Industry News / Upcoming Games

[Antimatter]

Have we accepted, in general, the idea of a Season Pass as a way for studios to continue working on new content after the game's release?

How about charging extra for content that is ready to play on release day? The decision to lock a whole mission behind a Season Pass and promote it as a "Day 1 Exclusive" can do nothing but upset players who have been planning to spend $70 USD on the game already.

Star Wars Outlaws locks Jabba the Hutt mission behind $110 premium edition | VGC

Players will have to buy the Gold Edition to access the mission at launch…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Chronicler]

Day 1 DLC is not great, but I'm not immediately seeing how packaging it in a Season's Pass is any scummier than it already was. That being said, I've never played a game with a season's pass, and am only going by the article's description of how they work.

 

[Antimatter]

I have never been ok with BattleState Games (developer on Escape From Tarkov) because they supported the invasion of Ukraine. Now there is a chance Escape from Tarkov players will leave en masse.

How Escape From Tarkov wiped out years of goodwill in one catastrophic week

The $250 Unheard Edition should have been unseen.

www.pcgamer.com

"How to kill your insanely popular 7 year old game in 2 days": Escape from Tarkov's Latest Statement Throws Fuel on The Unheard Edition Controversy

Escape from Tarkov, the multiplayer first-person shooter title from Battlestate Games, has been the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. The developer

fandomwire.com

 

[Antimatter]

If you thought a 250 USD edition of a game was bad, how about making a PSN account a requirement to be able to play a PC game released 3 months ago? Should be working especially well for countries with no PSN...

Helldivers 2 PC players will be forced to link to a PSN account later this month for greater security from Sony

Technical difficulties made linking optional at launch

www.gamesradar.com

You can check the reactions everywhere, e.g. on Reddit:

 

[JustKneller]

I'll take "Why I stopped using Steam and only get games DRM-free through GoG now" for 500, Alex.

 

[Chronicler]

Apparently when 10 000+ negative reviews for your product appear in under 24 hours, executives notice.

 

[Antimatter]

Apparently when 10 000+ negative reviews for your product appear in under 24 hours, executives notice.

Yeah, I think it was more than 210k reviews (negative) in 3 days. I'm happy that the community won there. Should be a good example for the whole industry going forward, same as with Hasbro and the DnD license just 1 year ago.

 

[mlnevese]

Also Steam was refunding the game even if you had more than 2 hours in it. Saw some people who had 70+ hours thanking Steam for the refund.

 

[Chronicler]

I hear Steam was also planning to remove the game from their store in countries that did not have PSN Service, something that honestly should've been done from the getgo if the PSN was going to be mandatory.

 

[Antimatter]

Oh no. Tango Gameworks and Arcane Austin closed...

Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda - IGN

Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.

www.ign.com

 

[JustKneller]

Holy hell. I'm a big fan of Obsidian and inXile and I'm generally aware of Bethesda because they now have Fallout. There was a lot of chatter after the MS acquisition of Bethesda about how, maybe if we're lucky, MS will push the Fallout IP over to Obsidian for another title (since New Vegas was a fan fav). However, the larger dialogue was about how they doubt MS was going to be hands on because (at the time) people believed their goal/strategy was just to gain ownership of anything of value and they were more focused on their console wars with Sony.

 

[Antimatter]

Yeah, this is probably the worst studio closure in the last 2 years. And it doesn't say anything good re/Obsidian's or even Bethesda's futures in case their games do not sell "enough" no matter what critical and player reception they get.

'

 

[JustKneller]

And it doesn't say anything good re/Obsidian's or even Bethesda's futures

No joke! Like Obsidian isn't really a lowest common denominator developer and inXile is even less so. Bethesda has the chops for it, but attempting it with the Fallout IP hasn't done themselves any favors. I'm telling ya, this is like that critical mass theory I mentioned in another post. Eventually, no success will be good enough.

 

[Chronicler]

That was the story with Banjo Kazooie back in the day, wasn't it?

Rare makes two beloved and financially successful games. Gets bought by Microsoft. Gets immediately dismantled. Twenty years later Microsoft remembers they have that IP and makes something with an entirely different crew that has none of the same magic or charm to it.

 

[Antimatter]

Concerns Mount For ‘Hellblade 2’ And The Fate Of Ninja Theory Under Microsoft

What Microsoft has broadcast by closing down Tango Gameworks, developer of Hi-Fi Rush, is that it doesn’t matter if your game is beloved and well-reviewed,

www.forbes.com

Hellblade 2 can launch, be a good game, get good reviews, even win awards, and a studio like Ninja Theory still cannot feel safe, cannot know for sure if something like what happened with Hi-Fi Rush and Tango can happen to them. And if Microsoft reassures them that it won’t, how can they be trusted now?

Especially considering this:

Ninja Theory Co-Founder Has Left The Hellblade 2 Studio

Xbox confirms that the co-founder of Hellblade developer Ninja Theory has officially departed from the acclaimed studio.

gamerant.com

 

[Chronicler]

Job security basically doesn't exist in the modern marketplace. The sword of damocles hangs above every head.

 

[mlnevese]

EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO

"Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us."

www.tomshardware.com

 

[JustKneller]

@minevese I just read the title of that and my first thought was, "Fuck that shit." I would straight up hard pass on any game that has ads in game.

 

[O_Bruce]

If true, then EA plans to speedrun their way into being the worst company ever. By the way, why won't we use AI to replace CEOs? I mean, that would drastically change the allocation of production budgets for the better and nothing of actual value would be lost.

 

[Black Elk]

"It's In the Game!"

lol Good job Electronic Arts! 'Dynamic Ad Insertion' sounds like the fastest and most expedient way to fuck your whole player base at once hehe.

Meet "Nifty" our new personal assistant/ad assassin dominatrix (for only 4.99 more per month than the standard not quite freemium plan) powered by AI CRYPTO for a dying world... Noms!

We believe that 50% of our development processes will be positively impacted by 100% of our greed and indifference. I mean why settle for less, when we can gamble on those 1000% returns that our savviest investors keep imagining must exist? Who needs a sensible 5-10% profit margin, when you could lose it all for one shot at the advertisers Mega Lotto?! Quick, fire everyone!!! Then gather together for a big board meeting where we can take turns putting our feet in each other's mouths. Sounds rad

ps. BREAKING!

heheh