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Industry News / Upcoming Games
- Thread starter Antimatter
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The reality here is that probably only 10% of games actually release, and 90% die while still in production, or even earlier. It's especially bad with games that are not sequels in well-known franchises. This is why any developer/publisher would take guaranteed money from Game Pass (or an exclusive platform such as EGS to an extent) instead of going for potentially more sales.
Chronicler
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I hear a lot of comic professionals and animators talk about that too. You spend years toiling away on something you can't even talk about because of a nondisclosure agreement, only for corporate to scrap the project before it ever sees the light of day. On a personal level you wanna be able to show off your work but also it's a bit of a sandbag to your career too.
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I've actually had the same thought for a while, and I'm happy more people see it now:
www.pcgamer.com
PC gamers are getting fed up with one shitty port after another
Everything comes to PC now, but it sure feels like there's something wrong with practically every major release.
www.pcgamer.com
Chronicler
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Etrian Odyssey fans are pretty excited to get what looks like a pretty barebones port right now.
But that's just because Atlas hadn't done anything with the franchise for so long, we were starting to worry it was dead.
And even then I'm seeing a lot of people pissed that the ports cost as much as the original games when they were new. And also a lot of people pretty put off by the careless font choices of the port. I'm always surprised by how many people there are with very strong opinions about fonts.
But that's just because Atlas hadn't done anything with the franchise for so long, we were starting to worry it was dead.
And even then I'm seeing a lot of people pissed that the ports cost as much as the original games when they were new. And also a lot of people pretty put off by the careless font choices of the port. I'm always surprised by how many people there are with very strong opinions about fonts.
Chronicler
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Also, those games have stopped being sold digitally, and physical copies have grown quite expensive, because Atlas never produces enough copies to meet demand, and the fanbase has grown quite a lot since those early games were published.
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Paradox Interactive happened today.
Cities Skylines II announced, a sequel to an acclaimed city builder. I'm excited.
Life by You teased, a competitor to Sims 5 maybe? Hopefully.
Harebrained Schemes announced a new turn-based strategy game, The Lamplighters League.
www.ign.com
And, for @Skatan and other EU4 fans, an expansion to Europe Universalis 4 announced:
www.pcgamesn.com
Cities Skylines II announced, a sequel to an acclaimed city builder. I'm excited.
Life by You teased, a competitor to Sims 5 maybe? Hopefully.
Harebrained Schemes announced a new turn-based strategy game, The Lamplighters League.
The Lamplighters League - Official Announcement Trailer - IGN
Check out the announcement trailer for The Lamplighters League, an upcoming game featuring a mix of real-time infiltration, turn-based tactical combat, and a character-driven story of adventure and intrigue. Sneak, steal, and shoot your way through a world of pulp adventure. The Lamplighters...
And, for @Skatan and other EU4 fans, an expansion to Europe Universalis 4 announced:
Europa Universalis 4 DLC to overhaul some of the most popular nations
Europa Universalis 4 DLC Domination has been announced by Paradox, and it'll take the grand strategy game to newer and more immersive heights.
www.pcgamesn.com
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Rough weeks for Private Division, a game publisher.
First, Kerbal Space Program 2 launched into Early Access in a very bad state.
www.gamesradar.com
www.eurogamer.net
And then yesterday The Outer Worlds' new version tanked in Steam reviews as well. The story with The Witcher 3 Next-Gen upgrade is nothing compared to this.
www.pcgamer.com
First, Kerbal Space Program 2 launched into Early Access in a very bad state.
Kerbal Space Program 2 Early Access divides fans over performance issues, bugs, and more
Failure to launch
www.gamesradar.com
Kerbal Space Program 2 player count has already dropped below first game
Kerbal Space Program 2 has had a rocky launch.
And then yesterday The Outer Worlds' new version tanked in Steam reviews as well. The story with The Witcher 3 Next-Gen upgrade is nothing compared to this.
The Outer Worlds' new version is getting slammed on Steam—'Spacer's Choice Edition: now with 200% more performance issues!'
The new edition has "mostly negative" Steam reviews, with numerous players complaining of performance issues not present in the original.
www.pcgamer.com
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And looks like we have one of the bigger news for the whole industry.
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-self-publishing/
And here is the interview with Tim Sweeney: https://venturebeat.com/games/epic-...ublishing-tools-for-game-devs-and-publishers/
Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store. The interview has A LOT of info on numbers and intentions.
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-self-publishing/
And here is the interview with Tim Sweeney: https://venturebeat.com/games/epic-...ublishing-tools-for-game-devs-and-publishers/
Epic Games announced it is bringing self-publishing tools for game developers and publishers to the Epic Games Store. The interview has A LOT of info on numbers and intentions.
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Sounds like smaller games will gradually stop picking the EGS as an exclusive platform, and that store will be left for bigger titles (as exclusives). It's reasonable at least because smaller titles just couldn't get enough players if they didn't come to Steam.
www.pcgamer.com
On a side, a great observation about the Hogwarts Legacy game and The Last of Us show successes and what it means for the whole industry:
www.gamesindustry.biz
Epic isn't done with Epic Games Store exclusives, it's just focused on big ones
Epic-published games like Alan Wake 2 will be EGS exclusives, not that there was much doubt about that.
www.pcgamer.com
On a side, a great observation about the Hogwarts Legacy game and The Last of Us show successes and what it means for the whole industry:
Two decades later, the cross-media dream is a reality | Opinion
On the face of it, there aren't too many points of comparison between The Last of Us and Hogwarts Legacy, beyond the fa…
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Steam is just more widely known and trusted and it's hard to build up a serious competition with that.
I personally only have the free giveaways on EGS too, and besides their launcher is a really greedy performance vampire even on my new laptop.
What seems to be affecting their popularity more is the ongoing rumour or suspicion or worry that they might forward data to the Chinese government because Tencent holds 48% of Epic Games, especially now that the Chinese government wants to take the "golden share" of 1% ownership in local units of Tencent the way they did with ByteDance (TikTok).
(see this Financial Times article from January)
It looks more like an attempt to get more control over what those tech giants can broadcast in China, though.
Also, if people avoid Epic Games because Tencent holds 48%, they might want to remember they hold 38% of Discord, too, and I don't hear anyone ever worrying about it.
I personally only have the free giveaways on EGS too, and besides their launcher is a really greedy performance vampire even on my new laptop.
What seems to be affecting their popularity more is the ongoing rumour or suspicion or worry that they might forward data to the Chinese government because Tencent holds 48% of Epic Games, especially now that the Chinese government wants to take the "golden share" of 1% ownership in local units of Tencent the way they did with ByteDance (TikTok).
(see this Financial Times article from January)
It looks more like an attempt to get more control over what those tech giants can broadcast in China, though.
Also, if people avoid Epic Games because Tencent holds 48%, they might want to remember they hold 38% of Discord, too, and I don't hear anyone ever worrying about it.
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Felipe Pepe updated his book about computer RPGs and it's absolutely free as a PDF.
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Remedy is one of the few studios left maintaining their own proprietary tech (I can think of Larian as well here; CDPR moved on to use the UE5 now). They've released a video about their in-house technology, Northlight. The video gives an insight into the game development process.
A hint from Antimatter: if you haven't played Control yet, DO IT!
A hint from Antimatter: if you haven't played Control yet, DO IT!
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Gaming is not always about being pretty and nice, unfortunately.
www.pcgamer.com
"The cancellation has been met with disappointed head-shaking on Twitter, but not a great deal of surprise. Death threats are a problem for everyone in the games business, from employees of giant corporations to solo developers. In recent memory we've covered threats received by Bungie, CD Projekt, Twitch streamers, and modders, which are just a few instances among many more."
www.pcgamer.com
"Over on the Disco Elysium subreddit, one of only two pinned posts is a detailed breakdown of just why fans are so upset about Collage Mode (the other pinned post? The Collage Mode announcement). The top-rated comment, from loudmouth_kenzo, reads, "Stealing another’s created world, one that had been developed over years and with the input of close friends, is not just theft of intellectual property. It is a crime that shows an internal rot, a black mark on the soul. Absolutely demonic." If the Collage Mode was meant to distract people from the struggle around ZA/UM, it seems to have achieved just the opposite."
Rust developer cancels community event due to death threats
Facepunch had planned to meet up with game developers and fans near GDC.
www.pcgamer.com
"The cancellation has been met with disappointed head-shaking on Twitter, but not a great deal of surprise. Death threats are a problem for everyone in the games business, from employees of giant corporations to solo developers. In recent memory we've covered threats received by Bungie, CD Projekt, Twitch streamers, and modders, which are just a few instances among many more."
Disco Elysium fans blast 'absolutely demonic' ZA/UM execs for new photo mode: 'it wasn't enough to rob the creators of their own work, you had to turn it into this meme ridden sludge, too'
"[You] know you will never produce anything with 1/1000th the artistic merit yourselves so now you have to grind it down for fertilizer".
www.pcgamer.com
"Over on the Disco Elysium subreddit, one of only two pinned posts is a detailed breakdown of just why fans are so upset about Collage Mode (the other pinned post? The Collage Mode announcement). The top-rated comment, from loudmouth_kenzo, reads, "Stealing another’s created world, one that had been developed over years and with the input of close friends, is not just theft of intellectual property. It is a crime that shows an internal rot, a black mark on the soul. Absolutely demonic." If the Collage Mode was meant to distract people from the struggle around ZA/UM, it seems to have achieved just the opposite."
Fandraxx
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Don't know if it's been mentioned, but some of the old silver box games, which have been conspicuously absent from places like GOG and Steam (especially since the gold box titles were released ages ago), are finally getting a release later this month.
www.pcgamer.com
8 D&D classics including Spelljammer and a Silver Box bundle are headed to Steam and GOG
Spelljammer, DragonStrike, Heroes of the Lance, and more will join the great Gold Box games that came out last year.
www.pcgamer.com
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This has been generating a lot of bad comments online everywhere. We have a thread about using the AI for art, but how about... using the AI for game dialogues...
techcrunch.com
www.gamesradar.com
Ubisoft's new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters
Ubisoft announced that it's using an AI "Ghostwriter" tool to automatically write dialogue for some NPCs in its games.
techcrunch.com
Former Watch Dogs lead defends Ubisoft's new AI assistant writing tool
There's been a sustained backlash to Ubisoft's new tool since it was first revealed
www.gamesradar.com
m7600
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AI is starting to appear more and more in all kinds of areas... I don't think it's necessarily a good thing, but it seems inevitable.
Not to go too off topic, but here's a case in point:
www.businessinsider.com
There won't be any AI lawyers for now. But in 10 years, who knows?
Not to go too off topic, but here's a case in point:
'Robot lawyer' DoNotPay is being sued by a law firm because it 'does not have a law degree'
DoNotPay, which uses AI to provide legal services, is facing a class action lawsuit filed by Chicago-based law firm Edelson.
There won't be any AI lawyers for now. But in 10 years, who knows?