Hulst: Concord was insufficiently differentiated to be a success - Marathon feedback varied but useful

No, it was an ugly and generic as fuck artistically, that was it, even if the gameplay was mid, that would be just one reason for players to not play it, now you give them two or more because it wasn't even F2P... I mean, how couldn't they see the picture in the wall?
 
That game was perfectly differentiated... where else could you find such characters...

Video-Game-Concord-Bazz-Red-Coat.jpg
 
AJUMP23 said:
Concord and Marathon are both trying to enter a saturated market. But I do not think they offered anything new and the character and world design is just bad in both. Marathons art style is pretty jarring. Concord Character design was awful. I just don't know who they are trying to appeal to. Maybe their own internal bias and echo chamber is causing the misstep. Everyone really wants what I like.
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some-concord-redesigns-plus-emaris-first-design-artist-v0-mzey7d352nnd1.jpg


Here's supposedly Emari's early concept vs her final design. IDK what motivated this sort of change, but it sure as fuck wasn't "our audience will like this design and want to play as this character"
 
The reality is, as I've been saying for a long-ass time at this point, the rabidly woke and the rabidly anti-woke are basically the same idiot, just in different flavours.

They both obsessively ascribe total responsibility for every success or failure based on how it conforms (or not) with their world view, because ideologues are driven to see their worldview dominate.

The reality of Concord was that despite what the chuds want us to believe, it wasn't wokeness that killed it. It failed fundamentally because it had nothing new or exciting to offer apart from its woke stylings.

That's the teachable moment Hulst is expressing. And its way more valuable than one tribe pointing out how much they hate the other tribe!

Honestly, that so many people want to talk about how Sony should conduct their business despite not grasping this very obvious point is pretty embarrassing.
 
GaaS market reminds me of the mmorpg market.

The games leap frogged each other until a good enough one got so many eyeballs and so much polish/features/content that no one else could compete and it became king and, to this day, rules the land as far as the eye can see.
 
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I tend to believe that both the modern crowd and us hardcore folks are minorities in our own right, though I would believe hardcore is more populous simply because the group has existed longer. There is nothing in Concord that could sway the folks in the middle, simple as that.

I'm not sure if Hulst really believes what he's saying or if this is just the most politically correct way to put things.

On a side note...looks like Marathon isn't cancelled if this is anything to go by. Hope they fix whatever's wrong with it.
 
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People expecting him to truly reveal concord problems as if he isnt aware/told or is stupid.
Its his job to calm the waters, find positives and move forward. Like, its not a lie- hes just gonna focus on the positives.
 
Karim said:
You hate woke culture. We get it. And because such game show woke culture or whatever you think it's a deep argument to point out. Ok.
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You can go against the grain and try to get deep arguments out of these trashy shite games but at the end of the day, gamers know what they want and they hold the money

Zero point even trying to refute anything about this..

The proof is in the pudding, and if it tastes shite, it won't sell 🤷‍♂️

Doesn't matter how many top bods dance around issues, pretend nothings happening, have board room meetings, push agendas, make things ugly

Gamers are a different breed. This is one media you can't fuck around in, it'll never, ever work :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Jigsaah said:
I tend to believe that both the modern crowd and us hardcore folks are minorities in our own right, though I would believe hardcore is more populous simply because the group has existed longer. There is nothing in Concord that could sway the folks in the middle, simple as that.

I'm not sure if Hulst really believes what he's saying or if this is just the most politically correct way to put things.

On a side note...looks like Marathon isn't cancelled if this is anything to go by. Hope they fix whatever's wrong with it.
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Its hard to know if a) they are oblivous to the real problem just like the alternative account discussing the subjedt with me above (denial is a hell of a drug)

or b) like you said is PC trying to explain and tip tap toe around the subject
 
Bond007 said:
People expecting him to truly reveal concord problems as if he isnt aware/told or is stupid.
Its his job to calm the waters, find positives and move forward. Like, its not a lie- hes just gonna focus on the positives.
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Some posters really think that executive will dunk on his own product live during PR interview. His answer is as generic as it gets and I don't get what people expected from such a fluff piece.
 
Bond007 said:
People expecting him to truly reveal concord problems as if he isnt aware/told or is stupid.
Its his job to calm the waters, find positives and move forward. Like, its not a lie- hes just gonna focus on the positives.
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But the problem was that he saw that game being made, that he knew what they were doing, that he didn't shut the whole direction down to begin with.

For that he deserves all the hate.
 
No. Concord did manage to differentiate itself, but in a bad way, that no one cared about.
All those shit characters and bland gameplay, was a recipe for failure.
That this guy can't understand that, makes me think he is not suited to be CEO of a major corporation.
 
Hideous Snake said:
And what a delay is going to change? The feedback have been that this game is not it. Apart from the shooting which is phenomenal as always since its Bungie
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I don't remember what they said but I think their overall thoughts were they needed a more engaging loop like something that keeps them coming back. All I know is no one was saying it needed to be canceled. So I guess go back and look at the previews and see why they thought it just needed more time.
 
Dr.Morris79 said:
You can go against the grain and try to get deep arguments out of these trashy shite games but at the end of the day, gamers know what they want and they hold the money

Zero point even trying to refute anything about this..

The proof is in the pudding, and if it tastes shite, it won't sell 🤷‍♂️

Doesn't matter how many top bods dance around issues, pretend nothings happening, have board room meetings, push agendas, make things ugly

Gamers are a different breed. This is one media you can't fuck around in, it'll never, ever work :messenger_tears_of_joy:
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I think it's really a stupid argument with all respect. Such games were uninspired, generic and bland as hell. That's it.
 
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winjer said:
No. Concord did manage to differentiate itself, but in a bad way, that no one cared about.
All those shit characters and bland gameplay, was a recipe for failure.
That this guy can't understand that, makes me think he is not suited to be CEO of a major corporation.
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It did and it didn't. I think it distinguished itself by having possibly the most repulsive cast of playable characters ever conceived.

But also it was just chasing old ass trends that probably seemed like surefire bets 8 years ago when the game was conceived. Overwatch gameplay, Guardians of the Galaxy tone, and some Tumblr-approved DEI checklist character roster.
 
Herbspiceguy said:
Glad to hear they're still going to push out Marathon, so we can witness it bomb upon release. I was afraid they silently cancelled it, since it was a no-show in the recent showcases.

Might as well push out Fairgames too while you're at it...
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Perhaps the potential failure of Marathon and Failgame$ will be the final push needed to get Hulst fired.
 
Dr.Morris79 said:
Well that's subjective :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I know quite a few gamers that rejected them fully. Gamers that like the previous iterations.

If they hadn't gone down the woke route, they'd of sold a hell of a lot more 🤷‍♂️
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You can't be serious. I just imagine for a second if GTA San Andreas sold badly and people start to argue about his black culture inside. I don't know, it's something really disturbing for me read such argumentations. Not saying there aren't people who care of such stuff but to think about the majority who avoid games for such reasons. It's awful.
 
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I think the problem was the exact opposite - it was sufficiently differentiated and that difference was what put people off.
 
He knows why it failed but of course they will not acknowledge that especially in a meeting like this. Hopefully no more woke crap in future playstation games. Looking at you Insomniac.
 
Eh he knows exactly why it failed and is just doing PR speak or has seen plenty of the criticism and memes about it but ignores it. What's more important is that neither takes away his responsibility in the matter of shipping it out
 
Cyberpunkd said:
"Varied feedback" during a financial briefing is corpo speak for: "everybody thought it was dog shit".
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Funny how when bringing up Marathon and feedback this or that, he had zero balls to bring up a big part of the issues the past month and a half were the plagiarized artwork. Guy tries to make it sound like it's just some basic tit for tat feedback any game goes through.
 
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