@MrStark I've never been a big Kojima fan, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the narratives of all his games I've gotten around to playing.
Given what he accomplished with Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid, I absolutely think his pedigree in video game storytelling is earned, even if most of his stories eventually devolve into nonsense (it's still charming nonsense, at the very least). I kinda agree he's been overrated ever since Konami f***ed him over; he's really been positioned as the gaming industry's biggest sweetheart since then. But he still makes solid games. And consistently contributes to the evolution of interactive storytelling, even if from an overly cinematic angle.
Which is all to say: pretty good developer. It's entirely understandable why so many gamers love his stuff. And I always thought saying he should 'just make movies' is extremely reductive of his talents as a developer, as well as his contributions to the medium.
@SeaDaVie Really depends what you mean by "Golden Age." I read that as, 'PlayStation's greatest run of all time.' Which I don't think is true at any metric (PS2 was more successful, PS2 and PS3 had better 1st-party support, PSone was more influential and innovative).
I think a lot of people misunderstand when fans criticize this generation. I like the PS5. There's plenty to play on it, and it's pretty decent hardware. But Sony has made undeniable missteps. They can do a lot better than they are, and I really wish they were.
@Fluberuper I haven't finished A Way Out, so maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. But I'd say it's easily the most boring of the three. I can see the argument that it's the best narratively — and I'm certainly most inclined to finished it to see its story through to the end. But just about everything else is worse than its successors, in my eyes.
Really surprised with the amount of acclaim Hazelight has garnered. I love their games, and love what they're doing, but none of them have been particularly fantastic to me. Sure, Split/Fiction has a lot of variety, but at its core — the primary gameplay loop — its really just an average platformer. Everything around it elevates that average platformer into something remarkable, but not what I'd consider the greatest of the industry.
Plus, while I wasn't nearly as negative on its plot and writing as others were, I still wouldn't say it was even good narratively. Serviceable, maybe. And Split/Fiction still felt like the lesser sibling to It Takes Two, which itself still adheres to the same criticisms. It was just a better platformer, with more interesting level design, a better plot, a more novel concept, and more varied level gimmicks.
Don't worry, guys. It's all worth it so AI can weasel its way into every industry and irreversibly make all of our lives better at the expense of our lives.
@Contimaloris That's a very sad answer to your own question.
I'd much rather work a reasonable amount of hours per week until I'm 80 than miss out on the best years of my life and my son's/hypothetical future children's childhood just so I can spend my last few decades dying of boredom.
And, hey, look at that: assuming that early retirement is your ideal employment outcome, it looks like we both believe in a fairly equal amount of individual net labor. We just disagree about its distribution. Still, that would imply that both our setups would support the same civilization, as they would both have near equal amounts of labor to utilize. Unless you'd rather some people get that early retirement, while the rest can just overwork themselves until they die.
@Contimaloris "You think a Rockstar emplyee is looking at a 6 figure bonus check and regretting all the OT he worked?"
If they have nothing to show for those hours besides money, probably. I'm struggling to give my son as much attention as I want to, and I've only been working the aforementioned "45-55/hrs" weeks this year. I can't imagine how sad I'd be if I barely got a few hours to interact with him a week. Let alone all the rest of life one might miss out on.
EDIT: Also, that you think me calling for people not having to spend 50% or more of their waking life working utopian is incredibly sad
@Haruki_NLI How many of the industry's most profitable games this year utilized any of those events to capture attention? To me, it seems more like TGA,etc. is dependent on big games they can feature to get views, not the other way around. And non-gaming ads are just there cause it's a big event.
@Contimaloris The only thing anyone proved is that you did, indeed, read my metaphor literally.
I don't think food workers should work overtime. I don't think mailing/delivery drivers should work overtime. I don't think plumbers and electricians should work overtime (I've worked OT in similar fields, and can confidently say the only reason anyone in these fields works OT is to save a company the costs of hiring another person and/or appointing a qualified employee to a part-time/on-call position). With truck drivers, it's kinda the job and can't much be helped. But they should ideally be compensated with loads of off weeks. I don't really see why police officers would have to do OT, unless some s***'s going down ("Yes, there are industries where crunch is just gonna happen sometimes. But it shouldn't be a regular occurrence or expectation, and it sure as f*** shouldn't be encouraged"). Unless you're lumping holiday hours with OT.
As for your "convenience" point, I'm personally more than happy to have less immediacy in services if it means less people are worked to death. In many cases, it's not even a question of limited manpower, but rather an inability or unwillingness to pay for enough labor to keep individual contributions fair and reasonable. I generally think people should work less, and, for what it's worth (not much, I know), I never get 1-day shipping, never rush workers, keep my imposing consumerism during the holiday season to a minimum, and complain any opportunity I have if I or someone else is working unreasonable times or days.
Maybe you turn a blind eye, but I don't — or try not to, at least. What's more aligned with the assumed naïvity of a 5-year-old: that overworking people is a necessary trait of a functional society, or that any human suffering is a result of poor social design and can be fixed if we reevaluate how our predecessors did things?
@Contimaloris That's literally what I figuratively said. In my metaphor, "everyone" is every worker.
I dunno if you're reading my comment literally, and saying bakers/food service workers don't receive advocacy. Or are attributing 'cookie makers' some nebulous, metaphorical association that's gone well above my head. But, in either instance, my stance is that OT shouldn't be expected of any laborer, regardless of their job. It might occasionally be necessary in certain emergencies in certain industries, but it should never be the norm anywhere.
Crunch and company-wide OT is always bad. 40/hr work weeks are already arbitrary and excessive. Between working OT-mandatory jobs and working simultaneous jobs, I've spent much of the last decade working 45-55/hr a week. It f***ing sucks; I've had next to no time to develop new skills, had no energy to stay in shape, have had little time for anything besides work and sleep, and am generally more depressed than I was 10 years ago despite being in a better position in life. And, while this is more a economy problem than a work/life problem, I barely have any financial security to show for all my efforts.
I am absolutely f***ing astonished at the amount of distain questioning and/or condemning crunch inspires in some people. Yes, there are industries where crunch is just gonna happen sometimes. But it shouldn't be a regular occurrence or expectation, and it sure as f*** shouldn't be encouraged. You are the type of people that shrug off societal problems as "that's just the way things is" rather than consider how much human misery can be remedied by just changing how things is. We literally have ALL the power to forge our civilization. And we've failed countless in just the last century alone.
Still don't know why so many people think a placeholder texture was a fantastic, irreplaceable, effective use of AI that justified its holistic environmental impact and enabling of the encroaching shrinking worker bases.
The shocking thing about all this wasn't people jumping on beloved developers. It was the sheer amount of "moderates" that not only don't see any problems with AI, but ostensibly encourage it. At least when a company they like uses it.
@MrStark I mean, have you played it? While it immediately left the gamer zeitgeist, I've seen several publications bring it up for GotY season.
I haven't played it, so I can't say. But nothing in your comment implies you've played it either. And insisting it's only here because of an attempt to diversify the list is presumptuous.
@naruball Condemning this is sending a message that consumers don't want AI art. They won't buy AI art, will notice AI art, and don't accept it as a substitute for real art.
This isn't a small fight, this is the war. Condoning it enables it; if one of the biggest games of the year can directly sell free-to-produce nothing art to the masses, then anyone can. And being reductive and outright insulting to people who feel this way sure doesn't paint you as a nuanced moderate. It paints you as an AI apologist that'd rather let it slowly take over gaming then reconcile with its destructive nature.
@Stocksy Do you really think a sticker that an artist can put together in a day or two is significantly driving up the costs of game development? If you haven't noticed, this sticker is apart of a $10 cosmetics pack.
I've still only played the beta (MKWorld and Air Riders won out the arcade racing money this year), but am very surprised this game would deserve this amount of praise. Don't get me wrong, it was fun from what I played, but nothing particularly special. Actual racing was a bit stiff, the rival system was honestly embarrassing to listen to, tracks were fine, the customization options were extremely annoying, music was grating at times, the items felt like nothing Mario Kart clone items, "good" "good" "go-" "good, great." The game's still great — not trying to say it isn't. But it's just a fairly good kart racer to me; I wouldn't say it's as good as Transformed, CTR, Mario Kart 8, or even Mario Kart World (shocked gasp).
@naruball I don't really see how us sitting in front of screens for hours on end is a more worthwhile and respectable activity than being actually invested in the state and direction of global culture, industry, and art creation.
This is like talking down to someone for watching the news when they could be watching Mission Impossible instead.
Maybe these anti-AI, quick-to-rage, AI until proven innocent types are overdoing it. But at least that anger stems from a legitimate passion for artistry, worker rights, and/or environmental awareness.
@MrStark What did genAI have to do with that $10 million? All we know — even though we're hearing conflicting accounts — is that it was used for placeholder textures.
Presumably, AI didn't create its art direction, write its story, compose its music, design its gameplay, or manage the whole project. So what exactly do they have AI to thank for?
I dunno, AI defenders, I fail to see how using AI to create a bunch of subpar, tonally incongruous decals either makes development more efficient or improves the end experience. If this really was made by AI, it just seems like a fast, cheap way to throw nothing art into the game instead of paying someone to get creative.
Maybe find better examples of gen AI improving something before dismissing its amazing ability to pollute and shrink job markets.
When did people become so passionate about defending AI? I've never been outright against it, but it's hard to ignore its many negatives. Namely its egregious environmental drain.
Even besides that, corporations still think it's a suitable replacement for actual workers, many employees forced to use it find it less efficient than otherwise (mostly programmers, from what I can tell), CEOs very obviously invest in it to artificially plump stock value instead of for any actual vision, AI art still sucks, the lack of regulation surrounding it is incredibly concerning, that it steals and appropriates real work by humans without compensation is theft, the entire industry is a self-fallating bubble, and literally none of the tech bros pushing for its widespread implementation seem like reasonable people.
Even in this case, they used gen AI for placeholder textures. Is that even a worthwhile reason to pollute some water? Could the game not have been completed without those placeholder textures? This doesn't seem like an example of AI changing production for the better. Just seems like a small team that needlessly experimented with AI and promptly undid everything it did.
@ecurb7 Yes, about 10% of the franchise's specials are classics. Beyond the specials, there's a bunch of decent shows, a beautiful — if unremarkable — movie, a bunch of average-at-best games, and a long line of comic strips that blur the line between 'that's actually rather clever' and 'is...is there a joke I'm missing...?'
The IP has some good stuff. But it is not a seal of quality.
M'kay. Cool, I guess. I assume this will change next to nothing about how the IP is handled or its output. I mean, maybe more movies — at most.
Hopefully good movies... Although, it's not like Peanuts media has this incredibly high bar of quality to begin with. So I guess it doesn't really matter, anyway. It's kinda like how the Internet had a stroke about Velma and acted like it was this huge offense to the Scooby-Doo brand. Despite the majority of Scooby-Doo media being mediocre at best in the first place (I say that as a big Scooby fan).
@themightyant Eh, possibly. This November wasn't short on big-sellers, though. What with Battlefield 6 (I'd assume the combined sales of BF6 and BO7 at the very least match the sales of BO6), Mario Kart World, Pokemon Z-A, the regular sports releases, Yotei showing some staying power, and several Nintendo games rounding out the new releases. So I would be surprised to learn the drop was really all CoD's fault. But it's possible.
Although I'm only doubtfully acknowledging that for the US. Over in the UK, no article I posted has anything to do with BO7. So we can assume that, if there's any cause/effect relationship, it's that poor physical sales are impacting BO7's sales and retail price rather than BO7's poor sales are notably weighting down the entire physical games market.
@themightyant Black Ops 6 was 25% off on PSN for half of December last year. Does the extra 5% off tell us anything, really?
shurgs
Presumably, 7 is doing worse than 6. But no one's arguing that.
EDIT: Also worth mentioning that the very same sales analysis from this article does actually say the US' physical sales had their worst November since 1995.
@themightyant Comparative apropos its predecessor/s or its turnover? Because the former doesn't really tell you how it as its own product is doing. And the latter is really too nebulous to come to any real conclusion at this point. Either way, I feel like I addressed both points in my previous comment. I fully understand that CoD would be expected to sell better than Metroid, given budget and revenue-dependence. But I can't say if CoD failed to meet internal expectations if we don't know what those expectations were. And given GamePass' existences, any conjecture on the matter on our part is likely misinformed.
Blops6 was also on sale before its launch year's end, so the "it's been out just 1 month" exasperation is unfounded. The ~50% off is the only uncommon thing there. But, like I said, it appears that's really only the case in the UK — baring some flash sale over in the US. But, still, it remains inconclusive what that means for Blops7's sales specifically.
@RobN Wonderful point about arguing the threshold of AAA vs. AA. What a lot of people miss in these discussions are how arbitrary all these labels can be. There is no exact budgetary or resource-intensive point something becomes AAA. I'd argue likewise the same for AA, A (if anyone still uses that), and indie. I'll always just say they are all vibes, not specific categories.
One can argue indie specifically needs to be independent of a publisher. Which is fair, but also still kinda meaningless. Like, Baldur's Gate 3 was indie, in that sense. Despite having a bigger budget than what most would consider indie and the backing of one of the biggest IPs in the world. And a lot of outwardly appearing indie titles do have some publisher, or at least publishing assistance. Even Stardew Valley, a game effectively made by one guy, got some 3rd-party funding at the tail end of its development, and has had a dedicated team work on its ports. So, to stand by such an absolutists definition would be to say BG3 is indie while Stardew Valley isn't, which just feels wrong — it doesn't fit the vibes.
While indie should literally mean "independently funded," few publicized games are even that. So, to me, indie is just a vibe. I wouldn't call E33 indie, because it doesn't feel indie. Indie implies small budget, small team, and likely a counter-fidelity aesthetic. E33 certainly had a bigger budget than most indie games, despite its small team utilized a lot of outsourced work, and looks more AA than anything. So I wouldn't call it indie. But I also don't think the indie label is this sacred thing that can't be co-opted.
It's kinda like how Hollywood realized there was a craving for lower budgeted, experimental movies from young, unproved crews, and all the major studios started launching 'indie' side studios. None of those movies should really be considered 'indie,' but they were going for that vibe and pretty successfully replicated it. And, to me, that's fine. I don't think it takes away from legitimately independent arts. It just means major players can actually produce interesting stuff instead of always following proven market trends.
@themightyant I mean, 'flop' is synonymous with 'failure.' A comparative failure is a comparative flop. So if you're suggesting the former, you're suggesting the latter. There's no definite distinction between the two. Only the possibility of intrinsic connotative differences, which I don't have.
Semantics aside, yes, it's doing worse than Blops6. And yes, it's not one of the series' top-sellers. That might mean it is a comparative failure. But, without full context — which we'll likely never actually get — that remains unclear. We don't know what constitutes a failure at Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard-King for the CoD franchise. Especially when we don't know how this game affected or was affected by GamePass.
And your sales hypothesis is just a hypothesis. I also can't find it 50% off anywhere despite following links from webpages saying exactly that dated just 3-4 days ago (at least in the USA). So if it was 50% off, it has a fairly limited flash sale. And, looking at Blops6's digital sales history, it also had two notable sales before the end of its launch year. Which, to me, points to it all being fairly inconclusive when comparing Blops7's nebulous success to Blops6's nebulous success.
While Battlefield 6 did indeed eat up more of Blops7's market share than I predicted, I still resent this insistence that Blops7 is a huge flop. It's still #1 here, is doing just fine in the UK, and I'm sure will remain one of the best selling games of the year.
And people acting like this is the first time CoD struggled to match its one-year predecessor's numbers don't have the full story (for fun, just look up "modern warfare 3 sales down" on Youtube and see how many people were likewise ready to jump on any negative interpretation of that game's sales).
We're also completely missing a BIG part of CoD's perceived success under the Microsoft umbrella: GamePass subs and engagement. I know people like to assume GamePass as a whole isn't profitable — which would certainly explain why Microsoft has abandoned most other revenue sources in favor of it...cause they're stupid, which would be the only logical explanation that meshes well with that proposition — but if it isn't, and if CoD is actually plumping it up, I'd assume that would be considered a success in Microsoft's eyes. And one would assume that if more people are playing CoD through GamePass, that means less people are buying it. Not that I'm saying that's definitely what's happened, just that it's entirely possible and we don't really know either way yet.
I'm entirely willing to admit I was wrong about Battlefield 6's sales power (still didn't personally like it much, though. Not in a 'CoD fanboy' way either; I thought Battlefield 1 was better than 6 and any CoD multiplayer I've ever played). But this Blops7 hate remains one of the most obnoxious things to come out of the gaming community this year, in my opinion.
Elder Scrolls VI has been in the same chasm of my mind as GTAVI has been for nearly a decade. And that chasm is reserved for obnoxiously hyped sequels that the entire internet won't stop crying about from series that I've only found mildly amusing throughout my gaming career.
Only difference is ESVI fell far, far deeper into that chasm after I gave Starfield a try.
@LogicStrikesAgain I mean, I would assume there's at least some hope that R&C fans, who probably grew to love the series from console releases, would be interested in this game. Otherwise, there's not much reason to utilize the IP. I wouldn't say it's necessarily targeted at them, but wouldn't assume they aren't expected to overlap with this game's intended audience at the very least.
I also wouldn't say console-to-mobile adaptations are always 'lite.' Not in this day and age. That also implies mobile-to-console adaptations are always 'biggums,' which really depends. Regardless, expectations of mobile platforms doesn't change my lack of enthusiasm for R&C Lite.
And this game would be competing with those for my time. If this had any notable single-player content, I would probably give it a whirl despite my reservations. But if it's going to be a multiplayer-only game, it has to convince me that I should spend my time playing and mastering it rather than any of the multitude of other multiplayer games I can otherwise be playing.
It's fine for what it is, and I'm sure there's potential for it to find an audience. I was just sharing that, as a big Ratchet & Clank fan, several factors are keeping me from mustering up any amount of excitement for this game. I don't see myself ever bothering to try this game, and, to expand on what I've already said, I'm kinda bummed this is the only publicly known R&C project right now.
I'm not morally outraged by this, or anything. But, it's hard to get excited about what is effectively Ratchet & Clank Lite: Multiplayer Mode. Also can't see myself ever starting this up instead of Halo, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Splatoon, or any of my other go-to competitive shooters.
But, presumably, this is for the markets that are playing CoD Mobile and the likes nonstop. Maybe it'll catch on there, but I can't be bothered to care despite being a big R&C fan.
Comments 1,517
Re: Going Platinum #6: Everything
I love Everything, Alan Watts lectures, and Everything, Everywhere All at Once. So I approve of this article completely.
Re: Game of the Year: #2 - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
@MrStark I've never been a big Kojima fan, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the narratives of all his games I've gotten around to playing.
Given what he accomplished with Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid, I absolutely think his pedigree in video game storytelling is earned, even if most of his stories eventually devolve into nonsense (it's still charming nonsense, at the very least). I kinda agree he's been overrated ever since Konami f***ed him over; he's really been positioned as the gaming industry's biggest sweetheart since then. But he still makes solid games. And consistently contributes to the evolution of interactive storytelling, even if from an overly cinematic angle.
Which is all to say: pretty good developer. It's entirely understandable why so many gamers love his stuff. And I always thought saying he should 'just make movies' is extremely reductive of his talents as a developer, as well as his contributions to the medium.
Re: Our PS5 Predictions for 2025 - Results Revealed
@SeaDaVie Really depends what you mean by "Golden Age." I read that as, 'PlayStation's greatest run of all time.' Which I don't think is true at any metric (PS2 was more successful, PS2 and PS3 had better 1st-party support, PSone was more influential and innovative).
I think a lot of people misunderstand when fans criticize this generation. I like the PS5. There's plenty to play on it, and it's pretty decent hardware. But Sony has made undeniable missteps. They can do a lot better than they are, and I really wish they were.
Re: Game of the Year: #3 - Split Fiction
@Fritz167 Oh, so you're less criticizing the list and more criticizing the year in gaming. That's more interesting.
Anything that stood out this year, for you?
Re: Game of the Year: #3 - Split Fiction
@Fluberuper I haven't finished A Way Out, so maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. But I'd say it's easily the most boring of the three. I can see the argument that it's the best narratively — and I'm certainly most inclined to finished it to see its story through to the end. But just about everything else is worse than its successors, in my eyes.
Re: Game of the Year: #3 - Split Fiction
@voltum3l @Fritz167 If you disagree with the list, I'd implore to make your own rather than criticizing another.
That's a much more interesting form of discourse than complaining.
Re: Game of the Year: #3 - Split Fiction
Really surprised with the amount of acclaim Hazelight has garnered. I love their games, and love what they're doing, but none of them have been particularly fantastic to me. Sure, Split/Fiction has a lot of variety, but at its core — the primary gameplay loop — its really just an average platformer. Everything around it elevates that average platformer into something remarkable, but not what I'd consider the greatest of the industry.
Plus, while I wasn't nearly as negative on its plot and writing as others were, I still wouldn't say it was even good narratively. Serviceable, maybe. And Split/Fiction still felt like the lesser sibling to It Takes Two, which itself still adheres to the same criticisms. It was just a better platformer, with more interesting level design, a better plot, a more novel concept, and more varied level gimmicks.
Re: PS6 Could Be Delayed Due to RAM Price Chaos
Don't worry, guys. It's all worth it so AI can weasel its way into every industry and irreversibly make all of our lives better at the expense of our lives.
Re: Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
@DestructionAllstars "Nintendo hasn't made an original game in 20 years."
It would be hilarious if you elaborated upon this statement.
Also, I wonder if your Xbox dismissal is due to their ongoing disinterest in exclusives, or a general, asinine bias against Xbox Game Studios.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Contimaloris That's a very sad answer to your own question.
I'd much rather work a reasonable amount of hours per week until I'm 80 than miss out on the best years of my life and my son's/hypothetical future children's childhood just so I can spend my last few decades dying of boredom.
And, hey, look at that: assuming that early retirement is your ideal employment outcome, it looks like we both believe in a fairly equal amount of individual net labor. We just disagree about its distribution. Still, that would imply that both our setups would support the same civilization, as they would both have near equal amounts of labor to utilize. Unless you'd rather some people get that early retirement, while the rest can just overwork themselves until they die.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Deljo Can you elaborate what's so impossible about keeping OT to a minimum at the maximum amount of jobs?
I'm sure during the American industrial era, people said the same thing to those advocating for 40/hr work weeks.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Contimaloris "You think a Rockstar emplyee is looking at a 6 figure bonus check and regretting all the OT he worked?"
If they have nothing to show for those hours besides money, probably. I'm struggling to give my son as much attention as I want to, and I've only been working the aforementioned "45-55/hrs" weeks this year. I can't imagine how sad I'd be if I barely got a few hours to interact with him a week. Let alone all the rest of life one might miss out on.
EDIT: Also, that you think me calling for people not having to spend 50% or more of their waking life working utopian is incredibly sad
Re: Episodic Sensation Dispatch Will Be Eligible for The Game Awards 2026
@Haruki_NLI How many of the industry's most profitable games this year utilized any of those events to capture attention? To me, it seems more like TGA,etc. is dependent on big games they can feature to get views, not the other way around. And non-gaming ads are just there cause it's a big event.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Deljo You're wrong, cynical, and presumptuous.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Contimaloris The only thing anyone proved is that you did, indeed, read my metaphor literally.
I don't think food workers should work overtime. I don't think mailing/delivery drivers should work overtime. I don't think plumbers and electricians should work overtime (I've worked OT in similar fields, and can confidently say the only reason anyone in these fields works OT is to save a company the costs of hiring another person and/or appointing a qualified employee to a part-time/on-call position). With truck drivers, it's kinda the job and can't much be helped. But they should ideally be compensated with loads of off weeks. I don't really see why police officers would have to do OT, unless some s***'s going down ("Yes, there are industries where crunch is just gonna happen sometimes. But it shouldn't be a regular occurrence or expectation, and it sure as f*** shouldn't be encouraged"). Unless you're lumping holiday hours with OT.
As for your "convenience" point, I'm personally more than happy to have less immediacy in services if it means less people are worked to death. In many cases, it's not even a question of limited manpower, but rather an inability or unwillingness to pay for enough labor to keep individual contributions fair and reasonable. I generally think people should work less, and, for what it's worth (not much, I know), I never get 1-day shipping, never rush workers, keep my imposing consumerism during the holiday season to a minimum, and complain any opportunity I have if I or someone else is working unreasonable times or days.
Maybe you turn a blind eye, but I don't — or try not to, at least. What's more aligned with the assumed naïvity of a 5-year-old: that overworking people is a necessary trait of a functional society, or that any human suffering is a result of poor social design and can be fixed if we reevaluate how our predecessors did things?
Re: Episodic Sensation Dispatch Will Be Eligible for The Game Awards 2026
@Haruki_NLI I wouldn't really say the industry is centralized around TGA, nor that TGA is centralized around one guy.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Contimaloris That's literally what I figuratively said. In my metaphor, "everyone" is every worker.
I dunno if you're reading my comment literally, and saying bakers/food service workers don't receive advocacy. Or are attributing 'cookie makers' some nebulous, metaphorical association that's gone well above my head. But, in either instance, my stance is that OT shouldn't be expected of any laborer, regardless of their job. It might occasionally be necessary in certain emergencies in certain industries, but it should never be the norm anywhere.
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
@Contimaloris "Because I didn't get cookies, no one should get cookies!"
Hey, maybe everyone should get cookies. Just a thought
Re: 'No Need to Be Embarrassed About It': Zenless Zone Zero Staff Say 'It's Painfully Obvious' They're Working Tons of Overtime
Crunch and company-wide OT is always bad. 40/hr work weeks are already arbitrary and excessive. Between working OT-mandatory jobs and working simultaneous jobs, I've spent much of the last decade working 45-55/hr a week. It f***ing sucks; I've had next to no time to develop new skills, had no energy to stay in shape, have had little time for anything besides work and sleep, and am generally more depressed than I was 10 years ago despite being in a better position in life. And, while this is more a economy problem than a work/life problem, I barely have any financial security to show for all my efforts.
I am absolutely f***ing astonished at the amount of distain questioning and/or condemning crunch inspires in some people. Yes, there are industries where crunch is just gonna happen sometimes. But it shouldn't be a regular occurrence or expectation, and it sure as f*** shouldn't be encouraged. You are the type of people that shrug off societal problems as "that's just the way things is" rather than consider how much human misery can be remedied by just changing how things is. We literally have ALL the power to forge our civilization. And we've failed countless in just the last century alone.
Re: 'Everything Will Be Made by Humans': Expedition 33 Dev Says No More AI After Post-Awards Heat
Still don't know why so many people think a placeholder texture was a fantastic, irreplaceable, effective use of AI that justified its holistic environmental impact and enabling of the encroaching shrinking worker bases.
The shocking thing about all this wasn't people jumping on beloved developers. It was the sheer amount of "moderates" that not only don't see any problems with AI, but ostensibly encourage it. At least when a company they like uses it.
Re: Game of the Year: #9 - The Alters
@MrStark I mean, have you played it? While it immediately left the gamer zeitgeist, I've seen several publications bring it up for GotY season.
I haven't played it, so I can't say. But nothing in your comment implies you've played it either. And insisting it's only here because of an attempt to diversify the list is presumptuous.
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
@Stocksy Or maybe the $10 should only amplify frustrations over AI.
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
@naruball Condemning this is sending a message that consumers don't want AI art. They won't buy AI art, will notice AI art, and don't accept it as a substitute for real art.
This isn't a small fight, this is the war. Condoning it enables it; if one of the biggest games of the year can directly sell free-to-produce nothing art to the masses, then anyone can. And being reductive and outright insulting to people who feel this way sure doesn't paint you as a nuanced moderate. It paints you as an AI apologist that'd rather let it slowly take over gaming then reconcile with its destructive nature.
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
@Stocksy Do you really think a sticker that an artist can put together in a day or two is significantly driving up the costs of game development? If you haven't noticed, this sticker is apart of a $10 cosmetics pack.
Re: NiGHTS Comes to Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for Free on Christmas Eve
And this time, they're not a horrific, dehumanized car.
Re: Game of the Year: #10 - Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
I've still only played the beta (MKWorld and Air Riders won out the arcade racing money this year), but am very surprised this game would deserve this amount of praise. Don't get me wrong, it was fun from what I played, but nothing particularly special. Actual racing was a bit stiff, the rival system was honestly embarrassing to listen to, tracks were fine, the customization options were extremely annoying, music was grating at times, the items felt like nothing Mario Kart clone items, "good" "good" "go-" "good, great." The game's still great — not trying to say it isn't. But it's just a fairly good kart racer to me; I wouldn't say it's as good as Transformed, CTR, Mario Kart 8, or even Mario Kart World (shocked gasp).
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
@naruball I don't really see how us sitting in front of screens for hours on end is a more worthwhile and respectable activity than being actually invested in the state and direction of global culture, industry, and art creation.
This is like talking down to someone for watching the news when they could be watching Mission Impossible instead.
Maybe these anti-AI, quick-to-rage, AI until proven innocent types are overdoing it. But at least that anger stems from a legitimate passion for artistry, worker rights, and/or environmental awareness.
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
@MrStark What did genAI have to do with that $10 million? All we know — even though we're hearing conflicting accounts — is that it was used for placeholder textures.
Presumably, AI didn't create its art direction, write its story, compose its music, design its gameplay, or manage the whole project. So what exactly do they have AI to thank for?
Re: Now It's Battlefield 6's Turn to Face Accusations of Generative AI Usage
I dunno, AI defenders, I fail to see how using AI to create a bunch of subpar, tonally incongruous decals either makes development more efficient or improves the end experience. If this really was made by AI, it just seems like a fast, cheap way to throw nothing art into the game instead of paying someone to get creative.
Maybe find better examples of gen AI improving something before dismissing its amazing ability to pollute and shrink job markets.
Re: PS5 Fave Expedition 33 Stripped of Indie Game Awards, But Not for the Reasons You May Think
When did people become so passionate about defending AI? I've never been outright against it, but it's hard to ignore its many negatives. Namely its egregious environmental drain.
Even besides that, corporations still think it's a suitable replacement for actual workers, many employees forced to use it find it less efficient than otherwise (mostly programmers, from what I can tell), CEOs very obviously invest in it to artificially plump stock value instead of for any actual vision, AI art still sucks, the lack of regulation surrounding it is incredibly concerning, that it steals and appropriates real work by humans without compensation is theft, the entire industry is a self-fallating bubble, and literally none of the tech bros pushing for its widespread implementation seem like reasonable people.
Even in this case, they used gen AI for placeholder textures. Is that even a worthwhile reason to pollute some water? Could the game not have been completed without those placeholder textures? This doesn't seem like an example of AI changing production for the better. Just seems like a small team that needlessly experimented with AI and promptly undid everything it did.
Re: Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
@ecurb7 Yes, about 10% of the franchise's specials are classics. Beyond the specials, there's a bunch of decent shows, a beautiful — if unremarkable — movie, a bunch of average-at-best games, and a long line of comic strips that blur the line between 'that's actually rather clever' and 'is...is there a joke I'm missing...?'
The IP has some good stuff. But it is not a seal of quality.
Re: Don't Forget to Unwrap Your Winterfest Free Gifts in Fortnite Every Day
I don't think I can be bothered to care, honestly.
I already have more cosmetics than I really cared to earn (got 'em free), so I've little reason to redeem more cosmetics I'll never use.
Why am I here, you ask? Uhh... Good question...
Re: Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
M'kay. Cool, I guess. I assume this will change next to nothing about how the IP is handled or its output. I mean, maybe more movies — at most.
Hopefully good movies... Although, it's not like Peanuts media has this incredibly high bar of quality to begin with. So I guess it doesn't really matter, anyway. It's kinda like how the Internet had a stroke about Velma and acted like it was this huge offense to the Scooby-Doo brand. Despite the majority of Scooby-Doo media being mediocre at best in the first place (I say that as a big Scooby fan).
Re: Western Sales Have Saved the Trails Series, Falcom Boss Suggests
@Wentos https://www.blog.udonis.co/mobile-marketing/mobile-games/japanese-gaming-market
Re: Ghost of Yotei Wins Big in PS Blog's Game of the Year Awards
@Dogbreath I'm curious how many people will read this and not understand what you mean by "more realistic."
I think gamers are generally bad at differentiating high-fidelity graphics from realistic art direction.
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
@themightyant Eh, possibly. This November wasn't short on big-sellers, though. What with Battlefield 6 (I'd assume the combined sales of BF6 and BO7 at the very least match the sales of BO6), Mario Kart World, Pokemon Z-A, the regular sports releases, Yotei showing some staying power, and several Nintendo games rounding out the new releases. So I would be surprised to learn the drop was really all CoD's fault. But it's possible.
Although I'm only doubtfully acknowledging that for the US. Over in the UK, no article I posted has anything to do with BO7. So we can assume that, if there's any cause/effect relationship, it's that poor physical sales are impacting BO7's sales and retail price rather than BO7's poor sales are notably weighting down the entire physical games market.
Re: Ghost of Yotei Wins Big in PS Blog's Game of the Year Awards
"Studio of the Year - Kojima Productions"
List of Death Stranding 2's awards: ...
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
@themightyant Black Ops 6 was 25% off on PSN for half of December last year. Does the extra 5% off tell us anything, really?
shurgs
Presumably, 7 is doing worse than 6. But no one's arguing that.
EDIT: Also worth mentioning that the very same sales analysis from this article does actually say the US' physical sales had their worst November since 1995.
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
@themightyant Comparative apropos its predecessor/s or its turnover? Because the former doesn't really tell you how it as its own product is doing. And the latter is really too nebulous to come to any real conclusion at this point. Either way, I feel like I addressed both points in my previous comment. I fully understand that CoD would be expected to sell better than Metroid, given budget and revenue-dependence. But I can't say if CoD failed to meet internal expectations if we don't know what those expectations were. And given GamePass' existences, any conjecture on the matter on our part is likely misinformed.
Blops6 was also on sale before its launch year's end, so the "it's been out just 1 month" exasperation is unfounded. The ~50% off is the only uncommon thing there. But, like I said, it appears that's really only the case in the UK — baring some flash sale over in the US. But, still, it remains inconclusive what that means for Blops7's sales specifically.
It can
(https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/05/physical-game-sales-see-dramatic-drop-off-in-uk-as-console-market-struggles)
just as easily
(https://www.tweaktown.com/news/108962/physical-game-sales-in-the-uk-are-plummeting-ubisoft-says/index.html)
have to do
(https://gamingbolt.com/pokemon-legends-z-a-tops-uk-physical-charts-launch-sales-down-40-percent-over-arceus)
with weakening physical
(https://x.com/Chris_Dring/status/1939386768211509434?t=CYw48l3DSjcQHg1m9xSktg&s=19)
sales in the UK.
Re: Talking Point: With Expedition 33 Winning Best Indie Game, What Does 'Indie' Mean to You?
@RobN Wonderful point about arguing the threshold of AAA vs. AA. What a lot of people miss in these discussions are how arbitrary all these labels can be. There is no exact budgetary or resource-intensive point something becomes AAA. I'd argue likewise the same for AA, A (if anyone still uses that), and indie. I'll always just say they are all vibes, not specific categories.
One can argue indie specifically needs to be independent of a publisher. Which is fair, but also still kinda meaningless. Like, Baldur's Gate 3 was indie, in that sense. Despite having a bigger budget than what most would consider indie and the backing of one of the biggest IPs in the world. And a lot of outwardly appearing indie titles do have some publisher, or at least publishing assistance. Even Stardew Valley, a game effectively made by one guy, got some 3rd-party funding at the tail end of its development, and has had a dedicated team work on its ports. So, to stand by such an absolutists definition would be to say BG3 is indie while Stardew Valley isn't, which just feels wrong — it doesn't fit the vibes.
Re: Talking Point: With Expedition 33 Winning Best Indie Game, What Does 'Indie' Mean to You?
While indie should literally mean "independently funded," few publicized games are even that. So, to me, indie is just a vibe. I wouldn't call E33 indie, because it doesn't feel indie. Indie implies small budget, small team, and likely a counter-fidelity aesthetic. E33 certainly had a bigger budget than most indie games, despite its small team utilized a lot of outsourced work, and looks more AA than anything. So I wouldn't call it indie. But I also don't think the indie label is this sacred thing that can't be co-opted.
It's kinda like how Hollywood realized there was a craving for lower budgeted, experimental movies from young, unproved crews, and all the major studios started launching 'indie' side studios. None of those movies should really be considered 'indie,' but they were going for that vibe and pretty successfully replicated it. And, to me, that's fine. I don't think it takes away from legitimately independent arts. It just means major players can actually produce interesting stuff instead of always following proven market trends.
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
@themightyant I mean, 'flop' is synonymous with 'failure.' A comparative failure is a comparative flop. So if you're suggesting the former, you're suggesting the latter. There's no definite distinction between the two. Only the possibility of intrinsic connotative differences, which I don't have.
Semantics aside, yes, it's doing worse than Blops6. And yes, it's not one of the series' top-sellers. That might mean it is a comparative failure. But, without full context — which we'll likely never actually get — that remains unclear. We don't know what constitutes a failure at Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard-King for the CoD franchise. Especially when we don't know how this game affected or was affected by GamePass.
And your sales hypothesis is just a hypothesis. I also can't find it 50% off anywhere despite following links from webpages saying exactly that dated just 3-4 days ago (at least in the USA). So if it was 50% off, it has a fairly limited flash sale. And, looking at Blops6's digital sales history, it also had two notable sales before the end of its launch year. Which, to me, points to it all being fairly inconclusive when comparing Blops7's nebulous success to Blops6's nebulous success.
Re: Nov 2025 USA Sales: Black Ops 7 Is the Month's Bestseller, But Struggles to Meet Call of Duty Standards
While Battlefield 6 did indeed eat up more of Blops7's market share than I predicted, I still resent this insistence that Blops7 is a huge flop. It's still #1 here, is doing just fine in the UK, and I'm sure will remain one of the best selling games of the year.
And people acting like this is the first time CoD struggled to match its one-year predecessor's numbers don't have the full story (for fun, just look up "modern warfare 3 sales down" on Youtube and see how many people were likewise ready to jump on any negative interpretation of that game's sales).
We're also completely missing a BIG part of CoD's perceived success under the Microsoft umbrella: GamePass subs and engagement. I know people like to assume GamePass as a whole isn't profitable — which would certainly explain why Microsoft has abandoned most other revenue sources in favor of it...cause they're stupid, which would be the only logical explanation that meshes well with that proposition — but if it isn't, and if CoD is actually plumping it up, I'd assume that would be considered a success in Microsoft's eyes. And one would assume that if more people are playing CoD through GamePass, that means less people are buying it. Not that I'm saying that's definitely what's happened, just that it's entirely possible and we don't really know either way yet.
I'm entirely willing to admit I was wrong about Battlefield 6's sales power (still didn't personally like it much, though. Not in a 'CoD fanboy' way either; I thought Battlefield 1 was better than 6 and any CoD multiplayer I've ever played). But this Blops7 hate remains one of the most obnoxious things to come out of the gaming community this year, in my opinion.
Re: 'The Majority of the Studio's on It': Bethesda Gives an Update on The Elder Scrolls 6
Elder Scrolls VI has been in the same chasm of my mind as GTAVI has been for nearly a decade. And that chasm is reserved for obnoxiously hyped sequels that the entire internet won't stop crying about from series that I've only found mildly amusing throughout my gaming career.
Only difference is ESVI fell far, far deeper into that chasm after I gave Starfield a try.
Re: Mobile Ratchet & Clank Game Expands to New Regions as Testing Continues
@LogicStrikesAgain I mean, I would assume there's at least some hope that R&C fans, who probably grew to love the series from console releases, would be interested in this game. Otherwise, there's not much reason to utilize the IP. I wouldn't say it's necessarily targeted at them, but wouldn't assume they aren't expected to overlap with this game's intended audience at the very least.
I also wouldn't say console-to-mobile adaptations are always 'lite.' Not in this day and age. That also implies mobile-to-console adaptations are always 'biggums,' which really depends. Regardless, expectations of mobile platforms doesn't change my lack of enthusiasm for R&C Lite.
And this game would be competing with those for my time. If this had any notable single-player content, I would probably give it a whirl despite my reservations. But if it's going to be a multiplayer-only game, it has to convince me that I should spend my time playing and mastering it rather than any of the multitude of other multiplayer games I can otherwise be playing.
It's fine for what it is, and I'm sure there's potential for it to find an audience. I was just sharing that, as a big Ratchet & Clank fan, several factors are keeping me from mustering up any amount of excitement for this game. I don't see myself ever bothering to try this game, and, to expand on what I've already said, I'm kinda bummed this is the only publicly known R&C project right now.
Re: Mobile Ratchet & Clank Game Expands to New Regions as Testing Continues
I'm not morally outraged by this, or anything. But, it's hard to get excited about what is effectively Ratchet & Clank Lite: Multiplayer Mode. Also can't see myself ever starting this up instead of Halo, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Splatoon, or any of my other go-to competitive shooters.
But, presumably, this is for the markets that are playing CoD Mobile and the likes nonstop. Maybe it'll catch on there, but I can't be bothered to care despite being a big R&C fan.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Most Anticipated PS5 Games of 2026?
I limited myself to games I actually plan on buying on PlayStation instead of Switch/Xbox.
1. Romeo is a Dead Man (pending any S2 announcement)
2. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (gonna play OG and Anniversary as the lead up)
3. Resident Evil Requiem (even though I have yet to play VII or VIII and likely won't buy Requiem until 2027 at the earliest)
4. Grand Theft Auto 6 (I guess... I'm curious how it'll turn out)
5. High on Life 2 (mostly just because of the skateboard)
HM that I forgot existed until I was at GTA: Saros (probably my actual #3, but I didn't feel like redoing my list)
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate Cyberpunk 2077, 5 Years Later?
@MrPeanutbutterz Hell yeah! Hope you enjoy that crazy mofo.
Re: PlayStation Winds Back Time with Awesome 30th Anniversary Watch Collection
@Chip-Douglas These are uglier than most smart watches. Certainly tackier, at the very least.
Re: Feature: Predict The Game Awards 2025 with Our 20 Question Quiz
@77dreams Thank you for the thoughtful articulation.