Community MetaSteam | February 2026 - Romeo and Rogue: Dead Citadel Requiem
- Thread starter lashman
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Developer & Publisher: Screaming Villains
Genre: Simulation, Sports (Boxing)
Platforms: Steam, PS5, PS4
Release Date: Feb 20, 2026
Introduction (Taken from Steam page)
Originally developed by Digital Pictures, Prize Fighter returns!
Prize...
Looking through the "State of Video Gaming 2026" presentation by Matthew Ball and this slide stands out to me especially with the news about Bluepoint. Sony desperately wants to get into live service but they only really have Helldivers 2 but that's from a third party studio.
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I actually went to the Discord where Luma development is happening to check, and sadly it seems this isn't happening any time soon.
Replying to "Do you think DLSS in metaphor is possible?"
Short answer: Maybe but it would be considerably more work than for Persona 5
Longer answer: I think the only reason we have motion vectors in Persona 5 is for the motion blur during those 3 seconds in title sequence where Joker is swinging through the buildings and it was more work to have multiple permutations for materials so they just are generated for the entirety of the game. In metaphor they removed that, but not entirely Vertex shaders the previous transformation matrix and output the previous NDC coordinates it's just that motion isn't written to a render target. And then there's the bigger problem that in Persona 5 skeletal meshes also receive the skinned vertex positions from the previous frame, which in metaphos is missing entirely. So the 2 most difficult things I think would be required are
1. Skinning is done in a compute shade so the transformed vertices need to be cached for the next frame, and then need to be matched to draw calls in the current frame
2. Update all material pixel shaders to also output motion vectors to separate render target
Short answer: Maybe but it would be considerably more work than for Persona 5
Longer answer: I think the only reason we have motion vectors in Persona 5 is for the motion blur during those 3 seconds in title sequence where Joker is swinging through the buildings and it was more work to have multiple permutations for materials so they just are generated for the entirety of the game. In metaphor they removed that, but not entirely Vertex shaders the previous transformation matrix and output the previous NDC coordinates it's just that motion isn't written to a render target. And then there's the bigger problem that in Persona 5 skeletal meshes also receive the skinned vertex positions from the previous frame, which in metaphos is missing entirely. So the 2 most difficult things I think would be required are
1. Skinning is done in a compute shade so the transformed vertices need to be cached for the next frame, and then need to be matched to draw calls in the current frame
2. Update all material pixel shaders to also output motion vectors to separate render target
Shutting down Bluepoint is so bizarre... Porting the Demon's Souls remake to PC would have cost nothing and it would have sold 5 million copies on Steam. And then getting them do a similar remake for Bloodborne would have gotten Sony 20 million sales across PC and Playstation. What the hell.
I also came to a realization a couple of days ago... Valve will not make a new Steam deck for at least 2 years, and possibly more. They've always said that they would do it when there was an appreciable jump in hardware capability but now, with the memory shortages, it won't matter if the desired performance uplift is achieved... they'll just not bother. As it is I suspect they are super pissed that the Steam hardware they plan to release now is guaranteed to flop. I know they probably have modest expectations of a few million units sold but now, with the price increases that are definitely coming, I doubt they'll reach their projected targets. Fortunately they don't need this hardware revenue to sustain their business but they are absolutely not going to risk getting burned on the Steam deck 2 anytime soon.
I also came to a realization a couple of days ago... Valve will not make a new Steam deck for at least 2 years, and possibly more. They've always said that they would do it when there was an appreciable jump in hardware capability but now, with the memory shortages, it won't matter if the desired performance uplift is achieved... they'll just not bother. As it is I suspect they are super pissed that the Steam hardware they plan to release now is guaranteed to flop. I know they probably have modest expectations of a few million units sold but now, with the price increases that are definitely coming, I doubt they'll reach their projected targets. Fortunately they don't need this hardware revenue to sustain their business but they are absolutely not going to risk getting burned on the Steam deck 2 anytime soon.
Sony read market research and saw the success of Fortnite, Genshin (on PS4) and Helldivers 2 so they thought they can get more of those. Then, they proceeded to put a huge portion of their eggs into one basket. Ignoring that:
- the competition of GaaS market is seriously cut-throat
- most people don't play multiple GaaS
- your GaaS has to be addictive and excel in some areas to have people constantly playing it
- being a platform owner you need a diverse lineup and a strong footing in many genres
- the majority of GaaS audience are casual players who just want to relax for an hour everyday. They are not the people who go onto online forums or Internet and shill your game for free = they are not fanboys
Honestly feels like the kind of thing you do when you're closing up shop, going EVGA, dropping out.
Aye I checked there myself, it just says ValveTestApp and the hub is empty, so I still have no idea what this is about; or what got delisted exactly.
In the same presentation, it's shown the consoles revenue is stagnated. Likely the margins are down due to rising costs.
All the layoffs start to make sense there.
(it's all in the sheets, I'm not making stuff up).
And I'm also not making this up - people are not playing games as much anymore. Revenue and time is going towards shortform video and OnlyFans. Plus people with money (venture capital) are not giving them to games anymore, they are putting it on ayeaei.
Where you should rightly fault Sony/PS leadership is
- Making Bluepoint pitch to Sony to make game, AND NOT Sony asking them to do projects based on their IP
- Not stopping Bluepoint to stupidly pursue live service games
Here is something to make you depressed about gaming even more.
Only upside being PC is on steady growth upwards though that's largely due to multiplayer, China and Roblox.
Only upside being PC is on steady growth upwards though that's largely due to multiplayer, China and Roblox.
Could've just had them work on PS3/early PS4 games for native PS5 + PC releases and kept them afloat. PC day one for remasters would've worked (as long as the ports arent dogshit and priced accordingly ofc). I'm actually legit more annoyed about this than any other closure in the last few years. Not to diminish the other teams/studios being closed, but Bluepoint's MGS 2/3 is how I finally played them through alongside many other projects they did. I also adore the DeS remake and enjoy revisiting that more than the souls trilogy.
The games industry seems like it’s too busy harpooning whales (or trying to) than bringing in new customers.
The fact that they didn't assign them a Demon's Souls PC port is genuinely baffling. There's a gap in From Software's release schedule, a DS port could have slotted in and done an easy 2 million sales.
Yep. I also suggested Nixxes could do it elsewhere, but got some pushback. Some people say "nixxes fell off" or w/e when the release date/push to release comes from the pub not the dev. For Spider-Man 2's bad port, Sony could've delayed it, but they gave it barely arny promo and launched it rough. Damage was done.
Agree with this. I’m hoping we see a Nixxes redemption arc with Death Stranding 2.
It is still a shame they are trapped doing Sony ports for eternity, though.
I don't recall what else they did barring Tomb Raider and Deus Ex before and well... but I get your point lol.
The industry is wrestling with the fact that under current development timelines, budgets and risks, it's more important than ever to have strong management, while at the same time it is becoming more and more obvious that it is management that is more often than not the weak link that causes these catastrophic failures and studio closures.
Yet these bad managers also see only dollar signs in their eyes and want to push into live service, which requires even stronger management skills, so they fail even harder and more catastrophically. It's extremely disappointing that it's always the rank and file employees that have to bear consequences from stupid decision making from the top.
Sony buying Bluepoint then letting them work on a God of War live service game is insane managerial incompetence. The fact that Bluepoint even have to pitch ideas is madness. Sony should have been going to them saying "okay, we have these IPs and old games, what can we do with those" and figuring out a strategy together. I understand that Bluepoint wanted to branch out into creating something different and their own IPs (which they didn't do anyway with a God of War live service, the irony), but this should have been worked on on the side while you have at least one team constantly making remakes.
Similarly, I'd say that most recently Highguard was also a management failure. This game had already failed the moment their release strategy was "we'll shadow drop this and everyone's gonna love it". What might have worked in the past for Apex does not work anymore in the year of our lord 2026. Not recognizing this and shifting gears was moronic and just reeks of hubris.
You need real player feedback for live service games, not just echo chambers of industry people and/or focus testers patting each other on the back.
I don't really follow the PvP/shooter GaaS scene, but I am keeping a look on the gacha scene (because I like them, and am really curious about the market changes Genshin caused and is still causing). The successful ones pretty much all have multiple rounds of betas before release. It typically takes over a year from the first beta to actual release, with multiple rounds inbetween.
And then to circle back on these games being more demanding on the management.
A Genshin dev talked about their pipeline earlier this year on an event and said it takes them 6 months to work on a small update and a year and a half to work on a big one. They release a small update every 6 weeks and a big update every year. Even if you don't like the FOMO and monetary practices of these games, just looking at it from a project management perspective that's a crazy feat to do this consistently for years while also making sure everything stays cohesive (these games have linear narrative).
Then you look at many devs rebooting projects multiple times, cancelling projects that don't come together way too late, etc etc and I honestly want to know: if they have issues here, how do they think they can pull of a live service?
PS: I'm also not exactly hopeful for Horizon: Hunter's Gathering. Even if it ends up being a good game, the first thing I see there is a big questionmark regarding: "who's the target audience for this game supposed to be?".
What sort of idiot ends a letter explaining why the have shut a studio down and layed off 70 people with a fucking smilie emoji? I really hope that has been added later because that would make me want to punch the prick in the face.
I honestly believe that AAA companies are not best positioned for the GaaS/Live Service games. Let’s take Deadlock as a baseline, that game first became known back in May 2024. Officially announced in August the same year. Currently running in a (not very) closed beta. Almost 2 years later the game is still in beta, no monetisation in place, no release date in site, still being developed. Has a daily playerbase that puts many of these games to shame.
Then there is high guard, a game that came out of nowhere, given a spot at the game awards, went radio silent with many people thinking it was a hero shooter (still not sure to this day what it was), when it launched people where having server issues, the tutorial appears to be god awful, the game wasn’t what people where expecting. An announcement a year earlier, a closed/open beta would have alleviated some of these issues.
The other thing I have noticed is that many gatcha games do surveys after events. Think it took me 20-30 minutes to do the edenfield one. They always come across as in depth and tend to cover everything from gameplay to story to character designs.
I also think Sony are running into one big issue here as well. They are reluctant to make their own games F2P. It only dawned on me that this increases their monetisation. Not F2P, then you need a PS+ account as well.
I mean, strong management is important in most situations.
Whether that’s personal management and autonomy, or the right structures and business decision-making.
Sadly, a lot of the world is currently run incompetently, and by incompetent people. When I say this I mean in the public and private sectors. Gaming is no exception here. The people currently leading aren’t leaders - they’re con artists. They’re not interested in sustainability or infrastructure, they’re only interested in feathering their own nest.
What they’ve failed to see is the self-serving and destructive actions they’re taking will ultimately fuck them over.
Whether that’s personal management and autonomy, or the right structures and business decision-making.
Sadly, a lot of the world is currently run incompetently, and by incompetent people. When I say this I mean in the public and private sectors. Gaming is no exception here. The people currently leading aren’t leaders - they’re con artists. They’re not interested in sustainability or infrastructure, they’re only interested in feathering their own nest.
What they’ve failed to see is the self-serving and destructive actions they’re taking will ultimately fuck them over.
That’s a tweet from 2021, when they acquired Bluepoint - it’s referencing that there were a ton of leaks leading up to it. It’s been put in for ironic purposes and isn’t part of yesterday’s note.
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Ah, ok. Turns out I had a critical reading error.
There's a big part of my heart for the og playstation days (PS 1-3), and it still resists acknowledging the clear truth that the PS of those days are long gone now.
I've said it many, many,
MANY
And with this studio in particular being shut now, it's just another nail in that coffin.
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prepare for another concert
Following my post earlier about Sony, was thinking should put my money where my mouth is and pick up the off kilter games of theirs from years ago I’ve not played
Sackboy, SOTC, Gravity Rush
And then I see the PS3 section with games like Puppeteer and Rain.
Fuck sake Sony, the PS3 legacy is so tarnished and it’s their own fault
Jesus Christ that is grim watching. Like we all know things are tough but all of it laid out like this fuck it’s bad
Sackboy, SOTC, Gravity Rush
And then I see the PS3 section with games like Puppeteer and Rain.
Fuck sake Sony, the PS3 legacy is so tarnished and it’s their own fault
Jesus Christ that is grim watching. Like we all know things are tough but all of it laid out like this fuck it’s bad
Honestly, this is a very disingenuous framing of what happened. It was clearly mismanagement but the things Hulst said were also true... budgets have ballooned and player behaviour has shifted (as we can see from that other analysis/report that just came out). That doesn't mean he is blaming players for the shut down. Bluepoint got the rug pulled out from under them when their God of War live service was canned, presumably as a reaction to the Concord megabomba. And then they were told to pitch another game. That long gap meant they hadn't generated revenue for Sony since the launch of the PS5 (with Demon's Souls), which is one reason I think they were shut down. Sony should have just told them to do Demon's Souls on PC for quick money and then Bloodborne for a lot more money instead of making them come up with ideas on their own.
My gut feeling here is that they opted for the shadow drop strategy because (a) all their 'unbiased' feedback was telling them that they had a generational game on their hands which led them to believe they didn't need public testing and/or (b) they were running out of money. It is completely crazy for a studio put themselves in a situation where their game needs to be a hit instantly or else they will have to shut down the whole operation. They had no money left whatsoever by the time they launched. Madness.
Yep, I think some people don't fully understand what mihoyo is pulling off here. They ship one major expansion (the size of a full game) every year, two smaller content expansions during the year (new zone and then the summer event location) and then they have content updates every 6 weeks. And it's all high quality stuff that looks amazing and runs really well.
And then they do all of this THREE times over because they have 3 live service games running with the exact same model. And they're working on at least 2 more.
What mihoyo is achieving is a miracle of project management. Yes they have unlimited money and their headcount is in the thousands but that only makes it more impressive that they are able to run their projects so smoothly.
And this is such an important part of the process. I was actually annoyed by that Endfield survey because they said it would take 3-5 minutes but it actually took more than 20 minutes lol. These companies do several betas and generate shit tons of telemetry telling them how their players are interacting with their games. Then they do comprehensive surveys asking for even more data. They will ask you to rate the design of a specific sword in the game on a scale of 1-10. That is the level of granularity they are going for.
And I'm not saying they're perfect... Even after all this they make mistakes. But when their players tell them, they listen and they are humble. Zenless Zone Zero launched with a game mechanic that was deeply integrated into the entire experience but the player base did not enjoy it at all. They got that feedback from their players and within 6 months they ripped that mechanic out from the game entirely.
China is leading the way when it comes to live service game development. If these western companies insist on making more live services, they should absolutely be watching what China is doing very closely.
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execs truly are the dumbest people imaginable, it's a miracle they can breathe by themselves
Posted in the wrong thread before:
But just thinking about yesterday again and man, Sony just isn't interesting anymore.
Sure, I enjoy the Marvel games but I can either wait for them or skip them.
Don't really care about the Last of Us in 15 years time or a Uncharted again, what else is there?
God of War and Ragnarok were both great, I guess that still excites me
I miss weird af Sony in the PS2 days
But just thinking about yesterday again and man, Sony just isn't interesting anymore.
Sure, I enjoy the Marvel games but I can either wait for them or skip them.
Don't really care about the Last of Us in 15 years time or a Uncharted again, what else is there?
God of War and Ragnarok were both great, I guess that still excites me
I miss weird af Sony in the PS2 days
I miss the Sony that gave me Concrete Genie, Bloodborne, Motorstorm, Unfinished Swan, Gravity Rush.
Honestly their games are fine but if I never got the chance to play another Sony game I wouldn’t really care all that much.
As I said a few days ago, I started playing Total War: Warhammer 3 with an Immortal Empires campaign earlier this week.
These days, I mostly game on my Deck due to convenience, but I started my TW3 campaign on my desktop.
I was so disheartened when I tried to load my save on the Deck and TW3 just crashes.
Nothing I do seems to allow it to work on the Deck.
Proton DB mentions some difficulties, but it seems like some have got it to work. Not me, sadly...
These days, I mostly game on my Deck due to convenience, but I started my TW3 campaign on my desktop.
I was so disheartened when I tried to load my save on the Deck and TW3 just crashes.
Nothing I do seems to allow it to work on the Deck.
Proton DB mentions some difficulties, but it seems like some have got it to work. Not me, sadly...
PlayStation, to me, has always been a pretty special platform.
I generally hate exclusives, but you can't deny that PlayStation exclusives gave the system an identity. And the weird face buttons when everyone else was using letters. And the iconic PS1 boot screen, then the iconic PS2 boot screen.
There truly was something magical about setting up the hardware, switching it on and playing a game you just couldn't get anywhere else. And even if that game wasn't profitable, you knew Sony would continue with the goods because it differentiated their system from anyone else's.
Maybe it's nostalgia talking, but I definitely miss that. They've basically sucked the soul out of PlayStation, starting with PS3's mid-life, and that soul sucking ended when PS5 launched and PlayStation - to me at least - died.
Maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it's really sad to see what the platform has become.
