Depending on where you look, Hideo Kojima is getting ripped today. Death Stranding got its first gameplay demonstration during Sony’s E3 2018 press conference, and it looked early – I agree. Now you can criticise the platform holder for announcing the game too early if you like – clearly the ex-Konami man was desperate to return to the spotlight after being kept under lock and key by his former employer – but there’s a demonstrable disconnect between the demands of gamers and the realities of development that’s becoming ever more apparent.
I don’t want to spend too much time talking about Kojima Productions specifically, but keep this in mind: it’s not even been three years since Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain released. In that time, the auteur has been put on gardening leave, signed a deal with Sony, tracked down a new office and set a studio culture, recruited a team of over 100 employees, written and designed a new intellectual property, formed a relationship with Guerrilla Games, cast four Hollywood actors, and started building the game. What did you do in the last three years?
I’m not here to brush aside criticism entirely; I do think Sony’s been guilty of announcing games far too early as well. But we have the same discussion with Dreams every time it’s shown: why is it taking so long? I can empathise; I really can – but this isn’t the 16-bit era anymore. Media Molecule isn’t building a side-scrolling platformer with a couple dozen animated sprites: it’s creating a 3D modelling engine, a digital audio workstation, and a programming suite all in one. It’s then using that same technology to build a single player campaign within the confines of its own toolset – on a DualShock 4.
In an era where developers like Treyarch spend three years iterating on existing Call of Duty systems in order to create a new game, there seems to be a real disconnect between what gamers want and what you can realistically achieve in a reasonable timeframe. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will have a headcount in the thousands, and yet it’s still forced into reusing assets and literal animations from Origins to hit its release date. You want something bespoke, you’re going to have to wait for it; it takes time to build something brand new from scratch.
At the start of this generation, PlayStation 4 architect Mark Cerny talked in detail about “time to triangle” and how much easier Sony’s new system is to work with than its predecessor. And it’s true: you can get a game running on the PS4 much faster than you ever could on the PlayStation 3. But the scale of games is changing: The Last of Us: Part II is a production on an unprecedented level, with visuals more realistic than we’ve ever seen before and environments larger and more densely populated than we've come to expect from cinematic action games. It takes time.
It takes time and lots of money, and I think it’s why these E3 conferences are becoming so short on new announcements in the AAA space. You look at EA’s conference earlier in the week and it barely makes any games anymore; you can be cynical about that, or you can accept that the ones it is buiding like ANTHEM are such a huge drain on resources that it can’t really stretch to anything else. Ubisoft announced that at least four or five of its studios from around the globe have been roped in to help Beyond Good & Evil 2 escape its prototype phase.
So while I “get” the criticisms and wholeheartedly agree about premature marketing cycles and such, I think you’ve got to cut all of the publishers and platform holders a little slack. I’m not a developer, but from what I can see from the outside, making games is hard. Harder than it’s ever been. And it’s only going to get harder and harder. If you want brand new, exciting intellectual property that pushes boundaries with blockbuster production values, you’re going to have to give them time to marinate.
Where do you stand on this issue? Is the issue merely down to marketing cycles – or are we expecting far too much, far too quickly? Push the 'Make AAA Blockbuster' button in the comments section below.
Comments 58
i don't criticise, a game takes as long as it takes, i would rather a developer take it's time and ensure the game is the best it can be than rush it out to meet the demand of the "360" generation that wants everything now (by 360 generation i mean people who started gaming either on the 360 or in that generation, you know the instant gratification generation)
Are people mainly upset with Death Stranding because there's still no release date or because of the gameplay shown? Personally, I don't mind about the release date because like you said, its only been three years. Four to five years seems to be the standard now for AAA games. I do have a slight issue with the latter, though.
@FullbringIchigo And it's this instant gratification attitude that also encourages developers to include loot boxes in the games.
The only time I get a little irritated is when a game goes dark for like 3 or 4 years with no more info on it. At least give us some details or screenshots etc. I am looking at you WiLD!
Let's take the opening example.
If there hadn't been any news from Mr. Kojima since the unfortunate Konami business, the very same people complaining about Death Stranding being "announced too early" today would've mobilised an army of Twitter Detectives to find out about and spoil any forthcoming announcement.
Death Stranding is also in a unique position because of the cult of personality surrounding Mr. Kojima. He's almost as important to hear from and about as the games he works on.
Good point well made, Sammy.
Many do want everything all at once and they want it now! Not sure when people got so impatient.
Some of the criticisms leveled at Sony and other companies are strange, because there are a huge amount of games coming out between now and Q1 2019. The notion that no big new reveals equates to no games is very, very odd. There are more games than I have time to play!
Whilst Sony is certainly guilty of announcing games too early, we can now quite clearly see their trajectory going forward as the generation winds down. They have enough big games to quite comfortably fill the space between now and the end of 2020. This is before we even talk about the large number of third party titles. I am sure they will also announce and show smaller things at the other shows later in the year.
People should look what's on shelves now. There is no lack of really good entertainment here and now. And I'm sure many gamers have accumulated a backlog they'll never actually have time for.
Like I don't mind that developers take 5/6/7 years to make a game! Just don't show it when you literally have nothing to show just for the sake of showing you're doing something!
Let's be honest here...how many games get you hyped day after day after beeing announced with no release date? None probably! You get hyped the moment they show a trailer and then you just keep playing whatever you have already bought or you get excited for games that will release soon!
The problem is all games should be announced and released in a year, a year and a half!
Being 5 years waiting for a game does nothing in terms of marketing, at least for me
People just gotta chill. How bad are you really put out if something you want to play is delayed? You gonna tell me you got nothing else to play while simultaneously griping about your backlog. Or you want to play such and such title ASAP but God have mercy on any game that releases in an unfinished state. We all gaming and that's the key - enjoy your hobby, don't destroy your pastime.
Announced too early? The outcry I'm hearing is that the revealed gameplay was bland in a lot of ways.
The mysteriousness of the story was a selling point for me, but that flew out the window once tropes were established that turns this into an alt-zombie story with military types...or Metal Gear Survive: Reedus Edition.
Maybe more just needs to be explained during E3.
Thank you Sammy, too many times people are just so inpatient these days. Look at the reaction to the conference, full grown adults couldn't handle a ten minute intermission for crying out loud like quick pacing is the be all and end all.
As for games getting announced early, so what? There's plenty of other games to get excited and play in the meantime. I wasn't that excited for God of War at the turn of the year cos my mind was focused on other games at the time but once release day came around it was all I was thinking off.
People honestly need to take a step back and chill, take it from someone who suffers from severe anxiety. Everything comes to those who waits.
I agree. For example, some people are annoyed about the slight KH3 delay, but I'm happy. It wouldve released this year, but they did a premiere event. Everyone loved it but had a few complaints e.g. sora being a bit too floaty, so they delayed it to make it better. I would MUCH rather have a better experience just a few months later than a pretty good one now. It's so hard to make games, and i think we forget that.
From another thread but it was actually a response to the title so --
I think the disconnect is less w/ gamers, more with developers who think they can finisih a game in 3 years so they show it off but it takes 5. See Zelda:BotW, Rainbow Skies, FFXV, KH3, TLG. Over and over and over again games take much longer, not just than they think, but than they say. Then you have games liek Scalebound that can shown off twice and then canceled. Dont' even show a game until you think you can get it done in a eyar or two tops.
Dreams was shown at the PS4 announcement. It didn't have a name but the guy introducing it said the word "Dream" about 5 times, probably where they got the title from. That's not a problem of gamers thinking games should come out faster than they should, that's on the devs for saying in 2016 "We'll have a beta in 2017". The reason gamers think games should be out sooner is b/c thats' what they are told, You can't fault people for believing what they are told by the supposed professionals who are making the games. We're not talking about some nobody on Twitter saying "I think this game will be out next year" we're talking about Sony showing off TLG at E3 on PS3 when they knew it couldn't run on PS3. You can't blame people for believing what they are told by the actual people who are making the games.
In SOny's defense they haven' tbeen giving out release dates of late until close to release, but they shoudl still explain to peopel out loud - dont' expect this game any time soon, maybe not even this gen, as it's still early in development". If they know it isn't going to be done any time soon then they should say that. Say "it's years away".
To MS credit their entire E3 conference was pretty much - "We bought 5 companies to start making X2 games, so don't worry if you haven't purchased an X1, you can play those games on X2 w/ GamePass".
Sony was just the opposite - "buy a PS4 now for these great 4 games still to release". But next year they need to focus on PS5. Next time they show Death Stranding it better have some form of date. Or at lest if ti's PS4 or PS5. Can't blame gamers for what they don't know.
I believe developers shouldn't announce a game until they believe they can get it launched within the next year at least. Announcing a game right when you've just started development just leads to people questioning everything you are doing and why isn't the game ready or why do we not have any information about the game.
Article is spot on. I think the core issue here is that a lot of games do tend to get announced far too early. That, and gamers in general have a severe lack of patience. It's not a good mix.
All these developers can take their time, some of this stuff can honestly wait until next gen also, I don’t care. Take your time to perfect. Besides, I won’t make it to half of the stuff announced at the rate my backlog is going. 😂
@AFCC
"Let's be honest here...how many games get you hyped day after day after beeing announced with no release date? None probably!"
Not true for many, if not most, people. Just look at The Elder Scrolls 6. That was the game that got most of the attention and excitement online.
Nothing more than a logo.
Sony and it's studios are literally the biggest pushers of the industry now, heck TLOU2 was basically a PS5 game disguised for PS4!
Yet we've gone back to the Internet of the PS3 generation where people are finding the littlest annoyances of Sony to blow completely out of proportion and hate on them, they literally can no longer get a win from the industry a and the net despite giving us the best products at a quality standpoint.
@joeblogs Pretty much mate. If any of the hardware companies didn't show much then that's the narrative that gets driven cos after events like this people tend to overreact
Why do you think I keep saying "it'll be here when it's ready"? I've researched game development for a time, and if there was one conclusion I drew, it's that making games is not a walk in the park. I've only gotten impatient in that playful manner, like "Ugh, I wanna play it so bad!", not "Ugh, this game will never come out, why bother?".
But hey, if we were patient, then we wouldn't have all of the release date memes. Actually, that would be an improvement. I'll still remember this article when people want to get all snarky, though.
They should take their time. Games nowadays need all the time they can get.
@naruball Are people excited today? Probably not, they are probably more excited for Fallout, Last of Us, etc, things with gameplay!
You could be excited for the logo, but for how long?
Yeah it's a difficult one. I've no problem waiting for the likes of Death Stranding or The Last of Us (it's not like we haven't got enough great games out now) but can see why it might frustrate some.
The lack of even a "2019" flash at the end of most of these trailers I think is pretty telling and I'm starting to think that even TLOU2 is looking like 2020 at this point. Again, I'm cool with that but I think in an ideal world everything shown at E3 would be coming out before the next one, if you know what I mean.
In theory, there's absolutely no reason that shouldn't be the case with the amount of high quality games coming out every month nowadays but I guess prolonged marketing helps for things like investment and overall sales, perhaps.
I think this is a good example of why we need shorter, smaller "AA" games like Hellblade where developers have a smaller budget and can take risks, all the while cutting down on development time and giving gamers something short and sweet to play in-between tomorrow's next AAA release.
Great article, Sammy! Next time you guys make fun of Final Fantasy INSERT NUMBER HERE's development, I'll be sure to redirect you to this very article!
Jerk-ism aside, I agree.
I'm happy with games coming out when they're ready.
It does kind of bug me that we're hearing about games that aren't coming out until the PS5 though... Like we just get a logo and that's it, announce games when you have at least a proper trailer and show it off after that when gameplay is in decent shape.
Great article Sammy.
It's probably the same impatient gamers screaming, "where's my game", that rant and cry rivers, when a game is released unfinished/unpolished, just to meet deadlines.
Best Push Square article in a while, hands down.
been saying something similar for ages. the days of the PS3 era in which single studios could release AAA games more or less bi-annually are gone. naughty dog released uncharted in 2007, 2009, 2011, and then last of us in 2013 (by having a 2nd team). UC4 was in development for about 4 years, and TLoU2 could exceed that. publishers are going to have adapt to 'down' years where there is nothing much new to show.. it's why sony emphasised 'the big four' before the event and stressed there'd be no new first-party reveals. i'm sure it's why some expected reveals from publishers didn't make an appearance.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m very impressed hy the quality and quanity of PS4 games.
have patience good games with big production values take a long time to make!!
that is why MS have mountains to climb in the first party area buying five studios is easy if you the money. making great games with great talent much much harder.
for Sony right now you can see all the hard work for years & years coming to fruition! because they are making unbelievably good games right now. Ghost Of Tsushima already looks like a winner to me was stunning & it is another new IP
Two issues at play here. One gamers expect too much her and now, granted. Games take a lot to make. Secondly announcing projects to early and increasing that culture. I am not excited for Death Stranding because it was announced far far too early. As Sammy says, Kojima has set up a new studio, hired an new team and started to dev, all from a game maker who has had some major delays on past projects.
I agree that games must take their time to be developed. But it asks a bigger question: do we need every game to have the scale of a Last of Us Part 2?
Seriously, pretty much every developer on stage loves to talk about how huge their game is, how long it takes, how ultrarealistic it looks, how it uses a brand new engine... Come on! Not every game needs to be huge, I love different art designs as a gamer, not every game must require 100h to finish it and from a single engine multiple games should be built...
But well, for some reason the whole industry converged to a single way of development and a single set of requirements (realistic, story-driven, open-world, huge maps, lots of extra content, etc)...
People will always complain, just look at the reactions of a lesbian kiss for crying out loud, a real shame. There are so many examples and that's really sad.
@PS_Nation People are really complaining about that? LMAO.
It's simple I think. I enjoyed the Death Stranding trailer, just like I did last year. If it takes another E3, so be it. It's something new every time. Meanwhile they do deliver a handful of great games I enjoy every single year. So while some games seems to be way off in terms of release dates, I don't mind it as long as they keep a steady stream of games I enjoy.
@PS_Nation I'm only complaining because I didn't get to join them.
@smelly_jr Check Youtube or Twitter, better yet, don't check it. Concerned trolls that never played Left Behind, they want to politicize everything nowadays.
@PS_Nation yeah it's pathetic. These people don't like what they've done to the character but obviously didn't care enough to play the dlc. If it's come as shock then you can't really be that much of a fan.
I stated last night on multiple forums that I don’t understand people getting upset that no huge announcements occurred from Sony when they already have so many unreleased titles. Let’s say they announced Bloodborne 2, so what, you wouldn’t get to play it this year and most likely wouldn’t get to play it for the next two years based on the history of the last five years. Microsoft covered many PS games and Sony covered it’s bigger exclusives, I was ok with the conference.
@PS_Nation Haha..yeah, I'll steer clear of that. One of the reasons I like this website so much is that it's not anywhere as negative as lots of other gaming outlets. Gah, so much anger when it comes to games LMAO.
Also...thanks for the reminder. I actually never played "Left Behind" despite owning both the PS3 and PS4 versions of it...now's the time!
It's mainly younger people and the Big Gaming Media who are complaing, seasoned gamers know better in general.
Younger people don't have much patience, and today they have an easily accessible medium to throw a tantrum in. They are also not aware of how much is involved in making a game that's not a one-person Early Access game, done using existing content.
Big Media and popular game critics are eager to wave and shout whenever a game gets delayed. That mentality is part of the problem. Typically, if a game is delayed these people will immediately start doubting the quality of the game. It's passive aggressive behaviour that's very attractive to younger gamers.
The issue is games being announced far too early and PS4 in particular has an issue with this, with games like KH3, FFVII remake, Days Gone, Last of Us 2 all known about for a very long time before they're close to being ready. Many publishers are moving away from this with Bethesda almost at the forefront and the likes of Nintendo now shying away from showing games that are a long way out, even Capcom have only just revealed Resident Evil 2 and it releases in 7 months.
Imagine the impact at this year's E3 had we not known about Spiderman and then bang here's that gameplay video oh and by the way it's yours in a few months.
Ultimately us gamers and the developers need to focus a bit more on the games we have now or soon and leave some surprises
@PS_Nation Yeah, the bigots sure have learned to use a keyboard lol. The bizarre thing is, I usually can't tell whether these people are white supremacists or Islamic fundamentalists. Neither of them respect women and they both hate LBGT-people, so they have lots of things in common.
It's just impatience frankly. These games obviously take time, whilst developers still need to be seen to be relevant; thus early announcements. There are plenty of AAA games around at the moment, and most of the future games discussed here will be for PS5, or whatever, so perhaps we all need to chill out and enjoy what the current gen has to offer and let the future take care of itself.
@AFCC Not sure. I haven't done proper research.
Regardless, they were more excited based on a logo than for all the rest of the games announced. Nothing got as much attention as TES6.
Keep in mind that in many cases it's not the developers who choose to announce their games so early.
When Sony is competing with MS (and to some extent Ninty), they need to give gamers a reason to buy their console, when they could be swayed either way. Having no new announcement now doesn't hurt PS all that much since it has a huge lead over its competition.
My understanding it is mostly down to pressures from investors who want to see the game they, erm invested in, is why games sometimes get shown so early in development.
Meh... it's all click-bait trolls and immature weirdos who haven't grown up. Just because the interwebs gives EVERYONE a voice, doesn't mean it's the majority. Usually the loudest and most annoying get the attention.
I ignore you social media! Your vitriol and poison is no match for me and my high skills not of reading your dribble.
I already accept death stranding is a 2020 title, so I don't have problem with it. God of war, horizon and ghost of tsushima all need 5+ years to make, and thats with fully operational developer, so it's amazing what kojima studio can achieved within short timeframe.
Well I wouldn't want these games to release too soon because my backlog is huuuge right now.
I definitely prefer fewer great games rather than multiple average games releasing each month (and no time to play them anyway).
@RenanKJ I agree with you about Every game not needing to be huge and it’s been one of my problems this gen but guess what we’re the minority my friend. The vast majority look at a 10 to 12 hour game and say “well I’ll wait for a sale or its not worth my time.” Its ridiculous it’s come to that with gamers but that’s the sad reality of the gaming culture nowadays well that and the culture of I want it now like this article stated
@carlos82 to be fair Sony has no say over ff 7 remake or kingdom hearts 3 that’s square Enix and we do have a release date for days gone not to mention Sony recently has gotten better at not announcing release dates until a few weeks or months out from release
There is more than one side! Many have no idea what they want! They flip flop between both sides.Some want to be in the loop and informed about whats in the works. Some want every game 30days after they hear the name of it.
I fit in with the original group that want to be informed. I don't care if the wait is 7 years. I am connected to reality any thing can and will happen in a games development.
All we can notice is a bunch of attention seeking arm chair critics. Who never posted a positive comment in their life. Why because something bad pulls in the attention.
I don't care when stuff is announced, we have hundreds of games to play every year, it doesn't matter if Death Stranding is out in 4 years.
What bored me (for 99% of the conferences this year) was the lack of surprise.
I think everything would've been fine if we hadn't had everything leaked/announced over the past couple of months.
There would've been enough for all conferences to be 3 hours long haha.
If everyone wants to get in early to avoid being swept away in a wave of new announcements, maybe it's time to just ditch things like E3.
Great article.
Even us older "more mature" gamers are sometimes guilty of wanting it Right Now. It is really annoying to wait a long time for the next games in our favorite franchises.
I can be content with playing a game now that was announced years ago while waiting for an announced new game to be released years from now.
@dark_knightmare2 yeah I'm not just blaming Sony but I'm pretty sure that FFVII would have been partly them pushing it, whilst Days Gone was announced a very long time ago, not to mention 2 years of teasing TLOU 2 and who knows when that's out.
The problem is they're stuck in a loop because of announced games from the last few years, so every E3 feels like them saying that we're still making those games we've already told you about
Good article.
I think most gamers understand you have to give the Devs time if you want a game to be the best it can be.
The solution to all of this is simple and the biggest part falls to the devs and the publisher:
LONG TIME GAME SUPPORT
Take GTA for example. It takes YEARS for a new GTA game to come out and each time they break records. Meanwhile the games, especially GTA ONLINE have been supported very healthily. Or Diablo III. No Diablo IV in sight, but still Diablo III is going strong. Because there's content and features being added.
I'm fine with ONE Battlefield game every console generation, ONE GTA, ONE The Last of Us. Just when the game is done, support it long enough so we still play it.
LESS games with BETTER quality and BETTER post-launch-support: that's something I can live with, heck I'd even welcome it since becoming a grown up usually cuts DEEP into your gaming time anyways.
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