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.
Agree to disagree. Thousands of people being laid off is the first good thing I have seen come out of the AAA gaming industry in years. As far as I am concerned, every single one of the fuckers can join their modern audience in the line waiting for food stamps. I have just as much pity for these people as I do for the Hollywood people in that tik tok video last week who were complaining about not finding work, which is no pity at all.
That’s how I felt when I heard about the layoffs. Most games I look forward to aren’t AAA anymore anyway. Or they’re in the weird AA space like the Yakuza series. Man with No Name let you go on cabaret dates with actual Japanese porn stars and filmed them for it. Safe to say at least that franchise isn’t going woke anytime soon.
I haven't played it but I assume you mean this...
Meanwhile....
But also...
Damn, Yakuza, you confusing. I'm gonna need a flowchart for this.
They seemingly tried having the series transition to new characters with Like a Dragon, but people missed the old ones so much they just continued on both series and made a third spinoff to go alongside the other spinoff called the Judgement series.
Seemingly there are so many games because they reuse a lot of the assets between games, including characters and entire towns. They’re all hilarious though. Pretty regularly they’ll have JAV stars in the games, which I only found out after googling one of the characters that I thought was pretty hot.
Yeah I only played Yakuza 0 so far but it's one of my favorite games of all time. Just haven't had time to get into the others yet. Bumping into random AV idols and running a cabaret with them definitely felt like peak Japan gaming. Though my favorite part was probably the 80's theme. (doesn't look like any of the other entries have that?)
You’re not filming porn, but you go to a club and pay for dates with pornstars that were filmed to be on the date with you in video format. You answer questions and give gifts trying to get into their pants. All their reactions are filmed. I don’t think you unlock an actual porno if you win, but you’re still on dates with porn stars like Ai Sayama, which apparently autocorrects to AI Saiyans.