It was anything but fun, though thats besides the point, they just didn't fit in with the new marketing strategies
Co-op, microtransactions, multiplayer...the moment EA started calling the shots, there was no chance for creative work.
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DS3 was as weak as it was thanks to EA as well. Without all these shitty forced microtransactions for gun-building it would be a fun game. I played it myself aftere getting it from Humble and simply cheated with cheat engine - gave myself the mats I would be forced to pay for via microtrascactions, and without this unbalance it was not bad.
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Like i said above, if its bad or not isnt even important.
It just marked a point of no return for them.
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Someone said the mats rain from the sky so there was never any need to buy or cheat, it was a testbed for future mictrotransactions, now realized within Battlefront 2.
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Still the space part on derelict ships was fucking awesome.
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:We heard open world games with zero story and tons of microtransactions are what cool kids spend their money on this days, not some story-focused games, kill the project"
- EA Suits, probably
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I still can't wrap my head around how he managed to get appointed CEO of Unity right after his reign at EA ended with him getting fired for failing on every front. Is he buddies with the previous CEO or something?
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Is he buddies with the previous CEO or something?
Yeah.Apparently Unity's founder named him as his successor after he joined their board.I suspect he simply brought enough cash to the table to buy himself the position.
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actually it was impossible to craft top tier equipment in single playthrough of DS3 without microtransactions or cheating. It was deliberately designed this way (I guess was EAs idea, not Visceral's) to enforce microtransactions if you wanted to 100% get everything.
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If I remember correctly, the game had a New Game+ mechanic from its inception, so that may not necessarily be the case.
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but NG+ also upgrades equipment, so you need even more materials for them ;p "Choosing New Game+ also puts out new advanced Upgrade Circuits for the player to find and collect."
Call me a sceptic, but I think Visceral did not intentionally and without any influence of EA decide to create a system, where it is impossible to collect enough crafting materials in a single playthrough ;p Especially as it stands quite contrary to both previous games, where getting full upgrade was purposefully made quite easy in order for people to gear up accordingly through the game.
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True but the coop nature of the game implied the game would be replayed before you finish the game like , say Resident Evil 5 or 6.
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afair in both RE5&6 it was entirelly possible to get all equipment in a single playthrough and not buying it via microtransactions (yeah, there were weapon DLCs, it's also a bad thing in my eyes, but nowhere close as bad as on purpose disbalancing in-game drops in order to make people more likely to pay for microtransactions to get it. RE stuff was additional, DS3 stuff was in the game itself but you couldn't access it).
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fixed, thanks :> flaw of me not being native speaker and not encountering the word often enough to remember different spelling ;p in polish it's spelled sceptyk and in similar translations of borrowed words (aka starting with sce) it's usually translated as sce not ske ;p
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Apparently it's one of those things Brits spell. differently, so you were correct originally as well.
Haha
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What does it change? I was talking about 100%ing the game - completing DS 100% was impossible because of forced unbalance from microtransactions.
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yes - I had no problem getting all equipment maxxed in both DS1 and DS2 on a single playthrough (I generally tend to explore a lot when playing), I didn't 100% because I missed some audiologs and similar collectible stuff and I do not really care aboput 100%ing the games - just enjoy exploring, but if I miss 1 thing I will not replay just to get it, but it was totally possible to get everything in game in a single playthrough - if I was able to get all upgrades then if someone did just that but also found all collectibles I may have missed he would 100% in single pt.
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Do we ever hear good news anymore? Even if we do, I'm pretty sure I've before deaf to them by all the bad news constantly. :/
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which only means Mass Effect as a francise is dead from now on as well. I wouldn't call it good news (no matter how mediocre in many aspects Andromeda was).
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Next year: "EA Shuts down BioWare Studios."
Naah, they probably aren't quite in the red yet. Though a lot can change in a few months.
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We will have to see how well (or bad) BioWare ends up with Anthem next year. Since they have basically only made RPGs (less or more action oriented) till now, releasing online multiplayer open-world third person action shooter sounds risky, and if they fail at it I am afraid they can be next :(
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i wouldn't necessarily say that. there will a long break now for sure. but i think it's very possible that after a while (after people forgot andromeda) there will be a successor. and who knows, it might even be a decent one.
btw, i didn't play it myself, but i got the impression andromeda wasn't half as bad as people said. the players were furious about certain things like the facial animations. but most people who tried to be objective actually said it was pretty alright. as always with players, they don't know any middleground. if they find one thing about a game that they dislike, the whole thing is automatically garbage. many know only 'great' and 'shit'. they are unable to admit that a game is 'just ok'.
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I played a little bit of it and it wasn't as bad as people say, but it wasn't as good as previous ones either. And I don't mean just facial animation and other glitches, but gameplay wise it was weaker - typical open-world scenario, big open world hubs that are in 90% empty or filled with boring/useless stuff made to simply make your playthrough longer. 90%+ of planets surface was empty with randomly added special objectives like "go there, shoot with 5 dudes for a few minutes, grab special item, go to another exactly same place which is 3-5minutes away". Story was also way weaker than in original series. So for me even despite glitches game was like 7/10 tops. Not bad, but nothing good either.
And ofc it is possible ME may come back one day - but that is if BioWare survive at all ;p Also basically any game can come back one day - they can always make a reboot of any of their products they have rights for. You can say that idk, Command & Conquer may come back one day. But will it? Very unlikely.
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You can say that idk, Command & Conquer may come back one day. But will it? Very unlikely.
i would kill for that. ^^
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me too, but like I said - it is unlikelly to happen. They are holding rights to franchises, all of these franchises may potentially come back in the future, but it's pretty obvious that most of them never will ;p
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Hey, they add pretty much everything to Access. Unless you mean Fifa or Battlefield are dead franchises too? :D
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it's not about adding it to Access, it's about adding it so soon. Battlefield 1 is 1 year old, Fifa 17 is over yuear old and there's already new iteration, Mirror's Edge Catalyst is 1.5 year old, Titanfall 2 is year old - see the corelation? Dumping a 1 year old game into subscription program and dumping 6 months old AAA (which in normal circumstances if it was not a flop would still be developed - getting DLCs) is quite different.
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Or, looking from different side, what other game EA could add right now?
It looks like they released only one game in 2017, while from what I can see all their games from 2016 are already in Access...
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Or looking from another side - they will now not have anything to add to Access for next X months since they already added their whole catalog. Since they previously added games in September (4 games added) was it really neccessary to add another one in October? If game would be turning any profit - not really, people would be happy with what they already have (basically almost whole EA catalogue up to 2016), but in case game stopped making any profit at all they can as well add it to make EA Access full EA catalogue. but 6 months AAA game, sequel to beloved trilogy, one of most anticipated games of the year - making 0 profit after less than 6 months? It means a massive flop and franchise being dead, at least for the forseeable future.
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Or looking from another side - they will now not have anything to add to Access for next X months since they already added their whole catalog.
Which is a crafty thing to do - October to get some money from people buying Access to play MEA, November to get them one of the big AAA releases, December to get another release for Xmas. And money will flow for 3 months.
They might have problem what to add in January or February, but that's another quarter, so problem for later (or maybe even not a problem, since after Xmas nobody spends money, so it's understandable money flow slows down).
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people are still buying (or even better - preordering) PC games full price nowadays with all bullshit we get day after day? Unless it's a multiplayer game, where you want to start from the start to not be left behind and to play in highest population on servers there is really no point doing so nowadays...
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There is the catch that preordering gives you some extra incentives, like some extra DLC or whatever.
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and these preorder bonuses aren't rewally worth it. You risk 60$ to get for free something that will be 5$ in a month after release and 2-3$ when sales start. Not to mention that more often than not these are just some cosmetics or bonus item you will replace in first hour or two of the game.
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well, if you buy directly on steam, you actually don't risk anything. refunds work extremely well. so it's actually a viable way to preorder for the bonuses and refund if the game turns out to be garbage. but i agree that if the bonuses are lame it's not worth the hassle.
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still not always - there are cases when game simply starts being very poor later on than in these 2 hours. In some games 2hours is not enough to fully finish tutorial and get to actual game itself. Not to mention situations when game breaks and becomes unplayable AFTER 2 hours. In both of these scenarios Steam refunds are not really protecting you ;p
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but you are not limited to your own experience. i mean, if you don't preorder, how do you inform yourself and decide whether you want to purchase or not? you read reviews and user reviews, watch gameplay footage and maybe look at metacritic/opencritic for an overview. that is exactly what you should do as well if you preordered. that is what i do in these rare cases. i don't have to judge the game on my own, just because i preordered. for instance, if everyone says the game gets completely unplayable after 3 hours, i will read that and make my decision based on that. the conclusion is the same with or without preorder. just in one case the result is "don't buy", and in the other case it's "refund".
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difference is "don't buy" is much safer option than "refund". If you don't buy you can always buy later, maybe 1-2 days later (for a singleplayer game it's really no difference) when there are already a lot of reviews and informations, with refunds you risk. You can totally risk free buy later, you always risk that you didn't notice something and you will go past this 2h limit for refund ;p
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you assume that preordering means you have to jump at the game at the second it is launched. that is not the case. if someone is doing it like that, he's not doing it right. ^^ preorder, then assess the game like you would do without the preorder, then decide. if you decide to keep it - that's when you can start playing. that's how i do it. i get that some people will immediately start playing and can't control themselves. and for those people preordering is probably generally bad. but if you have a little self-control, it can actually be better (if the bonuses are worth it) and doesn't involve any risk.
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in this case what is the point of preordering at all (despite getting these preorder bonuses which in 90+% cases are pretty worthless anyway)? You could as well not preorder, wait for release, then wait even a little more for all reviews, user reports, gameplay videos, optimalization reports etc, and only when having all this data purchase the game. If you are not going to play right from the very start anyway what is the purpose of freezing your monetary assets for a long time before game gets released if you could simply buy it after release risk-free?
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but the bonuses are the point. look at it like this: if there is no risk, why the hell wouldn't you preorder and have the bonuses in case you keep the game? ^^
as i said, for many so-called bonuses it's not worth the hassle. i personally don't care for cosmetics or balance-breaking weapons. but even in these cases you could argue that there is virtually no downside to it (other than having your money frozen for a few days or weeks, which i also don't care about) and you can do it anyway, no matter how small the bonus might be.
also, in some cases you get 10% or even 20% off for the preorder. and that is pretty substantial, if you ask me. do that 10 times and you have a free game. ^^
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Talking about bonuses - let's see what you get for preordering even the worthy games you mentioned above:
Witcher 3 - digital wallpapers, artbook, world map and soundtrack. As much as soundtrack is amazing you can easilly find it anyway on YT, DL same mp3s etc, all other stuff can be easilly found online as well, for me - worthless bonus.
Nier Automata - 2 very small cosmetics - PlayStation console skin for system pod and color change for said system pod. Worthless bonus.
Resident Evil 7 - Survival pack of herbs, medkit and coin - stuff you easilly find in the game so it's like getting 1% more items through the game, early unlock of another mode which you will unlock yourself playing game anyway. Again - not worth the risk.
Prey - shotgun which you easilly replace/get after 1h of game otherwise, 2 medkits and 3 neuromods - so again, just small % more items you would get otherwise anyway. I played this game with preorder bonus and it was not worth it at all ;p
Dishonored 2 - 2 ingame items which are not so great (as I heard, haven't played it yet), few extra coins ingame, 1 day early access (in your case worthless as you state you would want to wait for reviews anyway), and only worthy thing - 1st game for free. But if you already have 1st game, what's the point? And why would you consider preordering sequel if you never played the first game?
The Evil Within 2 - again items you can find in-game anyway (crafting and medical supplies) and a gun from first game which is known for being useless because it wastes lots of ammo.
And as for "no downside to it" - I see a big donside to it. I find whole preorder culture toxic, so despite freezing your money you are also encouraging publishers to continue with this BS, with giving exclusive stuff only to ppl who preorder, you become a number in their excel charts, they look on it, they see how great business preorders are and they feel encouraged to push them even more and more.
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that's a fair point, i won't argue with that. i also would like to point out that preordering might have more advantages than we talked about so far. in case of a bad game i would argue that preordering and refunding might be a way better signal to the dev/publisher than not buying at all. in the latter case you are indistinguishable from someone who wasn't interested in the first place. but if you refund, you will end up in their statistics as someone who was interested, but changed his mind for some reason. and if that reason is for instance microtransactions and enough people do it, they will know they lost out on potential customers because of it.
by the way, those are the kinds of bonuses i really don't care about. but there are also other examples. for instance if you preordered sniper ghost warrior 3 you got the season pass for free. that is potentially a lot of value and in my opinion worth the preorder (again: no risk).
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As for 1st poaragraph - no it won't really work, because you gotta remember that people like us, dedicated gamers, intrested heavilly in industry etc - we are the minority. Majority of gamers are casuals and they will not think about "showing publishers what they think about microtransactions by preordering and them refunding a product". So all in all even such actions will not have a big effect. Look at No Man's Sky example - game got heavilly refunded after release, still it was a margin and despite all these refunds it sold great, simply because of all people who didn't refund it, because were casuals, were not aware there's an option for refund etc. Also if you want to show publisher what you think it's much easier to ask people to do so in a way that will not cost them initial 60$ investment. A lot of people may not have spare 60$ to show WB that their microtransactions are bullshite. Much more people are able to show their disagreement by not buying the game. And it can still be seen, especially foir sequels. If previous installment had 10 mil copies sold and next one has just 3 they will not just assume "well there were not that many people intrested in the first place.
As for 2nd paragraph - not really sure as overgenerous bonuses rises the red flag for me even more. Sniper Ghost warrior 3 was a massive flop, they were well aware that the game is not good, that's probably the reason they included such a good preorder bonus in the first place ;p And again - you may refund, a lot of less aware users will not, so even if you and I refund they will still get much bigger profit that they would if there were no preorders in the first place and ppl would just be buying after release ;p
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As for 1st poaragraph - no it won't really work, because you gotta remember that people like us, dedicated gamers, intrested heavilly in industry etc - we are the minority. Majority of gamers are casuals and they will not think about "showing publishers what they think about microtransactions by preordering and them refunding a product". So all in all even such actions will not have a big effect.
but you just told me you don't want to encourage publishers to further use preorders. we can apply your argument the other way around as well. if your encouragement has so little effect, you might as well ignore the whole thing completely - which means it's not really an argument against preordering anymore. :P
Also if you want to show publisher what you think it's much easier to ask people to do so in a way that will not cost them initial 60$ investment.
well, the question was what's most effective, not what's easiest for people, right? if it is a problem for someone that he has 60$ less for a week or so, then of course he shouldn't do it. no question about that.
As for 2nd paragraph - not really sure as overgenerous bonuses rises the red flag for me even more. Sniper Ghost warrior 3 was a massive flop, they were well aware that the game is not good, that's probably the reason they included such a good preorder bonus in the first place ;p
sure, but it still proves my point. it was not impossible that the game turns out to be awesome. and in that case you would have gotten a free season pass. the game was not that good, so had i preordered it, i would have gotten my money back and not lose anything.
And again - you may refund, a lot of less aware users will not, so even if you and I refund they will still get much bigger profit that they would if there were no preorders in the first place and ppl would just be buying after release ;p
sure, if someone lacks self-control he might keep a game he didn't really want. i can only speak for myself, not for everyone. ;)
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well, the question was what's most effective, not what's easiest for people, right? if it is a problem for someone that he has 60$ less for a week or so, then of course he shouldn't do it. no question about that.And you gotta consaider that for effectiveness number of people who can perform something matters as well ;p If you can hit a boss for 1% of his HP but there's only party of 5 of you or you could hit him for 0.1% but there's army of thousands, then even the directly less effective hit but performed by much bigger number of people who can perform it will be as effective if not more ;p Not many people can afford investing 60$ just for refund for any case of bullshit business. Everyone can afford to boycott a product at release ;p
sure, if someone lacks self-control he might keep a game he didn't really want. i can only speak for myself, not for everyone. ;)you see, you speak just for youreself, which is wrong point of view here, as you are really a small minority here ;p you are very active gamer, with massive library, not just playing but following business itself, you do research for your titmes - all these things are minority. I am talking about majority for which none of these things affect them in any way, and because they are majority they have much bigger impact. you being minority joining them anyway just with an asterix sayting *just in case I can back off, only make this majority more viable for publishers ;p
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And you gotta consaider that for effectiveness number of people who can perform something matters as well ;p If you can hit a boss for 1% of his HP but there's only party of 5 of you or you could hit him for 0.1% but there's army of thousands, then even the directly less effective hit but performed by much bigger number of people who can perform it will be as effective if not more ;p Not many people can afford investing 60$ just for refund for any case of bullshit business. Everyone can afford to boycott a product at release ;p
but if we established the following (and i will just assume we did ^^): both methods are ways to do it. one is easier and can be done by more people. the other is potentially more effective. then we can just say the people who are able choose the more effective route, and the others will just use the easier one. this way we are as effective as possible. :)
you see, you speak just for youreself, which is wrong point of view here, as you are really a small minority here ;p you are very active gamer, with massive library, not just playing but following business itself, you do research for your titmes - are these things are minority. I am talking about majority for which none of these things affect them in any way, and because they are majority they have much bigger impact. you being minority joining them anyway just with an asterix sayting *just in case I can back off, only make this majority more viable for publishers ;p
but isn't it the same for you? the boycott-faction has the same minority problem. because most people simply don't care and many won't even be aware of any problem. i know lots of casual gamers who buy a few games each year and play maybe once a week. they don't read reviews or gaming news. they probably get to know new games from tv ads. ^^ i believe these super casual gamers are the actual majority. and that's why we both will never be able to change anything anyway. xD
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yes, but the difference is the boycott faction does not add to the casual faction numbers in these excel charts in any way, the preorder and just in case I refund does add to these business charts (and especially if you decide not to refund cause game is not bad you are not recognizeable from any mindless preorder casual, thus even more adding to promoting preorder culture).
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i get the feeling you are trying to twist my original argument. xD
wait, i was always against boycott without condition. i will refund if the game is shit. i won't if it's not. and in that case i don't care if i end up in some statistics. the game is good, it deserves to be bought. so i am fine with that. in case of a bad game, though, it's beneficial if i refund instead of not buying at all (which makes me indistinguishable from someone who wasn't interested).
do you also feel like we go in circles? ;P
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not really know what you mean by twisting it ;p
I get your point but I do not agree ;p I believe that betetr solution is that if game is good then buy it, even right after release, if it's not boycott it. If you preorder bad game yopu still gave your money for a while to bad company,m they still did profit from it a little, in case you do not manage to refund (get denied, screw up timer) it's even worse, and your preorder data will still be presented in charts without mentioning you later on refunded. On the other hand if previous installment sold 10mil and sequel sells 3mil there is no way to hide it in data and company will get their share of crap from investors - exactly waht they deserve ;p
And I also berlieve that even if game is good you should not preorder it, because maybe this game is good, but all in all you are fuelling the whole preorder system in all companies, which include not only these good games but bad as well ;p
But yeah, seems like we are repeating same arguments over and over so prolly best to leave it. I will not make you stop preordering,mm you will not make me believe preordering in any circumstances is good ;p
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yes, they do. i do, and i am proud of it. i buy games i want to support. i (and others who do the same thing) am the reason why you still can enjoy your games at -75%. if it weren't for us, the people who buy games for full price, we soon wouldn't have any games at all. that should hopefully be clear to everyone.
i understand if you want to say that you don't want to buy games at full price that bombard you with microtransactions, season passes, dlc and other shit. that is a legitimate position. but if you mean that - then please say it like that. "never pay full price" is in my opinion just stupid (except for purely financial reasons). at least people shouldn't brag about having that view (not talking about you here). the more people adapt it, the worse it's going to get for us all. less sold copies at full price, more microtransactions, more dlc, more games as a service.
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well we were discussing AAA games, I guessed it came out of contrext what games I meant ;p I don't mind indies, AAs, bigger but independent projects, KickStarter stuff for things you really want to even come out and so on and on, as these are (yet) not flawed by all AAA culture. I obviously meant AAA market, which is full of shady practices like microtransactions, cut content top be sold via DLC, more and more expensive Season Passes that more and more often get dropped mid-time "cause game wasn't as successful as we thought" and you end up buying Season Pass that will give you one shitty DLC, one extra mode noone playes and bunch of useless cosmetics, when you were promised "4 full DLCs". Also add the fact that more and more often publishers hide a lot of this shady stuff prior to release, or even straight up lie (for example "our game will never have microtransactions" and only after release you find they are there (Mankind Divided) or even if they are not they got added 1 or 3 months later (Division but also many other games recently)). AAA publishers become more and more shameless in their greedy schemes, and people who continue to mindlessly buy evberything full price, preordering etc only make publishers more confident that they can pull whatever new scheme they come up with, because no matter how anti-consumer it will be people will still keep buying and preordering this stuff.
The same as people who "never pay full price" can cause like you said "all of us no longer getting all these 75% sales", the people who mindlessly preorder from AAA market no matter how bad iot's new greedy schemes are can cause that AAA publishers will feel free to push more and more anti-consumer stuff onto all of us.
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while i certainly prefer to support indies (and actually buy lots and lots of indies for full price, while most people wait for fucking bundles), i also apply that same mindset to AAA games. because i actually think there are more than enough AAA games that deserve our support. that are full experiences on launch (even if there is dlc; those two are not mutually exclusive). that don't have an unbearable amount of bullshit injected into them. just a few examples that come to mind:
- Witcher 3 (the standard example in every discussion nowadays ^^)
- Nier Automata
- Resident Evil 7
- Prey
- Dishonored 2
- Dishonored 2 Death of the Outsider
- The Evil Within 2 (from what i've read, not from my own experience)
these are AAA games. people apply "never pay for full price" to these games as well. and i just find that very sad. some of these games really deserve better.
don't get me wrong. regarding anti-consumer stuff i'm with you. of course i am. we all want this shit gone. but there are also lots of good AAA games with no bullshit at all, or just a very small amount. and these games suffer from the fact that so many people stop paying full price all together. that is not how it should be.
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yeah, ok, I get you as well ;p There are obviously exceptions like with any generalized rule ;p I myself bought 1 of these titles full price (as well as all DLCs) - Witcher 3 obviously, Nier and RE7 would buy as well if not for too weak PC (thou I wouldn't preorder RE7 for sure, knowing previous titles and Capcom being publisher) and Prey I would probably buy full price if I haven't won it ;p Guess such misunderstandings are what we both get for generalization and trying to put up general rules which always will not apply to everything there is ;p So for perspective - I would totally buy most of these games full price AFTER release (minus Dishonored 2 which to this day is still broken for AMD users), but for example as much as I loved Shadow of Mordor I would never preorder Shadow of War and I will surely wait for it to become much cheaper because of anti-consumer bullshit it incorporates. And also I would never preoreder anything from big AAA publishers known for such practices (WB, EA, Ubi, 2K, Activision etc), while I may preorder something from let's say CDP Red.
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oh man... dead space series is one of my favorite games of all time. i was hoping they would make more.
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From the article:
It’s safe to presume that the new incarnation of this Star Wars game will involve “games as a service” elements
FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
You said:
it was the only SW games in development since EA gained rights to licence I was even mildly intrested in :(
That boy may have been our last hope.....
... but there is another!
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inb4 EA decides they will not be able to profit on this one as well and pulls a plug on it as well...
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That may prove costly for them, as reneging on their contractual obligations as publisher this late in development would probably come with a significant financial and legal cost. (Respawn are a fully independent studio and not owned by EA, thank heavens).
In other words, I don't see that happening here, and given the high quality of the mechanically and technically excellent Titanfall 2 and the pedigree of that GoW III bloke they brought on board, I have high hopes for this title. Fingers crossed.
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let's be real ;p Having SW license they can take almost any costs they want ;p They could release a dog's poo, strap SW logo onto it and it would sell in millions (doesn't mean it wouldn't be better if additional monies came from microtransactions ;p). Look at Battlefront - how unfinished this game was, what average scores it got, how quickly playerbase diminished, how stupid DLC system it had (which basically fragmented audience even more, making DLC maps almost unplayable anyway), and what? Still 14-15 millions of copies sold, no matter how bad or unfinished it was or how dissapointed users were with it. People are desperate for SW games - they will purchase almost anything, at least for now when there's a lot of hype for franchise itself.
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Yeah, true that. Not sure if you saw my late edit though, I have higher expectations for this one because of the quality of Respawn's previous output and their amazing No Season Pass/No paid gameplay DLC/No obnoxious loot crate bullshit/only reasonably priced optional cosmetic items you buy directly policy that they implemented with Titanfall 2. I sincerely and strongly hope they stick to their guns and don't let themselves get strongarmed by EA to do otherwise.
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Well - didn't EA throw them under the bus already with Titanfall II release date (which basically meant the game was forced to be a flop)? I'm glad you can be optimistic - me, anything EA touches, I will remain pessimistic until proven wrong ;p So will just wait for release and will not have any hopes till then ;p
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Yep, EA did just that, in what has got to be one of the most baffling and idiotic business decisions in gaming in recent times. Titanfall 2 did indeed suffer, but luckily the devs stuck with their plan and offered a steady stream of new content, fixes, improvements, new maps, game modes, Co-op mode... for a solid year now, all for free, and the player base has actually grown as a result in the past months, which is encouraging. I think this "long tail" is a pretty solid success, even if unit sales could have been higher.
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but there is another!
Titanfall and Titanfall 2 director Steve Fukuda will not be directing Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars game. Respawn has hired God of War III director Stig Asmussen to run the project.
Sure, it may work out, but the shift in director makes the end result a bit more iffy [given Fukuda's familiarity with futuristic concepts and games with more involved story concepts, compared to Stig's exclusive development and directing history with the more straightforward, fantasy setting-set God of War series]. Of course, Stig was catering to the God of War design scheme when he directed God of War 3, so maybe he'll show us hidden depths when handed a franchise more suited to it.
Not that a blasty, flashy, alpha-mentality action game design wouldn't also work out for potential fun, but it'd be a wasted utilization of the Star Wars setting. More relevantly, it'd make itself more accessible to EA's "games as a service" design, compared to a more story or setting-driven game.
A lot, I suppose, depends on how much control Respawn gives to its director, and if the policies you mention above were based more on the director's vision or the ideologies of the overall team.
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I'm not familiar with Stig at all, and strictly being a PC gamer means I've never had much first-hand experience with the God of War games either. But there's an easy explanation for Fukuda not handling this Star Wars project, as he would presumably be overseeing Titanfall 3 (which has not been officially announced but is expected to happen)--which is probably for the best. As far as I can tell, the very traditional and not-service like policies set forth by Respawn in Titanfall 2 are very much a studio ideology/CEO Vince Zampella thing. As I said above, I really hope that Respawn sticks with this and that EA keep their filthy paws to themselves.
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But there's an easy explanation for Fukuda not handling this Star Wars project, as he would presumably be overseeing Titanfall 3 (which has not been officially announced but is expected to happen)--which is probably for the best. As far as I can tell, the very traditional and not-service like policies set forth by Respawn in Titanfall 2 are very much a studio ideology/CEO Vince Zampella thing.
Yeah, I know; I just meant, it's all kinda ambiguous by this point- Respawn thus far only has the Titanfall games and a single director in their history (their previous CoD experience with Infinity Ward aside). A shift in franchise and in director means we can't really rely on their past success as being a solid indication of them succeeding on this next game. Of course, on the other hand, Respawn does have their experience with the overall Sci-Fi FPS genre, so they're unlikely to make a mess of it, either.
I have high hopes for this title. Fingers crossed.
In other words, I was just noting that you probably shouldn't psych yourself up too much, this early on, given that we've a director with nearly no directing experience and no credited experience of any sort with setting-complex or futuristic games (and we don't know how much he'll influence the studio), and EA (and we don't know how much they'll influence the studio- though from what I understand of how the partners program functions, it may not be enough to worry about). Then again, I interpreted 'hopes' as 'expectations' or 'anticipation', whereas you may have meant it more casually, in the "I feel it has high promise, here's hoping it does" sense- so my premise for response may have been flawed from the start. :)
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Yep, not psyching myself up here. I meant it in a more casual manner. But if it wasn't clear from my previous posts already, I'm very much in Respawn's corner and a total Titanfall fanboy... ahem... enthusiast, so the one I would lose my shit over would be the next iteration in that series, as opposed to this :)
I even played that mobile spin-off they did with Particle City/Nexon, despite my utter and complete disdain and contempt for Nexon the publisher. It was actually pretty decent as far as these things go. But I'm kind of... biased here I guess, so take with three big funky grains of pink Himalayan sea salt.
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biased here I guess, so take with three big funky grains of pink Himalayan sea salt.
Okay, if I'm interpreting that phrasing correctly, you're telling me that your claim of the Nexon game managing to be "decent" should be disregarded as being made-up nonsense. Did I interpret that correctly? :P
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Hmm... I knew that was one word too many in there, heh.... But err, yeah, you're not too far off, actually :S
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It was inevitable,I'm afraid.Visceral was virtually dead ever since Dead Space 3 happened (and we all know what a joke that one was).No surprise its corporate overlords finally pulled the plug on them.Of course,that fuck up was EA's fault in the first place,but try telling that its executives.Spoiler alert:they won't give a damn.
The walking corpse that is whats left of Bioware is probably next in line.
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Of course,that fuck up was EA's fault in the first place - isn't it always? EA forces their bullshit monetization ideas upon company, previously successful games start doing poorly because of these forced changes, EA pulls the plug "because these games are no longer selling". It's basically the same scenario as Maxis - EA pushed ridiculous Sims DLC system (DLC expansions alone costing combined 440$, if we add special Sims Store combined cost of everything there was worth over 70000$), Sims started to sell poorly, because people prefer to play older games with free additions instead of paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Maxis is to blame and gets disbanded.
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Yup.EA is basically a tick-it sucks out everything out of its unfortunate victim,then finishes it off when there's nothing left.And then it jumps unto the next one and the circle continues.Hell,sometimes it happens so fast its ridiculous (Remember Pandemic?They got taken over in 2008 and terminated in 2009.Its like the fastest kill EA has ever made).
Its been decades since they started the culling and half a decade since Riccitiello's microtransaction spiel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR6-u8OIJTE) and the only thing that changed is the studio bodycount.
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And yeah, I also thing BioWare is going to be next - I believe Anthem is going to be a flop and because of that EA will do what EA does the best. Again.
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Indeed.Especially considering the overall incompetence of EAware's personel nowadays (if the atrocity known as "ME:Andromeda" is any indication).As if the fact that "Anthem" is shaping up as nothing but a cheap "Destiny" clone wasn't bad enough,too.Yet EA apparently still wants to milk it for 10 years,even though there's obvious writing on the wall that its going to crash and burn (maybe even faster than "andro")?LOL.
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I wan't a fan of BFH at all (not a fan of team multiplayer shooters in general), but Dead Space was one of the best new original IPs in late00s/early10s. As a fan of science-fiction horror in general I absolutelly loved it (well at least 1st two installments). The new Star Wars project also sounded promising, especially as Amy Hennig was working on it :(
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Fucking die EA, fucking die already.....these motherfuckers were supposed to die years ago but the masses back then, and now, dont give a fuck about tragedies like this... i hate them so, oh so, so, so much.... and il hate anyone who buys their fucking products to support this studio, franchise killing cunts....fuck EA and fuck anyone who buys Battlefield 1, Battlefront 2, FIFAS, Need for Speed Payback, etc. dont fucking feed these pieces of shits, LET.THEM.DIE. This is the exact same thing that happened with Command and Conquer Generals 2, good progress was being made, complaints, hate, negativity began from public testings more so than positive reviews, project was handed over to Victory Games which was also making Red Alert Alliances for mobiles and....it all got shut down.... these fucking assholes killed the Sims 4, remember how they made toddlers and pools buyable as DLC despite being avaivable in the vanila version of The Sims 2? Cutting up to sell ingame DLC.... gave up Battleforge, not allowing new content to be made so that got shut down, same with Battlefield Heroes.... failed Need for Speeds and the newest one being just Fast and The Furious....repetetive football games, worsening battlefield games, dead franchises like road rash, desert strike, burnout, thrill kill.....pretending like there isnt a demand for a new Def Jam game despite there being and canceling the newest one ages ago..... not doing anything with command and conquer and leaving Petroghlpy Games making crap RTSes without that license....please......please stop feeding EA, please stop feeding EA and spread this around, please.... they as a company, needs to die and for that to happen, you need to stop buying their games, please... i loved Dead Space, 1st was the best, THE BEST..... and i love the older need for speeds and their sega games but nostalgia cant save them from this.... if you need motivation, check out what they did with Battlefront 2... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne4CnyNW9O4 please, for the love of god, tell your friends to stop feeding EA, PLEASE......
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Hopefully next game "on the house" at origin is from Viscera, Battlefield Hardline perhaps? XD
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Never played any games by this studio, but as a mourner of the loss of Origin, Maxis, Bullfrog, and the Bioware that made KotOR 1 & 2, I'll pour one out for Visceral. Freaking EA.
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Electronic Arts has always been and will always be the true villain of the videogames industry
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One company you left off of the picture is Blackbox, who brought us the Skate series and did most of the Need for Speed games.
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not mine picture ;p there's even more - Pandemic (creators of original Battlefront, Full Spectrum Warrior and more), Phenomic (creators of Spellforce), DreamWorks Interactive (Medal of Honor series, Red Alert 3, Battle of Middle Earth) not to mention countless EA CityName studios they've been closing over the years.
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DreamWorks Interactive? I tought EA Los Angeles made Red Alert 3. Loved that game. Victory Games that were making Generals 2 and Red Alert Alliances should also be there.
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Dreamworks Interactive and EA LA are the same thing. After success of first 2 MoH games the studio got renamed, but it was still the same studio. And it got killed later on.
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It's not the first nor the second dev EA killed so... writing was on the wall.
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Visceral Games got EA'ed....RIP Visceral, you gave us James bond games and dead space.
I'm betting on Bioware to be next in line to be killed
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Maybe Visceral can kickstart something somewhere down the line.
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maybe, but they would still need to find an investor in the first place. You gotta present something in the first place to draw attention to your KickStarter, and as they were owned by EA they probably do not have any budget of their own to even kickstart a kickstarter campaign. You need some game draft already, some arts, concepts, you need to pay people to do all of that, you have to pay people to prepare KS campaign, you need to keep your staff hired - it all costs money. Also EA will probably scatter most of people across other studios, so it's unlikelly all of therrm decide to risk it and leave in order to start on their own.
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Said person who himself has 21h played in DeadSpace ;p
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Lol, that's a 10 year old game, though. And I left it a negative review :p
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Well EA is no longer publishing on Steam so qnything on Steqm from EA will be at least 5 years old ;p and your point was who plays EA not who enjoys and positively reviews EA ;p
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And that's my point, none of the new games are on Steam. So who still plays their Origin-only crap?
Happy Cake Day, btw! :)
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thanks ;) And for example I do play Origin-only-crap ;p I played Mass Effect 3, which was origin only,m because I love the series. I played Andromeda - but it sucked, so no-count ;p But I played Unravel via free Access and it was quite good,
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I remember when EA used to be Electronic Arts, and they were a lot better than they are now. They released The Bard's Tale series, as well as Wasteland and many other RPGs for my beloved C64.
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nah, EA was always as bad as it is, just a studios they aquired were good until EA brought them down and closed ;p Don't get me wrong - I love these oldschool RPGs, but they were great because of studios, not because of EA. Because of EA creators of these great games got fired.
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lost interest in hope of kotor 3 since they established swtor. star wars the old republic. Good game but just so buggy compared to most games I know.
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There's a lengthy piece on the collapse of Visceral and their Star Wars project in Kotaku by Jason Schreier (who has penned similar accounts for projects like ME: Andromeda before). So many things that factored into this whole disaster; the article is an interesting, illuminating read:
https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152
Ragtag was a project sunk by many factors, including a lack of resources, a vision that was too ambitious for its budget, a difficult game engine, a director who clashed with staff, a studio located in one of the most expensive cities in the world, a reputation for toxicity, multiple conflicts between Visceral and EA, and what can only be described as the curse of Star Wars.
[...]“Honestly, it was a mercy killing,” said one former Visceral employee. “It had nothing to do with whether it was gonna be single player. I don’t think it had anything to do with that. That game never could’ve been good and come out.”
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yeah, I've read it already, long story short Visceral is still a victim of EA way of doing business.
They got an ambitious product they had not enough staff to make - yet they got denied over and over again any hiring. Who's to blame? EA.
EA suits were "not impressed" because game which was supposed to be single player movie-like experience looked like a single player movie-like experience, which cannot milk too much monies from "games as service" aka microtransactions. Again - EA's fault.
Visceral, despite already being short on employees, getting 1/3rd of staff pulled off (staff from another studio), who's to blame? EA that pulled these people to work on Battlefront campaign.
EA not willing to let Visceral hire any more people, because employees in California are too expensive compared to employees in let's say Toronto or Montreal - again, clearly EA's fault.
I could go on and on. Visceral was clearly in position they could basically do nothing to solve the problems EA themselves created. Not like it's the first time EA puts a studio in no-way-out position just to kill it later on, because they could not get out from position EA themselves put them into.
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https://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-visceral-games-1819623990
Another studio on EA's kill list :( Rest In Piece :( So sad, it was the only SW games in development since EA gained rights to licence I was even mildly intrested in :(
EDIT: title was edited, as due to newest news we are sure the Singleplayer game Visceral worked on is definetelly dead, only some assetrs may be used for future "game as service" aka multiplayer + microtransactions game.
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