Random video game news... Games are Randomly News Worthy

[uuuhhii]

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/25/microsoft-lays-off-1900-workers-nearly-9percent-of-gaming-division-after-activision-blizzard-acquisition.html

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

 

1900 cut.  Cancelled their survival game as well and Ybarra is out the door

 

just heard about it

hope microsoft crush bethesada next and give obsidian another chance with fallout

unlikely but would be nice outcome

[MrBrown]

Looks like one of the 3 founding members of Blizzard, Allen Adham, also left with this.

EDIT: Seems like he was the last one, the other two had already left before.

Edited January 26 by MrBrown

[Gfted1]

19 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

just heard about it

hope microsoft crush bethesada next and give obsidian another chance with fallout

unlikely but would be nice outcome

But then more people would lose their jobs.

[uuuhhii]

6 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

But then more people would lose their jobs.

after fallout 76 and starfield more people always going to lose their job

Edited January 26 by uuuhhii

[Hurlshort]

27 minutes ago, uuuhhii said:

after fallout 76 and starfield more people always going to lose their job

I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but Starfield is a commercial success. It's harder to track all of this stuff, since it released on Gamepass on day 1, but it was a top seller. 

It's too early to track whether it will have staying power, but the initial release went very well for them.

edit: They released something in December about 12 million people playing the game at this point.

edit 2: Fallout 76, on the other hand, had mediocre sales in its first year. They are still developing it, I guess, so someone must be playing it. But it's reasonable to call that a bust. 

Edited January 26 by Hurlshort

[HoonDing]

Fallout 5 will release in 2055 after TES VI in 2040.

[Raithe]

Walls between PC and console continue to crumble as Horizon Forbidden West announces March release date | PC Gamer

Wootage.

[LadyCrimson]

4 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but Starfield is a commercial success. It's harder to track all of this stuff, since it released on Gamepass on day 1, but it was a top seller. 

I wonder if sales figures include refunded.
Also, these days, even when something is a "success", in that it sold (or at least "shipped", during physical product times) a lot of copies, or was "popular with Gamepass" (doesn't always translate into full sales), sometimes the company/owners/shareholders/whoever don't think it was successful enough - eg, it didn't meet desired world-domination and praise expectations and they start crying into their diamond glasses of gold whiskey, leading to who knows what company decisions.

You could probably apply that to Blizzard and Diablo4, as well.

FF15 on paper was a decent/good success, but a combo of factors (not all of them related to money per se) still made them pull/cancel DLC and disband/scatter that whole department - to their brains/"profit math", they barely broke even I think, not worth more work.

That all said, I don't think Bethesda is going to abandon Starfield any time soon, so to speak. Updates and the mod kit may turn things around.

Edited January 26 by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

10 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

That all said, I don't think Bethesda is going to abandon Starfield any time soon, so to speak. Updates and the mod kit may turn things around.

I'm saying there isn't anything to turn around.

But yes, it will likely get a ton of updates and mods over the years. It really is Skyrim in space, so I'm not sure what else people were expecting out of it. I think people also have trouble seeing it as a success because BG3 was such a massive hit. BG3 blew up and became a pop culture phenomenon. Starfield just sold as expected for a Bethesda game. I enjoyed both, so I don't get what all the fuss is about.

Jagged Alliance 3 was still better than both, btw.  

[melkathi]

Neither is Against The Storm. That is certain.

[LadyCrimson]

I was just talking from a business/cost cutting measures/potential continued sales perspective, keep in mind I think the estimated final budget re: Starfield was 300-400million. In terms of Steam, don't they take a large cut? Anyway I think they were wanting a billion in revenue. Which is likely to be reached, if gamepass and the negative ratings/customer support publicity don't affect long-term sales overmuch. Point being tho, that it takes a ton to just break even these days, by their reckoning.

Games and marketing budgets for such games are huge now and what owners want in return....it's like blockbuster movie math.

In terms of anything to turn around - well, public faith/mockery would be the main thing. It's still Negative/Mixed rated on Steam and that dev comment response to user reviews was a big lol.  Although as per usual with these kinds of hoopla's, many "hating" on SF right now, are still likely to turn around and buy the next Elder Scrolls no questions asked.

I still think Blizzard has not really recovered from that whole "YOU HAVE PHONES DON'T YOU" thing, public image wise.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Raithe said:

Walls between PC and console continue to crumble as Horizon Forbidden West announces March release date | PC Gamer

Wootage.

And yet, still no Bloodbourne nor Demon Souls in sight.

[Keyrock]

2 hours ago, Raithe said:

Walls between PC and console continue to crumble as Horizon Forbidden West announces March release date | PC Gamer

The MSony consoles are effectively x86 PCs. I feel like any remaining wall is artificial.

[Bartimaeus]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:21 PM, Wormerine said:

And yet, still no Bloodbourne nor Demon Souls in sight.

I swear they're waiting until Bloodborne is emulatable before they decide they ought to start developing their "remaster" of it. Felt like that's what happened with Demon's Souls: playable on emulator in 2017, and then Sony set Bluepoint Games to start development of the crappy remaster in 2018. That, or maybe the rumor about Sony and FromSoftware having completely lost the source code for Bloodborne is true.

Thing is, I don't really care if they re-release it on console again, as I'd just run into the same problem that happened when it was a PS3 exclusive...I'll keep my PC around in some form or another for forever, but certainly not these crapbox consoles.

[Lexx]

I just want Bloodborne without that huge input lag.

[Mamoulian War]

13 hours ago, Lexx said:

I just want Bloodborne without that huge input lag.

Are you sure, that it’s not just the issue of the TV and HDMI? I was having trouble with FFX lightning dodging due to big input lag, until I found out, that’s not the issue of the console/game, but my TV. Gaming mode and some other minor settings on TV solved the issue for me.

[Lexx]

Nah, I had the same input lag on completely different setups. There's also lots of videos about it -- it's simply a game with input lag.

Edited January 28 by Lexx

[Mamoulian War]

I see. Will be pain then, when I start to play it for a first time

[BruceVC]

On 1/26/2024 at 7:12 PM, Hurlshort said:

I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but Starfield is a commercial success. It's harder to track all of this stuff, since it released on Gamepass on day 1, but it was a top seller. 

It's too early to track whether it will have staying power, but the initial release went very well for them.

edit: They released something in December about 12 million people playing the game at this point.

edit 2: Fallout 76, on the other hand, had mediocre sales in its first year. They are still developing it, I guess, so someone must be playing it. But it's reasonable to call that a bust. 

Correct and sales  figures  matter.  They literally are the  most important factor  in the sustainability of any gaming franchise or development studio. Nothing matters overall  as much as sales  figures,  marketing and reviews is only part  of a products success 

 

 

[kanisatha]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Correct and sales  figures  matter.  They literally are the  most important factor  in the sustainability of any gaming franchise or development studio. Nothing matters overall  as much as sales  figures,  marketing and reviews is only part  of a products success

No, it is net profits that matter. Otherwise, what you are saying is that every game made must sell as much as the biggest seller or else it is a "sales failure.," which would be an unsustainable creativity model.

[BruceVC]

58 minutes ago, kanisatha said:

No, it is net profits that matter. Otherwise, what you are saying is that every game made must sell as much as the biggest seller or else it is a "sales failure.," which would be an unsustainable creativity model.

Yes but net profit  is part of sales,  you cant have any  profit without  sales

And once a game is completed  gross profit and net profit will  be a big part of the overall revenue because operating costs and cost  of  sales   arent much especially with digital  downloads

Thats why revenue is always at the top a standard P&L statement and then you deduct expenses  and tax to end  up with Net Profit 

 

[kanisatha]

10 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Yes but net profit  is part of sales,  you cant have any  profit without  sales

And once a game is completed  gross profit and net profit will  be a big part of the overall revenue because operating costs and cost  of  sales   arent much especially with digital  downloads

Thats why revenue is always at the top a standard P&L statement and then you deduct expenses  and tax to end  up with Net Profit

No, what I'm saying is that net profit and not net sales/revenue is what matters. For example:

Game A) 12X revenue, 10X cost

Game B) 4X revenue, X cost

Which game is the better deal for the developer?

But even if you had:

Game A) 20X revenue, 10X cost

Game B) 2X revenue, 1X cost

Does this mean every developer must only make Game A and never Game B?

[Malcador]

https://www.eurogamer.net/embracer-cancels-deus-ex-game-in-development-for-two-years

Maybe that DX game would have sucked.

[uuuhhii]

On 1/27/2024 at 3:42 AM, Raithe said:

Walls between PC and console continue to crumble as Horizon Forbidden West announces March release date | PC Gamer

Wootage.

 

console exclusive sound like something used exist in the dark age of 1990

hard to remember something so ridiculous still exist now

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.eurogamer.net/embracer-cancels-deus-ex-game-in-development-for-two-years

Maybe that DX game would have sucked.

Bummer. I liked both of the newer released DX games. I should probably replay Mankind Divided now that I have a decent computer.