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[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Let me guess, they only surveyed Bioware, Ubisoft and Rocksteady?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Live service games are to blame… you’re not going to spread your purchases around if you dedicate a fixed % of your time on one game.

Before, we’d buy a game, play it, move on, buy another, take risks with unknown IPs. Now we buy micro transactions for that one game were always playing.

 

[64bitmodels]

Then why are the most successful, profitable, popular games generally AAA or GAAS? Maybe tell the "passionate" indie devs to make their games more fun.

Tetris and Minecraft are indie games. They are the 2 most successful games ever made

 

[64bitmodels]

Lack of innovation stems from a lack of creativity. If you don't have it, you probably shouldn't be in the industry.

No, lack of innovation comes from absurdly high budgets forcing devs to take the simple route out if they don't want to cost the company a giant sum of money.

When your game is 80, 90, 100 million dollars, focus testing groups are needed in order for the game to not be a giant flop

Mismanagement is an internal issue within developers, often caused by disagreement and infighting. You hear constantly about projects having to be restarted. Part of that is a result of no clear vision (see above). That isn't caused by the 'market'.

In Microsoft owned studios. As a result of MS disguising their negligence as a "creative approach" which leaves devs stranded. There's also the whole thing of games having overbloated teams. You do not need more than 500 people to make a good video game. The bigger the team gets the more Mismanagement will occur

Costs being too high is due to their own insane ambition. Stop creating 50+ hour open world games which nobody finishes.

This is a higher up problem. I'm sure many developers would like to make their nice smaller games but higher-ups like to see consistency, safe ideas, and profits above all else. devs don't make decisions over the scope of a game like this.

 

[Hypereides]

We have to thank mr. "lets take the fun out of game development" for getting us to this point and every industry big CEO copied notes from. Its been a slow burn, but his vision is finally coming to fruition.

An AAA industry that's falling apart at the seams because it forgot what it was originally about.

THANK YOU very much.

The lack of insight in these brats speaks volumes about the actual reasons of the crisis.

Modern day developers probably share a mutual feeling in regards to gamers.

Honestly, one of the biggest issues in this industry is lack of transparency and clear communication between the end users (gamers) and AAA developers. There's a bunch of misconceptions floating around about both, from both sides, which in return nurtures and fosters bi-directional hostility/negativity between both parties. Its one of the things that need to be resolved if this industry wants to get back on a healthy track.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Then get back to making fun games you rotten haggis fuckers.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

Seems to me you either have to have hugely popular IPs and keep feeding those fans like CoD, GTA, Nintendo, etc…. Or you need to make a game that catches on with streamers and tiktok like Palworld and Helldivers.

This game came out a few months ago, had a big budget, and look at the state of it now. Unmitigated disaster. And the crazy thing is everyone saw this coming months before release besides apparently the devs and publisher.

Holy fuck, that's worse than I expected.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Modern day developers probably share a mutual feeling in regards to gamers.

And this is precisely the problem. We are the customers, they are the creators. Our positions are not equal.

Every time a Disney movie bombs they blame their target audience instead of looking in the mirror.

For all the bad reputation that gacha devs have, there is a gulf between them and others because they listen to their customers, they try their best not to piss them off, and never antagonize them. Guys like Arrowhead's CEO are exceptions when they should be the norm.

It's a cultural problem. Most Western devs and the entertainment media have created an endogamic private circle where gamers don't have a place. I don't have any sympathy for them.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Tetris and Minecraft are indie games. They are the 2 most successful games ever made

Trends are tough for you huh?

 

[tr1p1ex]

Honestly, one of the biggest issues in this industry is lack of transparency and clear communication between the end users (gamers) and AAA developers. There's a bunch of misconceptions floating around about both, from both sides, which in return nurtures and fosters bi-directional hostility/negativity between both parties. Its one of the things that need to be resolved if this industry wants to get back on a healthy track.

Opposite. The problem is too much 'communication' between players and AAA developers.

IT's basically the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum.

 

[SkeletonQuays]

No mention of focus on GAaS and forced DEI inclusion? Shocker.

 

[ProtoByte]

No, lack of innovation comes from absurdly high budgets forcing devs to take the simple route out if they don't want to cost the company a giant sum of money.

When your game is 80, 90, 100 million dollars, focus testing groups are needed in order for the game to not be a giant flop

I think you're both missing the main issue. The industry isn't 10 years old anymore. We're at diminishing returns of "innovation".

 

[BbMajor7th]

You think the surveyed developers realize 95% of the high development costs and investor expectations are a direct result of them earning $250,000+ salaries and benefit packages as they spend much of their days scootering to the ping pong table next to the artisanal juice bars? Or their woke zealot coworkers petitioning studio heads to commission Sweetbaby Inc. to the tune of $10,000,000 - $20,000,000 per title.

Those absurd salaries are reserved for the 'business intelligence' department, who analyse millions of data points from across immense data lakes to advise business executives that the most profitable strategy is to make 'the next Fortnite'

Even if you pretend your entire post was verifiable fact, it'd still be a (mis)management issue: game developers aren't unionised. If businesses were paying those salaries and letting them toss it off all day, it wouldn't be the fault of staff, it'd be the fault of senior management.

 

[BbMajor7th]

THANK YOU very much.

The lack of insight in these brats speaks volumes about the actual reasons of the crisis.

While I do think there's a lack of talent in the industry, it's not up to individual developers to decide if they're any good. Business leaders need to recognise quality in their products and their staff. Seemingly, a lot of them can't and they can't admit their failures: it isn't junior animators ploughing millions into made-to-fail projects like Suicide Squad.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

No mention of focus on GAaS and forced DEI inclusion? Shocker.

GAAS is literally the healthiest part of the industry so...no?

 

[LRKD]

Sure, but funny how when players say literally the exact same thing, they are whiney and know nothing about the industry.

 

[Denton]

"too much competition from other games" is the correct number 1 reason. Too many games for too few people buying them day 1 full price. Industry could use some trimming.

 

[Saber]

Seems to me you either have to have hugely popular IPs and keep feeding those fans like CoD, GTA, Nintendo, etc…. Or you need to make a game that catches on with streamers and tiktok like Palworld and Helldivers.

This game came out a few months ago, had a big budget, and look at the state of it now. Unmitigated disaster. And the crazy thing is everyone saw this coming months before release besides apparently the devs and publisher.

Suicide Squad is a peculiar case.
Not only devs seems to be like in a completelly denial, but they seems to be in a sort of blind state telling themselves everything they do is right.
I refuse to believe anyone inside there saw that scene of Boomerang showing a middle finger and though it was a cool marketing for a promotional video. The blame lies on both sides, the devs are as much of clowns as the executives.

 

[Wishmaster92]

Nah it’s definitely both

 

[Hypereides]

Opposite. The problem is too much 'communication' between players and AAA developers.

IT's basically the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum.

Really? Because I don't see it. Where's the dialogue? Where's the mutual exchange? There's none of that. There's no "hotline" or platform where gamers and AAA developers come together discuss and exchange feedback.

For a while I figured the gaming press would act as the mediator between gamers and AAA developers, but it turns out that isn't the case.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

the vast majority of devs are only following orders from their leadership. investors/executives only care about the money.

so yeah, rings true.

 

[tr1p1ex]

Really? Because I don't see it. Where's the dialogue? Where's the mutual exchange? There's none of that. There's no "hotline" or platform where gamers and AAA developers come together discuss and exchange feedback.

For a while I figured the gaming press would act as the mediator between gamers and AAA developers, but it turns out that isn't the case.

yep back in the day there was basically zero and great games were made.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Really? Because I don't see it. Where's the dialogue? Where's the mutual exchange? There's none of that. There's no "hotline" or platform where gamers and AAA developers come together discuss and exchange feedback.

For a while I figured the gaming press would act as the mediator between gamers and AAA developers, but it turns out that isn't the case.

Actually, the media is a lobby that antagonizes players and means to influence devs against their commercial interests. As an example, the soyboy at Forbes whining because Shift Up released new sexy outfits, "a win for gamers" as if that would be a bad thing.

 

[Ansphn]

Yeah when you're paying CEOs 23 million dollar bonuses while laying off the people who made the games, that's a huge problem. Gaming industry at least in the West is looking more and more like the for profit IT industry in Silicon valley instead of an art form based industry.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Devs never blame themselves.

As Uncle Bob says, devs are arrogant and it's fine being that way. Unfortunately devs like living in a bubble and few times realize they are part of an ecosystem.

 

[SkeletonQuays]

GAAS is literally the healthiest part of the industry so...no?

This is akin to saying meme coins are the healthiest part of crypto investing.