That was my take too. “We’re spread too thin”… Then why the fuck did you buy up all these companies? Sure sounds like they just gobbled up all the good IP to hoard like a dragon on its pile of gold. Or to make sure those IPs don’t make it to Sony exclusives, wish the FTC would hang them by the balls since they’ve basically done opposite of what they promised during the mergers.
I think they came to the wrong conclusion. Yes those games were cheaper, but really they were just good, and mostly finished at launch. Didn’t feel like we were nickle and dimed for more DLC or season passes or mtxs, we got whole games that were fun.
All the big “AAA blockbuster” games anymore are reskinned, half finished versions of the last version, and the only thing they’ve put a ton of time into is analyzing how to get addicts hooked and spending the maximum amount on micro transactions.
Don’t forget taking forever for an initial patch release, despite there being multiple game breaking bugs.
The state the game was at release was absolutely awful.
The only folks who kept playing that I know were folks grinding for the final levels/achievements/weapons. Which consisted of playing in unenjoyable ways like using bad load outs, doing stupid crap like tagging a billion guards, etc. Who wants to pay money for an unenjoyable grind?
They released a decent patch, some new content and DLC but everyone has already moved on. They totally screwed themselves, sucks it’s an IP that I like, but more games need to fail like this so publishers stop doing the same bullshit