So... When does the government take action against Microsoft for lying about the Activision merger and how there wouldnt be layoffs?
Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
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Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#92I feel like AAA gaming has just gotten too big, the time between releases is way too long compared to back in the 2000s and try to hard to big massive open world or movie quality cinematic experience. I feel similar about Sony.
Nintendo on the other hand seems have a good balance of putting out quality games of various ambition with a good frequency
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't play games at all so I'm very out of the loop but gamepass was a failure? I have friends at Microsoft who worked on it and they all seemed to think it was going well last I checked (about a year ago).
> gamepass was a failure? I'm amazed that this is a question. Gamepass is essentially so low cost as to be an incredibly costly giveaway, only it has proven that this devalues everything that touches it. For context, Hifi Rush had 3 million players on Gamepass last August, and today they shut the studio. So even when they get a break out hit they cannot justify keeping the studios around to try and do another; that's…
Until I see actual numbers on Gamepass I won’t believe that it was a failure. It isn’t a direct comparison of “gamers are spending $10 instead of $70”. People who would not buy a game that just came out will willingly pay for Gamepass every month. Gamepass also exists on PC, so Xbox is dipping into a user base which otherwise might not buy many products from them.
Yes they almost definitely make less money from some people, but they might make that back and more from people who otherwise would not be buying their games. It’s hard to use your intuition here without some numbers
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#94Corporate prioritization is the ultimate cookie cutter, doomed to produce the most generic thing possible.
The already existing and extremely powerful paperclip maximizers.
Indeed, modern public corporations are already functionally equivalent to AGIs in many ways, with a legal obligation to maximize profit by any means.
Not sure why this is not a more common point in AI doomsaying discussions.
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think many of my most favorite games have been AA games. Though "what counts as AA" is probably a big question. Hi-Fi Rush, was a delightful game that earned every $ I spent, but didn't feel like a AAA title. Hades is a delightful game that earned every penny but which wasn't a "AAA" title. I wouldn't call either games "indie", as they both had dozens of people on the teams that made them. But I'd also guess that b…
Deep rock galactic Dave the diver Spiritfairer Frostpunk Should i keep going?
Dave the diver is definitely not an "AA" game. It's so indie looking it was nominated for multiple indie awards (even if it's not an actual indie game). DRG is not AA either, according to its homepage GhostShip has 32 people 4 years after launching it. Same for Spiritfairer, it was built by a team of 16.
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#96Looking 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.
Immersive Sim + "I have to keep up with the latest AAA game standards for graphics" probably is doomed. We really need to give them permission to not have to be up to that graphics standard. Permission to not have to be fully voiced would be nice too. Right now they're in an ugly place where they're still awfully large for an indie or AA studio, but an AAA studio still largely won't make anything that doesn't drive t…
I almost wonder if one could make immersive sims for VR, though such an experiment would probably be incredibly intensive for a relatively minuscule playerbase.
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not for XBox though. Mine has turned into an expensive paperweight we occasionally use to play the same 2-3 local co-op games we played 4 years ago.
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.
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only one, Redfall. They're only closing Arkane Austin, not Arkane Lyon. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkane_Studios#Games_developed
This seems bizarre to me. They're closing the one that made Prey 2017. Is it because labor is cheaper in France vs in Austin, USA? Or maybe because everybody who was involved with making Prey left during the shitshow that was Redfall? Or a combination maybe? I can't imagine giving Harvey Smith the axe, though I guess he'll be one of the handful who'll be shuffled off to work on something else inside Bethesda.
Harvey Smith making a Fallout would be a sight to behold, shame Todd won't let him
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#99I’m calling it now, in five years Bethesda will be making more money with Fallout and Elder Scrolls television shows than their games
I think the Starfield TV show is going to have difficulties, it'll just be people switching between planets every scene.
Re: Microsoft closes several large Bethesda affiliated game studios
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get that "indie" is often viewed as the 3rd option alongside AAA and AA but I don't think that's the right definition. For me AAA and AA is about scope of the project. The 3rd option is "small", not "indie". Hades (I don't know Hi-Fi Rush) is by all means a small game, regardless of how many developers worked on it. Same for Minecraft, or many of the games that other commentors posted. You want a good measure? Chec…
Sadly, people use indie to mean small, rather than it's actual meaning of "independent of a publisher", and it's one of those things that I've nearly given up on fighting. It's even more sad because the only reason that change happened was big publishers wanting in on the success of indie games as a label and concept, but by definition being excluded, so they pushed their own definition, and people gobbled up their c…
> Sadly, people use indie to mean small, rather than it's actual meaning of "independent of a publisher"
That is way too imprecise a description for it to possibly be considered correct.
Indie is about financial and creative independence aka the publisher does not drive the game.
Many indies still go through publishers because they don't have the means or knowledge to handle distribution. This was even more so back when you had to distribute via physical media, but they start looking for publishers once the game is done or in good shape.
For instance back when they built Bastion SuperGiant had just 7 people and it was entirely self-funded. But they went to WB for publishing, mainly to ensure getting it on XBLA would not be too much of a hassle.