to many companies operating like a locust swarm
acquire, consume, destroy
The gaming industry is taking this 1983 retro thing too far.
Yep. I have a friend who works there, well I guess he use to. Get ready for a wave of shitty videogames all written and designed by AI in the coming years.
They should let AI be the CEO’s too
AI comes up with bad ideas just like CEOs.
Hey, atleast you don’t gotta pay them
How many game studios is that within a 2 month period?!
I don’t know any 2 months but it seems like the U.S. based game industry companies are now on a roll to see which can close more studios per ceo now.
Not just the U.S.
Avalanche Studios has their headquarters in Sweden and they’re closing their studio in Canada (per this article). Additionally, Phoenix Labs (Dauntless & Fae Farm) is a Canadian game developer and they just let go of a significant number of developers and cancelled all future projects (about 3 weeks ago): https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/dauntless-developer-phoenix-labs-lays-off-employees-and-cancels-in-development-projects-says-its-the-last-resort-to-ensure-phoenix-labs-can-survive/While Microsoft was the one shutting down multiple Game Developers last month, those studios are also based all over:
Tango Gameworks - Japan
Alpha Dog Games - Canada
Arkane Studios - (Headquarters in France, but shutting down their Studio in the U.S.)
Roundhouse Studios - U.S.Edit: formatting
Maybe they can change their fortunes by not making the exact same fucking game 20 times in a row.
Just Cause, Rage 2, Mad Max, Generation Zero, The Hunter ARE THE SAME FUCKING THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN
Just Cause 2 was their big hit, so they kept trying to make Just Cause 2 again with every subsequent game, Just Cause or otherwise.
Lightening doesn’t strike twice.
Okay, I’ll bite. How are all of those the same?
All rely heavily on fetch quests as the basis of their game loop, and all of them are flavored fetch quests. I played Generation Zero and got sick of it quick, and it quickly became apparent as I played Rage 2 that this is most of the experience.
Isn’t that more of a problem with game design in general though? I’d argue if you’re going with just that example then Rage 2 is the same as most MMOs. Go here, kill things, go back and deliver items, etc. Also, how are those two games similar to Just Cause or Mad Max?
Well, for Generation Zero, I felt like the closer I got to the endgame and FNIX Rising the more obvious it got that Avalanche really expected you to do middling discovery and fetch quests to prepare, and it becomes incredibly unbalanced system wise (especially in FNIX Rising, which is tacked on crap that had no playtesting for balance). I saw a similar pattern in Rage 2.
Generation Zero was a really, really, really bad first experience for me.
Sounds like you don’t like open worlds. Maybe don’t play them?
I actually liked New Vegas’ open world and its a miracle it turned out the way it did, and within the span of a year. Night City too, but CDPR had a long time to get it right and I even waited a year and a half post-release.
Nooooooo!
