The Thursday letters page is very upset about the new layoffs at Bungie, as one reader is bemused by Palworld developer Pocketpair.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Bad day
I’m continually disturbed by the people that keep referring to the current crisis in gaming as ‘negativity’ or implying it’s some kind of minor or exaggerated problem. It’s not that they’re sticking their heads in their sand but that it seems so many in the industry are as well.
What have we had so far on Tuesday? Xbox sales continuing to fall, Twitch not making a profit in 10 years and now fearing layoffs, and Bungie getting layoffs to the tune of over 200 people. And yet still we’ll have people downplaying the situation or, more accurately, not caring and get frustrated that people are even discussing it.
I fear we have got to the point where the games industry is not only broken but the people in charge have no interest in fixing it. Not in terms of getting back to the place it was last generation – or even the start of this one.
What I also think is unfortunate is that the release of the Switch 2 and GTA 6 next year is going to mask a lot of the problems and by the time the smoke has cleared we’re going to be in an even worse position than we are now.
MatrixPoint
Predictable disaster
Are we getting the message now that consolidation is not a good idea for the video games industry, or probably any other? First it was Microsoft and now we have the completely predictable and long feared news of major layoffs at Bungie.
I’d say I don’t know why these companies ever agree to the takeovers but it’s sadly obvious: because the execs make out like bandits and after that what do they care what happens? Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie and now two years later they’re losing 17% of their workforce and cutting projects. Does anyone think that would’ve happened if Bungie had stayed independent?
The damage is done now, though. Even if Bungie somehow went independent again (which they already did once with Microsoft) those hundreds of people have lost their jobs already. And Activision Blizzard is never escaping, unless Microsoft leave the games industry – which has somehow become something that doesn’t seem completely impossible.
They have broken it though, probably beyond repair. And this week’s news shows Sony would’ve done the same if only they had the money to do that much damage. That Nintendo-only future is looking better by the minute.
Focus
Empathy failure
When it comes to acquisitions in the gaming industry, while it’s a dull way to grow a company I can’t really complain about a company taking in the risk of investing billions.
Also, when it comes to all the layoffs that have happened over the last two years, I’m sure none want it to happen but every news site seems to agree games cost too much to make and all the costs are staff, i.e. they need to cut staff.
What I do think people can take issue with is what the people who sold their companies did with the money. It’s never been revealed how much Microsoft sold Bungie for, nor do we know how much debt they built up since then. But with a head count between 900 and 1,000 when Sony bought them for $3.6billion that’s 3.6 million each, and I doubt the debt will have been that high!
Fair enough investment companies are just going to want their payoff, but there’s got to be a few in there that were given wealth beyond belief that could have shared 10% of it with the people that earnt it for them and who now may be losing their jobs.
Tim
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Copy and paste
I’m fascinated by how completely shameless the developers of Palworld are. First, the main guy admits he doesn’t like coming up with new ideas and then they start complaining about ‘soulless’ copycat games. Dude! You use AI to rip-off your creature designs from Pokémon! I’d say it was almost admirable if the game wasn’t rewarding that kind of attitude.
I also think it’s an indication of just how easy it’s become to rip-off other, already successful games. When you’ve got something like Marvel Rivals, which is almost a photocopy of Overwatch, all you need is some money and reasonably competent programmers and you’re away. It’s probably why there’s been so many lay offs lately, because publishers have started to value the actually creative people even less than usual.
Biscuit
Platform partners
Following the email from Onibee, I think a side-scrolling platform game would be the best way to marry Mario and Sonic up again. I know that the two platformers are very different, and I believe they should remain that way. But if each level has a Mario path and a separate but interlocking Sonic path, where one character could change, influence or unlock elements for the other character it could work.
I have always preferred Mario but this kind of interaction would help me warm to Sonic more.
Ed
Evil reinvented
I love to see Resident Evil doing so well. It will always be my favourite franchise, ever since the PlayStation originals. I’m a bit wary about an open world game, because I always feel Resident Evil works best when it’s claustrophobic, but it’s something new so I’m all for them giving it a try.
I think that’s the secret to the series’ success and really any long-running franchise: constant reinvention but not forgetting the core of why people love the games. Resident Evil 4 and 7 were both soft reboots and yet they’re the two most successful entries, which I think say a lot.
So, I say give open world a try and if that doesn’t work then try something else. I’d also like to see some experiments with spin-offs. Why not a turn-based strategy or role-player? Instead of making all these multiplayer games that nobody wants I’d like to go back to the earlier days of lightgun games and weird portable titles.
It doesn’t have to be them specifically, just that sense of throwing caution to the wind and making whatever. That’s one of the things Capcom has always been good at and I urge them to do more.
Lempton
Small changes
With the talk of downloads recently in the Inbox I was just updating all the games on my Xbox 360 before the store closed, most of the updates per game were 1, 2 or 3MB! The largest update was 15MB for GTA 4.
I don’t have Call Of Duty on Xbox 360 but for everything else the downloads were tiny compared to today. A few of the games had updates of 480KB!
Andrew J.
PS: For those who enjoyed Arcane Season 1, like me, they are releasing it on physical disc on 4K or standard Blu0ray in October and it is already listed on Amazon UK. I’m going to pick up a 4K SteelBook at some point. Looking forward to Season 2 in November on Netflix.
Budget limitations
I see that almost all the Star Wars Outlaws previews seemed to agree with GC’s, in that they thought the game worked fine but was extremely generic. I’m not surprised at this, but it makes me wonder whether there was anyway it could’ve been anything else, given the amount of money it would’ve cost.
You don’t get avant-garde with a mega budget Star Wars game and yet that means it’s doomed to be nothing more than okay. You could argue that in terms of gameplay something like The Last Of Us isn’t any better, and you’re probably not wrong,
What sets The Last Of Us apart, and other open world Sony games, is the storytelling and technically that doesn’t cost anything extra. Sure, you need decent actors and facial animation, but the most important part is still just a couple of people typing up a script.
And yet everything I’ve seen and heard suggest Outlaws is just as bland in that respect as well. This should have been especially obvious because it’s Star Wars and the big difference between the original trilogy and the other films is that it has likeable and memorable characters. I don’t see any sign of that in the game.
Famebot
Inbox also-rans
I’m kind of glad that the follow-up to Thumper hasn’t turned out very good. I was miffed at first, as to why they would make it VR-only. It still seems a dumb idea, but I guess now it doesn’t matter.
Robo
How are CeX able to sell The Crew knowing it can’t be played due to it being an online-only game, even in single-player, because the servers have been switched off? Yet, this very game cannot be sold to them because of the aforementioned reason.
LeighDappa
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The small print
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