Industry News / Upcoming Games

[JustKneller]

Tim Cain is one of the ones I feel bad for. He's a smart guy and does good work, but he was stuck in a poorly run company.

 

[Antimatter]

A win for Japan, the Japanese legislation, and their working culture!

Why are Japanese developers not undergoing mass layoffs?

On 14th June, Tango Gameworks employees had a pizza party. It was the studio's final day following the announcement of …

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Skatan]

Tim Cain revealed the details of Fallout 3: Van Buren cancellation as part of his ongoing YouTube series focused on video game development.

"In the middle of 2003, an unnamed Interplay vice president asked him to play the Van Buren prototype, saying: “I don’t think they can get it done, so I’m just going to cancel it. But if you look over it and give me an estimate there’s a chance I wouldn’t cancel it.”

Cain said he played the prototype for two hours and asked the development team a number of questions before delivering his verdict to the vice president.

“I said, ‘I’m convinced in 18 months you could have a really good game shipped.’ And he said, ‘huh, could it be done any faster?’ And I was like, 'oh, shoot, I’ve said too long.' I said, ‘well, even if you did a death march crunch I don’t think you could do it faster than 12, and then you’d be shipping something that was unbalanced and buggy, and the team would be destroyed. So I don’t recommend that.’

“And he said, ‘ok, thanks.’ As we walked out he basically explained any answer over six months was going to result in him having to cancel it, meaning the answer I just gave got the game canceled. But he was going to cancel it anyway. He thought it couldn’t be done in six months, and I just confirmed that to him.”

According to Cain, the cancelation of Van Buren was, ultimately, about money; Interplay’s dire financial situation meant it simply did not have enough cash to fund more than six months of further development. But fans have always questioned Interplay and then majority owner Titus Interactive management, and the controversial decision to shift focus away from PC games to console games.

Interplay went on to close down Black Isle Studios and cut its entire staff. The company released console spin-off Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but it was not enough. That same year, Interplay announced a licensing deal with The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda for future Fallout games, and in 2007, Interplay sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda outright."

Fallout Creator Tim Cain Reveals Involvement in Cancelation of Original Fallout 3 - IGN

Fallout creator Tim Cain has for the first time revealed his role in the cancelation of Interplay’s Van Buren, the codename for what was intended to be the original Fallout 3.

www.ign.com

Mm, I saw that one. I've read more than one old school fan of FO tell tales of what it could have been if it'd ever been released, but following Tim's YT videos I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have been a game revered as a classic to this day anyways.

 

[Antimatter]

I wonder, can there be a month without gaming studio closures/layoffs?

 

[Antimatter]

Thanks, Cap!

Take Two warns investors that review bombings can hurt profits

Plus: The publisher strangely deletes its annual reference to a multi-game deal with the NFL

www.gamefile.news

Take Two Interactive has added review bombing to the list of risks that could impact the publisher’s success, warning investors that the hostile campaigns may “lead to loss of players and revenues, additional advertising and marketing costs, and reputation harm.”

 

[Antimatter]

I've noticed a few previous partners are leaving Epic Games (or, at least, changing their deals).

1)

Gearbox founder says Epic Games Store hopes were “misplaced or overly optimistic”

Pitchford’s prediction that Steam could be “a dying store” have not come to pass.

arstechnica.com

2)

Remedy is leaving Epic in the dark place to self-publish Control 2 through a 'strategic cooperation agreement' with Annapurna

Annapurna also gains the rights for bringing the Remedyverse to movies and television.

www.pcgamer.com

All of this comes after a bit from 2 weeks ago when Tim Sweeney admitted exclusive deals hadn't worked for Epic.

Many of Epic's exclusivity deals were 'not good investments,' says Tim Sweeney, but the free games program 'has been just magical'

The most cost-effective way to get new users on the Epic Games Store has been the free games, not the exclusives.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[mlnevese]

I've noticed a few previous partners are leaving Epic Games (or, at least, changing their deals).

1)

Gearbox founder says Epic Games Store hopes were “misplaced or overly optimistic”

Pitchford’s prediction that Steam could be “a dying store” have not come to pass.

arstechnica.com

2)

Remedy is leaving Epic in the dark place to self-publish Control 2 through a 'strategic cooperation agreement' with Annapurna

Annapurna also gains the rights for bringing the Remedyverse to movies and television.

www.pcgamer.com

All of this comes after a bit from 2 weeks ago when Tim Sweeney admitted exclusive deals hadn't worked for Epic.

Many of Epic's exclusivity deals were 'not good investments,' says Tim Sweeney, but the free games program 'has been just magical'

The most cost-effective way to get new users on the Epic Games Store has been the free games, not the exclusives.

www.pcgamer.com

I hope they don't close. I have a lot of games i got for free and never had an opportunity to play

 

[JustKneller]

I've actually always steered away from Epic Games. It seemed like a cut-rate Steam to me, and I even avoid Steam now and basically just stick with GoG. I hate having to run a game through a client and I feel that the client-based storefronts are more focused on market control strategies than anything. Epic Games' exclusivity deals were both a little dickish and also kinda aggressive/desperate (especially considering how poorly that has worked for them). Whereas all roads can lead to GoG...if you're patient enough.

 

[Chronicler]

Steam worked alright on my old computer, but for some reason it's super laggy on my new computer. I've stopped using it so much just because it's super annoying to have to struggle against the client to even browse casually, let alone buy anything.

 

[Cahir]

I am not the biggest fan of Steam, not necessarily because I find their (almost) monopolistic practices bad for customers, but simply because some of their client functions are not very intuitive to use. Simple change of install path requires me to check the online guide each time I want to do it. It's usually hard to find a setting or an info you want there.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

I'm not prepared to research and post the perfect announcement articles to go with the post like @Antimatter does, but for those interested, there are Titan Quest 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era games in the works to be released probably next year. Googling should turn up a bunch of stuff on both of them.

The new HoMM game is supposed to be a direct descendent of HoMM3 and will return to Enroth instead of Ashan.

Ubisoft retains the HoMM rights, which is reason enough to suspect that HoMM:OE will wind up being awful, but they did outsource the development to a new company that has a stated mission of returning to and reviving HoMM tradition. It's available for wishlisting on Steam. I guess I could at least link that page.


Hmm, looks like there's a Steam page for Titan Quest 2 as well:

 

[Antimatter]

Ohhh, that's excellent news! Tagging @Xzarloxara here as well. I see a few positive factors already (and yes, the part about Ubisoft is true):

It's Early Access, so they'll need to listen to what players say.

The screenshots look very HoMM3-like, which is a big plus.

Enroth!

It's Unfrozen, the devs responsible for an indie game Iratus: Lord of the Dead, that had a solid reputation (while niche) and wasn't just a clone of Darkest Dungeon, with an 85% positive review rating on Steam.

Thanks for sharing, @BelgarathMTH!

 

[mlnevese]

I have Titan Quest II on my Wishlist since it was announced

 

[JustKneller]

Is it really all bad news, though?

Color me crazy, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world for the video game industry to be pushed towards a consumer-driven model. Frankly, I wish more industries were like this. Basically, my take on this is that massive blockbuster games with sloppy game design masked by lizard brain stimulation tactics appealing to the lowest common denominator are likely no longer sustainable. Studios will shrink (likely back to pre-2000 proportions) and the most viable projects are those focusing on the deep cuts. So, games will be more niche and more targeted to a specific portion of a smaller market share. In short, studios will need to do something more specific, and do it well. I mean, it sucks for them to have their bubble burst, but so it goes. Then again, maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I think I might have mentioned this before, but I had a conversation some time back with a friend of mine who had a background in organic chemistry and biology. Regarding another industry, we talked about how biological organisms, even on the cellular level eventually develop an equilibrium in terms of growth or expansion because if something (from a cell to the population of an organism) gets too big, then it would exceed a critical mass and collapse. Humans are different, though. We don't optimize for equilibrium, just continued growth, but that's not really feasible. So, stuff like this happens.

 

[Antimatter]

I'm serious when I say that there are more good games released with every year. And there are more opportunities to develop and publish them.

For each Concord, there is Astro Bot. For each Starfield, there is No Man's Sky. For each Dragon Age, there is Baldur's Gate 3. Over the last 5 years I played the majority of my all-time favorite games (and I mean, played for the first time, regarding not-long-ago released games).

Every few months, we have amazing Steam Next Fests. Steam is allowing natural marketing and visibility. Of course, there are more and more games developed every year, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to get the attention of players. But games still do that.

The AAA(A) space is a totally separate space though. Everything we're seeing in that space is a result of COVID/post-COVID investments and rich people trying to squeeze every possible penny from them. But that space is not the whole of gaming.

Owlcat Games started as an indie dev making a cRPG that tries to follow the old classics. Now they're a small publisher for other small indie games.

Larian stormed the AAA space after D:OS 2 and now is much bigger than 6 years ago.

There are dozens of good games produced in Japan (and most of them are unaffected by the Western economy/culture). New countries become homes of new game developers (just look at how many new games we get now from Eastern and Northern Europe, for example.

The competition is growing, and it means, eventually, that the quality (IMHO) improves. Disco Elysium and BG3 moved the RPG genre forward.

 

[Cahir]

I protest, by saying something unpopular, but Starfield is actually a good game. I'd argue it may the the best of Bethesda's games (now dodge, Cahir!).

 

[JustKneller]

I protest, by saying something unpopular, but Starfield is actually a good game. I'd argue it may the the best of Bethesda's games (now dodge, Cahir!).

I'll leap to your defense by mentioning that the quality bar at Bethesda has been set really low (especially since Fallout 4 and 76), so it could very well be the best of Bethesda's games.

 

[Skatan]

Is it really all bad news, though?

Color me crazy, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world for the video game industry to be pushed towards a consumer-driven model. Frankly, I wish more industries were like this. Basically, my take on this is that massive blockbuster games with sloppy game design masked by lizard brain stimulation tactics appealing to the lowest common denominator are likely no longer sustainable. Studios will shrink (likely back to pre-2000 proportions) and the most viable projects are those focusing on the deep cuts. So, games will be more niche and more targeted to a specific portion of a smaller market share. In short, studios will need to do something more specific, and do it well. I mean, it sucks for them to have their bubble burst, but so it goes. Then again, maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I think I might have mentioned this before, but I had a conversation some time back with a friend of mine who had a background in organic chemistry and biology. Regarding another industry, we talked about how biological organisms, even on the cellular level eventually develop an equilibrium in terms of growth or expansion because if something (from a cell to the population of an organism) gets too big, then it would exceed a critical mass and collapse. Humans are different, though. We don't optimize for equilibrium, just continued growth, but that's not really feasible. So, stuff like this happens.

"Humans are different, though. We don't optimize for equilibrium, just continued growth, but that's not really feasible. So, stuff like this happens."

You just described free market capitalism, it is quite literally exactly that - an equilibrium created over time when supply and demand have met. Just because we are in an situation where these forces are still in movement doesn't mean they won't meet. And they do already today, but it's in a state of constant flux of course, as is all economy and nature. Nothing is ever a perfect equilibrium ad infinitum.

 

[JustKneller]

"Humans are different, though. We don't optimize for equilibrium, just continued growth, but that's not really feasible. So, stuff like this happens."

You just described free market capitalism, it is quite literally exactly that - an equilibrium created over time when supply and demand have met. Just because we are in an situation where these forces are still in movement doesn't mean they won't meet. And they do already today, but it's in a state of constant flux of course, as is all economy and nature. Nothing is ever a perfect equilibrium ad infinitum.

But I would argue the human system (unlike nature) is actually less stable over time with faster and greater fluctuations (not to mention a steady increase in economic inequality). I'm not surprised it has it's own dynamic, though. Gerhard Lenski theorized that humans stopped being "animals" about twenty thousand years ago when culture replaced instinct. Our economic system isn't based around the idea of fair or secure, just the pursuit of "more" and the expectation that everyone else pursuing "more" will eventually balance it all out. But obviously, that's not the case.

 

[JustKneller]

This just happened to come up on my feed.

There was one line in this article that really stood out for me:

"Concord, on the other hand, was a brand-new franchise that didn’t get much of a marketing push and drew the ire of “anti-woke” snivelers who complained about the game’s use of pronouns on its character selection screen."

I'm not looking to open a can of worms with the whole woke vs. anti-woke debate. If anything, I'm anti-both-sides. However, what stood out to me is the catch-22 of it. So, a game is going to be killed if anti-woke people complain about inclusivity. I'm assuming the converse is true. A game may be killed if it isn't inclusive enough when all the woke people start whinging. That's literally an impossible line to walk. One might as well not bother making any games, as one will never win over both sides.

Food for thought.