Submitted 3 months ago by Carighan@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
What’s interesting to me is of course how cheaply Bioshock got made compared to today’s blockbuster hits. Somewhere, we took the wrong turn in regards to modern game development, truly.
Too many managers to pay and as a result too high personel costs, I would assume. :<
Skyrim was made a staff of around 100 people.
Starfield was made with a staff of around 450. It’s worse in almost every way.
Too many cooks.
Also too many mouths to feed. When you’ve got so many people (including admin) to keep paying, then you can’t “afford” to make a cute little experiment. You’ve got to go huge production, latest fads, cutting edge, and super broad appeal.
What kind of identity can a game like that even hope to have?
One that appeals to a mindless horde of idiots that need the newest shiny.
You’re forgetting all the labor by mod authors to fix Skyrim.
/s kinda
And skyrim<Oblivion<Morrowind. I don’t like the trend.
Morrowind is only “good” because of nostalgia graphics Oblivion > Morrowind
We can’t make art because of capitalism. Fucking sad.
They don’t sell because no fucking company wants to market a product that they can’t milk every fucking cent from. They aren’t producing anything of value, only subscriptions, game passes and addictive gambling loot boxes.
Games as a service is a scam. Stop preordering the latest AAA wank and support indie devs.
More standalone experiences that are unique and creative instead of factory produced sludge.
There are still good AAA games. The trick is to wait for reviews with gameplay videos and only buy the good ones.
Yeah, buy them two years later once the bugs have been finally patched and the DRM is ripped out and gameplay doesn’t stutter anymore.
Or just 🏴☠️ AAA and give that money to indie devs that are actually trying to produce a unique and creative experience.
Bro, most of the games I’ve been playing are ports of older titles, Indie Games, or straight up non-profit fan games (Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers is the kart game of the ever btw)
Try space station 14!
Marketing is a big money drain for a lot of games too. Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V are two games with marketing budgets big enough to finance a dozen other games. I guess a new title like cyberpunk would need more marketing (still not $142 million worth of marketing) but GTA was already a well established franchise that probably didn’t need as much marketing as it had.
Even games like call of duty and assassins creed which have a core fan base that can expect a new game on a regular basis don’t need to market as much as they do.
“We can’t make those games because they don’t sell”
“We” as in Irrational Games? Or “We” as a industry?
Small 20 ppl studios are cranking out some really cool games that don’t need AAA budgets. They will be the ones making the next BioShock.
And AAA budgets could crank out fantastic games if they put all their money into think-tanks full of designers instead of thinking graphics hit as hard as they did 10 years ago.
The companies that made your favorite games aren’t privately owned anymore, they’re publicly traded now. That’s why it all sucks.
Or microtransactions/battle passes/dlc.
Yeah it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’re not blowing millions of dollars on the salaries & golden parachutes of completely worthless executives.
Nah modern game development is fantastic. Y’all just dunt remember getting 2 good titles a year and the rest being garbage. There is more great games out there than ever before.
I actually agree. If you don’t just focus on the tippy-top AAA/AAAA live service / gambling simulators, then there are some incredible games coming out all the time.
Arguably, the “triple-I” Indies and AA mid studios have taken over the culture/price-range/innovation niche vacated by the big studios climbing over each other to impress shareholders.
Name a year that only had two AAA games come out that were any good.
Now, we just have great access to a bunch of lower budget indie games that put gameplay over graphics, so they can take more risks and some of those games are fantastic. But there hasn’t been “just two” good games a year in the past 30 years.
You are totally right. We are living in a golden age of not only video games, but entertainment in general, thanks to ridiculously powerful computers and the internet. People with video game nostalgia remember how those old games made them feel, because the games were new and exciting and they were young. But video games (and board games) have done nothing but improve over the years as developers figure what works and what doesn’t.
Nowadays there is just of ton of…everything. We are spoiled for choice. There are so many excellent games at every price point, and also tons of crap, and yes, too much shovelware and too many rehashed franchise games. But here’s the thing: these things aren’t mutually exclusive. We have all of it, all at once, and reviews and advice are everywhere. If someone is tired of rehashed AAA franchise games, they can spend the rest of their lives playing clever indie games and they’ll still barely scratch the surface of what’s available.
Make them good instead.
Is Prey 2017 bad? It flopped, as did Okami.
I just got it, so I guess I’ll find out.
Reminder that Arkane was on bad waters before Red Fall, immersive sims just aren’t that popular with a lot of people, and these companies want to do AAA with everything.
Don’t sell? Bukllshit
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 3 months ago
We overpay executives, who overpay consultants, who tell companies to churn out cash grabs that test well.
This doesn’t pain me. I have enough indie games to occupy my time.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 3 months ago
The cancellation of Deus Ex Mankind Divided Part 2, pained me quite a lot.
But I’m sure the executives that got a fat bonus were happier than I was upset. (insert meme happiness comic)
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 months ago
I contend that the next great Deus Ex game will not come out of Ubi, and it won’t be under the name Deus Ex, but it will be a new kind of immersive sim made with love by developers who grew up on the originals.
I contend this for a lot of the classic franchises tbh
slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Whoh there mate, you are forgetting shareholders. They are the ones you truly need to please as they are the ones that can actually fire a board.