A bunch of my favorite heavy-story games are sitting at under 2000 steam reviews. While Meme game for Twitch Streamer hits 10k-100k reviews.

I’m currently playing Shadows of Loathing right now, and I can’t believe it took me this long. Next up is Beyond Shadowgate.

LovableSidekick,

Boy those are some memories! My comment was actually just a cheeky response to “you do you” - which always triggers me for some reason. I can understand the douchevotes it’s getting lol.

Phil_in_here,

I’m in there. I see “story rich” and it reads as a crutch for no gameplay, or a premise for a book without the responsibility of pacing.

I know that’s far from true, and there are loads of great story-rich games that are fun and engaging. But when that’s the main tag, it turns me away.

ChocoboRocket, do games w Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

Narrative driven, story rich games don’t sell?

How many video game franchises are making the leap to tv/movies these days? Hint, it’s the ones with narrative driven, story rich games.

Go ahead and make pay to win mobile games, I don’t play them and they rake in millions so it makes perfect business sense.

But the idea that gamers don’t pay for good narrative driven, story rich games is laughable.

I think the biggest problem with a lot of game franchises have is they only sell the game. So much money is being left on the table with the best efforts being a screengrab lazily printed on a cheap shirt that sells maybe one or two.

If I could get some official, quality, Umbrella/Shinra/Arasaka/Faro corporation mugs, phone covers, meme tier shirts etc I’d be all over it.

queermunist,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

They don’t sell enough. These companies want endless growth and endless sales so they can milk the whales for endless revenue. Narrative rich, story driven games don’t sell as much as pay to win or gacha trash.

ExcursionInversion,
@ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world avatar

Exactly

Evotech,

They also take a lot longer to develop

idyllic_optimism,

I think the title of the article is misleading a bit. According to the article, the game has been in development since 2018 and they’ve been having issues they cannot seem to be able to fix to their satisfaction and it sounds like it’s more viable for the studio to abandon the project than try to fix it by throwing more money and time at it. And it’s a console game, so that limits their market, too.To me, reading the article, “narrative driven games don’t sell anymore” is not the main problem.

HerrVorragend, do games w Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell
@HerrVorragend@lemmy.world avatar

Just put some digital boobs in the game. It WILL sell

wesker, do gaming w The Long Dark 2 announced with co-op multiplayer, new urban areas and sanity system
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Color me excited.

DieserTypMatthias, do gaming w Ubisoft shut down multiplayer shooter XDefiant and lay off hundreds who worked on it
@DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml avatar

Don’t they have Rainbow 6 Siege?

BmeBenji,

It’s not F2P, and furthermore it’s not a CoD clone. But you make a good point. They should’ve retasked those employees instead of just sacking them on the spot. Fucking corpo assholes.

Varyag, do gaming w Ubisoft shut down multiplayer shooter XDefiant and lay off hundreds who worked on it

Wait, wasn’t this one actually kinda decent at being a CoD clone? Lmao. Ubisoft can’t get anything done right.

Chozo,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

They tried too hard to be a CoD/Siege clone without offering anything new. I'm surprised it ever launched in the first place.

It really feels like somebody at Ubisoft is intentionally trying to tank the whole company or something lately. They used to be such a competent studio, so much so that it's hard to believe that these major failures as of late are an accident.

nek0d3r, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine
@nek0d3r@lemmy.world avatar

I still fondly remember how Spellbreak just dropped the tools to run dedicated servers when they shut down. I don’t think forcing companies to run servers forever is tenable, and slapping an expiration date on the games is less helpful than it seems. Would be nice to enforce distributing those tools on shutdown, but that seems like a difficult fight considering what right to repair looks like.

Kaiserschmarrn, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine
@Kaiserschmarrn@feddit.org avatar
toynbee,

First off, I support both this campaign and linking to it. More awareness is always good.

However, as Ross himself posted, the problem with this comparison is that the “Stop Killing Games” campaign is aiming to end the tradition of simply turning off game servers. This Californian lawsuit, though not a bad thing, is very likely to simply change the labeling of games, which doesn’t help the end goal of Stop Killing Games.

I want both to succeed and am not attempting to attack your post, just provide clarity.

For more context: youtu.be/sitLQg02Mn4

DreamlandLividity,

IMO if every such game came with a large “Playable until [Date]” sticker, a lot more people would care about preserving them. And just the market pressure may save a lot of games.

toynbee,

That seems like an optimistic but reasonable take.

OCATMBBL,

I’d also probably care a lot less about buying them.

RightHandOfIkaros, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine

I hope Ubisoft loses.

AnarchistArtificer,

I always hope that Ubisoft loses.

MonkderVierte, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine

The oldie judges need some analogies they can relate to, nothing wrong with that.

penquin, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine

At least let people run their own servers. What fucking scum bags, man.

chryan,

But how else will they sell you the same ‘remastered’ game 10 years from now?

Think of the corporations!

scops,

Now I’m picturing a video game version of the Disney Vault. “Play now through the end of the year for just $129.99* before GTA 9 goes back in the Vault for another decade! *Not including Microtransactions, Online Pass, BattlePass, Totally-Not-A-Lootboxes, or Megalodon Cards”

EldritchFeminity,

If they could, they would. But a lot of the time, they don’t even bother to keep the source code of the games that they make. It’s estimated that more than 50% of all games are lost to history because the companies that made them never kept the source code or a copy.

I remember there being a little scandal a few years ago when a remaster of a game came out and it still had the cracker’s logo in it from the pirated copy they used for the source code.

dragonfucker,

Piracy is preservation.

brian,

I mean they essentially already released it with The Crew 2. How else would they sell copies to the people who played the first?

superkret, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine

The analogy makes no sense.
Your pinball machine keeps working until it breaks, relying only on electricity you provide.
A server-based computer game relies on running it on a server you aren’t paying the upkeep on.

If you buy a game that relies on servers that don’t belong to you, you should expect this to be a temporary lease, not something you can expect to use forever.
Of course, the language in the store’s UI needs to match that. You can’t “buy” a server-reliant game.

Veritrax,

The analogy makes perfect sense if it manages to effectively communicate the issue to a judge or jury in a way they understand.

kryptonidas,

With games people used to setup their own servers. (And we liked it that way. Way more sense of a community.) So that could be an option. Allow people to run their own servers again.

FooBarrington,

What you say makes sense for a multiplayer-only game! But the game has a full single player campaign. There is no technical reason to remove access to that part. That part can be kept working without incurring recurring costs.

positiveWHAT, do gaming w Ubisoft is being sued over The Crew in a lawsuit that compares the server shutdown to a bumperless pinball machine

I feel like Ubisoft is like a European EA. But somehow worse.

Brunbrun6766,
@Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_moderator

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  • Chef6652,

    Wow, why the hate sir?

    subignition,
    @subignition@fedia.io avatar

    The French are renowned for their cuisine, but Ubisoft doesn't know how to cook.

    Chef6652,

    I agree about Ubisoft. But them being French has nothing to do about why they are a terrible company (nowadays). I juste wanted to point that.

    Brunbrun6766,
    @Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world avatar

    Have you smelled a Frenchman?

    fartsparkles,

    deleted_by_author

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  • Brunbrun6766,
    @Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world avatar

    leave it to the French to not know a joke when they see one

    mudstickmcgee,

    Comedy. English “hate” on the French much like the scandinavians “hate” on each other

    Anivia,

    Not just the english

    Don_alForno,

    “Why is EA the most hated American game company? Because Ubisoft is based in France.”

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