Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#171

Post by Vt71fcAqt7 » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:06 PM UTC

anonbanker wrote: post #167

chownie wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The classic description for this is "being out of touch" with the given media. Not sure if it's something to be proud of.

There is nothing more freeing than being "out of touch" with media. I got rid of my TV in 2000, and my life improved dramatically. I stopped playing AAA in 2009, and my life improved dramatically. Indie games, specifically the Godot dev scene, is where the real innovation in gaming is happening. When AAA implodes, you'll learn what you were missing all along.

It just sounds like you mainly like 2d platformers and open source (which is fine). But Godot isn't nearly the best engine to use for 3D, and arguably may not even the best of the open soucre engines (for example O3DE may be better, although almost no one is using it right now). Most 3D indie devs are using Unity and many are switching to Unreal now just like AAA (for example Palwolrd). I think "out of touch" here means making false claims about something you (not you specifically but GP) don't even care to know about.

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#172

Post by mvdtnz » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:17 PM UTC

maxrecursion wrote: post #81

DannyPage wrote: post #3

Hi-Fi Rush was a fantastic game, won major awards, showed off the promise of XBox Game Pass… and for their efforts their studio has been shut down. There have multiple instances of this in just the past few weeks; are publishers really going to just bet on their prime AAA titles (Call of Duty, Halo, GTA6, etc) and nothing else? And those games either take a lot of rotating studios and a long development cycle to rele…

Game development is in a really weird place. Insanely over-saturated but almost all AAA games are extremely derivative, stale, bland games with a coat of pretty graphics Indie games are awesome right now, but they don't have the budgets to produce AAA games. So there is a huge gap. Innovative indie games with cool, new gameplay concepts, but always simple or retro graphics, and AAA games with shiny graphics on the ot…

For me indie gaming is going through its own aggravating phase right now, but it seems most people aren't bothered by it. The quality of the games is better than ever, but every indie title now goes through Early Access, sometimes for several years. By the time the game is released the hype cycle has already finished.

For people like me who play games just a couple of hours a week, I have no interest in playing an unfinished game. I have a library of games bigger than I could ever play and I will always skip the EA stuff.

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#173

Post by dvngnt_ » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

_mlbt wrote: post #132

Goronmon wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insanely over-saturated but almost all AAA games are extremely derivative, stale, bland games with a coat of pretty graphics... People have been saying this for decades at this point. I'm not seeing it. Innovation is largely overrated. It can be a good thing, but the vast majority of games, whether AAA or indie, can't be truly innovative. And innovative doesn't translate directly to a game being enjoyable. Conversely…

Spot on. I want Elder Scrolls 6 to basically be Skyrim in a stunning new location, with better graphics. Ditto for Forza Horizon 6 and the next installment of The Witcher.

the morrowind fans are turning in their graves

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#174

Post by bpiche » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

mepian wrote: post #49

Apocryphon wrote: post #31

Looking Glass, Irrational Games, Ion Storm, Arkane. Wonder if immersive sims are fated to be an over-ambitious, under-sold, mass audience-unfriendly genre made by doomed studios.

Arkane's Prey is one of my favorite games ever, shame they were "rewarded" like this.

The Dishonored games were great. At least they wrapped up the story before they got canned. Wonderful painterly art style and imaginative gameplay.

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#175

Post by phone8675309 » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:34 PM UTC

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #97

somenameforme wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty easy to convert your TV to a PC console. Just grab a HDMI/DisplayPort cable and some USB cables for controllers. Wire your TV up, start Steam Big Picture mode, done. You now have a console with a zillion awesome games in the exact same place you had the console connected. Here's [1] the Steam page for split screen games. Currently there are 934. Can't go wrong with Earth Defense Force! And no you don't ne…

I'd really love cables from my office to my livingroom.

Do you have a smart TV or can you fit a streaming device or mini PC into your setup? If so, Steam Remote Play might fit the bill: https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay

Steam used to sell a device called Steam Link for this very purpose, but now they just release apps for common platforms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#176

Post by dvngnt_ » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

pteraspidomorph wrote: post #156

glenstein wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I have a hard time understanding the push to consolidate everything into a small set of core titles. Consider private label brands on Amazon, which at least maintain numerous distinct brand identites focusing on different categories. Having a portfolio of actually distinct companies with unique personalities and signature approaches to design and gameplay is exactly what you want if you are trying to maintain a…

> consolidate everything into a small set of core titles This already happened in the early 2000s. If you were around back then, you might remember how everything was sequels and rehashes for a while. Diversity of ideas returned to the industry only after it became practicable to publish and monetize indie games (post-Braid). Microsoft and Embracer recently bought the whole industry. Now they might be about to light…

the early 2000's was the ps2 which is the best selling console with the highest number of games shipped.

i can't remember a time when there was so many different games or high quality releasing so often.

there were sequels, but they was dropping every year while being improvements. we got 3 GTA games on the ps2; gta v got three playstation consoles

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#177

Post by bogwog » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:37 PM UTC

jarsin wrote: post #110

bogwog wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Hardware gives them the ability to create a monopoly on game publishing/distribution, which is why console games have always been so expensive. The platform holder can charge high fees to developers and demand high prices from consumers. That's nothing unique to the game industry. Microsoft has said they're trying to focus more on software, but that focus is on gamepass not games themselves. They wan…

360 + Gears of War was the best time in gaming. Look what they have done to Gears as well. Nobody even knows or hears anything about it anymore.

Gears 5 came out around 5 years ago. Considering the series has consistently rated very well, I doubt they killed it. They're probably just doing the modern AAA thing of spending a decade and a half working on a bloated game with unlimited budget. I bet we'll see one of those logo drops for Gears 6 soon (next showcase is in June), the game will release in a buggy/broken state with a flawless in-game store, the studio will get shut down, and then they'll announce the new Elder Scrolls game while everyone is pissed.

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#178

Post by chucke1992 » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

maxrecursion wrote: post #81

DannyPage wrote: post #3

Hi-Fi Rush was a fantastic game, won major awards, showed off the promise of XBox Game Pass… and for their efforts their studio has been shut down. There have multiple instances of this in just the past few weeks; are publishers really going to just bet on their prime AAA titles (Call of Duty, Halo, GTA6, etc) and nothing else? And those games either take a lot of rotating studios and a long development cycle to rele…

Game development is in a really weird place. Insanely over-saturated but almost all AAA games are extremely derivative, stale, bland games with a coat of pretty graphics Indie games are awesome right now, but they don't have the budgets to produce AAA games. So there is a huge gap. Innovative indie games with cool, new gameplay concepts, but always simple or retro graphics, and AAA games with shiny graphics on the ot…

Oh for sure. AAA games require too much effort and too much returns while indies can spend 1 year and 1 person and deliver hit being multiple time more profitable.

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#179

Post by hbn » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:51 PM UTC

wredue wrote: post #161

hbn wrote: post #103

Just yesterday there was a poll going around on Twitter of which of the big 3 gaming companies, Nintendo, Sony, and MS is the "least bad" or something like that, and I saw a lot of people saying Microsoft. I figured they'd do something stupid soon to remind everyone how Microsoft operates, but didn't think it would be so soon! I can't believe these studio acquisitions still aren't being blocked. At what point will th…

How on earth is MS the “least bad” in the wake of this massive anti-competitive practice of just buying up studios?

Every once in a while they'll do a generous move to essentially buy the good graces of gamers -- e.g. backwards compatibility, launching new releases day one on GamePass (I don't consider that a good thing but whatever), making some custom accessible controller for the disabled, etc.

But as with any shitty corporation like MS, it's not charity. It's an investment to distract everyone from the fact that they're a shitty corporation. And it works apparently!

Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios

#180

Post by VyseofArcadia » Tue, May 07, 2024, 6:54 PM UTC

nercury wrote: post #11

Corporate prioritization is the ultimate cookie cutter, doomed to produce the most generic thing possible.

Especially in this modern era of metrics and data-driven design[0]. It's just design by committee at scale.

[0] Why you would go hard on data-driven design in a creative field instead of trusting the instincts of creators I will never know.