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[StreetsofBeige]

The current DEI trends suck but what's ruining gaming is a bunch of dick head execs across the industry, not just Hermen.

Hermen Hulst and his inability to handle Playstation.
Phil Spencer and his inability to handle Xbox.
Yves Guillemot and his inability to handle Ubisoft.
Andrew Wilson and his inability to handle EA.

They've spent billions of dollars combined on uninspired trash products that copy pasted tired formulas, chased trends 7 years too late, and inflated development timelines and cost to such an absurd level that they're not even willing to experiment or be creative anymore. Most of these products never stood a chance from conception and anyone with half a brain could have told them that. I can't even tell that the 2024 games look better than the 2020-2022 games anymore. What the fuck are these 8 year dev cycles even for? The PS5 Pro demo was the perfect example. They had to zoom in on background details to show you that a texture is ever so slightly less fuzzy, that'll be $700 please. Anything good that happens to come out of these mega publishers is usually a result of sheer luck or someone competent at a lower level giving a shit.

The worst part is none of these assholes just eat the loss. They moan about how high development budgets are and insist they need to nickle and dime you to keep the lights on, while they mismanage the fuck out of millions of dollars daily. Sony isn't eatting the loss on Concord, they expect us to. I also kind of blame the gamers who let them. If you're buying $20 skins weekly in any game, you're cancer to the industry.

Most companies in different industries try to keep successful products going and will tweak them if needed.

Gaming is an industry where the next product might do a 180 messing it all up. They got a knack for hiring new people and changing direction their own way. Like a new movie director being hired to do superhero movies and he has to reboot them with his vision instead continuing on what’s been successfully done before.

When there’s office turnover at a juice company I don’t get the feeling the new directors change everything up next year. They might add new products their own way but they aren’t dumb enough to mess up what worked. But it does happen. Tropicana messed up packaging, it sucked and they reverted back to the old way. Gaming seems to think you always got to reinvent the wheel or inject personal politics into it. Sometimes it’s best to keep on doing what you’re doing well.

But at least some franchises know to milk a good thing, keep customers happy and not screw the pooch. COD, FIFA, Minecraft etc…. Seem to hum along fine. Don’t think they bombard the game with politics or CEOs or workers going on Twitter being loud.

 

[Sentenza]

There would be a whole fucking list of things going decidedly wrong in the current scenario, but if I had to summarize it in one single phenomenon, I'd say
"the way both developers and gaming press seem to be adamant in ANTAGONIZING their user base rather than serving it".

 

[Kvally]

Tribalism and trolls doing the console war thing.

 

[Nostalgic Nightmare]

The inherent problem imo that no one seems to understand is people are beyond tired of the sexuality/identity angle already. I have yet to truly encounter anyone in real life that leads in to any discussion or interaction around their "sex or identity" unless its something specific where it's being paraded around or activists etc.
Once a corporation gets hold of your message it usually means your cause is being farmed or exploited for profits and that should be enough to say it's run the course - but today people rather let it continue to be pushed instead of call it out and it diminishes said cause in the first place - while simultaneously upsetting people who have to get preached to 24/7 across their escape entertainment etc.

In short when it comes to politics or sex or identity

we need to go back to just leaving some topics taboo and un-discussed - it's causing too much division for the supposed cause of diversity. We need to focus on what makes us unified vs unique.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Why is there so many negative threads? Why can't you fucks just consume content and get excited for more content? You know, you are almost as bad as those corporations you hate. Don't ask me how. Educate yourself. But the more I think about it, the corporations and the games media are the real victims here. Why? Cause of your fucking questions.

Let's just all buy some funko pops and get back to real gaming.

And for all you complaining, name one fucking time an in game cash shop didn't work at launch. Checkmate fuckers.

 

[Wildebeest]

Why is there so many negative threads?

Lack of electrolytes and glucose in the brain box due to not drinking enough mtn dew.

 

[yurinka]

Too much money floating around. Although with current times, it seems the well is getting drier. But for companies and studios amped up on big overhead, they got no choice but to amp up on a big game hoping it does big sales at full price.

A small studio or indie guy in his basement can get by fine selling modest copies at $20. But a game company already with 100s or 1,000s of people, offices, tons of PCs and servers wont try to make a Terraria. Too gay looking and low brow. And unless it sells a tons of copies word of mouth at $15, it wont pay out. Terraria has sold 60M copies.

But gunning for a more expensive game with marketing, UE5, 4k textures and mo cap with actors and tons of cut scenes all selling for $70 only needs 3M copies to make it worth it. So do that route. It's should have more potential for higher sales wowwing gamers, instead of amateur looking indie games.

Game companies are kind of stuck because unless it's a long running GAAS game, their big money comes from making new games every 5 years. So a big studio needs a big splash to cover the finances. Traditional companies dont need that business model as a lot of their products can sell for years with successful products naturally rising in sales whereas a video game goes down in sales when the hype ends. At my company, there's products weve sold for decades where sales edge up over time. And it's the same shit even before I started at the company over 10 years ago. The only difference is every once in a while it gets refreshed packaging artwork.

To make games is very difficult and running a company too. In case of indies, it's very difficult to get funded or have a sustainable business because 99.999999% of the indie games don't sell millions, sell like shit instead.

Things like Terraria or Minecraft are ultra rare exceptions. AAA games with high end visuals have way better sales on average.

Everything is very risky.

 

[HoleinOne]

Gaming is an industry where the next product might do a 180 messing it all up. They got a knack for hiring new people and changing direction their own way. Like a new movie director being hired to do superhero movies and he has to reboot them with his vision instead continuing on what’s been successfully done before.

...and I can't imagine what the reasoning is behind this sort of strategy. I understand trying to expand the mainstream appeal of a franchise, but doing so by doing more or less the opposite of what made it successful in the first place? Seems to me that building on what's worked before is not only likelier to succeed but also less risky, since you've already got a built-in fanbase that'll do free PR for you. From what I've seen, casuals don't seem to have tastes diametrically opposed to those of more dedicated (or hobbyist or whatever you want to call them) gamers; if you've got a quality product, you can bring them in with advertising, FOMO and word of mouth (worked wonders for BG3). Hook enough of them, and now you've got a larger dedicated audience who'll bring in more casuals for the sequel and so on... Nintendo's successfully worked this way for years.

 

[yogaflame]

It is twisted woke agenda especially pertaining to forcing and pushing twisted gender ideology agenda that is the biggest plague not just in gaming, but also in movies, tv and even in work places, sports and society in general. SBI is one of the biggest culprit of this plague. But it is all about political climate. But that is in the past now, there will be big changes in trends, especially after what happened in USA recently, which I'm very happy with the results.

 

[Fortress of Regrets]

Torn between the woke crap and Hulst. But since Hulst is mainly ruining Playstation which I don't care all that much about, I'll go with the woke crap.

 

[Azelover]

It's the death of Moore's law IMO.. people still don't understand what that means for the future of the industry. That, along side diminishing returns is gonna change everything.. and I mean everything.

 

[Gonzito]

Purple haired developers

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Sometimes I do find those drama threads truly hlarious.

Hulst is in trouble? Helldivers 2 is still no2 game in NA (and probably close to 20mil now), Astro is legit GOTY contender, CoD is still basucally a PS-centered series revenue-wise, Portal is selling wonderfuly and Pro is moving quite healthy. We've even recently got great trailer for Ghost of Yotei and DS2 is still on track for 2025. Concord? Sony had way worse flops under way more likable people, plus it was concieved by a committee that almost certainly included Totoki, it's just stupid to pin everything on Hulst, he was not even the main decision maker until this spring lol. Of all the people mentioned PlayStation bosses are safest buch imaginable.

 

[RJMacready73]

Purple haired developers

what about Perriwinkle Blue?

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

Why isn't PC gamers an option?

 

[LordBlodgett]

100% Sweet Baby Inc.

Western studios are killing their writing to appease paid consultants who represent a really loud minority of culture warriors. The even crazier thing is that not many of those culture warriors seem to be gamers. The absolute batshit insane part of it is that the studios are putting themselves under this microscope because they are worried about being "cancelled" if they don't. Sweet Baby Inc is basically like the Mafia (or like Yelp!) where you pay them for "protection" so they don't sic culture warriors on your game.

 

[metareferential]

Corporate greed, OP.

The same problem everywhere: companies just thinking about short-term gain for shareholders.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Why isn't PC gamers an option?

 

[Fbh]

I think the overly political correctness in the industry, particularly in the west, is definitely a large issue. It affects the way games are made, the people who get hired to make them, the people who rise to positions of power within these companies, the overall environment in which the games are made and even the people allowed to do coverage of them (or at least given early access todo so).

Companies like Sweet Baby inc are just a symptom of a larger issue. They could go out of business tomorrow and they'd simply be replace by another similar company, because the actual issue is that the industry the way it is now would still be seeking out these types of services.

It's the death of Moore's law IMO.. people still don't understand what that means for the future of the industry. That, along side diminishing returns is gonna change everything.. and I mean everything.

Couldn't this be a good thing? I don't necessarily think what games really need is more power and better graphics. Maybe the focus will shift back to gameplay and design once AAA devs can no longer reliably sell their games on the premise of higher production values and visual fidelity.
I mean, somehow one of the modern open world games with the most fun, well implemented and interactive physics systems is on the fucking Switch.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Incels

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Western video games are actually going to get worse now, politically speaking, after the recent news today....

 

[Gideon]

GaaS>>>... Probably would have had a historical total war by now if not for hyena.

 

[Jesb]

I miss the days when all gaming was about was making good fun games. It’s over now.

 

[Krathoon]

A lot of non gaming companies are abandoning DEI. Boeing just abandoned it.

It seem like it is not really working out as intended and they are going back to a merit system.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Aim assist and cheaters.

Why isn't PC gamers an option?

Because they fund console hardware and software.

 

[Krathoon]

Just don't try to preach in games. Tell a story.

 

[Dick Jones]

The worst thing is issues with reviews by a mile. If the game is good, it should get a good review. If the game is shit, it should be a shit score. This would reward those who make good games. All other issues would be ironed out if we had honest reviews.

This is why it is important to make a list of games you love and games that didn't click and see who overlaps the most with you. You will more likely trust their reviews than someone who played the game sitting in a free yellow chair.

 

[nicoGec]

Honestly, I think that the reaction to Concord, Veilguard and Trump winning big is sending developers a big harsh message.

 

[HoleinOne]

Honestly, I think that the reaction to Concord, Veilguard and Trump winning big is sending developers a big harsh message.

Isn't Veilguard selling well? I'm not sure the devs are going to get the message you'd like them to.

 

[Barry Burton]

I think the overly political correctness in the industry, particularly in the west, is definitely a large issue. It affects the way games are made, the people who get hired to make them, the people who rise to positions of power within these companies, the overall environment in which the games are made and even the people allowed to do coverage of them (or at least given early access todo so).

Companies like Sweet Baby inc are just a symptom of a larger issue. They could go out of business tomorrow and they'd simply be replace by another similar company, because the actual issue is that the industry the way it is now would still be seeking out these types of services.

100% this.

 

[Dr Cowley]

Western uglification. Probably fits in with Sweet Baby option.

This one really hurt.

Google Image Result for https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/lookaside/crawler/threads/C99klYVIWNT/0/image.jpg

Dredd should always have his helmet on

 

[TheDreadBaron]

Continues to be gambling mechanics prioritized over fun.

 

[Generic]

Why is there so many negative threads? Why can't you fucks just consume content and get excited for more content? You know, you are almost as bad as those corporations you hate. Don't ask me how. Educate yourself. But the more I think about it, the corporations and the games media are the real victims here. Why? Cause of your fucking questions.

Let's just all buy some funko pops and get back to real gaming.

And for all you complaining, name one fucking time an in game cash shop didn't work at launch. Checkmate fuckers.

This but unironically. I only play games I like.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Money > passion/innovation in the industry. Or at least outcomes that feels like that. Too many projects that feel phoned in/not unique, cash grabs, etc. I really miss having titles that feel like that come from a special place, which we DO still get. I'd just love to see more of that. I feel like innovation is something that just doesn't exist anymore, especially in the realm of AAA.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Missing "Nintendo's evil greedy practices of selling glorified X360 games running on ten year old tech, at exorbitant prices."

 

[Bond007]

Microsoft to be honest. Always has been.
If they implement it- its usually bad for us or the industry.

I will start at paying to play online with XBL.

 

[Sentenza]

Why isn't PC gamers an option?

Because weaponized autism isn't an actual argument.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

All of the above. Seriously it’s too many problems in the game industry now from forced woke garbage, journalism is ran by activists, development costs way too high, corruption, less talent, etc. Gaming has definitely taken a turn for the worst and I see things getting worst in the future unfortunately.

 

[thegame983]

The God Emperor should just put a tariff on any DEI associated business.

 

[Bernardougf]

Missing "Nintendo's evil greedy practices of selling glorified X360 games running on ten year old tech, at exorbitant prices."

That will be the switch 2... switch 1 is much worse.

 

[Generic]

The God Emperor should just put a tariff on any DEI associated business.

All businesses then.

 

[Joramun]

woke is so good that they need to force feed it down our throats

 

[SleepySlippy]

Far-right gaming communities.

 

[Crystal Winters]

Multiple votes would have been nice. I picked the first option, but the last option would have been my second pick.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Far-right gaming communities.

 

[Braag]

Overall drop in quality in games, especially when it comes to writing. The need to forcefully make games political to push the developers own agenda.
The obsession with live service games, which usually end up being dead on arrival.
Gaming news websites no longer having the best interest of the industry in mind and instead attack players on a regular basis.
Just off the top of my head.

 

[kyussman]

I've gamed most of my life,the reasons I've not jumped into this gen are lazy game design + woke nonsense inserted into games......it's an incredibly off putting combo for me.

 

[FunkMiller]

The games industry is full of people who think like this:

“Fuck you, this is what I want”.

No, cunt. We buy the games. It’s what we want.

You can wrap every single issue up in the screaming entitlement pervading the professionals in gaming.

 

[NewYork]

CEOs' quest: how to make every game a subscription service?

 

[Rocinante618]

you should combine 1 & 4 together both are part of the bigger problem — the sheer inability to not accept different viewpoints and resort to extreme stuff when you can’t debate with valid points and be so out of touch with reality

most games nowadays are vanity projects of few at the top who are either for the profits or agenda or both

who gives a fuck about gameplay anymore? and if by chance, you get a game with great gameplay it’s either not optimised or is MTX heavy, a live service or all of them with moral messaging and superiority complex of community managers added as a cherry on the top

Unfortunate.