wildcat_kickz

@AdamNovice Unfortunately, I think there's a real possibility that Media Molecule, Bend, Housemarque, and Nixxes are on the chopping block.

Edit: But there's probably going to be large-scale layoffs at most studios, even if they don't close.

I think a big problem that isn't talked about a lot, at least as it pertains to the big publishers, is that a lot of the studios are located in incredibly expensive places, like San Francisco and LA. For folks that aren't American, it's hard to convey just how prohibitively expensive it is to live in places like that, so they have to pay everyone that much more to be employed there.

I wonder if any of the larger publishers are considering moving studio headquarters to more affordable places, like in the American interior. That might help reduce costs (long term) and give some employees the option to move, take a pay cut (due to lower living costs), but keep their jobs.

@ear__wig https://www.pushsquare.com/supporter

@get2sammyb I totally understand what you're saying and, to a certain extent, I'm arguing semantics. My critique isn't that you and the rest of the staff have your opinions and want them known, it's when the point of the article is to convey that opinion, but is then labeled news. Maybe give articles multiple labels? Just a thought; I know there's no silver bullet, though. I've said my peace, but this isn't something that would drive me away from the site anyway.

I love hearing what you all think. While many of us, including myself, rely on Push Square to get PlayStation news, it's always great to get a real perspective and all of your collective tastes run the gamut.

However, I do sometimes have issue with when opinions and news blend together and it's not made clear what should be considered what.

Articles titled "News" should probably have less opinion infused with the body of work than an article labeled "Opinion."

If something is announced, that's news. If you don't like something that's announced and want to voice an opinion on it, that's not news, it's an editorial.

I think all of your opinions matter and deserve to be heard, but I don't see why those opinions can't be a separate article.

All in all, love the work you all do and hope this shift helps the site!

Really sad to see people let go, but this is just the first domino. Buckle up...

Edit after article update: I hope they're able to spin off and keep the studio afloat, similar to Toys for Bob.

Eh... I'm a Witcher mark, but this sounds like standard mobile fair, similar to that recent Game of Thrones game. Probably a pass, for me.

Marathon and 007.

Just finished First Light last night and loved the campaign. Perfectly captured the essence of Bond.

For Marathon, especially with the Season 2 revamp, this is just a really special game. Yes, it cost too much to make. Yes, Sony paid too much for the studio. YES, this game is awesome.

@DennisReynolds I mean, it could also have been stuff they wanted to put in the main game, but ran out of time to do. So, rather than ditch it all together, they kept at it and released it for free after the game came out.

@DennisReynolds I typically agree with what you have to say, but finding ways to complain about free content is pretty cynical. I don't think anyone would have ever accused the Witcher 3 as being feature-incomplete without the DLC.

I'll probably end up doing this, but will also depend on the inevitable open beta and how it feels. I have faith in IW, though. Pretty excited for this one.

@Czar_Khastik I hope you have the lifespan of a vampire. You're playing the long game, indeed!

That poll is pretty telling. I didn't buy any of those games and probably never will. I'd play Outer Worlds 2, but likely only if it was offered as a PS+ game.

There are just so many games now that there really isn't a need to "take a chance" on a game you aren't completely sold on. Why would I spend $70 dollars on a game I'm not sure about when I can play a dozen other games that came out in the past year that speak directly to my tastes?

I mean, I'm more likely to buy this than GTA, at least at launch. We do exist 😂

@Swandivetotheasphalt It's possible, but the problem I have with that argument is that you're assuming the absolute worst and using it as an argument against a company without evidence. If a company actually replaced their concept artists with AI, then I'd have a problem, but I'm not going preemptively get mad at a company because they could do that, but aren't. This is some Minority Report pre-crime silliness.

@INeedGoodGraphics

I'm talking about outside a house it has no windows but go in the house, and it has two big fronts windows sort of stuff btw.

Is that an AI problem or a bad QA problem? I feel like I've seen that kind of bad design long before AI was a thing, especially in Bethesda games.

Obviously, there are examples of using AI to just be lazy and I'm not discounting that. The GTA remasters are a pretty good example of that.

@get2sammyb We're pretty much in agreement. The game that Marathon ultimately ended up being is just not approachable enough to be a "tentpole" title. Costing $250m is insane, if true.

It's not unique to Bungie, but it's so frustrating to see such talented devs led astray by bad management decisions.

@INeedGoodGraphics I understand what you're saying, but it really depends on the company and how much autonomy is granted to their employees. Some companies treat their employees better than others. They're all for-profit and we're seeing that if many can't cut costs, they just shut the whole thing down. It's hard to argue that that is the desirable outcome. It may be naive to think that there's some imaginary line that won't be crossed, but it's equally naive to think that we can just will AI out of existence.

It really is puzzling to see Marathon continue to do so poorly.

I wonder if, after enough time has passed, the industry comes to the conclusion that extraction shooters are just way too niche, especially for console. ARC Raiders seems to be the exception and not the rule and even they have had a sharp decline in active users.

The new version of DMZ will be another interesting data point.

@INeedGoodGraphics I think saying that "AI is bad. Period." is as bad an argument as "AI is good. Period."

All technology can be abused.

If you're that worried about environmental impact, then you should probably stop playing video games all together. You think the servers for your cloud saves and online infrastructure are exempt from impacting the planet?

@Haruki_NLI Yeah, I definitely don't want AI-generated assets in the final product, but arguing against using AI for reference seems silly to me. It's not "taking away" artist jobs, it's just letting the artist have an easier time.

It's like being mad that emails took away post office jobs.

The way they're claiming they're using AI seems perfectly fine with me.

I honestly don't understand the argument about the AI prototype influencing the final product. How is that any different from using reference artwork made by other people? Why is the latter more acceptable?

Should we demonize an artist for copying a barrel from real life? That barrel was created by someone else who wouldn't be credited in the final game.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is the only September game for me, but that list is crazy.

@IntrepidWombat

I love Skyrim to pieces, but it was released just after my son's first birthday. He's driving and taking university classes now.

Skyrim is one of my favorite games of all time, but if TES6 is more of the same from Bethesda, then it's going to be a disaster. Expectations are so high and will have had well over a decade to marinate. God, I hope it's excellent, but BGS has been completely lapped by other RPG devs (CDPR and Warhorse to name a couple). The Creation Engine needs some serious work to get it up to snuff to compete with the big boys. Picking up every sweet role just isn't worth the tradeoffs.

This is really sad. I can't imagine being so obsessed with anything, let alone a video game, to engage in this type of behavior.

Whoa.... that's actually awesome! Probably going to play the whole campaign that way.

@TheDarts You'll need to cough up another grand for the PSVR4, complete with Smell-O-Vision.

I'm reverting back to Essential this month, so this doesn't really effect me, but I can see valid arguments either way.

From a consumer standpoint, this seems bad because you want everything all at once, but from a services and developer standpoint, this is probably the right way to go. This way, Sony keeps engagement with Extra more consistent throughout the month and also allows each game a little time to shine without being buried in a large content dump.

I love how the VCG video title says that Ben "almost" became Bond. Kinda like how I "almost" dated Emma Watson, insofar as I wanted to.

@Northern_munkey Let me know how you're getting on with it. Last time I tried, I found it incredibly overwhelming, which is what pushed me back to Destiny 1, but the gunplay in Destiny 2 remains top-tier.

Obligatory post on Destiny articles asking for Destiny 1 Remastered 😁

I wish I could get back into this game, but after beating it, I just get so bored every time I try booting it up. Even if the patch made it so the pawns would stfu, it might just be too late for me.

I know people really do still love this game, so I'm very happy they get a meaty expansion to dive into.

Still waiting for a Destiny Remastered. All I want is to be able to play the game at 60fps. It remains leaps and bounds better than Destiny 2.

@THEBrew "I expected you, Mr. Bond, in 2 days or less with free shipping."

It's so funny how these executives are trained to say nothing with as many words as possible.

Is it really so hard to say, "IOI did a great job with First Light. We hope there's appetite for a sequel and we'd love to explore that with them in the future"?

@neoxmahi What numbers are you referencing? The estimates I heard about were GoW Reloaded sold around 250k to 680k on PlayStation (estimated by Alinea). It definitely didn't bomb, but wasn't a massive success either. To be fair, it's a 20 year old game, so I don't think it was ever going to be a barn burner, but I'm just saying that those numbers could be data used by Xbox to make the move to exclusivity easier to justify.

Bummer if there's no MP, but I never played the BO1 or 2 campaigns back in the day, so I'd happily get an excuse to see what the fuss is all about. I always preferred the Infinity Ward games, but that was mostly based on gunplay and MP maps.

@Alpine Wow. What a zinger.

@AdamNovice I think a more charitable way to read it is that Sharma has very different ideas for the future of Xbox than Spencer did. She's making changes quickly, which is bound to give everyone whiplash. It's not necessarily an impulsive reaction to influencers and Twitter. Whether she sticks to her guns or back peddles like everyone else remains to be seen.

Easy vote for 007.

You just can't trust Xbox and its surrogates at their word. Too much flip-flopping.

I'm fine with Xbox having exclusives and I'd hope that everyone else is too, but how can they expect this to move the needle when its clear that market and social media pressure will make Xbox break?

They have a track record of lacking conviction, which is a pretty hard reputation to get away from.

@ShogunRok Modern Warfare 4, not 2. I know they all bend together 😂

@FishDude I do and don't agree with this. Obviously, if they want a larger player pool, then they need to make it multiplatform. Even Sony is doing this with their MP games. But Xbox does seem to be making moves to try and revitalize their console platform. Even though Halo MP would do worse if locked to Xbox and PC, they might view it as a worthwhile trade-off to try and get their console prestige back, especially if the next Halo MP is of high quality.

That said, I think a multiplatform release is more likely if they do what they did for Infinite and make the MP a standalone free game. It's all up in the air at the moment, though.

I'm not too bent out of shape over the lack of MP. I would have loved it, but you have to assume that Halo Studios is cooking up a new entry, though with the new focus on exclusives, who knows if it will ever release on PS.

If anyone is craving that arena shooter feel, Splitgate is an adequate replacement. Definitely not as good and the aesthetics are way worse, but the game itself is pretty fun in bursts.

Oh my God, my OCD brain loves this. I absolutely hate it when games in the same franchise are nowhere near each other in my game list. Skyrim, I'm looking at you.

I have a suspicion that Gears Remastered really didn't perform all that well on PlayStation, which makes this decision a little easier for Xbox.

Ultimately, E-Day will suffer financially for skipping PS5, but Microsoft knows that. This is a calculated decision to keep their fans happy.

I'm a little disappointed that I won't be able to play it, but I'm happy that Xbox users have a bit of a lifeline.

The problem is that Xbox has gone back and forth with their messaging so much that no one really believes they have any conviction in their decisions. Time will tell if their pivot back to exclusives will help. I doubt it, but you never know.

The back and forth from Microsoft is really frustrating, not only to people on the outside, but I'm sure for Xbox users as well. Just make up your mind!

As Colin Moriarty has said, they need to shut up and just do the work.

Xbox's words mean less then nothing at this point.

@get2sammyb Just checking - you're knowingly using an image for Fairgames that has an ARC Raiders background, right? 😂