gaming companies are scared that workers will unionize - hence the hard push to AI.
But making games is very much an art as well as a skill - gamers can spot AI slop from miles away.
The problem is they all want a Fortnight or COD, a game just making a profit isn't good enough.
They want to make money with Live Service games even though they always fail.
They want micro transactions to make them huge profits.
Producing a game that gamers like and want to play isn't enough.
What strikes me is that there's plenty of money in the industry if every venture isn't gambling on giant billion-dollar AAA games. Any game that brings in more than it cost to make is profitable, do some small games, too. Diversify! Gaming is an industry that is extremely favorable to niche entries.
What gets me - one of the things - is that a triple-A game shouldn't really be a gamble. The money is out there. The player base is out there. What people are looking for in a top-shelf game is not a mystery. Problem solving with immediate payoff isn't occult knowledge.
I'm seeing some of the things coming out on /r/masseffect, including some info by the people who were working on the next game, and it really appears like they were working on something that was going to be really good.
For some reason he puts "because the new owners killed it" as one of the ten reasons it was killed. It's a tautology. The real question is why. "Because" is a lame answer.
I'm seeing some of the things coming out on /r/masseffect, including some info by the people who were working on the next game, and it really appears like they were working on something that was going to be really good.
I have no knowledge about the behind the scenes bits or what they would or wouldn't have done, but I am angry that we saw a Mass Effect 5 teaser where Liara finds Shepard's helmet, now knowing that it will amount to sweet ◊◊◊◊-all.
Getting tired of my personal head-cannon being more entertaining to me to muse over than a supposed AAA title's gameplay.
I was disappointed with the last COD on PSPlus Essentials (freebie). The solo campaign was only like, an hour long. I don't play the online multiplayer version (although I know that's probably its greatest appeal.)
I'm seeing some of the things coming out on /r/masseffect, including some info by the people who were working on the next game, and it really appears like they were working on something that was going to be really good.
Do you really thing the teams and the leaders behind Andromeda, Anthem, and Veilguard were going to turn it around with ME4?
The AAA gaming industry has been in slow collapse for years. In the past few months, that's turned into a fast collapse. Nothing that was going on at Bioware over the past decade suggests they were going to lead the way out of the mess the industry is in.
All developers bought by EA have always become EA developers once the ink dried, whatever value there was in any particular developer will be subsumed by the corporation. In EA's view they are buying the "franchise" not the developer no matter what the press releases may say.
Yeah, no. The AAA videogame industry is not imploding over fears of unionization. BioWare didn't shut down because its (overwhelmingly progressive, pro-union) workforce was threatening to unionize. BioWare shut down because its workforce hadn't made money with a new game in ages.
Ironically, the videogame industry as a whole is relatively resistant to the push to AI, not just because their customers are overwhelmingly against it (to the point that the usual AAA "ignore the customer" attitude must be set aside), but because of all the copyright liability issues it brings.
Legendary Drops is a YouTuber who comments on the videogame industry. For the past year or so, he keeps returning to the topic of the implosion of the AAA market niche. In this video, he talks about what the AAA companies are doing wrong - have been doing wrong for years - through the lens of what Valve is doing right:
I'd try to summarize or "tease" his content here, but honestly he's so clear and succinct in his commentary that it's probably better just to watch a couple minutes and see for yourself.
Anyway, yeah, BioWare didn't get shut down because the Saudis are meanies. It got shut down because BioWare are meanies. The entire industry are meanies. The entire industry has forgotten that the point of a business isn't to make money, it's to create and keep customers. Valve has consistently since its founding focused on creating and keeping customers, and as a result it's been a wildly successful and profitable company. Valve makes money hand over fist.
In contrast, the entire AAA videogame industry, BioWare included, has spent the past decade or more trying to make money without creating or keeping customers. With the result being that they're not making money. The Saudis shut down BioWare because they want to make money, and don't want to prop up business units that aren't making money. It remains to be seen whether they'll push EA to create and keep customers, or whether anyone else in the AAA market will figure it out.
Meanwhile, Valve is running an alpha test of a live service hero shooter moba, and the only way you can get into it is by invite. You have to know someone who's already in it. And this game is still one of the most-played games in the genre right now. No marketing, no open access, not even apply for access. Invite only. There's half a dozen AAA studios that have been trying to cash in with this kind of game for years, and failing miserably. There's half a dozen AAA studios going out of business right now because they can't figure out how to do what Valve is doing. BioWare being one of them.
Falcon* at Gameranx has been saying pretty much exactly the same thing in the channel's main videos and his spin off Falcon Show.
AAA games are increasingly about extraction of cash through micro transactions and 'battle passes'. AA games are increasingly as good as, if not better than AAA offerings.
As for Valve and Steam, AI slop copies are increasingly flooding the place.
AI sludge games aren't the fault of Steam.
It just makes 'real' games hard to see. Some indie developers are reluctant to put games on to steam as they know they will be lost in a sea of copies within a couple short time.
Most People have no clue of the size of the gaming industry. Kushner and the Saudis do.
What they don't know is the wrath and subsequent coordination Gamers can muster to punish a company that doesn't give them what they want at a price they can afford.
I will certainly never buy anything from EA anymore, and I know a couple of people who won't, either.
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