The state of the industry does not look good, especially in the AAA world.
Gearbox started firing people as soon as it was bought by Embracer
Nintendo restructures it's testing department
Skull and Bones is slashed by $25 after three weeks on sail
Relic entertainment sold by SEGA
_B: EA Losses
EA drops star wars games and fires 650
EA is looking away from licensed games
_B: Saber Sold
Embracer sells Saber interactive along with other companies. This includes Metro series and new Warhammer 40k Space marine game
Space Marine is still being made
It's being delayed though
They don't seem to care either.
Valve created an orb for video making using steam decks they had lying around. Half Life 3 is still not released.
Activision QA has a large union now
_B: Warner Bros keeps on losing path
Warner Bros Gaming would rather commit suicide squad than make another successful Harry Potter game.
They really want that Fortnite style money
This has made them lean into the DEI money like Sweet Baby Inc
How Sweet Baby Inc ruined a game called Flintlock
Interview with women who work at Mojang. Buzzfeed article says diversity will help us all.
It also means companies leaning into milking the existing player base Instead of trying to grow it.
A lawsuit is coming for game makers that accuses them of making addictive practices to make more money. The response has been, “you can't sue us for making good games”.
Why I stopped being a framerate snob… advert for Steam deck
A business model designed to milk small amounts of players, rather than selling well overall. Comparison to the Cable channel model.
This has meant the Game Developer Conference has some awkwardness.
_GDC: AAA and Creativity
It costs too much to be creative in the AAA field.
Maybe AAA deserves to die. Corporations are greedy! Become an indie!
_GDC: Scream
A group go together to start
Screaming in a park
Meanwhile Monopoly Go has a huge publicity budget.
Monopoly Go had a nearly half a billion promotional budget.
And Toys for Bob is finally making their own game
Toys for Bob is making their own game. They usually make them by assignment, and have been very successful at it. The NFC toy games were started by them, and they created Tony Hawk Downhill Jam.
Also, Capcom has raised the pay of their employees.
Capcom raises salaries in tough times
So there is a silver lining.
I'm glad that this is the case for the majority of gamers, it seems there's still a stubborn contingent of fanbois keeping these companies afloat for whatever reason. I do wonder given how badly they're all doing whether or not there's some major sales fakery happening given all the other shit they've been up to because aside from maybe Nintendo you simply don't see anyone seriously going "Yeah I love Battlefield 2042 I don't see what any of the fuss is about". Maybe some dumb normies that bought into the marketing perhaps? But that's about it.
Something I've noticed is that when a company gets too big and noticeable, they suddenly don't make the sales they had the previous time. This is nothing to the HD demand where a game that sold 2 million needed to sell 15 million to break even.
That's simple maths and scaling, they expand far too quickly due to their 'success' and bloat the company too much, as a result compared to somebody like me who would be rolling in it and absolutely thrilled at 2 million they view that as peanuts. The woke bloat at these companies especially is real and will be a big part as to why they're pissing away what would otherwise be legitimate profit. That what makes companies like sweet baby inc. such a joke, they're overpaid contract workers who exist solely to extort money from companies through the threat of negative PR and woke accusations.
They're a little more than that. They allow access to DEI money. It all looks legal till it doesn't.
Nintendo doesn't run off debt so they're fine. All the rest of those are likely fucked.
They are very smart business wise.