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[MrS]

AAA single players games are basically dead, right?

Wolfy 2, Mario and The Evil Within are out this month, so no.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Lootbox in Shadow of War ain't that bad now huh?

At least it came out.

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

Yeah. Look at Switch's lineup: Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon. Nintendo is riding the GaaS train high, and will be even higher when they release Smash.

Sorta, except Nintendo isn't selling you anything extra on top of the regular game price with those titles, which I think is a key distinction. EA will just add loot boxes to whatever this redesigned Star Wars game this will be.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

The AAA industry is increasingly leaving me behind, I must accept that at the ripe age of 24 I'm an old man and must depend more and more on indies.

Game costs are skyrocketing and "games as platforms" are increasingly becoming the biggest revenue kings. If you can spend $60 million on a service game that sticks around for 5 years and that allows you to monetize players over the course of those 5 years, versus spending $60 million creating a single player game that requires a one time entry fee and that would require you to create a sequel in another couple of years....these companies are all looking for that lottery ticket.

 

[TatteredHat]

Not even surprised anymore, thanks for Dead Space 1 and 2 Visceral.

Luckily there are plenty of good games outside of the mainstream AAA space, because I'm really not enjoying this GaaS trend.

 

[Paquete_PT]

Now I'm worried about Bioware, Respawn and Criterion. Although one could argue Criterion has been dead for a long time now.

Criterion?

 

[Obliterator]

Yea people are daft if they think Cyberpunk won't include this stuff as well.

A ton of the hiring that CD Projekt Red have done for Cyberpunk was specifically around Multiplayer designers and network engineers.

Cybperunk 2077 is going to be very online heavy

 

[Boke1879]

I mean, it's dead if you completely ignore Sony's first party output, Nintendo titles, and indie developers.

Sony at least so far has been blessed along with Nintendo to have most people anticipate their SP offerings.

But there is no idea how long that will last. If you're not Uncharted, GOW, Spiderman etc it's hard to tell. But it seems Sony is decent enough with budgeting their first party studio games.

But hell even UC4 had a content roadmap. That was a GAAS service as well.

 

[Petrae]

Mass market. Your average consumer is the reason why publisher are going with a GaaS model for theirl games.

...and consumers are at least as much to blame for the impending death of single-player games as publishers are, thanks to their acceptance and normalization of GaaS.

Had they rejected it, as they did online passes, maybe things would be different. Unfortunately, they are far too willing to throw their money at publishers by the truckload for microtransactions, season passes, and DLC.

This is the industry that gaming consumers deserve.

 

[FootieGamer]

It's such a shame the way the industry is heading. Linear, story driven, adventure games are my favourite type of games! There were so many great games like that last gen, but they are getting fewer and fewer

 

[M-PG71C]

what the ...



"We had to find a way to add loot boxes"

Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

 

[NastyBook]

Somewhere deep in me, there still resides hope that EA will farm out production of DS remakes to Bluepoint.

Everywhere else in me is pretty much "Go fuck yourself, EA."

 

[Surfside]

Nirolak's doom posts hint that Cyberpunk is also an online game due to job postings.

Traditional gaming is dead.

But that could just be like Dark Souls online mode or Watch Dogs. Doesn't mean it's not going to be a single player game.

 

[monome]

What happens to Respawn SW Game?

This move reeks of « visceral devs : ooops, we overspent.
Execs : Interns, connect to Visceral’s servers and monetize this bitch. Viscéral devs, go ask Harvey Weinstein for a job to fulfill your Hollywood ambitions. »

Your loss Ea people
Might be related to the Solo annoucement. Game was rumoured to be a han solo game, then reworked when film schedule shuffled. Maybe EA has to cut losses due to agreements with Lucasfilm and a délayed, post episode IX SP game set before IV ain’t a good enough prospect for that.

 

[InStrangerAeons]

I've been getting some real mileage out of this one lately

 

[Theslammer]

Nirolak's doom posts hint that Cyberpunk is also an online game due to job postings.

Traditional gaming is dead.

Online components =/= the game won't have a single-player mode.

Considering the wealth of games with large single-player modes that released this year, the need to panic, though typical of GAF, seems premature.

 

[TB12]

what about dead space 4...

 

[OdysseusVA]

EA is committed to a Titanfall 3 apparently. Now if THAT fails then you should expect Respawn to go into the EA mass grave.

Respawn is not owned by EA

 

[codecow]

RIP Dead Space

I feel sad... I hope Codecow and all the team were well

Dead Space is a very special game for me, that saga has an important meaning in a special moment in my life...

I send all my support to all the team of Visceral Games

I'm good I left over 4 months ago. Thanks for the concern though!

 

[Devilgunman]

Are people now more convinced that the single player focused AAA game is too expensive for big publishers or do we need more studios to shut down before people realize that?

I don't buy that. I don't think traditional SP game is too expensive. It's that Gaas just makes more money.

 

[Floody]

Sony is about to release a GAAS Gran Turismo. They're getting their feet wet.

DriveClub was also a GaaS. They still pump out a lot more SP focused stuff than most.

 

[Elandyll]

Next EA Star Wars game: Battle Royale with 100 players +, MTs and lootboxes, GaaS up the eyeballs.

Feel bad for Ms Hennig, I really hopenshe gets a great opportunity soon (that a publisher let her finish).

 

[badcrumble]

Beyond the lootbox stuff, I'm interpreting this:

Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.

to mean that they're basically getting rid of the idea of having a strongly-written/strongly-designed protagonist in favor of a character-creator silent protag and a slightly more MMOish story design

 

[USIGSJ]

papa EA is on quite a killing spree in the last 6 months:

- popcap layoffs
- Bioware Montreal
- Visceral

did I miss something out?

 

[Hupsel]

Fuck EA this shitty ass publisher.

So what they mean is that the new Star Wars game will be filled with multiplayer modes and microtransactions crap, huh? Bye bye good single player game.

 

[Peroroncino]

GaaS up the ass y'all.

gaas it up guys, we need more gaas

I wonder what happens when every single major game's gonna be a platform on its own... won't it hamper industry if people will latch on to 1 or 2 games max and stay with them omitting others?

 

[Spacecowboy77]

 

[5taquitos]

Criterion?

You know they did all the space combat stuff for Battlefront 2, right?

 

[Akai__]

Just a quick and rubbish edit:

 

[scitek]

Note to studios: Don't let yourselves be bought by EA for fucks sake.

I agree with the point, but it should be noted Visceral was always EA. They used to be EA Redwood Shores.

Regardless, this really sucks. I was looking forward to the game, and probably won't care about whatever they replace it with. Hopefully it leaks someday... or at least we get to see what would've been.

 

[Pyroblazer]

Wow huge shock. Is the Star Wars game now still Amy's?

The shift in direction doesn't sound that good either. I expected something like that cancelled Star Wars game from LucasArts, so basically Uncharted meets Star Wars, while the Respawn game under Stig will be more open-world with RPG elements. The 2018 release date is now probably dead too? Just give me my singleplayer Star Wars game pls

 

[Corpsepyre]

Took them long enough to kill another studio. Motherfuckers.

 

[cb1115]

awful

i'd really like to see Amy back at ND

 

[Y2Kev]

Amy hennig’s Game looked bad anyway. It’s like here’s a guy in mos eisley and he touches a wall. No thanks!!!

 

[Danneee]

EA is running out of interesting (active) IPs and good developers.

 

[RSchmitz]

When Sony is done with single player games there won't be very many AAA games left for my tastes.

 

[Jyrii]

Oh damn, I hate when this happens

 

[Previous]

Damn. RIP Dead Space

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Yeah. Look at Switch's lineup: Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon. Nintendo is riding the GaaS train high, and will be even higher when they release Smash.

They also have BotW, Xenoblade, Mario Odyssey and Metroid though.

 

[ryseing]

Most likely yes.

FUCKING EA, and poor Amy. Someone give the woman a stable team and budget please.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Your move, Sony. Turn The Last of Us 2 into a GaaS game. Let's get this over with so I can wallow in the memories of what this industry used to be.

 

[MegaSackman]

Yeah. Look at Switch's lineup: Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon. Nintendo is riding the GaaS train high, and will be even higher when they release Smash.

Sony is the only one left behind, and I'm afraid they are gonna pay for it.

Go to the GT Sport thread.

 

[Ctlead]

Nirolak's doom posts hint that Cyberpunk is also an online game due to job postings.

Traditional gaming is dead.

It's single player. Just might have an online component with it.

 

[jett]

Game costs are skyrocketing and "games as platforms" are increasingly becoming the biggest revenue kings. If you can spend $60 million on a service game that sticks around for 5 years and that allows you to monetize players over the course of those 5 years, versus spending $60 million creating a single player game that requires a one time entry fee and that would require you to create a sequel in another couple of years....these companies are all looking for that lottery ticket.

Sony will probably end up being the only publisher still pushing for AAA single-player games, since they have the added purpose of bolstering the profile/prestige of the hardware they're also selling.

Eventually they also will stop though.

 

[ZugZug123]

Spells cost money instead of mana

Stop giving them ideas....

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

EA tells employees that the new Star Wars game will be led by someone else and use assets from Visceral's game

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/920374708717211648

 

[What did he mean by this?]

Can Didney just make a game studio already

 

[Randdalf]

Are people now more convinced that the single player focused AAA game is too expensive for big publishers or do we need more studios to shut down before people realize that?

Big publishers like EA want all their big releases to be selling 10m copies. They want every game to be a smash hit like Destiny. An expensive single-player Star Wars game which sells 3m copies is a massive disappointment. If they can't do that kind of business just by selling games, transitioning towards a GaaS model where they cushion the risk of not meeting their sales targets through selling microtransactions and expansion packs is the logical route to follow. They can leverage the engagement of their player base in a game to, in mathematical terms, make players worth more than one copy of the game to them.

 

[Theslammer]

Witcher 3 was green lit over 6 years ago. Far before the market changed

Look at the postings for hiring on Cyberpunk. It's going to be an online GaaS title (though I expect a strong single player as well)

There will still be single player games. But they will ALL contain online focused things within them and if they don't then expect lots of MXT's

I know about the postings for online components, but unless they decide to make Cyberpunk purely online like World of Warcraft, nothing seemed concerning.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Bullfrog, Westwood, Visceral, Maxis, Mythic, Origin, Pandemic, all dead because of EA. I'm honestly feeling that Bioware might be the next big one from them to be killed off. DICE is basically safe from everything.