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[Spyxos]

Lately we get almost only unfinished games that barely work. And actually still needed a few months or even years in development. Are there still after-effects of Covid that we see now?

Or is it work from home? And people no longer work as effectively as they used to? and talk past each other and everything takes longer as a result?

Or is it because of the end of the quarter that the game has to come out now. No matter how bad the condition is?

 

[Sethbacca]

I think different companies are going to have different reasons. In MS case it's certainly that they're already taking it on the chin for delivering absolutely jack squat for AAA titles. For other companies its probably more about shoring up the bottom line in a market turning south.

 

[PeteBull]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

 

[feynoob]

This

Best case scenario is cyberpunk 2077. The upper management are clueless and only after profit. They will push the game faster in hopes of raking those money.

 

[FearlessBelgian]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

That it.

 

[Danjin44]

Games like Xenoblade 3 and upcoming FFXVI and Armored Core VI have smooth development.

Developers like Monolith Soft are super efficient and don't have the bad habit of announcing their games too soon.

 

[The_Observer]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

I think it's 90% this, at the least.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Work from home is definitely part of it,but it's not necessarily that it can't work it's that it changed a lot of things really fast and other aspects of organization haven't caught up.

AAA budgets have also ballooned to the point where they're just untenable and so the business wants to push stuff out the door for fear of overspending.

 

[onQ123]

I'm pretty sure games have always been bad

 

[kyussman]

Probably a lot of people in the industry(in the US)who aren't qualified enough for the jobs.....but have the correct pronouns or skin colour.

 

[Guilty_AI]

We used to get plenty of those in the past as well. The reason it seems like things are bad today is either because of social media exposure, or because we only remember the great titles from the past. Maybe both.

Jus try searching for worst games of 200X year and you'll get plenty of names, big ones included.

 

[nbkicker]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

Exactly i work in the nuclear electrical industry and youd be suprised by the quality of the people working there now, in the past it was always the best person given the job, now its just emails going round about diversity in the workplace, and how as a industry there needs to be more a 50/50 split between male/female in the workplace, there people who cant do there jobs yet if anything said youre sexist,homophobic or a trouble maker, and people thought simpsons was a joke cartoon. Same for gaming with rocksteady letter of the need todo better and how going forward everyone has a say in the development of there games and look how that turning out. If gaming industry same to one i work in then instead of hiring the best qualified person they prob full of staff picked for there diversity than there skills

 

[diffusionx]

We used to get plenty of those in the past as well. The reason it seems like things are bad today is either because of social media exposure, or because we only remember the great titles from the past. Maybe both.

Jus try searching for worst games of 200X year and you'll get plenty of names, big ones included.

The PS2 game lineup in 2000-2001 exceeds an entire generation these days. It is not in our head.

 

[Nankatsu]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

 

[Wildebeest]

Gap between the ambition of publishers to grow mega teams to make mega games and the reality of a lack of properly qualified people to fill jobs who haven't burnt out. It might be that every 12-year-old wants to be a "game designer" when they grow up, but that doesn't cut it. Also, tech has stagnated but demands for improvements in graphics have accelerated due to 4k and ray tracing.

 

[nbkicker]

plus there just isnt the amount of games getting released this generation there use to be, ps5 and xbox x will be three yrs old this nov, yet can u name 10 exclusive games just for that hardware, prob struggle for 5, yet the ps1,ps2,ps3 and even ps4 had miles more games you could name

 

[FunkMiller]

It's corporate greed.

Absolutely nothing else.

Executives want a maximum personal profit for minimum outlay. They've got used to an audience that will hoover any old shit up, and have seen that they can put broken games out that make millions, with little effort on their part.

 

[HTK]

Bad design decisions. People that are out of touch making bad decisions I think is still the #1 issue in games today.

 

[Fuz]

- Aiming too high paired with technology progress had a significant impact on dev time, costs and so on
- Diversity hires instead of competence hires

First possible reasons that I can think of.

 

[Majukun]

success stories like fallout 76 or no man sky...companies now know that even if you release an incomplete piece of junk. you can just complete it later and be lauded for it, because "you could have left it a piece of junk"

 

[Buggy Loop]

Work

From home

 

[ipukespiders]

Diversity.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

It's this, and by god does it show. No wonder the talent left half these studios.

 

[Guilty_AI]

The PS2 game lineup in 2000-2001 exceeds an entire generation these days. It is not in our head.

And we still do get good line-ups, some years better than others. They just aren't third-party exclusives necessarely.

This year alone, even without remakes, we're got or are getting Atomic Heart, Everspace 2, Hogwarts Legacy, TotK, FFXVI, Baldurs Gate 3, Dead Island 2, Diablo 4, Armored Core 6, Octopath Traveler 2, Hi-Fi Rush out of the top of my head.

 

[The Stig]

stop demonizing WFH, FFS!

 

[01011001]

Artist driven development, no vision, checklist gamedesign, bad management

 

[Woopah]

There have always been bad games and buggy games. And it's almost always down to poor publisher management, poor studio leadership or lack of funding.

It's unlikely to be the "woke" bogeyman or the fault of individual devs.

 

[worldwithpyramids]

The last ten years western AAA studios have been about diversity over talent and it's quite obvious. The first question journalists ask a director now is about representation. That's what gets attention and clicks so studios have to move to focus on that because these huge games rely on image and advertising to sell games so they have to remain pure in the eyes of the press. There's also a very seedy in-culture between devs and journalists who are all part of this insane cult who are absolutely hellbent on destroying this medium from within and without with their niche worldview. They have a hold on the west and are desperately trying to claw into Japan but thankfully they've been largely unsuccessful.

 

[CherryFalls]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

Yup, look at something like the recent redfall disaster. They wanted to purposefully make a woke 'metaphor' of a game about capitalism and trump, but they forgot to actually have the talent and make a good video game along the way.

By the way that not me saying this, the director said this himself :

https://www.thegamer.com/redfall-commentary-capitalism-creators-disservice/
https://www.gamesradar.com/redfall-is-not-a-horde-shooter-and-the-vampires-are-a-metaphor-actually/

 

[Yoboman]

Gamepass

 

[mdkirby]

Lately we get almost only unfinished games that barely work. And actually still needed a few months or even years in development. Are there still after-effects of Covid that we see now?

Or is it work from home? And people no longer work as effectively as they used to? and talk past each other and everything takes longer as a result?

Or is it because of the end of the quarter that the game has to come out now. No matter how bad the condition is?

Making good games in a timely fashion is definitely possible. After frogware games released Sherlock chapter one just before the Ukraine war, they managed to work from home, whilst their studio scattered finding safety. They still managed to get their dlc out in decent time. Then they launched a kickstarter for Sherlock Awakened, it released a couple of weeks ago. It was a remake, but a substantial one. It took a year, whilst they are at war. It's good, looks great. It crashed once in my play through. There was one delay for a couple of weeks. They are a smallish team.

Insomniac have great output a comparatively short development times. Great games with minimal bugs.

Massive teams with 5-7 years, not going through a war releasing bug riddled uninspired crap the only cause has to be gross mismanagement and the legacy of pushing GAAS on developers of games that began dev 6 years ago when it was trendy, and now publishers trying to fix their mess now everyone hates that crap.

 

[Alebrije]

Patches...

The industry has become a patch "whore". Sends tons of half baked games and "fix" them later.

In the beginning patches were a good solution to core problems on games..but these days developers abuse them....

Lazy developers are the cancer of the industry.

 

[gaming_again]

People who actively dislike games and gamers being put in charge of studios.

People being afraid to be creative.

The ballooning costs of development making design too risk averse.

I think the woke agenda is a big part of it too.

However, when a game is good these days it's really fucking good.

Also: stop playing western games. The west is going through a cultural revolution that is hostile to art and creativity. Just leave it behind.

 

[semiconscious]

commodification/industrializtion. &, of course: the more automated the process, the less encouragement to think...

 

[ResilientBanana]

So long as development started before 2019, COVID took a huge toll. But hiring based on diversity as opposed to experience is also a huge factor. Another factor may include using 3rd party sources to build sections of a game then trying to mash that together.

Also: stop playing western games. The west is going through a cultural revolution that is hostile to art and creativity. Just leave it behind.

But not everyone wants all games to be anime, if that's what you're getting at. That would mean all art and creativity fall under one artistic style.

 

[Kupfer]

I feel like developers have forgotten how to develop, how to solve problems, how to program, how to optimize, on the whole they have forgotten how to understand the product in its entirety.

Instead, such half-baked disaster games seem like the result of an asset-flipping gang that never learned from scratch how to make games, how games work and why games are fascinating and fun. Throwing assets into a pre-built wonder engine doesn't make a good game, but that's all many studios seem to be capable of these days.

The industry needs real nerds again, not hipsters, people who know how to advance technology and create innovation on a technical level. Games made by gamers who create their own dream game that they would like to play themselves. Such heartfelt projects are very rare in the aa and aaa sector these days.

What's happening right now is not the future, it can't be, and I hope the buying public starts to see it too.

 

[Jigsaah]

I believe it not just one thing. I think the work from home environment is contributing to the length of time games take to be finished. In addition to this, I doubt publishers are giving much leeway in terms of expectations for release dates. There have been a lot of delays, true, but games like Redfall, probably suffer from things like this. Either that or Microsoft's hands off approach isn't really working. There's something to be said if a studio has a safety net. Taking the stress out of development may also remove some of the urgency.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

 

[qbxwhi]

all the smart programmer people no longer in game development. they gone on to investing/ scamming people with crypto. or working at bigger companies.

 

[Killer8]

Dramatically overshooting the mark in terms of game size and ambition. All those years of effort, hours of crunch and hundreds of millions of dollars going into huge projects that only about 25% of people will actually see through to completion.

 

[DevilHunterX0]

"tools"

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

you know, this is very intriguing and i will find by myself.

is game development harder to send a funcking drone to Mars?......

 

[Griffon]

Still plenty of great games around.

You people are simply not looking at the right places.

 

[gaming_again]

So long as development started before 2019, COVID took a huge toll. But hiring based on diversity as opposed to experience is also a huge factor. Another factor may include using 3rd party sources to build sections of a game then trying to mash that together.



But not everyone wants all games to be anime, if that's what you're getting at. That would mean all art and creativity fall under one artistic style.

No I'm not thinking about anime, but pure creative freedom. I have no interest in meek and timid games.

 

[TheBROgamer]

Gap between the ambition of publishers to grow mega teams to make mega games and the reality of a lack of properly qualified people to fill jobs who haven't burnt out. It might be that every 12-year-old wants to be a "game designer" when they grow up, but that doesn't cut it. Also, tech has stagnated but demands for improvements in graphics have accelerated due to 4k and ray tracing.

This is the correct answer, among others.

 

[Jigsaah]

Woke fricken agenda, no crunch, when those dev studios hire according to diversity quota instead of actual talent u go tons of really bad products being made, on top again- woke agenda from ppl deciding about priorities of the game, its not quality anymore but more often than not sticking it to those evil white men ;X

Agree with hiring talent to fill a quota. That's just not good business. Putting social issues above what's best for the product is just asking for dumb shit to happen.

 

[Kupfer]

is game development harder to send a funcking drone to Mars?......

At least that's what John Carmack said over 14 years ago

 

[gaming_again]

I feel like developers have forgotten how to develop, how to solve problems, how to program, how to optimize, on the whole they have forgotten how to understand the product in its entirety.

Instead, such half-baked disaster games seem like the result of an asset-flipping gang that never learned from scratch how to make games, how games work and why games are fascinating and fun. Throwing assets into a pre-built wonder engine doesn't make a good game, but that's all many studios seem to be capable of these days.

The industry needs real nerds again, not hipsters, people who know how to advance technology and create innovation on a technical level. Games made by gamers who create their own dream game that they would like to play themselves. Such heartfelt projects are very rare in the aa and aaa sector these days.

What's happening right now is not the future, it can't be, and I hope the buying public starts to see it too.

I feel you on the real nerds. I fucking hate what Reddit did to the perception of nerds, and thus formed a negative feedback loop that gave us our current batch of nerds, a group who, historically, moved our culture forward. Now they buy funk pops and cry over Star Wars trailers. Where are the alpha nerds at?

 

[zcaa0g]

Fucking climate change yo. It's damaging our brains.