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

Obviously this is just me, but here is a list of the last 5 games I purchased that were not smaller indie titles:

Stalker 2, Elden ring, remnant 2, bg3, dragon’s dogma 2

You could argue that remnant is intended for multiplayer and you could argue that maybe only bg3 and stalker and really narrative driven but the truth is, anymore I tend to buy single player and stream to my friends than I do actually play mp games. The only mp game i was tempted by was Helldivers and I was just too busy at the time.

Anything else are steam deck friendly indie games. I buy a lot of those, and bought a lot even before I had a deck.

In my anecdotal experience, when I see x game is multiplayer, or live service, or just not an experience I can enjoy on my own time I tune it out. For example, I always bought Diablo games but I don’t own 4.

I also immediately think of some other big ones that I opted out of, like Wukong. People fucking love single player games when they are good games. I think the real issue is developing a good game is hard. Developing a game with dark practices and otherwise addicting (but not necessarily fun) gameplay is a much easier way to make uninspired games made by committee.

It’s just easier to point the blame at the market than actually admit that upon self reflection you realized it is best to avoid the hard part of game development.

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

Ah, so managerial problems again who would have thought but that’s OK we that make the things can suffer a little more

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

Ok guys valid points from everyone here. But who here has bought the latest 11bit Studios games? And I’m not talking about Frostpunk 2. I’m taking about Indika, The alters (not out yet, my bad) , The Traumathurge, Creatures of Ava ,… all of these games seemed like really cool things to me, sadly I could not afford them.

CaptPretentious,

The Alters isn’t out yet. Expected release Q1 2025. It’s on my wish list because I love the demo.

Indika they were just the publisher. On top of which, maybe has a story that not everyone is interested in. I watched these guys play it, youtu.be/MuiHtAYOqgI and while it’s creative and it’s overall a fantastic game, is not one I’m going to play myself.

The Thaumaturge, again they are just the publisher. I hadn’t even heard of this one which means as the publisher they did a terrible job marketing it.

MarcomachtKuchen,

Thank you for the correction. The alters is indeed not out yet.

In my opinion for the other I doesn’t matter whether they are just publishing or actually developing. The games are not bar but apparently don’t sell well. Maybe their not the greatest at marketing but I enjoy the vibes they are going for

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

Thats the studio head talking bullahit.
Not the actual creators

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

NGL the title always seemed like it wanted to be a mobile game so the studio saying this doesn’t surprise me.

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

I’m going to guess they mean narrative-driven “games” like Hellblade or Indika, which were all narrative and almost no game.

pyre,

even so they both were extremely well received

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

Not agreeing, but if I look at my own purchases for the last few years, there aren’t many story driven games there. God of War and Starfield. Didn’t play much either one.

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

Sony has been screaming the exact opposite of this and it continues to garner them a fuck ton of cash. You don’t even need Sony money to do it, as per Baldurs gate that many are also referencing here in the comments.

There’s no way they actually believe that, the C-suite simply can’t stop salivating over the potential money a live service game can potentially provide

Bosht,

This is exactly it. They don’t like their profit margin.

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

If Frostpunk is their idea of a “narrative-driven, story-rich game”, I can see why they have concerns.

_cryptagion,

That’s not how anyone describes that game, and if they did, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been canceled. Frostpunk did pretty well.

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

To be fair, BG3 is like bottled lightning, and I think it’s unreasonable to expect many (if any) other studios to produce something like that.

Even the Divinity games were way above par, with a much more lukewarm (but not unsuccessful, I guess?) reception.

Lesrid,

Shit I loved Divinity Original Sin and the sequel, but even I don’t think Larian could match or exceed BG3

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

Bad ones, sure. Wait, no, even bad ones sell. They’re just wrong.

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.

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

Did these developers completely miss Baldurs Gate 3

warmaster,

We could spend all day and night listing successful SP games, I bet they canceled it because the game was just bad.

Katana314,

I think highlighting the success story is kind of missing both the great circumstances Larian built that game under, and the giant mountain of singleplayer games that are pretty good, but hit no success at all.

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

Honestly I can’t think of a recent game I enjoyed that wasn’t a narrative-driven story rich game.

TheFriar,

They’re the only games I enjoy. And I could’ve sworn I’ve seen people all over the internet lamenting the loss of story-driven single player games in this era of GTA online. These douchebags are either salivating looking at GTA online profitability and talking bullshit or they’re so goddamn deluded with their head so far up their own ass that they can’t tell their colon from their pancreas.

On the topic, anyway: my favorite games are RDR2, Cyberpunk, and Alan Wake 2. I wasn’t always a gamer, but the graphics have gotten so good and the stories so involved (in these here specifically) that I became one later in life. But now I’ve played all three of those games to death. Do you have any recs for similar games I might enjoy? I was just looking around the PS store and felt like I was swimming through nonsense. I really wanted to play Stalker 2, but it’s not out for PS5 yet. The next game I’m eyeing is a silent Hill 2 remake. Not a big fantasy person, either. I like stories with their feet in the real world. Don’t mean to single you out to give me advice, but figured I’d ask in case you had something you really liked.

MITM0,
@MITM0@lemmy.world avatar

Doom eternal comes to mind

Kazumara,

It had a bit of narrative (killing the corrupted son of the traitor out of mercy and to save the world, killing the corrupted angel like beings because they are a threat to humanity), but you’re right, what really drives you is the fun gameplay loop and the challenge of escalating difficulty.

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.

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