Community MetaSteam | February 2024 - Let's bring democracy into the zone with love
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Do I read that correctly as Sony saying there will be no major release from them until March 2025 ?
Here is the current problem. Some AAA games are getting to the point where their budgets are like a movies (and marketing to boot as well).
The problem is that if I want to watch a movie I don’t need a Sony Blu-Ray player to watch a Sony movie. Hell I don’t even need that sort of hardware to watch their movies. I can just stream them. So they can make their money back across a wider spread of people.
The fact is there is very little difference between the base of the hardware (outside of the super duper magical ram/SSD in Sony hardware, I suppose) just seems mad that we don’t have a unified format like the DVD/Blu-Ray standards.
But these companies that run at the cutting edge of technology can be so old fashioned at times.
The problem is that if I want to watch a movie I don’t need a Sony Blu-Ray player to watch a Sony movie. Hell I don’t even need that sort of hardware to watch their movies. I can just stream them. So they can make their money back across a wider spread of people.
The fact is there is very little difference between the base of the hardware (outside of the super duper magical ram/SSD in Sony hardware, I suppose) just seems mad that we don’t have a unified format like the DVD/Blu-Ray standards.
But these companies that run at the cutting edge of technology can be so old fashioned at times.
And you don’t need to pay 80-120$ to watch that movie.
I think it's a save anywhere system, and only the PS1 release had save points at certain places?
- You can save anywhere. Feature is in PC and consoles of remaster version.
- There is a harder mode that includes the option to turn off save anywhere and turn on location specific saves (called save crystals).
I always believed that consoles had to go this way, it would be the only way to have a physical game collection, but with the gaming companies not even wanting physical anymore it might be less of an issue. Either way we will just have one player on the market or we will have different service providers.
I don’t remember that much. It may even be a case of save system changing for some games and not others ?
I clearly remember some journo cursing the save point system, but as to which game…
As far as I remember, the PlayStation versions of the old TR games indeed used the save crystal system, where you could only save on certain points, but the PC versions had a "save anywhere, how often you want" system; and this remaster also has the latter.
The modern controls are a bit off, btw. You need to get Laras guns out to sidestep, sidejump, backstep... its not great, I hope they finetune those still.
This is so tragic.
If they want to release games of the caliber of the previous decade and not be seen as releasing inferior products, they would need to close a few studios. 3 Game Studios with a 500 million budget to claim "superiority" is better to manage risk and expectations than 6-8 Game Studios.
This already happened previously when we transitioned from PS2 to PS3 generation.
OR! Make the game development process more efficient, hold onto developers and constitutional knowledge, etc.
No but seriously, I'm a little dazed to read one of the top players saying they won't release any 'major existing franchise titles' until next year.PS5 has no game!
Sure you can spin it like next door, they are talking about big sequels, there will be new IP, GAAS, etc. but still. The AAA game industry is clearly in crisis. On its deathbed, I'm not so sure, but something has got to give. Budgets are so high, dev is so long...
Long development time for the big games really is a problem.
The fact that we are now waiting more than 2 years for an Elden Ring expansion is ridiculous.
Remember 10 years ago Dark Souls 2 came out and had 3 different DLC's released within 6 months after the game released. And all 3 were packed with content.
It was the same with multiple DLCs with Witcher 3 for CDPR and look how long it took for the Cyberpunk expansion to come out.
There still hasn't been a peep about the Starfield DLC. Through the same time 2 good DLCs already released for Fallout 4.
It really is frustrating how much has changed in the industry in less than 10 years. People used to complain about not buying AAA games at launch and wait for GOTY editions. Back then we really didn't know how good we had it. Today we wait 2 years for a game to be somewhat complete
There needs to be some type of correction for AAA game dev but I can't think of anything that can be done at this point.
The fact that we are now waiting more than 2 years for an Elden Ring expansion is ridiculous.
Remember 10 years ago Dark Souls 2 came out and had 3 different DLC's released within 6 months after the game released. And all 3 were packed with content.
It was the same with multiple DLCs with Witcher 3 for CDPR and look how long it took for the Cyberpunk expansion to come out.
There still hasn't been a peep about the Starfield DLC. Through the same time 2 good DLCs already released for Fallout 4.
It really is frustrating how much has changed in the industry in less than 10 years. People used to complain about not buying AAA games at launch and wait for GOTY editions. Back then we really didn't know how good we had it. Today we wait 2 years for a game to be somewhat complete
There needs to be some type of correction for AAA game dev but I can't think of anything that can be done at this point.
Looks like tomorrow is hospital day. Fucking psycho of a cardiologist found it 'handy' to group my appointments. Stress test, tobaccologue, nutritionist, diabetologue, blood pressure over 24h, I'm sure I forget some.
I don't care about health appointments, but that a grouping from hell.
I don't care about health appointments, but that a grouping from hell.
The Insomniac leaks showed the AAA market is unsustainable. Budgets are too high and dev cycles are too long. There is a legitimate risk of starting a project and it failing simply because tastes have changed during development (i.e. Suicide Squad). Nintendo had the right idea about having more modest budgets and dev times, but even they aren't immune to long dev cycles (i.e. 6 years between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom).
Publishers are going to have to face the fact the market as a whole does not care much about prestige cinematic games. There are games that have blown up, like Palworld and Lethal Company, that are not exactly lookers. Roblox, arguably the biggest games platform in the world, looks like it does.
The AAA industry is sleepwalking off a cliff, but I get the pride aspect and wanting your work to be as good as possible so it will be hard to convince people to cut back on spending.
Publishers are going to have to face the fact the market as a whole does not care much about prestige cinematic games. There are games that have blown up, like Palworld and Lethal Company, that are not exactly lookers. Roblox, arguably the biggest games platform in the world, looks like it does.
Immortals of Aveum had a budget of $125 million and I'd hazard to call that AAA. That's not too far off from Barbie's budget of $145 million. Spider-Man 2's budget was $300 million which isn't too far off from Avatar 2's budget of $350-400 million, and only one of those will gross >$2 billion.
The AAA industry is sleepwalking off a cliff, but I get the pride aspect and wanting your work to be as good as possible so it will be hard to convince people to cut back on spending.
On that note, I was wondering what exactly are the culprits behind these cost and dev time ballooning.
What explains how we came to point A (whenever it was, like PS2, 3 or 4 ?) to point B aka nothing is sustainable anymore ?
I mean, I can get it for big open worlds, to an extent.
What explains how we came to point A (whenever it was, like PS2, 3 or 4 ?) to point B aka nothing is sustainable anymore ?
I mean, I can get it for big open worlds, to an extent.
About this, I remember like what now feels a long time ago. I think it was ubisoft (but it might be another big publisher) that wanted as much data as possible from how their games were played so they could see what players like and specially what "engages" them more. So they could use that more on their next games.
But I always wondered if by the time those new games came people would no longer be interested in those aspects. Guess I ended up getting my answer.
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Ever higher fidelity of assets, more and more moving parts, animation being ever more involved and voice acting that's needed and so on. Add to that the focus on open worlds, and you are a situation when the basic iteration time, to get from one version of the game to the next takes 10 times longer. At the same time you need to higher more people to get all that done in reasonable time. So you increase both the dev time, and the number of people working on it. And thus costs go up fast.
And iteration time is key, that's how you get a game that is good and fun to play. Basically, gaming works by people trying out some idea, seeing if it 's fun (once they implemented it) then realising that something doesn't work and trying again. As you increase the fidelity and scope, the iteration time balloons.
There just isn't the consumerbase in the console segment to support those kinds of budgets with such a long development time.
They are boasting about one quarter bringing more money than the next, but overlook, that they are just milking their userbase faster and faster and with more and more new ideas on how to squeeze money out of them.
Square released FF 7, 8, 9, and 10 in 4 or 5 years!
Those games didn't make a fourth of FF16, they outsold it, EACH! Three to fivefold!
They also "felt" more cinematic than any cinematic 3rd person action game today.
Those games didn't look like Roblox for their time! Their CGI was jaw-dropping! I was on the edge of my seat every time a shiny-looking CGI segment dropped! There was a clear difference in visual quality for the important moments in games. And they released those bangers nearly every year!
And then we have today's games where there is a marginal, if even that, difference between ingame graphics and CGI story elements. Some games just use ingame graphics for everything.
Next is the Story-planning. This shit shouldn't take more than a few months. But somehow developers work on the concept and story of a game for years, even before any actual coding is done! Or need a year or two to release a DLC with marginal new assets or gameplay changes. If you are expanding the scope of your Game-Universe, a DLC with marginal gameplay element changes shouldn't take more than 3-6 months!
10 to 15 years from now there will be no exclusives anymore
Except for Square Enix games.
Except for Square Enix games.
I'm afraid we're entering a "damned if you do damned if you don't" phase. Developers/publishers want game prices to go up but in doing so they are spending more on games so the product can "justify" being 70 or even 80 bucks. On the other hand this ends up increasing dev time, and so budgets, which feeds into the need to exctract as much money from customers as possible. But lowering graphical fidelity only works if you also lower the price (which publishers are trying to avoid as it hurts the ip price perception, see Ubisoft) and there is also no reason to believe the game will actually come out faster (just look at how much time it's taking for Silksong or Deltarune to come out)
Customers are also getting tired of spending a lot for playing "samey" games (big budget cinematic experiences with full voice acting in big open world filled with leveling and crafting). But then other genres are seen as "lesser" (2D games even with 3D graphics should cost less. Arcade style games should cost less. Genres I don't like should cost less) so they end up not buying those either regardless of quality
Is the only solution going back to the drawing board and start from scratch, releasing smaller quality titles at faster intervals while growing your fanbase with WoM? It worked for Larian but it sure as shit didn't work for Mimimi Games despite them releasing 3 high quality games in a starved genre
Everything feels like it's becoming a gamble and I'm 100% serious about it. No one would've seen Palworld exploding like it did, but similarly I never thought Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon IW to also beat records despite being 70 bucks with a 100+bucks Ultimate Edition and not being the usual popular genre. Granblue Fantasy Relink was also a surprise as the game had everything against it (especially the long dev time). Customers are completely unpredictable at this point, and unfortunately this is now the true big issue with game dev: if a game takes 5 to 7 years then it's impossible to know if you will actually have a user base with how quickly customers change their mind. For the sake of the industry games need to come out faster but this requires both developers and customer to work together and accept smaller budgets and prices
Because Square won't exist in 10 to 15 years
I'm really tempted to buy Helldivers 2, but as someone who don't play with randos, at least with a mic, I'm not convinced by the wisdom of the purchase.
I mean, one less party member can only mean one less character stupidly paraphrasing the other ones.
There is hope.
Plz.
The state of games these days, dev are absolutely terrified to let their players actually play their games. Even in fucking Anno, I'm trying to understand the supply and demand panel, I'm in slow mo mode (because active pause is somehow a big no no) and still, yap yap yap.
'yap yap yap, yap yap yap, yap yap yap'.
I will soon begin missing actually playing videogames. While playing videogames.
Incredible.
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It is hilarious to me that even Sony's president recognizes the synergy and network effect that comes with multiplatform releases, yet the geniuses at Square are still banging on Sony's door going like:
I love PossiblyPudding but scheduling a trans Atlantic session is not the easiest. I'm not getting younger and I tend to drop like a fly around 10pm, so yeah. And I don't know if I would fit in his schedule.
But OBVIOUSLY if I buy Helldivers 2 Pudding will be the first to know ! That was implicit.
By the way, it's really unfortunate that Meta Co-Op didn't gel with more people. I loved Gauntlets with 4 players, for example.
While we are at it:
The console userbase is further shrinking this generation.
Xbox Series is way behind Xbox One launch-aligned and with the news coming tomorrow, regardless what news it is, sales will further fall.
Sony posted the financial results today and they also fell behind the PS4 launch aligned and widened the gap to 2-3 million. They set a goal of 25 million PS5 sold this fiscal year and need further 8.6 million in the next quarter to reach that goal, quite impossible. they will somewhere land between 20-22 million and this is probably the peak year for the console.
The console userbase is further shrinking this generation.
Xbox Series is way behind Xbox One launch-aligned and with the news coming tomorrow, regardless what news it is, sales will further fall.
Sony posted the financial results today and they also fell behind the PS4 launch aligned and widened the gap to 2-3 million. They set a goal of 25 million PS5 sold this fiscal year and need further 8.6 million in the next quarter to reach that goal, quite impossible. they will somewhere land between 20-22 million and this is probably the peak year for the console.
Outcast - A New Beginning - Outcast - A New Beginning Demo out now! - Steam News
We are happy to announce that as part of the Steam's Next Fest starting today, we have just published the demo for Outcast - A New Beginning. Embark on an unforgettable journey into the breath-taking world of Adelpha in this demo for Outcast – A New Beginning. Engage in fast-paced 3rd-person...
Yeah I miss our gaming sessions. I kind of live together with my gf so finding time for gaming is tricky.
Talking about Falcom games, yesterday I implemented a world first (AFAIK) in-game graphics setting in Daybreak (will be in the English release).
(Before anyone gets too excited, it's probably not something most people will care about; but I've wanted to do it for over a decade)
(Before anyone gets too excited, it's probably not something most people will care about; but I've wanted to do it for over a decade)
I think this is ironically another one of those things that indirectly comes from the ballooning budgets and objectives, but in a different way than the "spending money" part.
All the text, endless voice acted parts, "guided" cut scenes and other things like this (forced walking sections, etc) are part of that need to have "real lore" and "real story" and to "engage the player" all the time.
To take an indie example, I played a bit of Eastward - looks like a pretty pixel art Zelda game!
And it starts with effectively 2h of cut scenes aping The last of us. And then it's not a Zelda like, because it's completely linear with no exploration, and there's a bottomless amount of dialogue in towns and mountains of NPCs to talk to, but it's not like they actually add anything to the gameplay - on top of having constant cut scenes (that thankfully were patched to allow you to go at 2x speed...).
It's just miserable, let me play the fucking game, let me see tutorials in convenient little boxes with hyperlinks on needed terms - like we had decades ago! You don't even need story in videogames, but if you really want to add one (likely to flatter your ego considering the average writing quality of the "Citizen Kanes of videogames" as some journos would call them), be curt and show, don't tell.
I am assuming it is full real-time Metropolis light transport. Gotta future proof for the RTX 6090
I'm planning to buy it as well when the frequent crashes are patched. I'll be happy to team up with you.
Oh man Eastward is on my wishlist but this is seriously putting me off. There are games where I love just talking and talking to NPCs mind you, I'm a relatively new convert to CRPGs for example and those are full of that but the more forced and railroaded it is the harder it is I find it to care.
Its funny, I thought AAA game looked unsustainable way back in the PS360 era, its amazing it managed to balloon even more since then.
This is devastating. The guy was trapped at Konami for so many years, finally gets out and runs a Kickstarter that proves how much his games have meant to fans and the no doesn't get to see it released. Just tragic.
Suikoden 1 and 2 are all time greats. Heck this is why Konami are remastering them. Murayama deserved to see how well loved his work was. Hopefully he knew and can rest in peace.
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