Gaming News

K.O.Kiki

J. Marston wrote: »

Is there a market as apathetic as gamers?

WWE 2K20 is an utter shambles but will still sell loads and won't have any impact on the future of the series.

Fifa. People buy it every year, moan about it all year and then buy it again. I know because I did this for close to a decade. This year is the first I said "Fùck that" and haven't bought it.

Bethesda. Their games are such bug-riddled messes that it's become a meme and Todd Howard isn't viewed as a con-man but instead has this lovable rogue image.

The majority of "gamers" are not interested in the medium beyond a minor pastime to consume between beers & sleep.

Same way the majority of movie-goers don't give a damn about good stories/direction/productions beyond "omg COOL EXPLOSION!".

EoinHef

While im not particularly bothered by what they do in Fallout 76 it would worry me for their future titles like Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6.

Ah look as long as they continue to make games in the same engine I'm out. Whats happened here was predictable too, they set sail with harpoons at the ready to catch moby dick's and thats the path they are on now. The ship will either sink or enough people will buy into it to keep it afloat.

ERG89

EoinHef wrote: »

While im not particularly bothered by what they do in Fallout 76 it would worry me for their future titles like Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6.

Honestly I have even less faith in them now than I have in the husk that is Bioware

OptimusTractor

J. Marston wrote: »

Is there a market as apathetic as gamers?

WWE 2K20 is an utter shambles but will still sell loads and won't have any impact on the future of the series.

Fifa. People buy it every year, moan about it all year and then buy it again. I know because I did this for close to a decade. This year is the first I said "Fùck that" and haven't bought it.

Bethesda. Their games are such bug-riddled messes that it's become a meme and Todd Howard isn't viewed as a con-man but instead has this lovable rogue image.

Last Fifa I bought was 2009. The last COD was Black Ops 1. Every year the temptation is there that maybe this time it will be different but I've managed to resist.

Dr. Bre

If GTA was realeased every year would it be $hite?

SolvableKnave

Dr. Bre wrote: »

If GTA was realeased every year would it be $hite?

Yes

B.A._Baracus

Agree that GTA would.
Sure around 15 years ago GTA suffered from saturation as if you played them all there was a point where it was GTA San Andreas, GTA Liberty City Stories, GTA Vice City Stories and it just very boring.

pixelburp

Man if crunch is bad now, I couldn't even imagine how awful it'd be for devs if GTA became an annual series; I suppose you could ague that GTA Online has made the game an iterative, granular 'service' anyway.

I suppose, at least Sports are ever-changing on the superficial level in the first case: teams, leagues, players, competitions are always changing, with the core gameplay mechanics almost never (the exception perhaps being Rugby as the most high profile that tinkers with its ruleset), which makes it easier to knock out a full-price game every year.

Shiminay

The Sports games are one genre that I think actually should be a live service - but the sorts of consumer that buys them would never go for it because they're generally not all that interested in or knowledgeable about the wider gaming and associated technology areas. EA (and 2K for the NBA and maybe even the WWE games) could definitely make more money signing them up to a fiver a month service (+ MTX) than going to all the expense of producing physical media if they thought for a second that there'd be more profit in that.

circadian

pixelburp wrote: »

Man if crunch is bad now, I couldn't even imagine how awful it'd be for devs if GTA became an annual series; I suppose you could ague that GTA Online has made the game an iterative, granular 'service' anyway.

I suppose, at least Sports are ever-changing on the superficial level in the first case: teams, leagues, players, competitions are always changing, with the core gameplay mechanics almost never (the exception perhaps being Rugby as the most high profile that tinkers with its ruleset), which makes it easier to knock out a full-price game every year.

A few of my former colleagues came from Rockstar having worked on GTA 4. They all had at least 6 months off between jobs because development was so intense for such a long period of time. They all said it was an experience and amazing to be part of it but very few people would be able to last in that type of prolonged crunch periods.

circadian

On another note I'm curious to see how Call of Duty performs over the next few weeks. The early access weekends were largely a success but I'd be surprised if Activision manage to not make an absolute balls of it by making it pay to play in a few weeks.

Penn

The Last of Us II has been delayed until May 29th 2020. Now Ubisoft have announced they're delaying Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods and Monsters until fiscal year 2020-2021.

https://ie.ign.com/articles/2019/10/24/ubisoft-delays-watch-dogs-legion-rainbow-six-quarantine-and-gods-and-monsters

gimli2112

it sure looks like someone has realized they're in breach of the Slavery Act or just noticed the fines and penalties section

Jordan 199

I hope Cyberpunk won't get delayed. I'll put my head through a wall if it does.

dreamers75

Few UBI games delayed due to Div 2 and Breakpoint not selling well.

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1187415980500230146

Zero-Cool

When it gets delayed to next fiscal year, is this so they can have better projections on their stock owners call? So div 2 and breakpoint sold poorly, wouldn't it be better to get the others or asap to make up for it or will they say "yupp, bad year but next one will be great with these releases". Or are they gonna try figure out what changes can be made to giving games to make more money?

Whatever it is, sounds very very different to the TLOU delay.

dreamers75

Zero-Cool wrote: »

When it gets delayed to next fiscal year, is this so they can have better projections on their stock owners call? So div 2 and breakpoint sold poorly, wouldn't it be better to get the others or asap to make up for it or will they say "yupp, bad year but next one will be great with these releases". Or are they gonna try figure out what changes can be made to giving games to make more money?

Whatever it is, sounds very very different to the TLOU delay.

Would imagine its pure a financial way of writing off the year and hedging/stacking bets on the next fiscal year being brilliant by simply having more releases.

PopePalpatine

dreamers75 wrote: »

Few UBI games delayed due to Div 2 and Breakpoint not selling well.

[u.rl]

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1187415980500230146[/url]

"Say the line, publisher!"
"Below expectations."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

marcbrophy

The closer those titles get delayed nearer the next gen console launches, people will wonder why bother?
Wait until the remaster a few months down the line.
That's what I'd be thinking anyway

Penn

Zero-Cool wrote: »

When it gets delayed to next fiscal year, is this so they can have better projections on their stock owners call? So div 2 and breakpoint sold poorly, wouldn't it be better to get the others or asap to make up for it or will they say "yupp, bad year but next one will be great with these releases". Or are they gonna try figure out what changes can be made to giving games to make more money?

Whatever it is, sounds very very different to the TLOU delay.

Part of it might be that they were going to be too similar to Div 2 and Breakpoint, so need to change it up so they don't suffer the same fate.

Skerries

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

The majority of "gamers" are not interested in the medium beyond a minor pastime to consume between beers & sleep.

I sometimes do all 3 at the same time

Grumpypants

Skerries wrote: »

I sometimes do all 3 at the same time

I fell asleep while having a few beers and playing one night, had my thumb pressed on the left stick so my character took off running in a mad direction. I woke up to hear the other players saying is there good loot over there? :pac:

CatInABox

I have to admit, I actually admire the way Ubisoft does it's business. Assassins Creed Syndicate under-performed, so they delayed/cancelled the next one, gave it time to reinvent the series, and the two assassins creed games that came out since have been spectacular in my opinion.

In comparison to EA, Bethesda, and many others, their ability to recognise that they've gone down the wrong path is impressive and unusual. My one compliant would be that their games were blending into one, and I think that was one of the reasons that Breakpoint was savaged, so hopefully we'll see more variation in their games from now on.

Mickeroo

That Breath of the Wild/Assassins Creed Odyssey hybrid they're bringing out looks good.

Retr0gamer

I find Ubisoft have been saturating themselves and ended up competing with their own games.

They've too many games as service options where they would be better off with just maybe two, the division and siege and just constantly update them until the next gen rolls around. Their single player games are just homogeneous open world affairs and since they are so similar I find absolutely no reason to buy into their yearly updates, which I'm sure a lot of people are finding as well. There's just too many, not enough time in the world to play them all, and there's just way better games and examples of the genre they keep putting out.

ERG89

Division 2 sales are similar to what happened with Watch Dogs 2. Their underwhelming prequels if anything sold too well & those who bought them likely had no interest in what were better games. Ghost Recon Breakpoint was just unacceptable on release, plain & simple. I think Ubisoft feel they can now turn a game around post release so pushed it out the door immediately after a poor Beta.

Retr0gamer

Yeah I think Siege has made them think like that too much. Siege was an exception to the rule.

ZiabR

Seems the CEO of Ubisoft has admitted defeat and has admitted that they have been getting it wrong... It takes balls to come out with some of those statements.

Will anything change though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6kTWO0oG3w

Stone Deaf 4evr

Of all the big companies, Ubisoft are the one that I'd be most willing to give the benefit of the doubt to. They have good form in keeping stuff going.

Rainbow 6 - middling reviews, but was kept updated to become a phenomenon
Division 1 - rocky launch, poor endgame - ended up as an amazing package overall
Ghost Recon Wildlands - again, middling reviews, but constant support garnered a lot of community goodwill.
Division 2 - a strong showing out of the gate with a lot of the criticisms for par 1, addressed - currently in a rough patch, but still being worked on
For Honor - I haven't played this, but anyone whos into it, seems to be MAJORLY into it, again, still being updated over 2 years after launch.

If anything, the flaw I see with their open world type games, is that they're nearly becoming a sort of sterotype - a big map with icons all over it, hundreds of collectibles, its prevalent across Far Cry, Division, Ghost Recon Assassins Creed and even The Crew. Now 'loot' is being blended across them all as well.