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Comment on Cities: Skylines 2 devs warn players of performance problems: 'we have not achieved the benchmark we targeted'

Aielman15@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I’m kind of used of devs releasing apologies for their games after a bad release and the following review bombing. It’s almost guaranteed to happen for any modern AAA game, it’s the sorry state of the industry. But now, we’ve reached a point where devs apologize for their games before they’re even released. This shit is hilarious.

What’s next? “We’re going to release a game four years from now. You should temper your expectations, it’s probably going to suck.”

I mean, kudos to them for warning the potential customers, instead of lying to them or luring them in with nice trailers and trying to silence journalists by prohibiting them from showing game footage (I think I remember someone doing that…). Although I’m not sure how I should thank them. Should I buy the game because they were honest? Or should I not buy it, because, well, they were honest? I’m confused.

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hiddengoat@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Given that Paradox has near decade-long lifecycles for their games the launch window is utterly meaningless. Hell, Europa Universalis IV had an expansion released earlier this year and it was released in 2013.

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- meatand2veg@lemmynsfw.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Imperator has entered the chat
  
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  - hiddengoat@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That game had the unfortunate timing of being released when everyone knew CK3 was around the corner. It ended up being seen as a stopgap release and that just got worse when CK3 came out. It got a couple of DLCs but the players just weren't there anymore. It has some good ideas.
    
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    Microw@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Tbf the whole game was someone taking the half-developed CK3 and slapping an antiquity simulator on top of that.
    
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- JustZ@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I wonder what is the oldest game to get a real expansion.
  
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  - andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Of singleplayer games, it may be Quake. This one was created before the recent remaster and compatible with different engines.
    
    In honor of Quake’s 20th anniversary, MachineGames, an internal development studio of ZeniMax Media, who are the current owners of the Quake IP, released online a new expansion pack for free, called Episode 5: Dimension of the Past.
    
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    hiddengoat@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Episode 6: Dimension of the Machine was released in 2021. Quake was released in 1996, making it 25 years.
    
    I have a feeling there's probably some obscure-ass Nethack clone that's been getting regular updates since the creator first programmed it on a PDP/11 but outside of that I can't think of any actual commercial products that have received expansions that long after.
    
    Sigil doesn't count, but it should.
    
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jedibob5@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I mean, I think it just demonstrates that the problem is not on a development level, but rather on a project management and (particularly) an executive level.

Crunch and unreasonable deadlines in the gaming industry are the norm, and there’s too much pressure from higher up to deliver a product as soon as possible, even if it isn’t 100% ready.

Unfortunately, there’s no real good answer for this as a consumer… If the game does well, the execs who set the deadlines pocket the profits. If it does poorly, the developers who worked on it bear the brunt of it by either getting insufficient raises, an even higher level of pressure on the next game, or at worst, get laid off.

The real answer would be widespread industry unionization. Efforts to do this are ever-so-slowly being made, but it’s not even remotely close to being a reality. I’d say that if the game appeals to you and you don’t mind performance issues at launch, buy it, but if not, then don’t.

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- hiddengoat@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You're failing to take Paradox's lifecycles into account. Even though they're only the publisher, keep in mind that they're used to supporting games for 8-10 years after launch. Cities: Skylines came out in 2015 and has seen continual development ever since. Its performance was also abysmal at a point, but people kept playing and the devs kept improving it to the point where nobody even fully remembers why we cared about SimCity going to shit when Cities: Skylines was right there.
  
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- Korkki@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  problem is not on a development level, but rather on a project management and (particularly) an executive level.
  
  In any industry as time progresses the production becomes more and more capital intensive and that needs more and bigger investors and all that capital means that there is a bigger risk and that is mitigated by the investors by requiring “their guys” to staff the management and these people are unusually really bad for the technical and actual value side of the business on the long run, because they are usually people with financial or marketing backgrounds. They fundamentally work by the logic of profit maximization and there are always easier and more surefire ways toi achieve that than with supplying a good product. It’s even worse when the end product is something that could be considered “art”. In AAA it all eventually leads into pushing bland installments of the same once successful franchise out one after another because that is where the risks are lowest and money is made.
  
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llii@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Should I buy the game because they were honest? Or should I not buy it, because, well, they were honest? I’m confused.

Wait for the release and reviews. Then decide if you want to buy the game or not.

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AProfessional@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s possible some machines power through it. Just don’t preorder it and wait until you know it will work for you.

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DancingIsForbidden@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
the game will be optimized eventually. if you want to wait until then, do so. me, I just want to play this. I don’t care I’ve been waiting a long time for this game, and I have a very powerful desktop PC so I don’t really care.

I am upset they do not have a native Linux build, however. Aont I don’t care that proton has gotten good, a game like this needs to run natively to get the full experience.

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pimento64@sopuli.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I would say what’s next is preemptively decrying death threats, but they already do that when they preemptively fabricate the death threats.

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- AProfessional@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  As a software developer I can say threats from users are absolutely real unfortunately. A lot of people suck and it’s easy to hear from them.
  
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  - pimento64@sopuli.xyz ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Sure. But if you know your product is going to be trash, why not jump ahead of the curve and victimize yourself to start with? It’s not difficult to do these days, and why wouldn’t you do it? Altruism? At this point, not assuming this happens is just naive.
    
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