News General gaming stuff, random news etc

[Ed_Gein]

I thought this was more interesting generally than just to do with GTA 6. I think the "hit driven industry" thing is very true.

This board I think reflects it very well. I started posting here during the PS3/360, and even into early PS4/XBX the first page of the board could turn itself over in a day. Now games are taking so much longer and there are fewer big developers so we already have less to post about. Then when an anticipated game flops the board traffic generally dries up with it.

Not to get too dramatic (yet) but I still feel that if gaming stays on the current trajectory then we are headed for a crash.

Grand Theft Auto VI Is Expected to Be the Biggest Entertainment Launch of All Time, but a Performance Below Expectations Could Impact the Entire Industry

Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, according to well-known industry advisor Mat Piscatella

wccftech.com

Been thinking about this for a while, that there is some kind of tipping point coming with AAA games, but didn't know how to word it and that it's most based on gut feeling. But you're onto something about a crash within AAA gaming, I think.

a/ AAA games are more expensive and taking longer to make (Well established here)

b/ There is too much competition for consumer money with the emergence of how much easier it is for anyone with time and knowledge to develop a game (Steam now hits 10,000 games released on the platform annually)

c/ Loss of trust due to AAA games being released too early and needing post-release patching.

d/ AAA games are trying to find extra ways to monetise their games in ways that doesn't sit well with gamers.

e/ Bad regional pricing for a lot of PC gamers in many nations across the world means loss of sales.

Trying to remember some of the other things I had in mind about this sort of stuff, but they escape me just now. But yeah, no real data to back it up, but it's not really uncommon these days to see companies complain about the disappointing sales numbers on AAA games now anyway. Wonder where the whole situation will end up. I'm guessing it'll be a lot more difficult to get investor money.

 

[dwwaino]

Been thinking about this for a while, that there is some kind of tipping point coming with AAA games, but didn't know how to word it and that it's most based on gut feeling. But you're onto something about a crash within AAA gaming, I think.

a/ AAA games are more expensive and taking longer to make (Well established here)

b/ There is too much competition for consumer money with the emergence of how much easier it is for anyone with time and knowledge to develop a game (Steam now hits 10,000 games released on the platform annually)

c/ Loss of trust due to AAA games being released too early and needing post-release patching.

d/ AAA games are trying to find extra ways to monetise their games in ways that doesn't sit well with gamers.

e/ Bad regional pricing for a lot of PC gamers in many nations across the world means loss of sales.

Trying to remember some of the other things I had in mind about this sort of stuff, but they escape me just now. But yeah, no real data to back it up, but it's not really uncommon these days to see companies complain about the disappointing sales numbers on AAA games now anyway. Wonder where the whole situation will end up. I'm guessing it'll be a lot more difficult to get investor money.

As of February Alan Wake 2 had sold 1.3 million copies but still hadn't yet returned a profit. I know in this case you could argue that Remedy didn't do themselves any favours by launching AW2 exclusively on EGS for PC, but still no profit after 1.3 million sales is bonkers

 

[Gralin]

This is true. I think it's a combination of ambition to constantly outdo your previous work as well as everyone else. Also I think partly a driver now is to separate themselves from smaller teams.

Previously AAA studios had a monopoly on graphics. Everything that came with 3D graphics design was a tedious process. This is why indie and small development was confined to something like Unity using sprites.

If you told me I had a week (and sufficiently motivated me lol) to create a AAA scene complete with a rigged, animated and textured player character I could do it with UE, Blender, a heap of handy plugins and some cool (and paid) middleware like Substance Painter, Fabulous Designer and Speedtree.

Do you know what I don't have though? Time and resources. This is what separates a team of 100+ from me. I don't have the time to create complex gameplay systems or systems to handle optimising large open worlds for example. This is how AAA developers flex over the little guys and I think it's how they justify making big games.

Always got to outdo the last one and the gaming media is to blame also

Some studios can do it, like Rockstar but they don't make games very often

 

[Ed_Gein]

As of February Alan Wake 2 had sold 1.3 million copies but still hadn't yet returned a profit. I know in this case you could argue that Remedy didn't do themselves any favours by launching AW2 exclusively on EGS for PC, but still no profit after 1.3 million sales is bonkers

Yeah that's pretty crazy. Sadly, it's becoming too much of a trend single-player games like that aren't turning enough of a profit it seems.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Gaming in the PS1/2, OG Xbox and PS3/360 was peak gaming for me, the amount of games that were churned out during that time and really good games too. We don’t get that these days and we know why that is, sadly we are heading for a crash.

 

[SnakeMan86]

For the Dave the Diver fans

 

[Quivorir]

The trailers and blog just spoil the whole story of the DLC so I really don't feel the need to play it now.

 

[dwwaino]

It’s a tough market right now. There are these incredible, over-the-top AAAA games that are impossible to follow. You also see amazing AA niche games that are more focused and successful. AAA sits in this awkward middle ground where it’s very expensive but hard to cover costs.

AAA Games Are in an 'Awkward Middle Ground' Right Now, Says XCOM's Jake Solomon

XCOM's Jake Solomon told Wccftech that AAA games are in an awkward middle ground where it's very expensive and costs are hard to recover.

wccftech.com

 

[Cruyff14]

This looks pretty neat

 

[dwwaino]

Cool. Hopefully it becomes a thing for future games.

 

[RPCB]

 

[Cyber_punk]

This looks pretty neat

That looks interesting.

 

[Cruyff14]

That looks interesting.

Yeah, definitely piqued my interest. Definitely going to keep an eye on it.

 

[SnakeMan86]

Only playing at night time with the headphones on.

 

[dwwaino]

Great take from the former King of Unity on the current state of things. I've talked about a gaming crash before as current AAA budgets are unsustainable, but gaming is still safe because of how accessible it is now and the level of polish any indie or AA dev can achieve. Open source is great but with even a small budget there are some fantastic add-ons and other pieces of software also made by independent developers that don't cost much and will go a long way.

As my own project (because it wouldn't be fair to call it a "game" yet) moves from the prototype where I developed the systems and grey boxing the biggest road block is definitely creating the 3D art. Though using Blender as he says here has been great and as a non-artist the free and paid plugins have been the difference between me still believing I can pull this off and just saying it's too hard.

 

[SnakeMan86]

For anyone that played Alien Carnage/Halloween Harry back in the day. My father in law is on the dev team and working on the Reboot.

Just trying to spread the word for him.

 

[dwwaino]

For anyone that played Alien Carnage/Halloween Harry back in the day. My father in law is on the dev team and working on the Reboot.
View attachment 2048640
Just trying to spread the word for him.

Just tried to find some info about the studio, is it their first paid desktop release? I see lots of appstore stuff and one hit on Itch (my first "release" will be on Itch because it's half my own assets, half flipped, I'm using middleware and don't want to pay for any licenses or register an ABN). Is he/Red Sprite full time or is it hobbyist? This is actually really cool.

HH is such a blast from the past and I remember playing it along with Keen and stuff to. My old family computer only had CGA graphics though so I remember mostly playing it at my friend's house because he had VGA with fancy colours.

 

[SnakeMan86]

Just tried to find some info about the studio, is it their first paid desktop release? I see lots of appstore stuff and one hit on Itch (my first "release" will be on Itch because it's half my own assets, half flipped, I'm using middleware and don't want to pay for any licenses or register an ABN). Is he/Red Sprite full time or is it hobbyist? This is actually really cool.

HH is such a blast from the past and I remember playing it along with Keen and stuff to. My old family computer only had CGA graphics though so I remember mostly playing it at my friend's house because he had VGA with fancy colours.

He said hobbyist turned pro lol (depending on if the game is successful at all) been just a passion project for the two of them.

He and his colleague worked on the original back in the day. Then came up with this project during covid. His wife did some of the voice-overs as well lol.

 

[dwwaino]

He said hobbyist turned pro lol (depending on if the game is successful at all) been just a passion project for the two of them.

He and his colleague worked on the original back in the day. Then came up with this project during covid. His wife did some of the voice-overs as well lol.

That's awesome to know. Do you know if they're using Unity or jumped on the Godot train?

 

[Chief]

Putting it on the Wishlist.

 

[SnakeMan86]

That's awesome to know. Do you know if they're using Unity or jumped on the Godot train?

They were using unity towards the end of the year, but then they started screwing the Indies.

Now it's all on Godot.

 

[dwwaino]

They were using unity towards the end of the year, but then they started crewing the Indies.

Now it's all on Godot.

That's what I was curious about. That's the same reason I switched to Unreal because the licensing is similar to the old indie friendly Unity one. Godot is even better as if they're successful then it's 100% profit for them .

I'm going to wishlist it like Chiefy has and follow this one.

 

[SnakeMan86]

Putting it on the Wishlist.

That's great. Really Appreciate it

 

[SnakeMan86]

That's what I was curious about. That's the same reason I switched to Unreal because the licensing is similar to the old indie friendly Unity one. Godot is even better as if they're successful then it's 100% profit for them .

I'm going to wishlist it like Chiefy has and follow this one.

That's brilliant. Happy to do the same with your project as well

 

[Ry009]

Added to wishlist too.