It‘s empty because you ignore a shit ton of studios including Embark themselves. Mass layoffs are an industry wide problem with no direct correlation to live service. There is a correlation between live service and AAA studios as well as AAA studios and layoffs though. That doesn‘t apply to Embark. So feel free to eat a shoe when they didn‘t fire 100 people by the end of the year.
I mean Fortnite‘s release window couldn‘t have been worse and it defined the entire genre going forward. In the end people will stick with what‘s best and it could be any of those three and more. I think there is something poetic about Embark going head to head with Battlefield 6 as if to prove themselves. Arc Raiders has good momentum. Now it needs to land properly and we‘ll see from there.
Not a big surprise. The genre is a niche, the hype has been building for years, and Arc Raiders looks like it scratches that itch many players want right now. Especially disillusioned Tarkov and Hunt Showdown players have high hopes for it. Anyone who‘s into multiplayer FPS knows The Finals is the freshest game in it‘s genre in over a decade so the devs have already proven they can make things at least interesting and fresh.
But again, the genre is a total niche with not much competition as of now. I think that‘s mostly why.
I doubt they have a huge marketing budget. Perhaps they‘re using it in a clever way but I doubt Nexon bets everything on 0 here when The Finals only did ok. Extraction shooters is a niche that‘s starving for content. Somehow it gained a reputation for being everywhere when in reality there don‘t even exist 5 of them with a decent player size. The shooter genre is huge and people want something that isn‘t just a battle royale for once.
God forbid people enjoying their little coop adventures. I will never understand this community’s hate boner for everything online. Just stick to your single player stuff and be happy. Why dig trenches for something that doesn‘t affect you?
Good. I have no empathy for huge corporate bullies. In fact if the leaks are true, they deserve it even more for their audacity. I mean a survival monster catcher game? Seriously?
Saw the 120€ price tag of the special edition+ and was so disgusted I lost all interest in it immediately. I mean even the base game price seems too steep but that‘s just a huge red flag for me. Definitely a contender of „might pick it up for a tenner on a sale in a few years.“
Larian also had to sell 30% of their company to Tencent to raise more money during development after they already raised money on Kickstarter. If it was a case of WotC just giving money they probably wouldn‘t have had to do that. Good games take time but also a lot of money. Let‘s hope they‘re not selling more of their company any time soon because they could end up being the one being pointed at.
To be fair it‘s as absurd as it was inevitable. Gamepass was always meant as this temporary thing you can try out to play some new games until everyone jumps ship because of increased prices. It has been preached for years. No one could‘ve seriously thought this was a long term alternative to buying games or at least buying licenses to games on Steam. All online subscriptions are scams in the process.