Seems like there have been too many AAA flops, to the point where you can't really say that the launch week of a new title is going to be all that important.
It used to be that a big release was reliably interesting with everyone figuring out how to play, and a bit more emergent chaos. Few new titles have captured this. Either they are overly sterile, or buggy live service titles with no real reason to engage at day one.
Possible that the size of the teams is part of the problem, but if the industry needs to drop from 500 man to 100 man teams, I can't imagine how the industry will be healthy during that.
The US game industry has been broken for decade+, since all those gates. Now just free money ran out.
Start producing games players want, and you will do just fine! And do not tell your customers, how much you hate them! Even better: do not hate your customers!
Every industry is broken, because the overarching economic system is broken. The game industry is one of the first to feel the full effects because it's so optional to the world.
I recently started playing Expedition 33 and was impressed right away by the quality just in the first 10 minutes, hours later and the game just gets better.
I count 32 people on their team photo + the dog, and even this seems like a somewhat sizable number of people to manage. When I see news of these lay-offs it’s terrible for those people but at the end of the day I feel like those companies never should have reached those numbers. I fear for Larian
Seems like there have been too many AAA flops, to the point where you can't really say that the launch week of a new title is going to be all that important.
It used to be that a big release was reliably interesting with everyone figuring out how to play, and a bit more emergent chaos. Few new titles have captured this. Either they are overly sterile, or buggy live service titles with no real reason to engage at day one.
Possible that the size of the teams is part of the problem, but if the industry needs to drop from 500 man to 100 man teams, I can't imagine how the industry will be healthy during that.
because they're all becoming the same. Just like cars pretty much have the same shape nowadays
software industry get "leaner" with AI, I don't see game industry is any different
It feels like whole business tries to become "the ultimate middle man".
Grabbing largest profits possible, but all risks on producers.
For clients there are two problems. Lack of people that steer industry in good direction long term, and everything works until it doesn't.
The US game industry has been broken for decade+, since all those gates. Now just free money ran out.
Start producing games players want, and you will do just fine! And do not tell your customers, how much you hate them! Even better: do not hate your customers!
Every industry is broken, because the overarching economic system is broken. The game industry is one of the first to feel the full effects because it's so optional to the world.
How is the economic system broken?
I recently started playing Expedition 33 and was impressed right away by the quality just in the first 10 minutes, hours later and the game just gets better.
I count 32 people on their team photo + the dog, and even this seems like a somewhat sizable number of people to manage. When I see news of these lay-offs it’s terrible for those people but at the end of the day I feel like those companies never should have reached those numbers. I fear for Larian
The problem with the game industry is, honestly, that everyone wants to break into it.
The game industry is genuinely terrible, starting with low pay and brutal working hours, but it's interesting and lets you do a lot of fun things.
Because everyone wants to do it, there are plenty of people willing to put up with somewhat lower pay.
Yeah, I agree with that take. It’s the fashion industry of computers. People will bend over backwards just to be a part of it.