Games companies expanded like crazy due to low interest rates and high demand for games during the pandemic. Now interest rates are going up and people go outside again.
In this case, and for a lot of other studios, Embracer went on a buying spree some time ago, betting that a deal worth $2 billion with Saudis would go through. It didn’t, and now they are forcing cost cuts across all studios they own.
You've got some good answers already, but I can expand on it a little: businesses in most sectors are feeling the impact of increased interest rates - both because they can't borrow as much themselves any more, and because there is less money coming in from investors because they can't borrow as much either - but tech (including games) is doubly impacted because there was such a surge in demand during lockdowns. While other businesses tended to struggle during lockdowns, and have simply had that struggle replaced with a different struggle due to the interest rates, the tech sector grew massively during the pandemic.
People working at home, or furloughed, had more personal time and more disposable income because they weren't spending money on travelling to work, on overpriced lunches, on dining out with friends, going to concerts, etc. It all added up, and they spent that money on streaming subscriptions, video games and just generally on recreational, home-based activities, many of which revolve around tech these days. So the tech sector grew a lot because of the low interest rates, and it grew a lot because more people were buying its products/services. And now, rather than having more disposable income, a lot of people are facing a cost of living crisis, meaning not only have they reduced their spending because they're back in the office and dining out and going to concerts again (and all those other things people spend money on when they're not confined to their house), but many people have less money to spend on gaming, subscriptions, etc, than pre-pandemic.
Also, because the tech sector was doing so well during the pandemic, it was an attractive prospect for investors (who themselves had increased money, as well as great interest rates), meaning it grew even more. Everything kind of fed into each other and the tech sector grew exponentially as a result. Whereas right now, not only does the increased interest rate for borrowing mean investors are throwing their cash around less in general, but the fact that the tech sector is struggling makes it a less attractive prospect for investors, meaning the whole sector kind of doubly loses out on that front.
So these tech companies invested their money into growing their companies and expanding their businesses' scopes like good capitalists. Which does generally make sense - if you find yourself sat on a huge pile of money, it's generally better to find a way to invest it into something useful (or to invest it into something makes you an even bigger pile of money if you see the Monopoly Man as aspirational). The issue is, most of them were somewhat short-sighted (plus global economics is a tricky thing to predict); they spent money as if it was always going to be coming in at the same rate. And now that they're being impacted by increased interest rates on their own borrowing, the loss of investors, and the reduced spending power of consumers and they're very suddenly having to make massive cuts to stay afloat.
I think the other thing you need to highlight is that during that rapid growth phase 2 years ago it meant building up teams. In tech it really became an job market where employees had lot of the power in negotiation which drove up the cost of labor to fill this surplus of openings. I worked at a company where team members were being offered 10k to 25k annual retention bonuses to not quit (if you want quit within a certain time you pay it back, but if you quit hopefully your new employer spots you a signing bonus to cover it). But with all of the factors you mentioned in this cool down, you end up with a problem that you now have too much staff, but also too expensive staff that you can’t afford. Employees are definitely losing now with the layoffs, but for the ones that were able to make job moves and survive the layoffs, they’re probably are doing much better because of it (at least from a compensation POV, not sure about anxiety worrying about being laid off next).
That is all that has ever existed in the genre and is all anyone wants from it.
I don’t remember you appointing you as the sole representative for all gamers.
Personally, I think games can be written about beyond “game good” and “game bad”. Or maybe it comes down to whether you find gaming something important, or just a silly way to waste time.
“Ethics in games journalism” was a phrase invented to make gamergate’s sexist attacks on women in gaming sound legitimate and I cringe every time people use the term now. Nobody used the term “games journalism” before then.
No one used the specific sentence “ethics in gaming journalism,” is what you meant to say.
The concept of gaming journalism wasnt invented by kiwi farm and 4chan chuds. Because “gaming journalism” is literally that. Journalism. About the industry and artwork involved in video games.
You sound like you bought into their gamergate bullshit.
“Hurrrr, no one writes about games unless its an ad!!” Do you get how stupid this makes you sound? The woman targeted by gamergate is literally a games journalist.
This is pedantic, but journalism is a specific thing and it is not generally considered to be what we see in writing about games.
As an oversimplification: Opinion pieces and reviews aren’t journalism. Reporting on facts and information with research and sources is.
While there may have been a few pieces here and there that qualify, the industry around writing about games has never been heavy on facts and research, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s like any other entertainment section writing.
Inventing the phrase “games journalism” was done to try to legitimise a movement that was about sexism. We just didn’t use that term before and nobody was bothered by that, because it doesn’t really apply.
Its not what you see. Because you are only reading paid for review work. There is no we here. You are in a bubble.
Have you ever even seen anitas work? She was harassed, specifically, for starting a running series of deep analysis pieces about how women are portrayed, discussed, and interpreted within gaming culture from both its players and the games they play.
Just because you never bothered to read her work until someone on an xbox mic screeched about it doesnt magically make her work vanish.
I dont overly care that you only read the paper scraps that flitter past the rock you live under. But the rest of the world isnt your rock. Quit lying about something so easily and obviously disproven.
Anita Sarkeesian’s amazing work as an academic theorist is not journalism just because it involves words. Not all writing is journalism. This isn’t a value judgment of her incredible work that I am fully aware of and found very educational.
Maybe take a step back and realize you’re being incredibly rude to a random internet stranger who has a different opinion than you on what constitutes the term “journalism.”
If after you take that break you can come back without hurling insults at me, then we can have a conversation about it?
So thats a yes, you have literally never actually read her work. You could have at least come out and said so from the beginning. “Just words” what a spit in the face of her work.
Is there any point in discussing a topic with someone who apparently learned of its existence about 20 minutes ago? Go shit talk some other professional bud, youve made enough of an ass of yourself here.
Insane to see someone try and neg anita by pretending to be offended about gamergate
I don’t see how you got “negging anita” out of me complementing her incredible academic work. I was a huge fan of her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series, as well as the content she was writing at the time. I am sure she’s done other work that I’m not familiar with, too. I am not claiming to be an expert on her entire body of work, but I definitely have seen and read her academic-oriented work.
It’s not journalism, but one could argue it’s more important because it has a thesis and provides evidence through careful academic arguments and research.
None of what I’ve said has warranted how you’re treating me, so I have to ask, what’s going on? are you OK? Why does my definition of journalism threaten you this much?
Why are you still here? Did you not say I hurt your feelings too much to continue?
We already established you do not understand what you are talking about and that you have no interest in changing that. Did you want to insult a different journalist real quick? Do you need an audience for that?
Youre the guy who refuses to call non medical phD holders doctors, and then acts like the indignant victim when people rightly call you out for insulting people by refusing to use their earned title.
You dump tons of praise on a journalists work to deflect from the fact that you dont actually respect the work. Its not of a high enough standard for her to have earned her title to you.
Youre a dick here just like I am sure youre a dick to any doctorate in chemistry. And yet, you pretend so vehemently that your insults cant possibly be rude, so surely its everyone else who is wrong.
Its pathetic, bud. As is the disengenuous well wishing. That kinda cements my point
I think I'll still have to check out Bombrush Cyberfunk -- most other people seem to have liked it. And it's not like anything else is filling that niche right now.
Hadn't heard of Cyber Knights Flashpoint, that one looks fun.
Don’t let the two-sentence review in the article fool you. It’s basically exactly like JSRF (which was also a huge game in my childhood), and then some. The music has all the same vibes, the movesets and tricks are awesome, the vibrant colorful world reminds me of Tokyo-to to a T.
Do you and your childhood self a favor and check it out!
Now I’m itching to play JSRF again. Next time Bombshell Cyberfunk goes on sale I’ll pick it up. Seems like it’ll be a great game to play on a steam deck.
Yeah that’s the thing for me too, I’ll just buy it on sale in a few years, trying to not watch gameplays of games I’m interested in to not break it for me, made that mistake before with Horizon Zero Dawn, watched gameplays, read whole wiki of lore being sure it won’t be available in PC, few months later PC version was announced, bought it on a sale about year later, still had a lot of fun though
The gameplay is mediocre but the storytelling, soundtrack, and atmosphere are amazingly good. One of the few games I want to finish in quite some time.
In the realm of turn based combat it's pretty good. It has pretty easy to understand skills and mechanics that make it easy to pick up, but then you also get tons of modifiers (pictos and lumina) where the combinations can significantly alter how your character plays. And the timed triggers removes probably the worst aspect of turn based combat, the passivity. You can't just sit there and wait while your character does a thing and then the enemy does a thing. You have to time your attacks but more importantly you have to identify what attack your enemy will do so you'd know if you need to dodge, parry, jump or gradient counter and then also time them correctly. It's far more engaging than your average turn based combat.
The mediocre part of the gameplay are the side activities usually related to gestrals. I'm gonna vent now because my experience popped into my mind and it pissed me off again. Nothing infuriated me more than that stupid beach volley ball. Thank you for putting a fixed camera at an angle where it's really hard to see the middle gestral throw and also your position in relation to where the gestral is going to land. The amount of times I lost the hard volley ball because I couldn't see the middle gestral until it was too late really made me question how this even passed QA. And the reason I couldn't just focus on the middle gestrals was because I had to focus on making sure my attack would actually connect with the gestral. The marker on the ground is just purely decorative as I had multiple occasions where I would attack squarely on the marker only for the gestral to still land and take a point away. AND FOR THE LOVE OF SOPHIE DO NOT THROW OUT GESTRALS FASTER THAN I CAN ATTACK. I almost beat the hardest volley ball match, except I didn't beat it because I literally could not attack fast enough to send back the last gestral. I would just sit there, in perfect position, punching the attack button like a maniac and then watching how the gestral lands on the ground because the attack simply would not happen. Fuck beach volley. End of rant. Actually no, fuck beach volley again stupid fucking minigame. Now it's over.
Im pretty early into the game so my opinion might change but I simply cannot believe how important dodging and parrying is to the outcome of pretty much any battle. I cannot survive any battle without dodging or parrying pretty much every single attack. Id say I get one-shot by like 75% of enemies I face and can survive at most 3 hits from everything else. I literally never have used Gustaves overcharge at full charge because I haven’t had a fight last long enough to fill it up. I either parry and counter attack to win. Or can’t time it right and die instantly. There’s virtually no in between so far.
Again, this might change later and maybe the difficulty is the problem (I’m trying it on expert) but I’m genuinely surprised at how vital it is to dodge and parry so far. Every fight just comes down to whether or not I can dodge every attack. Still liking the game and all but dang, kinda rough gameplay.
It’s fairly one-note at first, but you will get options later that will allow you to soak some hits. Make sure you’re keeping your pictos updated.
That said, yeah, in a game with a fully developed dodge and parry system, you’re going to be expected to at least dodge almost everything when playing on high difficulty.
The main difference in difficulty between the modes is the parry window. If your problem is the parry window, switch to normal mode.
I find in normal mode the game is not very hard for main quests, but extremely punitive with the many optional bosses. So if you still want a challenge, they’re right there.
Lmao I love this take. Must be a skill issue. I don’t have a problem with the parry window or the difficulty parrying. It’s fine. The issue I have is that there is absolutely no strategy in the game so far besides, parry/dodge and counter attack. No skills matter at all, no proccing, no synergy, no need to even think about elemental weaknesses. Everything just comes down to whether or not you can parry/dodge.
Again, this may change as I’m only a few hours in but it is surprising (imo) in a game like this to see none of that matter really at all.
So true. I love the music and atmosphere. It is fantastic. The story looks great. But I do not enjoy the gameplay personally. I want to play it so much, but even 10h in, I’m still not truly enjoying it. Makes me sad, I want to love it so much.
I have seen a TON of ad postings for the Gamurs group which the article talks about. Every time I browse jobs, I see at least one of the websites they own having a vacancy. The job description is just abysmal, saying things like you’re expected to make ~30 articles a month with around $20 per article. Glad this is being called out.
I’d accept the job, and then write the WORST assballs articles about how Mario isn’t trying to save the princess. He’s hunting her down to get more mushrooms. She’s not being kidnapped. She’s spending quality time with her husband. She’s not a princess. She works at a white castle. Which back in the 80s, still had some of the old royal castle buildings in use.
And Luigi isn’t his frightened little brother who won’t go on adventures because he’s scared. He’s just some guy who cleans and flips houses.
And Princess isn’t surrounded by her toads loyal servicemen. Those are dildos. Yes, ALL of them.
And then when they reject my work, I’d be like “Oh…then you are NOT going to like my article of pacman taking drugs and being racist…”
I haven’t played wordle since they put the “streak tracker” behind a “paywall”, fuck you all that data is shit you’re keeping from me without my consent anyways, now you want me to pay you for the privilege?
I’m not a huge privacy guy, but when you ask me to pay for the data I provide you, you can get bent.
Is Deadlock going to lean any further into being a shooter, or should I just start filtering the term “Deadlock” for being an unfortunately-awesomely aesthetic’d MOBA? Cause keeping it a band, getting crashed out on by a League-toucher in my first match during playtests no less was enough to make me want formats where the League and DOTA-touchers would not be. Like, if mfs already crashing out on 106% toxicity before day zero even hits, I already know ion’t wanna be in these queues.
Without non-MOBA formats, all I see this as is superfluous in the face of DOTA, and just another Valve Thing™ in the way of TF2 ever getting back on its feet the same way Smite keeps getting in the way of Paladins.
I’ve long since blocked HexBear , but will occasionally click the “show me anyway” button just to validate that decision. I’m somehow still surprised by the advanced stage brainrot every time.
I already uninstalled it, brodie. I’m allowed to be disappointed that something with banger aesthetics is populated by gaming’s most toxic; and wish for the other parts of its formula to be leaned a little harder into.
Like, do you realize how the way you came thru with the “just leave if it ain’t for you” makes you sound like you’re running cover for hard-R spewing League-touchers?
Its a competitive game, it’s going to be free 2 play, so it’s naturally going to attract all kinds of people, including the heated, toxic, and as you put it hard-R league players. It comes with the territory of playing a competitive PvP only game. Report them, laugh at their smooth brains, mute them, and move on.
I’ve been playing quite a bit since May, and I’ve encountered way more friendly people in voice comms than not. Most matches are silent with people only using the ping system/wheel the game has baked in. About 1/2 of my losses are hit with a “gg ez” in text chat though. I respond along the lines of congrats bro, you’re better than me at a closed beta testing game with an NDA. 😂
Running cover for them though…Cmon now…thats a huge stretch…
I’ve had far less obnoxious people in deadlock compared to Dota. There was some smart decisions to have fewer defined “roles” and less emphasis on having one or a few players pop off with all the resources.
The game itself is so solid, has good balance, the movement and abilities are fun… It’s good. Some people are going to get annoying and sweaty in a comparative snowbally team game. I like to thank them for making my games a win-win. Either I get to win the game, or my obnoxious teammate gets to lose.
I too hate the average g*mer but I’m not going to let them steal my enjoyment.
Honestly I’d sooner starve than go back to service. Consumer crackers are not housebroken; I’m not going back to almost-literally slaving for COVID-spewing petri dishes at any fast food hellhole in my city; layoffs or no I’m staying my ass in tech as long as I can.
I wish more games had playable demos. Even after the game comes out, just rip part of it out and let me play it. It’s one thing to watch a gameplay video, it’s another thing entirely to try it out for yourself.
I get that in this case, the demo showed too much (giving the impression there would be more growth), and that was a disappointing experience, but I’d argue that’s an issue with the demo/game combo itself - it’s for a game that only takes a couple hours total, so it’s very limited in what it can do with a demo. It would be like a demo of stray (2 hours to get through the story) or tinykin (under 10 hours for 100%) both also very short games with very limited abilities. You can do a short teaser, but then people would complain it’s too short and whatever… it’s a no-win there, I think, because the author even says there’s a good story missed in the demo.
But if you have a demo of, for example, dysmantle, it doesn’t matter that the gameplay is exactly the same for 100 hours, and the only thing that changes is -what- you can smash… there’s some progression involved, but not much… it’s basically just smashing and exploring, and that’s all the demo would be. And that’s ok too, because holy SHIT is that repetition fun!
It’s almost like they shouldn’t have bought a bunch of gaming studios. They could have at least had the decency to sell them again or made an agreement for independency. The irony of an American company opting against the latter isn’t lost on me.
People play games for escapism, not to be reminded of politics. Not every story needs deep political roots, people just want to have fun and forget about real world bullshit.
It’s not a very popular opinion it seems but I agree, I rather like a bit of mindless escapism sometimes, not everything has to teach me a lesson, sometimes things can be just fun. Not that we can’t have both, of course.
And that also doesn’t mean you can discredit the message of a game just because you don’t like it or want to engage in it. But so many people play a game with a strong political message, and then complain constantly how it’s ruined by it. Okay so don’t play it play something else.
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