Here’s the thing though, these games are highly reviewed and played but it may still in fact be more profitable to keep pumping out mid tier trash. For companies that have long forgotten the time when they had a soul and were a group of passionate gamers, that’s all that matters.
Im starting to believe the big triple A game industry is starting to collapse, not the gaming industry it self, but the big companies that make generic after generic blockbuster kind of games. They keep getting more and more desperate and predatory in order to appeal to the share holders and maximize profits because their type of games have become so expensive to produce.
Remember when games didnt have to put the same amount (or even more) of the development cost into marketing? Good games sells themselves, every gamer knows it, but the monkeys with suits who run the companies nowdays cant compute that. Instead they keep coming with more and more shitty ways to steal our money. They will try anything instead of listening to their developers ( who are the actual gamers that know what works and what dosnt).
And so here we are. Just in this year I have seen a single player game put a mechanic like the NG+ mode only availible for the deluxe edition (yakuza), an extra save game file or fast travels as microtransactions (dragon dogmas 2), extra missions and a 3 days early launch acces for single player game only allowed in the 110$ edition (star wars outlaws), and a company literally changing their former terms and conditions in order to sell a 250$ p2w pack and killing it self and the work of the last 5 years? in less than 24h (tarkov)
Im starting to believe the big triple A game industry is starting to collapse, not the gaming industry it self, but the big companies that make generic after generic blockbuster kind of games.
I’m not that hopeful, casual gamers keep buying the same low effort games like Fifa, NBA, Pokemon every year even though they got enshitified 10 years ago. The opinion of game-educated and demanding people that represent a minority of their market will not change those game companies. It’s like asking fat food chains to get into Michelin ranking, they don’t care. All we can do is allow good quality independent game makers to exist by giving our money to them instead of the fast food games companies.
When i was a kid we made fun of hipsters, but as I’ve matured and examined the world with a critical eye, I’ve realized that hipsters are entirely correct. Popularity is a bad thing for the health of anything you’re into. It’s a very rare creator that can become as big as Tolkien or Larian and not go to the dogs.
Exactly. Ubisoft is the perfect example of this. Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, R6. They used to take risks and try to push gaming forward with amazing ideas and design that made my kid brain explode.
Now those IPs are dead or extremely stale. And it’s because releasing an AC with microtransactions makes them more money than making an offline single player Splinter Cell. Or releasing a skin for 20 euros for R6 siege makes them a huge profit for the time invested in creating it.
God I wish we’d get a new single player Splinter Cell. Some of my best memories I have as a kid are playing the original Splinter Cell. Even if we do, it’ll be riddled with microtransactions and will fail to capture the magic of the original games.
Yup. The go-to example is that Blizzard made more money off of a single $5 mount in World of Warcraft, than it made on the release of Diablo 3. An entire fucking game launch made less money than a $5 microtransaction. Why would a publishing company bother with creating solid self-contained games, when a single micro transaction can make more money for far less dev time?
Players need to stop purchasing shitty games and shitty microtransactions, because it only encourages devs to keep making them.
It’s strange though, because Ubisoft on paper should be something I hate, but when I actually play one (and I’m a single player gamer), they’ve got fun gameplay, and the store, although it is there, generally keeps out the way and when I accidentally press the button in the menu that goes into it, there’s nothing I’d ever consider handing over actual money for. The game never points you at it, or makes you feel it’s needed.
I don’t even know who it’s for. Who buys cosmetics in a single player game? It genuinely feels like it’s just been put in to appease the beancounters.
That said I don’t get excited enough to buy them at full price, and normally wait until they’re on PSPlus or something. There’s nothing in most of these AAA games to truly love. They’re a sea of merely “alright”, and they’re all way too long.
There’s nothing in most of these AAA games to truly love. They’re a sea of merely “alright”, and they’re all way too long.
Captures Ubisoft’s philosophy on one sentence. But it’s what makes them money, so they’ll keep doing it.
There’s nothing in most of these AAA games to truly love. They’re a sea of merely “alright”, and they’re all way too long.
But why bother with alright when there’s thousands of highly regarded indie games out there for a quarter of the price?
The largest issue with indie games is simply discoverability. I’m sure there are tons of amazing indie games out there. But you need to wade through a sea of complete fucking garbage to get to them. Meanwhile, AAA studios can spend thousands of dollars on marketing. Unless an indie game goes viral, there’s very little chance that I’ll ever hear about it in order to consider buying it.
Meanwhile, AAA studios can spend thousands of dollars on marketing.
I don’t really get the notion of listening to some marketing department lying through their teeth. It’s not like AAA games ever deliver on their marketing promises.
Unless an indie game goes viral, there’s very little chance that I’ll ever hear about it in order to consider buying it.
You don’t have to go dumpster diving in order to find awesome games, somebody already did. A good starting point is the top rated games list for Steam: https://steamdb.info/stats/gameratings/
90% of them are indies and there is something for everyone on those 3 pages.
That’s honestly what astounds me sometimes, but I guess it makes sense. There’s heart, soul, and passion in an indie game made by a small team.
AAA games fall victim to the “designed by committee” sameness and just-good-enough gameplay.
Probably same reason people go to McDonald’s.
This is modern and late stage capitalism in general
At some point it’s really up to the consumers to stop buying shit games
This is it. The reviews only matter to the extent they affect sales. Many shit-scored titles make billions for the suits (eg. FIFA, COD), and do so year after year without significant risks involved
Crazy, if you make good games, people will buy them and pay for them.
And don’t over price it, I can buy a copy for myself and a friend for less than a shitty “AAA”/“AAAA” Title
Principal Skinner = no. The children yearn for the microtransactions
Helldivers’ business model is primarily microtransactions. The microtransactions affect gameplay, so it’s in the direction of “pay to win”. It’s not the paragon of non-predatory monetization that people make it out to be.
(Baldurs Gate 3 and Palworld both are good examples of a healthy pay once and actually own a copy games)
Also none of these games released without serious bugs.
Obviously you haven’t played Helldivers if you think it’s pay to win.
It’s not “pay to win” exactly, but it’s only a matter of time until an important “meta” weapon is locked behind a warbond.
For which you can get the premium currency by simply playing the game. I got enough for 4 of them, though I didn’t get one. You can farm it in level 2 missions, getting 40 - 70 each mission if you are short. You can do that with a squad of 4 friends to have the mission time be sub 10 minutes. It isn’t necessary to 1. get every warbond 2. pay real money for the currency. The grind isn’t massive and is skippable by simply playing the game normally.
Yeah that’s typically how microtransaction driven games work.
See also:
- League of Legends
- Genshin Impact and other “gacha” games
- Fortnite
- digital TCGs
(Also all of those are free to play, so minus points to helldivers for double dipping)
There’s a much better game in that regard:
Factorio
Been on my wishlist for quite some time. Don’t really know much about it. Is it really that good?
It is the best, and the benchmark, for the survivalcraft factory RTS genre. They optimised the game to an absolutely ridiculous degree, that it will even run smooth on a Nintendo Switch.
Naw, the companies will miss the point and demand studios go as cheap and dirty as they want for Helldivers 3 and Baldur’s Gate 4
I suspect that may be part of the reason Larian isn’t making a Baldur’s Gate 4. At the very least, they probably realize that lightning is very unlikely to strike twice, so why tempt fate? Get out of the series while everyone still loves you. They probably also recognize that they would face a Knights of the Old Republic 2 situation where the IP owner will want more profit faster, and so they will set deadlines which don’t fit with Larian’s design model. At best, BG4 would be a rushed mess, with Larian struggling for years afterwards trying to deliver the game they wanted to deliver and burning down all of the goodwill they have built up with gamers. It’s just not worth it. If they walk away and stand up their own IP, they get complete control and can take the time to deliver what they want to deliver. Sure, they don’t have the built in fanbase that a D&D title would have; but, I suspect they are going to have a lot of that fanbase follow them anyway.
Sadly, Hasbro absolutely will be willing to burn down any and all goodwill BG3 has built up. I expect we’ll see some smaller developer handed BG4, put under unrealisting timelines and the result will be a disaster. It will not be the fault of the development team. I suspect any dev team is going to be salivating at the prospect of making a D&D title. It’s a dream project and they will bend over backwards to get it. They just won’t realize, or hope they can avoid, Hasbro breaking their back in the quest for short term profit.
If Larian released mod tools, hasbro will watch the community build an open source of the paid model they were trying to force on everyone
From the last patch notes:
This next patch will also begin introducing our official modding tools, letting you change up visuals, animations, sounds, stats, and more to overhaul Baldur’s Gate 3 into the weird nightmare realm of your dreams.
So, maybe.
Your comment just says that you don’t know anything about Larian, so don’t slander them for no reason at all
larian isn’t making bg4, and hasbro are
absolutely
going to fuck it up trying to milk it
- Corporations aren’t your friends, stop stanning
- Larian doesn’t own Baldur’s Gate and wouldn’t be the ones making decisions for BG4, that would be Wizards Of The Coast
Larian is not making Baldur’s Gate 4. Stand down soldier.
But they probably think that
How bad is your reading comprehension? Reread just the first sentence.
Okay yes, but helldivers is still filled to the brim with bugs. Not quite an equal comparison
Edit: wild that fanboys will down vote you for simply stating a fact
Your comment’s score has convinced me that the above post is just paid shillery to promote helldivers.
