Support NeoGAF

[ByWatterson]

 

[NeonDelta]

Anyone making or thinking about making a GAAS game needs to change course

 

[DeepEnigma]

Hmmm... conspiracy or just c**p taste in games?

Also

 

[danklord]

They should bring it back as an extraction shooter

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

This sums up Highguards time line nicely

 

[Moondoggy]

Don't name your game with one word only!

I don't know about that, the alternative seems worse

 

[Melfice7]

the market keeps speaking loudly, devs keep ignoring it, good riddance

 

[Draugoth]

Looks like having the High-Ground didn't save Highguard

 

[PatientGamer]

The market has spoken. But will the industry listen?

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[diffusionx]

But bad work is bad work... I do high end bathrooms, kitchens, house flips etc.... If I did bad work i need to lose my job, the gaming industry needs to be the same.. It's why there actually is so much trash because people who need fired haven't been

a lot of people said it had some good ideas, it was just rough.

They should have launched a beta immediately after the geoffs and gotten all this feedback. Instead they were so insistent on doing an Apex thing, which of course they wouldn't have done because Apex wasn't announced ahead of time.

I really think this was bad and blinkered management more than them putting together a bad game per se.

 

[Paltheos]

Goddamn. Already dead? Well, at least it lasted longer than Concord. The final product looked like a confused mess so I'm not surprised it never hit it off with a solid, core audience.

 

[pudel]

the market keeps speaking loudly, devs keep ignoring it, good riddance

Tbf...all these games started a few years ago. When you today start a game, you need to know what people want to play in 5 years.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Excellent news.

 

[Sakura]

a lot of people said it had some good ideas, it was just rough.

They should have launched a beta immediately after the geoffs and gotten all this feedback. Instead they were so insistent on doing an Apex thing, which of course they wouldn't have done because Apex wasn't announced ahead of time.

I really think this was bad and blinkered management more than them putting together a bad game per se.

If they did a beta after the awards and the reception was bad, there's a good chance tencent would've still pulled funding. They have no income so they would've shut down either way. So I don't think that was really an option.
They should've changed course a long time ago and gotten proper feedback much earlier.

 

[TheLikou]

One more game making room for Jade Raymond smash hit, Fairgame$

Fairgames and the Jade Raymond game are different games. Also there is Project Gummy bears. Yeah, Sony still have a lot of thash to release or cancel.

 

[diffusionx]

If they did a beta after the awards and the reception was bad, there's a good chance tencent would've still pulled funding. They have no income so they would've shut down either way. So I don't think that was really an option.
They should've changed course a long time ago and gotten proper feedback much earlier.

the feedback wasn't bad though. the feedback was like, "there's a good game here but they haven't fully figured it out yet" - which is the point of the beta. They could have improved the game and launched it in June and probably would have done ok, but they were arrogant.

 

[Ronin_7]

Shocking news

 

[RoboFu]

 

[Sakura]

the feedback wasn't bad though. the feedback was like, "there's a good game here but they haven't fully figured it out yet" - which is the point of the beta. They could have improved the game and launched it in June and probably would have done ok, but they were arrogant.

I mean reception in terms of player numbers. If player numbers for the beta weren't great, I'm not sure it would matter if people were saying that there was a good game somewhere in there.
They were definitely arrogant though. They should've had a beta a year ago. Even a closed beta outside their friends and family. Keeping things under wraps and thinking you're going to hit it out of the park because of Apex Legends is crazy.

 

[diffusionx]

I mean reception in terms of player numbers. If player numbers for the beta weren't great, I'm not sure it would matter if people were saying that there was a good game somewhere in there.
They were definitely arrogant though. They should've had a beta a year ago. Even a closed beta outside their friends and family. Keeping things under wraps and thinking you're going to hit it out of the park because of Apex Legends is crazy.

Could have been a closed beta. But I think that an open beta would have had good numbers too, they had 100k ccu when the game came out.

There was lots of room to navigate here.

 

[Neolombax]

Hope the devs dont lose their jobs and get to work on something better in the future. The idea was there, only lacks in execution. MP only games need rigorous playtesting and QA, and have a community buy in before releasing to withstand today's audience scrutiny. Wish them the best.

 

[RaZoR No1]

That was faster than I thought.

I really expected them to at least keep it up for several months longer, but no gamers means no money means no game

Highguard, you will be not missed

 

[TheLikou]

Hope the devs dont lose their jobs and get to work on something better in the future. The idea was there, only lacks in execution. MP only games need rigorous playtesting and QA, and have a community buy in before releasing to withstand today's audience scrutiny. Wish them the best.

They already lost their jobs, my dude. There are now only around 10 people working there now, they are just making sure the game don't completely break until the last day and to pack things up.

Hopefully they land on their feet and learn lessons about what public want from the products, how only positive vibes is bad and that the public don't owe them nothing, so they shouldn't blame them. Not everyone, but hopefully some may learn that.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Crazy, it really was a Concord-like. It's only a few months since it was revealed.

 

[Pejo]

I don't know about Marathon, but Fairgame$ devs have to be shaking in their fucking boots right about now, if it hasn't already been secretly cancelled silently.

Surely we won't see any new Hero Shooters with awful character designs in the next calendar year, at the very least.

 

[Arsic]

I don't know about Marathon, but Fairgame$ devs have to be shaking in their fucking boots right about now, if it hasn't already been secretly cancelled silently.

Surely we won't see any new Hero Shooters with awful character designs in the next calendar year, at the very least.

Nah. The real big bomba is this.

 

[Lord Malachite]

Similar to Concord announcing itself with a high-budget GotG-flavored story cinematic before segueing into the reveal it was a hero shooter. I'm not saying either game would have been a success otherwise, but both had retarded reveals that poisoned the well from the start.

The difference for me was that I never "got" Concord. if it had been a big, tentpole, first party single player PS game, it would not have clicked with me. It was never the artstyle for me. It was that the story seemed so tediously boring. I had no emotion for it whatsoever. I didn't hate Concord to death. I was utterly numb and apathetic to its reveal, hype up, launch, failure, and death.

I have the same feelings about Highguard. I don't care that this game existed. And I don't care that it's dead. I don't have a hate boner. I just don't care. Its birth and death will have utterly zero impact on the gaming industry. No lessons will be learned--except perhaps incorrect ones. Not a single developer or publisher has taken anything from the death of a live service game. They all keep chasing the same thing like it's El Dorado. All the while not realizing it's the Nathan Drake version of that mythical treasure. The joke is on the industry, but no matter how many times they get hit in the face with the proverbial pie, they still don't get it.

 

[Moondoggy]

Nah. The real big bomba is this.

 

[Stratostar]

Natural selection.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Nah. The real big bomba is this.

 

[CowboyLou]

The difference for me was that I never "got" Concord. if it had been a big, tentpole, first party single player PS game, it would not have clicked with me. It was never the artstyle for me. It was that the story seemed so tediously boring. I had no emotion for it whatsoever. I dudn't hate Concord to death. I was utterly numb and apathetic to its reveal, hype up, launch, failure, and death.

I never got it either. I hated that fucking cinematic. But a lot of people saw it and wanted that story. The jokey GotG thing still had some appeal, apparently. I'm not saying a different reveal could have made the game a success, but I'm sure it was hurt by the reveal it actually got.

As for the rest, I don't have any other insight other than that I like all kinds of games including live service ones and we've seen countless big AAA single player games flop too. Some of them didn't even deserve it. In this environment I can't find much fault with all the usual reasons given why publishers continue to chase the GaaS dragon. Might as well swing for the fences.

I don't know what possesses a team to make something as unpalatable as Highguard or Concord, but I'm equally turned off by some of the actual successful games out there, like Valorant. So clearly I don't have my finger on the pulse.

 

[poppabk]

Another case of a rare incel victory.

Who is the next Concord in line?

What are you talking about?

 

[Grildon Tundy]

GaaS require time investments that single-player games don't require to make the business model work. I would think folks have one or maybe two GaaS games that are in their rotation at any one point. They will not jump ship (inertia is real), and the other than kids aging into game-playing age, the hardcore console/PC video game audience isn't ever-growing.

You have to differentiate from the absolutely saturated market to have a viable product, and these developers delude themselves into thinking they have what it takes, and they don't. Funny how randos on a gaming message board have a better read of the market than they do.

 

[neo raider]

Wow. These companies just don't let anything breath for a while do they?

hosting costs are astronomical these days

 

[Lord Malachite]

I never got it either. I hated that fucking cinematic. But a lot of people saw it and wanted that story. The jokey GotG thing still had some appeal, apparently. I'm not saying a different reveal could have made the game a success, but I'm sure it was hurt by the reveal it actually got.

As for the rest, I don't have any other insight other than that I like all kinds of games including live service ones and we've seen countless big AAA single player games flop too. Some of them didn't even deserve it. In this environment I can't find much fault with all the usual reasons given why publishers continue to chase the GaaS dragon. Might as well swing for the fences.

I don't know what possesses a team to make something as unpalatable as Highguard or Concord - other than it's not ALL down to ideology, as some like to believe - but I'm equally turned off by some of the actual successful games out there, like Valorant. So clearly I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse.

What I remember most about Concord is that every time Sony trotted it out during an SoP my eyes would glaze over and I'd start looking at other things on the internet. The game couldn't even raise my ire and make me want to hate watch it. The game was inoffensively dull and soulless. It was like "Celery: The Video Game."

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[LordCBH]

 

[Fake]

What are you talking about?

Google.

 

[poppabk]

Google.

Google what?

 

[Fake]

Google what?

Use google bigbrain.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Hahaha. Oh ya the funding part.

Another scam from Wildlight. Execs claimed they were self funded with no investor groups providing the corporate coffers. Tried to make it look they were a grassroots indie studio trying to get gamers to buy their game.

After all that, they were heavily funded. And it wasnt a bank loan or some random investor. But Tencent of all companies. What a bunch of assholes. Never trust game makers whether it's bullshots or PR statements.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Nobody is ever going to want to be the "one more thing" at the end of TGA after this. Which is probably a good thing, the "last reveal" nonsense never made sense in that show. Let's just go back to revealing the GotY winner and then ending the show on that high note

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Natural selection.

This has more depth than it seems.

 

[PeteBull]

Nobody is ever going to want to be the "one more thing" at the end of TGA after this. Which is probably a good thing, the "last reveal" nonsense never made sense in that show. Let's just go back to revealing the GotY winner and then ending the show on that high note

"One more thing" carries certain weight, simple as that, space marine 2 sold well and would sell well if it was final trailer on TGA too ofc, its based game made by based studio so very likely geoff wouldnt make it final trailer(it did have reveal cgi trailer on tga 2021 tho , ever, but thats another story

 

[Plague Doctor]

Hahaha. Oh ya the funding part.

Another scam from Wildlight. Execs claimed they were self funded with no investor groups providing the corporate coffers. Tried to make it look they were a grassroots indie studio trying to get gamers to buy their game.

After all that, they were heavily funded. And it wasnt a bank loan or some random investor. But Tencent of all companies. What a bunch of assholes. Never trust game makers whether it's bullshots or PR statements.

There was people throughout the net that literally stated that you as a consumer have no right to know how a game is funded in defense of Highguard and Tencent.

And some of these places on the net herald themselves as progressive.

And they argued against corporate transparency.

What the fuck...

 

[RoboEight]

It was just too rough of a game they needed a beta to see what was working or not. You can say what you want about the Game Awards stuff but it gave the game exposure and at the time 100k people played the game and most of them chose not to stay, most games would kill for that exposure.

The game had some neat ideas and props to them for trying some new things but reality is there is GaaS fatigue.

 

[MayauMiao]

Good to know we have 2 class of failures for memes. Paid slop & F2P slop.

 

[ViciousAgenda]

Cautionary tale here. Make sure people play the game before launch and take feedback seriously.

I didn't play this but it didn't seem like it was a terrible game. Alas, it wasn't good enough it seems.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There was people throughout the net that literally stated that you as a consumer have no right to know how a game is funded in defense of Highguard and Tencent.

And some of these places on the net herald themselves as progressive.

And they argued against corporate transparency.

What the fuck...

Didnt even make sense. The studio had around 100 people I think. It's obvious this kind of game wouldnt be funded solely from the execs. They are going to peel out $10s of millions of dollars out of their own pocket? Of course not. A quick google check says $200M, but I dont believe that. For sake of argument, let's say $50M. It doesnt even matter.

All the execs had to say was they have investors money to keep the lights on. No different than any other business you see see driving down the street who has loans. You dont have to go into details saying they got a loan from Bank of America or Bank of Montreal.

But to screw around with gamer psychology they tried to win them over as an indie studio from the ground up covered by the leaders. But you can see the type of people they got working there. Shadow dropped thinking HG is the greatest game ever and weird replies like high player count isnt needed to sustain a GAAS game too. Just dont get baited saying dumb stuff to the public.

Imagine being at internal board room meetings at Wildlight. The opinions tossed around at them must be doozies.