General Gaming Chat

[CorgiShinobi]

On the question of series and growing up, pretty much what Ethan was saying. Though I would also say that belonging to a certain genre or medium would instill a certain expectation/parameter. I would say a series like Harry Potter still falls under Young Adult, so it's approachable by both those younger and older, much like you see in Shonen anime and manga.

 

But something like Pokemon? To me that will always maintain what I call the "Disney Factor." It's going to always be approachable for children, maintain itself in a child-friendly demeanor, and profit the most off of children. Doesn't mean as an adult you can't enjoy it, but don't expect complex stories on adult themes.

[Mister Jack]

You may already know this by now but it looks like Dan Houser has left Rockstar. Allegedly it was because 2K is pushing Rockstar to make shorter single-player games and focus more on online microtransactions, but I haven't seen any confirmation on this. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, though, and unless I hear otherwise I'm willing to believe it.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

That seems weird that they would be pushing them to change since every Rockstar game seems to be a magic money tree. Like, I kind of get it when it's "just" the kind of success that sells a few million copies, but they sell approximately infinite copies...

[Mister Jack]

 

Never underestimate corporate greed. Look what EA did to Madden despite being the only football game in town.

[toxicitizen]

Why settle for selling infinite copies every 5 years when you can sell infinite copies every 2 years or so?

 

It really doesn't work like that and companies like Rockstar only sell that well because they can afford to take their sweet ass time making these unrealistically massive and polished games. But publishers can be a special kind of stupid in their greedy pursuit of more money. They would rather tank a brand prematurely for short term profit rather than maintain a stable, reliable source of infinite money. So yeah, none of this is surprising to me.

 

I don't think this is necessarily related to the Dan Houser thing, though. I read that he had been away for a few months before leaving and I can kinda see how taking some time off from a company like Rockstar could make someone not want to return to the endless crunch. Especially when they're as filthy rich as I assume Dan Houser to be.

[Mister Jack]

Good point. I forgot for a minute that Rockstar might have the worst crunch in the entire industry. Top 5 worst for sure, at the very least.

[toxicitizen]

Oh, definitely. I remember this one tweet from last month, when Cyberpunk was delayed and people were naively going "Whatever it takes to avoid crunch!"

 

 

And this guy was in QA. I don't even want to imagine how much worse it was for artists, coders and the others actually making the game.

[danielpholt]

On 2/12/2020 at 3:10 AM, FLD said:

Oh, definitely. I remember this one tweet from last month, when Cyberpunk was delayed and people were naively going "Whatever it takes to avoid crunch!"

 

 

And this guy was in QA. I don't even want to imagine how much worse it was for artists, coders and the others actually making the game.

 

I said this on twitter at the time but admitting that you're forcing shitty working practices on your employee's doesn't negate the fact that you're forcing your employees to work them. If they really gave a shit, they'd put a stop to it immediately, and you know what? If that pisses off a few 'Gamers' on social media then so be it.

 

[toxicitizen]

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition officially confirmed to be coming to PC/Steam this summer!  Steam store page

 

What a time to be alive.

 

Now please, g̶̻͕̯̿́̂͐̈́̈́͑̅̉r̶̡͎̬̲̜̰͇̦͉̺̱̮̎̄̔͛̈̈́̆͛̄̍ͅa̷̛͉͛͑̽̊̉͑̈͌̿͝ņ̴̣͈̲̖͙̖̈́͑̓̀͑͒͑ṯ̵̡͕͎̬̦͊̚̚͠ ̵͎͈̱̙̱͐̐̍͠ų̴̺̼̗̘̜͕̤͕̭͓̗̫͒̂̂́̆̍̍̐́̄͝s̴̫̼̮̼͚͙̬̻̩̆̋͐̌̅̒̎̔͌́̂̕͠ ̶̪͖̟̀̊̊̒͛͐̑̚͠e̵̮̦̳̊̓̉̂̇̂̇̌̕͘͜͠ỵ̴̧̰̪͎͚̫̼̟̂̔e̴̛͚̻̪̩͓̊̈́̎̈́͛̈́́̔̕͠͝ͅş̷̺̙̜̝̀̅̈́̋͛̄̈́̌̌̑͊̑.

[Mister Jack]

I wouldn't hold my breath just yet. One of the Playstation bigwigs said the following:

 

Quote

“I think it’s important that we stay open to new ideas of how to introduce more people to PlayStation, and show people maybe what they’ve been missing out on,” explains Hulst. “And to maybe put a few minds at ease, releasing one first-party AAA title to PC doesn’t necessarily mean that every game now will come to PC. In my mind, Horizon Zero Dawn was just a great fit in this particular instance.”

 

“We don’t have plans for day and date [PC releases], and we remain 100% committed to dedicated hardware.”

As much as I'd love a Bloodborne port, I get the feeling they did this to give PC players a taste of Playstation's first-party library in the hopes they might be convinced to buy a Playstation to play the rest.

[toxicitizen]

Porting Bloodborne would basically be free money, though. It's guaranteed to sell gangbusters on PC (like every other From game), which it sure as shit no longer is on PS4. It probably wouldn't generate an insane amount of profit but it's certainly a great candidate if they're looking to put a strong foot forward in the PC space. Plus, you just know it's going to be the most requested title now that the flood gates are open.

 

And let's be real, people that didn't buy a PS4 to play Horizon likely aren't going to buy a PS5 to play Horizon 2, especially not if they have reason to think it'll come to PC a few years down the line. I know I won't. I mean, I'm sure they expect to sell some hardware but I don't think this is their sole goal in doing this. I wouldn't be surprised if they required a PSN account and eventually had their own launcher. Selling ports and remasters each gen is all well and good but porting their games to PC after a couple years is a great way to keep them generating revenue for years to come with a one-time, minimal development effort. If Microsoft can see this then so can Sony.

 

Also, I've seen that quote and the "put a few minds at ease" part kinda makes me think they might just be paying lip service to the rabid fanboys. I'm sure they're aware of how their audience can be, I mean, they're the ones that cultivated it...

 

Either way, at the very least it'll be interesting to see which titles make the jump and which don't. If it wasn't for folks like Jason Schreier confirming that more titles will be coming, I would honestly just assume Horizon is happening because of the work Kojima Production did on the Decima engine with the Death Stranding port.

[CorgiShinobi]

I could see the strategy of "Arrives on PC" for a last push on sales working for a good while. However, I think consumers would get wise to it like how gamers got wise to Rockstar milking GTA V and then RDR2 eventually coming to PC. A kind of it'll happen factor where people just wait for the PC release since, well, it has been happening! Of course, I think Sony would only do this for games that have proven highly successful and helped reach a zenith on hardware sales. If one isn't selling as intended, then knowing Sony, they won't want to bother.

 

So don't expect Knack 3 coming to PS5 and PC!

[Mister Jack]

I don't think the average consumer has that kind of patience. Timed exclusivity exists for a reason and Horizon came out three years ago. I'm sure there are people like FLD who are more than happy to wait as long as it takes, but by and large? People want shiny new thing now. Even the shitty Epic Game Store tactic of buying platform exclusivity for one year seems to be working for them, despite how much everyone hates it.

[toxicitizen]

3 hours ago, Mister Jack said:

Even the shitty Epic Game Store tactic of buying platform exclusivity for one year seems to be working for them, despite how much everyone hates it.

 

Is it really, though? From what I've been hearing, it sounds like games like Hades sold more on Steam in a week than they did on the EGS in a year. There's no exact numbers so it's hard to say if the investment was ultimately worth it for Epic or not but I don't think it's been quite the resounding success Epic would like us to believe. Not with the way devs seem super eager to jump ship as soon as the exclusivity deals are up. The deals also seem to have slowed down significantly, to the point where I honestly don't remember the last one that actually bothered me. Most of the recent ones have been smaller indie or niche titles that I'd never even heard of or just didn't give a shit about. I think the last major one for me is still Control and that was over half a year ago.

 

You're right that a lot of consumers are impatient but I think those are the ones most likely to say fuck it and get the console in the first place and maybe even double dip once the PC release comes around. My point was that porting a few games here and there isn't going to convince PC-only gamers to jump ship to Playstation. There's a reason why late ports like Bayonetta, Vanquish, Yakuza and Catherine have been doing fairly well for SEGA.

[Mister Jack]

Oh I don't think it will convince them either. I'm just saying I think Sony believes it will.

[Mal]

I think Gamestop signed their own death warrant. 

Reggie also isn't on the board yet so no pitchforks should be aimed at him. 

 

[Mister Jack]

Christ, someone better get prosecuted over this. Someone besides store managers and associates, that is. That is fucking disgusting.

[Mal]

All stores are closing now. Probably for good. If I were to guess, all this was to extend their time so they could fulfill any last orders of Doom Eternal and ACNH. Corporate profit then fucks off while the workers in the stores likely will get sick.

[TheMightyEthan]

Hmm, well I'm glad I used at least $15 of my Powerup Rewards already, so I broke even on the membership.

[Mister Jack]

Damn, I just realized I had an FFVII preorder that's probably just gone up in smoke. I hadn't paid it off or anything so it's not a huge deal, but it's still annoying. I should have canceled that when I had the chance.

[Mister Jack]

It looks like, at least in my state, Gamestop is still semi-open. I say semi-open because the stores themselves are closed to the public, but they're still doing curbside pickups for orders that have been placed online or preorders that were made prior to the closings. I'm torn about this policy. On the one hand, it's hardly an essential business and even with the distancing measures in place there is always going to be a risk of exposure when you go outside. On the other hand, this also means all the employees aren't stuck at home without any pay for who knows how long. Theoretically this means I could probably pick up my FFVII preorder (can't cancel it, already asked) but I can't help feeling like if I do that I'm part of the problem.

[TheMightyEthan]

I think that service is nation wide. I've certainly been seeing a lot of e-mails about it.

[Mal]

The dub to the Trials of Mana is so bad that it's good. In a 90's sense. Like man, I swore we got off this level of dubs for a long time.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Mal

[TheMightyEthan]

I've been thinking about my gaming habits recently with the new consoles coming up, and I think I may be done with PC gaming. It's been ages and ages since there's been a PC-exclusive that I absolutely must have, and I could get both new consoles for around the same price as upgrading my PC to compete with them (I'm assuming around $1000, which is probably actually not enough to upgrade my PC). I don't know when my gaming habits changed, but it's pretty marked now that I'm really paying attention to it.

[Mister Jack]

I kinda feel where you're coming from. I switched to console gaming exclusively a while back because my PC was having heating issues every time I tried to play on it and I was sick of paying for repairs so I told myself I'd save up for a new one later on. PC prices just keep going up, though, and I have to ask myself if I really miss it that badly. I'm sure I'll probably get a new PC eventually, but I'll probably be good with PS5/Switch for a good while. Any PC exclusive I'm interested in right now is already an indie game that will play on a potato and as much as I like 60+ frames on my games I am pretty reluctant to pay the exorbitant prices that are out there right now to achieve it.