There is, because we expect more fidelity now than we did in 2011, and Skyrim was built on some existing bones. When you’re trying to make a game like that in Unreal that you haven’t done in that engine before, it’s going to be smaller (if you’re smart). Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t get to be that big without building on Original Sin 2, and the same can be said for Elden Ring; perhaps without a pandemic in the middle, those games might have even been made in more reasonable time frames than 5 or 6 years.
Comparing scope of Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind, there is very little difference. Really the only difference is an added feature here or there per iteration, and graphics. There is no reason a studio today couldn’t make something like Morrowind, as it was developed by like, 50 people. Unless the employees and management colossally screw up. No, modern game failures are not ONLY the fault of management.
Right, there is little difference between them because they had the prior game in the series to build off of, but don’t just gloss over “and graphics”. The fidelity that we expect today is why you can’t just make the next Morrowind with 50 people, because people expect it to be better than Morrowind now that we’re 20 years removed from it. A smaller team than that made Dread Delusion; a larger one made Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. From those, if they’re fortunate enough to have financial success, they can build on it just like Bethesda built on Morrowind’s bones. What Obsidian made with a similar team was The Outer Worlds, which kept the fidelity up but the scope small, and I think it was the right decision, because otherwise, you end up taking 7 years per game like Kingdom Come. Those are great games, but it took 15 years to get two of them, and the first one was rough.
Marketing cycles are short now. This will be the show aligned with Tokyo Games Show to show off games releasing in the last part of the year and maybe teasing a few high-profile games for next year.
I love Strive and tag fighters, so this should be way up my alley, but I’m concerned about a couple of things. First and foremost, it’s Sony published, which doesn’t give me a lot of confidence that the online is going to work on Proton when it has to go through PSN. Second, there was a moment in the gameplay trailer that showed air teching, and that usually means hitstun decay, which is a mechanic I’m not a fan of. But at least if this one doesn’t work out for me, Invincible Vs will also be showing at Evo.
I don’t like hitstun decay for a few reasons. For one, it’s not easily observable. If you’ve got a combo limit meter (like Skullgirls, Killer Instinct, and the upcoming Invincible Vs), you can see how much the move you just used has gotten you closer to the limits of the combo. It’s not intuitive for a player to track how close they are to the combo dropping with hitstun decay. So because of this, you’re basically just memorizing combos. If you land a hit with a move, or in a situation, that you haven’t practiced, you have no idea how to guarantee that you can finish the combo, which means that if you’re improvising, you’re just quickly routing your combo into a knockdown. As a player, I hate memorization, and as a spectator, I hate watching a game that has just a few bread and butter combos and quick routes to knockdowns when they don’t know what to do. I do like one game with hitstun decay, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R, which at least allows you to do “tech traps”, where I’m expecting my opponent to air tech, and if they do, I get a new combo for free, so there’s a mind game there that most games with hitstun decay, in my experience, don’t have.
Hitstun decay is, by and large, the most prevalent form of infinite combo prevention in games with big combos, but it’s the one I dislike most. Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken all use juggle decay, or gravity decay, where the opponent just falls harder and harder until eventually they hit the floor, and you can’t combo them anymore. This is, of course, much easier for everyone to observe. My favorite method though is just using a meter to limit combos, because it allows for something much closer to freeform jazz. Every combo in Killer Instinct is different, because if you use the same combo every time, the opponent can break it. In Skullgirls, you’re usually unable to do enough damage in a single combo with its limits, so instead you’re looking to tactically drop your combo and sneak in a new one, which is called a reset.
The word was they cancelled their marketing, which doesn’t mean a delay is definite. When Concord wasn’t going well, they just put it out and hoped for the best despite a beta with terrible metrics, and…that’s an option again, where they’re not throwing good money after bad.
This is a date you pick when you want to be nominated for the Game Awards, and also when you’re confident that Grand Theft Auto won’t interfere with your sales.
Uh, newsflash, the Euro appreciated vs RMB and USD to the tune of 10%. GTFO with this “trying times” nonsense. You’re increasing the price because there’s a massive hole in your accounts thanks to Jim Ryan’s regarded chase of live service games. How much did he get as severance and how many consoles do you need to sell for those 50€ to cover that golden parachute?
The PS4 Slim was released 3 years after the original model and sold for $100/100,-€ less than the original.
The PS3 Slim released ~3 years after the original model and was significantly cheaper (to be fair, it also had a lot of features removed).
The PS5 saw a Slim model release with no price cut at all, and now they’re planning to actually increase the price of over 4 year old tech that is almost certainly a lot cheaper to produce than 4 years ago, especially the Slim model that saw a reduction in cooler size, lower-powered PSU and other cost-reduction measures.
Gaming is becoming less and less accessible and more and more of a luxury.
Gaming is becoming less and less accessible and more and more of a luxury.
Lots of people do their gaming on their phone or PC. And on the subject of phones, look at the top-spec models: they cost thousands, because some people have the disposable income to burn. There are still plenty of affordable options available if you don’t fixate on having the latest best everything.
Gaming is becoming less and less accessible and more and more of a luxury.
The writing has been on the wall for a while that I’m going to have to move away from consoles and game mainly on PC, where there are other options for obtaining games. Walled gardens all having Apple pricing is unacceptable to me.
It’s not like the PC market is in great shape either, though. I mean I’m sure it’s fine if you’re mostly playing indie games that are not too visually demanding and taxing on the hardware, but it is insanely expensive to buy a good computer these days that can play newer games in good quality. Even with the price increases, a GPU alone will run you the cost of a PS5 or more, maybe even double.
Or maybe that’s just it, maybe there won’t be a noticeable gen bump for a long time, since no one can afford it. Time to start focusing on how to make hardware cheaper instead of better.
If you don’t care about bleeding edge 8k visuals at 240fps, the pricing becomes more reasonable. I’m fine with 1080p 60fps, which allows for a cheaper GPU to run games decently. And you can’t deny that as far as game pricing is concerned, PC is far more consumer-friendly than console, even if you don’t take piracy into account.
For me they’re still on par in terms of game pricing because PC still doesn’t have the advantage of physical media that you can buy used or borrow for free. But the console makers seem to be doing everything in their power to kill that advantage, with Nintendo’s “game key card” being the latest move in the all-digital direction.
Not to mention it being a moot point with Nintendo anyways since they’ve figured out the magic formula of keeping their games in a permanent state of high demand and short supply, effectively ensuring they never come down in price.
blog.playstation.com
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