12 replies to this topic

[3Dude]

'former AAA developers who are now their own bosses were more than happy to share their thoughts on what's wrong with the state of big-budget development. The common sentiment: rising costs of game development perpetuates and amplifies a production cycle that sees developers being pushed to make ambitious games on schedules that are out of their hands.'

 

'The demand for big profits also tends to bind AAA developers into a marketing schedule that 

leaves them little room for fixing unforeseen problems. The more money a company has riding on a tentpole release, the more likely a developer will be made to swallow their pride, hit their ship date and scramble to fix known issues after launch.'

 

"Developers rarely get to tell Marketing 'We can ship it now, we fixed all the bugs,'" notes Fuller. "Rather, the marketing department will tell you when you're launching regardless of fixing bugs. If you want that arrangement to change, figure out how to sell millions of units without telling anyone your game exists."

 

 

'Read the article'

 

http://www.gamasutra...e_vicious_cycle

 

 

I remember when I began ranting about this back in 2007-8, nobody wanted to give it the time of day. When I described the current situation we are in right now, and told people this was the future video games were heading towards,they didnt want to hear it. Its almost eerie seeing people actually start noticing these things and talking about it. And of course talking about how long its been building to get to where we are now...

 

Its not going to get better, folks. It WILL get worse. The developers are completely powerless. Publishers and marketing are in charge of the games.

 

It is time to stop, and seriously think about what you want the future of videogames to be.

[grahamf]

It is time to stop, and seriously think about what you want the future of videogames to be.

I'll put my faith in Nintendo.

Nintendo is Love.

Nintendo is Life.

Nintendo is Eternal.

 

Gabe ain't so bad also.

[Chrop]

Gabe ain't so bad also.

He can't even count to 3...

[Bill Cipher]

He can't even count to 3...

Yes, he can not. However, he does seem to think that 2 is the ultimate number. After all, he's made TF2 last coming up on a decade. So I can't fault him there

 

On topic, I have to agree. I mean, I've grown up in the generation of these crappy PR driven hype machine games and I'm honestly sick of it. I'm sick of gaming press hyping the ever loving hell out of stuff and acting as marketting in and of themselves. There's a difference between a reviewer or journalist having a preference towards something(Like ProJared has his insane love for Monster Hunter, Jim Sterling has his love for Dynasty Warriors, etc) and it reflecting in their review and a games journalism site going like IGN has, where they have an exclusive month to hype up a game/system(See Colin Moriaity's "WHY THE VITA ROXS AND 3DS SUCKS") just for money. It's a largely AAA Concern and this getting combined with the whittling away of lower tiers is making the industry a very dangerous place to play the game. One wrong bet on a game and you'll be drowning in debt/needing to try and reuse as much assets as possible(See LIGHTNING STRIKES: FINAL FANTASY being a trilogy of a game that was heavily disliked). Add this into the whole crummy Quantity over quality crap that Ubisoft/others seems to enjoy making(WHY MAKE A DEEP ENGAGING WORLD WHEN WE CAN JUST MAKE CHECKPOINTS THE GAME. FILL THE MAP WITH USELESS CRAP), the excess DLCification of games that DON'T NEED DLC(The new EOU game had a 3rd of the map reserved behind paid DLC. It's already on the cartidge, but you have to pay to unlock it...in a REMAKE), and I'm quickly finding myself preferring older games/indie games/Games from studios I can trust. Valve, Nintendo, Almost Human, Platinum,Yatch Club Games, etc.

[Raiden]

Well Gabs can't count to 3.

Steve jobs couldn't count to 2.

Microsoft just can't count.

[Bill Cipher]

Well Gabs can't count to 3.

Steve jobs couldn't count to 2.

Microsoft just can't count.

At MS Offices:

 

We've got Windows 95, 98, then we jump to 2000, then to 7, then 8, then to 10. THIS IS MATH RIGHT?

[iEatTacos]

I'm with the guy who said he believes in Nintendo

[KeptMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

I'll put my faith in Nintendo.

Nintendo is Love.

Nintendo is Life.

Nintendo is Eternal.

 

Gabe ain't so bad also.

 

 

I'm with the guy who said he believes in Nintendo

We should form a club.

[CUD]

I'll put my faith in Gaben.

Gaben is Love.

Gaben is Life.

Gaben is Eternal.

 

Nintendo ain't so bad also.

 

Fixed. 

[GAMER1984]

Sad truth is it will continue. The "core" gamers love their 1080p and shooters. They will continue to buy into the AAA concept of gaming and graphics first. Broken games will continue to sell millions... what message does that send the publisher

[KeptMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

Sad truth is it will continue. The "core" gamers love their 1080p and shooters. They will continue to buy into the AAA concept of gaming and graphics first. Broken games will continue to sell millions... what message does that send the publisher

That they can keep getting away with it. And they're right, they can. Pretty sure that's why Ubisoft has been getting worse and worse. They want to see how far they can push the envelope. They'd love to be able to make a game in a couple months that's crap but looks nice in the videos, put it out then be all "whoopsies, are there glitches?" Fix those whenever they feel like and then shove DLC down people's throats to make the game a playable length. That way they would be making the most profit for the least amount of work.

[Jelloman]

That they can keep getting away with it. And they're right, they can. Pretty sure that's why Ubisoft has been getting worse and worse. They want to see how far they can push the envelope. They'd love to be able to make a game in a couple months that's crap but looks nice in the videos, put it out then be all "whoopsies, are there glitches?" Fix those whenever they feel like and then shove DLC down people's throats to make the game a playable length. That way they would be making the most profit for the least amount of work.

That's why I'll stick to Nintendo, Lord gaben, and metal gear solid 5. (And a couple of inde developers)

[Raiden]

Also have asshats manbabies like Dan Houser at RockStar. Racist idiot and omitted anything not his idea so a lot of design choices that used to be in some series that were great no longer exists as he didn't do it so now he no longer allows it unless he takes credit. He will not even aknowledge DMA design even happened so don't ever expect those old games to pop up anywhere. Best part is when they were developing Max Payne 3 on SD cards. No they didn't have External Hard drives just SD cards to pass around the office with no backups. You also need to understand to develop a game even if the final product is 4GB on the disc took TERRABYTES to develop so passing a crap ton of SD cards around is insane! They finally did fix that..sorta.