Pretty much this. Developer/publisher cutting costs + new IP + costly engine rework + game that’s not even in production yet = chopping block. People just automatically blame this on the MS/Activision merger when realistically, Activision/Blizzard was likely going to do this anyway. Activision and Blizzard have…

You’re assuming that this project wouldn’t have been canceled had the Activision merger not happened. Given the current industry trend of cutting costs (i.e. employees and risky projects), I’d be very surprised if Activision wasn’t going to do this regardless. I mean, apparently the game’s engine was nowhere near ready…

The problem with pre-made assets is that they look and feel generic. The more developers use them, the stronger this feeling becomes because players will recognize the same assets being used between games. For minor assets like props, this is less of an issue because those are largely background decoration. But things…

These are buildings we’re talking about. You can move props around but it seems unlikely that the structure itself can be easily modified.

Lmao where on Earth did I claim that?

Definitely not I. The only first-party game I bought was Ring Fit Adventure and I got that heavily discounted from a physical retailer.

That’s certainly possible though a bit unlikely. Successful videogames ultimately depend on quality and AI-generated content doesn’t provide that. At least, not yet. It’s good for quantity, not quality, much like procedural generation. I suspect AI legislation will pop up in the near future as well, limiting how AI is …

Sorry but you’ll need to be more specific and provide demonstrable examples of said harm and proof that the harm could not have happened without mergers.

There’s already precedent for that too. Amazon launched its own app store on Google Play and nobody used it, even when it had exclusive apps.

So... what exactly will Epic sell on the iOS version of EGS? Will it just be Fortnite which is already F2P? Good luck getting any third-party support. Developers/publishers have no reason to put their games on EGS iOS instead of the App Store. They could try paying for exclusivity like they do on PC but I don’t really…

I’m not sure what point you’re referring to. I’m stating that a port that comes out two years later should have a significantly reduced MSRP.

Consoles are only sold for a loss at first. Once the R&D costs are recouped and manufacturing costs naturally drop, all consoles become profitable.

Because the execs are viewed as more important while workers (contract ones particularly) are seen as expendable?

Nintendo’s discounts are laughably bad. They refuse to discount anything below $40 regardless of how old it is or how well it sold. I’d have more than 3 games for my Switch if their discounts weren’t so awful.

They overhired during the pandemic because revenue increased significantly during that period of time. When the market grows, more people get hired. When the market shrinks, more people get laid off.

Are we pretending that this isn’t an industry-wide trend currently affecting both independent studios and acquired studios..? Riot laid off 530 people. Epic laid off 830 people. CDPR laid off 9% of its staff. Mimimi, Lince Works and Fntastic shut down entirely.

Not really. I was already accounting for the DLC. Base game should $40 max, DLC $10 max. If Sony wants to charge more, they should release the ports sooner.

2 year delay vs the almost 4 year delay for the port of the first game. That’s certainly an improvement. Here’s hoping the delays get reduced to 1 year eventually.

People often say “underrated” when they actually mean “overlooked.” In other words, the game didn’t receive the mainstream recognition or success some people thought it deserved.

Sony sells PC hardware? That’s news to me. MS doesn’t sell hardware either (unless you count Xbox gamepads that also happen to be compatible with PC).