I feel like the only person who plays on a PlayStation that is excited for developers to try something new.
The gaming industry is now the film industry, find an IP that works, then that’s all we get. Simply iterations of the same franchise until there’s nothing left of it that resembles what made it special.
Soros. It’s Returnal.
Uncharted, became endless amounts of Uncharted and a film.
Last of Us, then Last of Us … again and then a TV show.
God of War, then a new generation God of War again. Then a TV show.
Ghost of Sushi, then more Ghost of Sushi with a gender change.
Little Big Planet, then again, the again. Then Sackboy.
Astro Bot, Astro VR and then Astro again.
Spider-Man, then other Spider-Man, then Spider-Man 2 that’s really the third.
I love all of these games. I just miss when the big releases I flocked to my console for felt unique somehow.
I guess I’m just coming to terms with the fact all I’m buying a new generation for is to play the same game with a refreshed lick of paint.
So, Santa Monica, email me when you have a good enough original idea that yourselves and Sony have enough confidence in without requiring an established IP to sell.
Looking forward to ND’s Intergalactic: Terrible Name. Here’s to hopefully a new IP that sells.
I get that people want single player games, me too, but what actually seems more actuate to say is that people want the same, but slightly different.
Loaded up to an almost biblical amount of UI prompts and walls the pop up windows of text. Whilst being able to use a combination of buttons or left stick mouse-like movements in the menu didn’t phase me too much, my partner found she was slightly confused to say the least at the beginning.
I felt it did a worse job than Destiny in providing the player with quick information on the items you were looking at and how to use them.
It focused heavily on stylistic flare rather than an actual in-depth tutorial.
Having said that, it’s got pitential, the fun play is on point, movement a bit lugging but overall also on point. The lack of information yet seemingly overload of information is its weak point early on.
That and when you load into a match we had no idea how many teams there were. We had so many matches of kill other team, sometimes not even kill other team, never see other team and then exfill easily.
I mean a good nearly ten matches in a row were see no one, only computer enemies and then get out of match and “win”.
Then we found out more teams are in than just us and one other as you the spectate another player when you “give up”. Yet it’s not clear from the offset how many are on the map with you.
Overall it’s got lots going for it, the lore, the style, the gun play … but it feels empty, you hardly see human players during a run and it really lacks clear cut guidance on how to just enjoy the game to begin with.
I sincerely hope they clear it all up. I like what I saw in it, but my missus seems to have had enough already claiming it’s just too boring, and barely interacting with others is actually going against it for her. Yet I assumed she’d prefer that result. I guess I assumed incorrectly.
So yeah, great fun, but if we’re all being honest it’s a mixed bag of fun to be had.
To put it in short; you're at least partly correct on your assumption that some games, many, and even most that aren't Indie as such need to hit a certain margin or everything gets pulled.
So how that particular aspect looks for you, is how it was behind closed door meetings.
Say I helped to ship a game, as in played a part in the development. If the investors, the studio heads and executives, then the shell company of said studio doesn't see numbers that they have compiled and the user engagement ... we all knew that some roles would be cut soon after we go on a holiday.
It basically boils down to the fact that games are for the most part a horrid investment, as in a lot of games we all wish to play don't make the kind of money corporations want to make and see on their return from investment.
If I am giving a studio a budget of 200 million to make the next big AAA, (I in this scenario is of course the financial decision makers within SIE), there needs to be a return on that investment quickly.
Why? Because if I am a company like say Sony, many of my divisions are operating at a loss or nail-bitingly close to a loss. So this gaming division has to punch good numbers, because I've now borrowed money from a bank to fund a studio endeavour. Or at the very least moved money around a company that's sometimes all over the place financially as a whole internally.
It's why if you go on Companies House in the UK and search for a companies tax returns, their net, gross, amount owed to debtors and so forth can be such widely differing figures.
So, in short, gaming to a large extend used to be funded by people themselves and a literal garage project, or by investors who made a lot of small investments to see moderate returns.
An investment of 50 thousand on an Amstrad or Amiga game could net you a solid return, if even 10 thousand, that's far superior than the interest rates in a year on that 50K.
Yet now, if I invest 200 million of my pounds/dollars into your studio project, I likely have to move money around, loan it etc to provide it, then I have make more of an investment than what a bank or investment portfolio elsewhere would provide, so a return of 8% say, that's horrendous on those sums of money.
Obviously, I'm rambling, but yes, studios fund projects that have to succeed because Sony give the studio green lights to fund based on them having a return on investment, and it has to be substantially higher than what a bank or wealth management team can offer, otherwise Sony might as well shut up shop and invest their money with Coutts/Barclays/HSBC etc.
Do I think this method of operating isn't remotely sustainable for any of the top companies playing in the industry right now? No! Do I think this will topple, yes. However, Sony, Microsoft and so forth they all have plans for this.
Just look at Sony and their TV division and TCL, they plan these things over years and years, and if they fail hard in the future, trust me, they'll have planned for it and know long before we do.
The best we can all do is game, enjoy our passion and hope it continues in a form we enjoy, everything else, the people who are paid far more than many in the world have that burden, let them keep it.
Having worked in the industry previously and now just a freelancing charmer instead, it would seem the writing has been on the wall for a lot of what has been happening in the industry of late.
As I’ve pointed out previously to my colleagues and so has @themightyant here so eloquently, Sony is a business that is going to make decisions that don’t align with investors and customers/consumers simultaneously 100% of the time.
I for example, along with my partner are looking forward to another Sony FPS to sink our teeth into, that would appear to potentially be Marathon.
Yet, it’s rather obvious many detest the very idea of it existing and therefore are already calling for a boycott.
Then internally, outside of the Bungie offices and HQ of PlayStation, we have no idea if many of their staff even care to make the game.
Just like actors, many of us in the industry when having our food on the table provided by conglomerates all say how much we love the project we are working on. Tell the media outlets until they no longer listen how transformative our work is, how invested we are.
Yet most of us just used to work, speak about other studios we have far more interest in and socialise with friends and family. Some didn’t even own the console they were working on, never mind support it.
I guess all I’m saying, and probably not saying well, is that yes this is a bad decision in my eyes, but then I’m not the CFO of their gaming division about to submit a new financial report and forecasting for the next three to ten years.
What we see as fans/customers (whatever term people tell themselves they are other than the reality of just a number), it’s not the whole story. Bluepoint failed, either to provide what Sony wanted from them or to fit into a company that has plans exceeding them.
This could be in part due to them being advised to make something Sony wanted and now does not. Yet that’s for Bluepoint staff to speak of around an NDA or breaking one etc.
I doubt that is Bluepoints fault and I wish all their staff well, but either way, the decisions made won’t be because I bought Demon Souls and also plan to consider buying Marathon.
Margin for error is becoming an increasingly small percentage and yet an ever growing concern in this industry, and I honestly don’t know how to fix it.
All I know is that everything is rising in cost, demands from investors is rising, demands from consumers pushing for more from an old box of tricks is rising, the cost of devices, healthcare, utilities, blah blah … yet time is finite and passing away just the same.
I got out on a high, I only wish the same for any and all other creative talent in the industry if that is what they wish.
“ Well I guess those that want a generational leap will probably actually get one in the sense that my generation will probably be too old and riddled with arthritis to hold the next dual sense..we will just sit and stare occasionally drooling a bit and praying for the sponge bath...”
That had me in hysterics, only to realise I’m about to pull my back unless I sit up straight and then can’t reach the upstairs loo.
Gaming used to be as simple as waking up and gaming, going asleep gaming, dodging school and gaming. Now it’s, wake up, do all my limbs function, put the kettle on, the PS5 on. Only to find I forget the kettle is on, rush to it and the PS5 shuts down in energy saving mode.
I’ve only ever played Resident Evil maybe one or two, whatever it was on my original PlayStation as a child. Then I did once have an afternoon with Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, but my mate needed it back so that was that.
So yeah, I had no idea what’s what with all these remasters and so on, but I’m guessing I’m best starting back at Resident Evil one!
Long time until I get my mitts on this one then, I have avoided spoilers all throughout the generations Resident Evil wise though haha. No one I know talks or cares about it.
Anytime between 2028-2030 is fine by me, many people I know have only just gotten around to buying this generations iteration when they were last on sale, around Black Friday and run up to Christmas.
Having worked in game development previously, most developers will be happy to have the delay of working to a crunch and pressure of a release cycle coming sooner anyway.
I know it works in the media’s favour to have something to write about, but then I guess that speaks volumes if there’s nothing of note and value to speak of regarding this generation on the whole.
The next generation is ray-tracing done to a finer quality and path tracing. Along with the choice of 60 frames a second more frequently.
For the most part, that’s it. Most textures can be improved this generation, animations and load times. Many of the flaws we see in gaming this generation aren’t due to the lack of horsepower yet due to the lack of knowledge, effort and time.
Take Sackboy a moderately acceptable adventure, that took multiple studios (as listed in the credits when you complete the game), combining their assets, their time, their schedules, time zones, software, talent, ideas and disagreements and so forth a while to pump out a game some solo people are managing to achieve elements of in Dreams from their own sofa.
I mean seriously, it shouldn’t take millions of pounds, hundreds of people and multiple studios to make a platformer that offers nothing much in the way of what hasn’t come prior.
They aren’t reinventing the wheel here. Same goes for many a game this generation. It’s excuses, not the requirement of a new console that’s an issue.
@Northern_munkey Ta mucka, I’ll have to have a word with the missus and see what’s what. Hopefully with it being more of a Bungie rather than Activision crowd we may have more luck!
The footage of the game looks like a busy mess to my eyes, almost like I’m on LSD and I’m tripping that I’m spectating someone through their eyes only to have my brain not be able to calculate everything around them accurately.
Very odd, it’s hard to explain, I’m simultaneously intrigued and like it, yet feel it’s abusing my retinas too.
Despite this, myself and my partner love a bit of shooter gameplay together sometimes. Plus, we both love Destiny despite its rather substantial flaws. So will likely give this currently very confusing title a college try.
Does anyone happen to know if you have to play as a trio every run? I only ask, as my partner is female, and therefore experienced a LOT of abuse online over the years for existing. So we’d rather not invite randoms into a voice conversation if at all possible anymore.
So if anyone knows more, any information would be greatly appreciated! Ta very much!
Comments 10
Re: Rumour: God of War Dev Working on 'A New Franchise Within the God of War Universe'
I feel like the only person who plays on a PlayStation that is excited for developers to try something new.
The gaming industry is now the film industry, find an IP that works, then that’s all we get. Simply iterations of the same franchise until there’s nothing left of it that resembles what made it special.
Soros. It’s Returnal.
Uncharted, became endless amounts of Uncharted and a film.
Last of Us, then Last of Us … again and then a TV show.
God of War, then a new generation God of War again. Then a TV show.
Ghost of Sushi, then more Ghost of Sushi with a gender change.
Little Big Planet, then again, the again. Then Sackboy.
Astro Bot, Astro VR and then Astro again.
Spider-Man, then other Spider-Man, then Spider-Man 2 that’s really the third.
I love all of these games. I just miss when the big releases I flocked to my console for felt unique somehow.
I guess I’m just coming to terms with the fact all I’m buying a new generation for is to play the same game with a refreshed lick of paint.
So, Santa Monica, email me when you have a good enough original idea that yourselves and Sony have enough confidence in without requiring an established IP to sell.
Looking forward to ND’s Intergalactic: Terrible Name. Here’s to hopefully a new IP that sells.
I get that people want single player games, me too, but what actually seems more actuate to say is that people want the same, but slightly different.
Re: Marathon Server Slam Gets Underway Today - Here's Everything You Need to Know
@CheesyOatcake Also apologies for errors spelling and grammar wise, just dictated that whilst I grab a late night snack. Haha.
Re: Marathon Server Slam Gets Underway Today - Here's Everything You Need to Know
Jumped in with the missus.
Loaded up to an almost biblical amount of UI prompts and walls the pop up windows of text. Whilst being able to use a combination of buttons or left stick mouse-like movements in the menu didn’t phase me too much, my partner found she was slightly confused to say the least at the beginning.
I felt it did a worse job than Destiny in providing the player with quick information on the items you were looking at and how to use them.
It focused heavily on stylistic flare rather than an actual in-depth tutorial.
Having said that, it’s got pitential, the fun play is on point, movement a bit lugging but overall also on point. The lack of information yet seemingly overload of information is its weak point early on.
That and when you load into a match we had no idea how many teams there were. We had so many matches of kill other team, sometimes not even kill other team, never see other team and then exfill easily.
I mean a good nearly ten matches in a row were see no one, only computer enemies and then get out of match and “win”.
Then we found out more teams are in than just us and one other as you the spectate another player when you “give up”. Yet it’s not clear from the offset how many are on the map with you.
Overall it’s got lots going for it, the lore, the style, the gun play … but it feels empty, you hardly see human players during a run and it really lacks clear cut guidance on how to just enjoy the game to begin with.
I sincerely hope they clear it all up. I like what I saw in it, but my missus seems to have had enough already claiming it’s just too boring, and barely interacting with others is actually going against it for her. Yet I assumed she’d prefer that result. I guess I assumed incorrectly.
So yeah, great fun, but if we’re all being honest it’s a mixed bag of fun to be had.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
@wildcat_kickz
To put it in short; you're at least partly correct on your assumption that some games, many, and even most that aren't Indie as such need to hit a certain margin or everything gets pulled.
So how that particular aspect looks for you, is how it was behind closed door meetings.
Say I helped to ship a game, as in played a part in the development. If the investors, the studio heads and executives, then the shell company of said studio doesn't see numbers that they have compiled and the user engagement ... we all knew that some roles would be cut soon after we go on a holiday.
It basically boils down to the fact that games are for the most part a horrid investment, as in a lot of games we all wish to play don't make the kind of money corporations want to make and see on their return from investment.
If I am giving a studio a budget of 200 million to make the next big AAA, (I in this scenario is of course the financial decision makers within SIE), there needs to be a return on that investment quickly.
Why? Because if I am a company like say Sony, many of my divisions are operating at a loss or nail-bitingly close to a loss. So this gaming division has to punch good numbers, because I've now borrowed money from a bank to fund a studio endeavour. Or at the very least moved money around a company that's sometimes all over the place financially as a whole internally.
It's why if you go on Companies House in the UK and search for a companies tax returns, their net, gross, amount owed to debtors and so forth can be such widely differing figures.
So, in short, gaming to a large extend used to be funded by people themselves and a literal garage project, or by investors who made a lot of small investments to see moderate returns.
An investment of 50 thousand on an Amstrad or Amiga game could net you a solid return, if even 10 thousand, that's far superior than the interest rates in a year on that 50K.
Yet now, if I invest 200 million of my pounds/dollars into your studio project, I likely have to move money around, loan it etc to provide it, then I have make more of an investment than what a bank or investment portfolio elsewhere would provide, so a return of 8% say, that's horrendous on those sums of money.
Obviously, I'm rambling, but yes, studios fund projects that have to succeed because Sony give the studio green lights to fund based on them having a return on investment, and it has to be substantially higher than what a bank or wealth management team can offer, otherwise Sony might as well shut up shop and invest their money with Coutts/Barclays/HSBC etc.
Do I think this method of operating isn't remotely sustainable for any of the top companies playing in the industry right now? No! Do I think this will topple, yes. However, Sony, Microsoft and so forth they all have plans for this.
Just look at Sony and their TV division and TCL, they plan these things over years and years, and if they fail hard in the future, trust me, they'll have planned for it and know long before we do.
The best we can all do is game, enjoy our passion and hope it continues in a form we enjoy, everything else, the people who are paid far more than many in the world have that burden, let them keep it.
Re: Opinion: Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
Having worked in the industry previously and now just a freelancing charmer instead, it would seem the writing has been on the wall for a lot of what has been happening in the industry of late.
As I’ve pointed out previously to my colleagues and so has @themightyant here so eloquently, Sony is a business that is going to make decisions that don’t align with investors and customers/consumers simultaneously 100% of the time.
I for example, along with my partner are looking forward to another Sony FPS to sink our teeth into, that would appear to potentially be Marathon.
Yet, it’s rather obvious many detest the very idea of it existing and therefore are already calling for a boycott.
Then internally, outside of the Bungie offices and HQ of PlayStation, we have no idea if many of their staff even care to make the game.
Just like actors, many of us in the industry when having our food on the table provided by conglomerates all say how much we love the project we are working on. Tell the media outlets until they no longer listen how transformative our work is, how invested we are.
Yet most of us just used to work, speak about other studios we have far more interest in and socialise with friends and family. Some didn’t even own the console they were working on, never mind support it.
I guess all I’m saying, and probably not saying well, is that yes this is a bad decision in my eyes, but then I’m not the CFO of their gaming division about to submit a new financial report and forecasting for the next three to ten years.
What we see as fans/customers (whatever term people tell themselves they are other than the reality of just a number), it’s not the whole story. Bluepoint failed, either to provide what Sony wanted from them or to fit into a company that has plans exceeding them.
This could be in part due to them being advised to make something Sony wanted and now does not. Yet that’s for Bluepoint staff to speak of around an NDA or breaking one etc.
I doubt that is Bluepoints fault and I wish all their staff well, but either way, the decisions made won’t be because I bought Demon Souls and also plan to consider buying Marathon.
Margin for error is becoming an increasingly small percentage and yet an ever growing concern in this industry, and I honestly don’t know how to fix it.
All I know is that everything is rising in cost, demands from investors is rising, demands from consumers pushing for more from an old box of tricks is rising, the cost of devices, healthcare, utilities, blah blah … yet time is finite and passing away just the same.
I got out on a high, I only wish the same for any and all other creative talent in the industry if that is what they wish.
Re: Memory Crisis Threatening to Delay PS6 Could Last 'Another 10 Years'
@Northern_munkey
“ Well I guess those that want a generational leap will probably actually get one in the sense that my generation will probably be too old and riddled with arthritis to hold the next dual sense..we will just sit and stare occasionally drooling a bit and praying for the sponge bath...”
That had me in hysterics, only to realise I’m about to pull my back unless I sit up straight and then can’t reach the upstairs loo.
Gaming used to be as simple as waking up and gaming, going asleep gaming, dodging school and gaming. Now it’s, wake up, do all my limbs function, put the kettle on, the PS5 on. Only to find I forget the kettle is on, rush to it and the PS5 shuts down in energy saving mode.
Re: Resident Evil Requiem PS5 Spoilers Are Starting to Circulate, So Be Safe Out There
I’ve only ever played Resident Evil maybe one or two, whatever it was on my original PlayStation as a child. Then I did once have an afternoon with Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, but my mate needed it back so that was that.
So yeah, I had no idea what’s what with all these remasters and so on, but I’m guessing I’m best starting back at Resident Evil one!
Long time until I get my mitts on this one then, I have avoided spoilers all throughout the generations Resident Evil wise though haha. No one I know talks or cares about it.
Re: Opinion: The Euphoric Reaction to PS6's Rumoured Delay Really Confuses Me
Anytime between 2028-2030 is fine by me, many people I know have only just gotten around to buying this generations iteration when they were last on sale, around Black Friday and run up to Christmas.
Having worked in game development previously, most developers will be happy to have the delay of working to a crunch and pressure of a release cycle coming sooner anyway.
I know it works in the media’s favour to have something to write about, but then I guess that speaks volumes if there’s nothing of note and value to speak of regarding this generation on the whole.
The next generation is ray-tracing done to a finer quality and path tracing. Along with the choice of 60 frames a second more frequently.
For the most part, that’s it. Most textures can be improved this generation, animations and load times. Many of the flaws we see in gaming this generation aren’t due to the lack of horsepower yet due to the lack of knowledge, effort and time.
Take Sackboy a moderately acceptable adventure, that took multiple studios (as listed in the credits when you complete the game), combining their assets, their time, their schedules, time zones, software, talent, ideas and disagreements and so forth a while to pump out a game some solo people are managing to achieve elements of in Dreams from their own sofa.
I mean seriously, it shouldn’t take millions of pounds, hundreds of people and multiple studios to make a platformer that offers nothing much in the way of what hasn’t come prior.
They aren’t reinventing the wheel here. Same goes for many a game this generation. It’s excuses, not the requirement of a new console that’s an issue.
Re: Sorry Haters, But Marathon Is Looking Real Good Right Now
@Northern_munkey Ta mucka, I’ll have to have a word with the missus and see what’s what. Hopefully with it being more of a Bungie rather than Activision crowd we may have more luck!
Re: Sorry Haters, But Marathon Is Looking Real Good Right Now
The footage of the game looks like a busy mess to my eyes, almost like I’m on LSD and I’m tripping that I’m spectating someone through their eyes only to have my brain not be able to calculate everything around them accurately.
Very odd, it’s hard to explain, I’m simultaneously intrigued and like it, yet feel it’s abusing my retinas too.
Despite this, myself and my partner love a bit of shooter gameplay together sometimes. Plus, we both love Destiny despite its rather substantial flaws. So will likely give this currently very confusing title a college try.
Does anyone happen to know if you have to play as a trio every run? I only ask, as my partner is female, and therefore experienced a LOT of abuse online over the years for existing. So we’d rather not invite randoms into a voice conversation if at all possible anymore.
So if anyone knows more, any information would be greatly appreciated! Ta very much!