Many many years ago, I read an article that said making a game world like the kind you see in grand theft auto would become so expensive that game companies would all start sharing the same maps for different projects, keeping costs low and splitting the profits.
Well, they were right about the costs becoming too high, but we’re wrong about companies sharing resources between one another.
They’d rather make nothing, then make something for just a little less profit.
I don’t understand how it can get more expensive, let alone prohibitively expensive. Is it things like increasing costs of buying the engines to make the games from things like Unreal or something? I would have thought that building more helps develop the tools and skills to make it quicker and better next time.
The new god of war games cost more to make than the GDP of Greece I remember hearing. Making a videogame requires a lot of technical skilled labour and you’ve got to run in the red for years until you can release the finished product.
I feel like some bean counter figured out somewhere that the big money is making a Skinner box instead of the older model of a basic game combined with DLC.
Following the news that they have no major releases planned until April, 2025:
Looking at Microsoft’s line up, I feel like 2024 is shaping up to be a “meh” year for the platform exclusives overall. Most of what I’m curious about are the 3rd party titles.
To be honest it’s been kinda meh for the past few years. There have been a couple of exceptions, but even Nintendo has been under delivering (I personally thought Mario wonder and TOTK were just okay).
Its quite the meh generation. Which is sad, considering the consoles this gen actually had some grunt.
deleted by creator
There are lots of great games. There’s no need for more games! Shut it all down everyone go look at a leaf
To paraphrase Devon Banks: I’m gonna shut it down. Think how much people will need lightbulbs then!
(Also; I sold the E to Samsung. They’re Samesung now.)
I feel like every company is taking advantage of the mass layoffs going on everywhere, which lets their own layoffs get lost in the news of endless layoffs. I think theyre simply laying off staff just to save on labor costs.
I’ve been saying the same thing for a while. Same with the massive waves of ‘inflation’ and enshittification.
Isn’t it one of the quickest ways to increase profits in the short term? If they’re not essential and you have a quarterly profit report coming up…
Yeah. Corporate at my work is always looking to keep labor costs at a minimum because its “easy to control”. Yeah, it saves money, but it’s so damned shortsighted.
Guess I’m buying a new copy of Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree on PC. I’m not supporting these companies that are doing mass layoffs after profitable years. It should be illegal.