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[DannyDanger]

And ignoring some successes like Stellar Blade, Black Myth: Wukong and Astro Bot (and comparing FF 16 with Suicide Squad) is simply bad faith.

Are those big budget tho?

 

[FewRope]

Sweeny is just mad that nobody cares about his launcher/store. In an alternative reality Alan Wake 2 sold enough to break even because it released physical in consoles and on Steam for PC. Too bad, Timmy! In this reality a single player traditional game with the best graphics of last year didn’t found success for reasons still unknown…

Alan Wake 2 is not on Steam, I wish

 

[Radical_3d]

Alan Wake 2 is not on Steam, I wish

Re-read, please.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I’d have bought Alan Wake 2 if it had a physical version last year.

Now it finally does it unfortunately released too close to Silent Hill 2.

 

[FewRope]

Re-read, please.

Oh sorry, you are correct

 

[Three]

That Uk chart only track physical release, Wukong has no physical release. Even if you attribute 85-90% sales of the total sales to China, that leaves 2-3 million units sold in the rest of the world, which is far more than what Outlaws did

No, you "keep coping". I'm referring to GSD data so it includes digital:

Grand Theft Auto 5 is No.1 again in August | European Monthly Charts

11.8 million console and PC games were sold across Europe in August, a rise of 7% over the year before.

www.gamesindustry.biz

Physical it reached a poor 68 but is absent from the digital data.

and both are new IP, from new console developers

Yeah no shit it's almost like that's what I'm saying. New IP aren't really getting off the ground that well.

 

[SaintALia]

Lol, anyone remember when Fortnite was a singleplayer esque game that you could play with your friends? What was it about again? Creatures attack at night and you had to build shelters or whatever to fend them off until daytime. Something like that anyway.

No one seemed to care much about it and I think even the gaming press wasn't into it. They pivoted and jumped on the battle royale trend and the game took off. That's how I remember it though, can't be bothered to fact check myself on it.

Just funny though, because he's basically saying that singleplayer games are too costly to develop, but instead of trying to lower costs, they should just go all in on multiplayer games because the ROI is much higher.

Problem is though, there are only a couple of those games that can reign at any one point and people gravitate to those, leaving the rest in the dumps for the most part.

 

[ReBurn]

You guys do realise that Tim Sweeney is shilling live service games right?
Like what he's saying has nothing to do with "woke" or whatever the fuck other boogeyman ya'll are coping about.

He's seeing the industry consolidate towards a few giant monoliths of live service games, who hold most of the $ value of the industry due to the overwhelming number of people who play them.

He's probably not wrong, either. A lot of us are just not willing to accept what is clearly happening because we're stuck in a place in time where the number of units games and consoles sold was what mattered most. When mobile gaming, which is largely service based, is bringing in the most money and two of the three console platforms now release their IP on PC and other consoles to increase revenue and profit it shows just how out of touch the arguments can be sometimes. Especially when the success of a game like Helldivers 2 shows that people will give their money to live service games if it's done right.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

You guys do realise that Tim Sweeney is shilling live service games right?
Like what he's saying has nothing to do with "woke" or whatever the fuck other boogeyman ya'll are coping about.

He's seeing the industry consolidate towards a few giant monoliths of live service games, who hold most of the $ value of the industry due to the overwhelming number of people who play them.

Comments like this amaze me. The lack of reading comprehension is wild. You are unable to see that his reasoning has ramifications. I will explain it to kids:

First - He shills for GaaS, which is his business.

Second - He talks about GaaS in contrast with big-budget non-GaaS, claiming that those aren't profitable. This is a wrong claim since every year many SP games succeed. In 2024 we got quite a few.

Third - He fails to address the reasons why those games fail. And here enters DEI, the business killer. Examples: Suicide Squad, Concord, Star Wars, etc.


So no, the industry is not consolidating or anything along those lines. Every year we have new GaaS and new Single-player games and it will keep that way, whatever this clown says.

 

[Trilobit]

Guess what! The game industry has fever! And the only prescription... is more Sly Cooper!

 

[HeWhoWalks]

…. on our platform.

Yes, Tim. That’s what happens when you needlessly try to split up the PC user base, particularly with an outdated and lacking storefront.

 

[poodaddy]

I said that before and want to say it again. The AAA game production needs to scale back.

Focus on condense gameplay experience, drop the obsession with graphic fidelity, houseclean all unnecessary positions/consultings. Your games will sell good

I had a post some months ago where I pretty much said the exact same thing. I don't know how execs don't see this when it seems like common sense to us. It's literally Business 101, improve demographic focus, cut extraneous costs, and reallocate resources for efficiency. Come on guys, literally first year College stuff.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

So is it the people's fault for not performing their role correctly? Or is it Concord's fault for not being a game people want to tell their friends to buy?

The second one.

 

[SlimySnake]

Go back to $60 games. $70 plus tax is too much.
Go back to 15-20 hour games. Spending 50-100 hours in a game is like getting a second job and prevents people from buying more than one game at a time. A 50 hour game could take a month to finish.
Stop making every lead a woman. This is a male dominated industry. Appeal to the men. Have female characters in your games if you want but make them attractive. No one wants to see ugly people in tv shows, movies and games.

 

[mckmas8808]

Not sure why anyone would think thats hard at all or how it changes the experience at all in videogames of all things. Where you can jump to pause screens and respawn after you die and teleport to upgrade menus. Shit makes zero sense...even as gimmick. 1917 this isnt.

Playing a game with no edits cuts was extremely noticeable and cool. Many gamers even stated that during and after playing GOW 2018. It was a different perspective. Don't forget that video games are a form of entertainment. It isn't JUST a game. 1917 it was.

 

[LordCBH]

The future Tim “Shitstain” Sweeney wants is crap. All GaaS, no single player, absurd levels of microtransactions.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

He's probably not wrong, either. A lot of us are just not willing to accept what is clearly happening because we're stuck in a place in time where the number of units games and consoles sold was what mattered most. When mobile gaming, which is largely service based, is bringing in the most money and two of the three console platforms now release their IP on PC and other consoles to increase revenue and profit it shows just how out of touch the arguments can be sometimes. Especially when the success of a game like Helldivers 2 shows that people will give their money to live service games if it's done right.

 

[mckmas8808]

They will never notice, they think everything its the DEI demon

The DEI demon monster in their heads will exist forever now. Nowadays DEI is the devil and the reason that everything in gaming is bad for some reason.

He's probably not wrong, either. A lot of us are just not willing to accept what is clearly happening because we're stuck in a place in time where the number of units games and consoles sold was what mattered most. When mobile gaming, which is largely service based, is bringing in the most money and two of the three console platforms now release their IP on PC and other consoles to increase revenue and profit it shows just how out of touch the arguments can be sometimes. Especially when the success of a game like Helldivers 2 shows that people will give their money to live service games if it's done right.

Some people here want to lay out this false choice where it's either "Live Service games are the future lets kill AAA single-player games" or "Live Service Games are the devil and will be what kills gaming for good". NEITHER is true. Both can co-exist and currently are.

We've never had a time where AAA games always succeeded and made a profit. Ubisoft is probably the best example of the games that Tim Sweeny is talking about. But lets think about what Ubisoft has made lately. Where's the innovation? Where's the risk? Their Assassins Creed franchise is now lost with no clear sight of what they're doing. But GAAS games aren't to blame for Assassins Creed.

 

[RCX]

Graphics got nicer and much more expensive to make.

Gameplay has largely stagnated.

Too many games are being released. Most of which arent good enough.

Perma-games like Fortnite and Minecraft inhale the time people have to play with.

Subscriptions and sales have generally taught people to expect more for less.

Games are routinely released in a broken state. It's a safe bet to skip day 1 and wait for a sale on a fully patched GOTY edition.

Conclusion: the industry fucked itself.

 

[Nydius]

I only skimmed the thread so I imaging this has already been said, but it bears repeating:

High budgets do not inherently equal high quality output.

You can spend hundreds of millions on a game or movie but if it’s poorly written, poorly designed, and feels derivative and old, the amount of money spent doesn’t matter.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Tim Sweeney reminds me of Michael Eddington from Deep Space 9. Beyond the visual similarities they are both massively egotistical, self-righteous, and assholes who only end up hurting what they purportedly care about.

 

[Come On Tars]

Shitty games made in the DEI development era without respect for the main target audience are not selling well.. news at eleven

Everyone TRIES to pretend the answer is not as simple as it is. It feels so played out at this point to say it and I admit it’s almost cringe now. It’s the woke shit. I Oh the market has changed oh it’s bad games blah blah that’s the SYMPTOM. The sickness It’s untalented woke devs. That’s it. The only reason the devs or directors are in the chairs in the first place is bad politics, in spite of creating games for the market that buys them.

Maybe a game is so good that we’ll turn a blind eye to bad politics, those are more rare and we have too much choice.

Untalented devs will continue to signal their product is for an ideological audience that doesn’t buy games. They talk about games on Reddit that’s it.

 

[midnightAI]

Go back to $60 games. $70 plus tax is too much.
Go back to 15-20 hour games. Spending 50-100 hours in a game is like getting a second job and prevents people from buying more than one game at a time. A 50 hour game could take a month to finish.
Stop making every lead a woman. This is a male dominated industry. Appeal to the men. Have female characters in your games if you want but make them attractive. No one wants to see ugly people in tv shows, movies and games.

eesh, sorry, cant agree with that bit (especially regarding TV and movies), also many peoples idea of attractive is different, but not only that, let us have good actors, MANY times they supplant good actors with pretty ones and the acting is then terrible. (many of the very best actors/actresses out there arent attractive to many)

 

[atyourservice]

Yeah, this has been happening for a while now.

People in the industry have probably been aware for a while, but just assumed things weren't that bad. Until the 'too big to fail' ips and studios started tanking

 

[JimmyRustler]

Well, for some reason the industry decided to make big budget games tailored for a minority instead of the majority. What did they expect?

 

[Danknugz]

seems like the gaming industry became too focused on career paths, networking and climbing salary ladders than actual games and this is now the result

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Guy with the most successful game in industry history DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THE F$%# HE'S TALKING ABOUT!

 

[Metnut]

He hit the lotto with Fortnight but nothing lasts forever. It can be hard to follow up on a GAAS hit once its popularity inevitably fades.

 

[DeepEnigma]

ProTip: Get back to the basics and stop chasing fads. By the time you chase, it's already too late.

Once again, the east is going to devour the west in game development if they don't start cutting out the rot.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Lol, anyone remember when Fortnite was a singleplayer esque game that you could play with your friends? What was it about again? Creatures attack at night and you had to build shelters or whatever to fend them off until daytime. Something like that anyway.

No one seemed to care much about it and I think even the gaming press wasn't into it. They pivoted and jumped on the battle royale trend and the game took off. That's how I remember it though, can't be bothered to fact check myself on it.

Just funny though, because he's basically saying that singleplayer games are too costly to develop, but instead of trying to lower costs, they should just go all in on multiplayer games because the ROI is much higher.

Problem is though, there are only a couple of those games that can reign at any one point and people gravitate to those, leaving the rest in the dumps for the most part.

I think I saw Fornite first shown at E3. Interesting concept, but, still easily forgotten. Time passes, they revamp the game almost from the ground up and tailor it toward Battle Royal, basically copied PUBG Battlegrounds. Then, it shoot up like a rocket, couple that with this Ninja dude who many people watching him were kids, and you got a recipe for mass media appeal and success.

 

[LordOfChaos]

We need more middle budget games, but also charge middle prices for them, not full AAA prices

 

[Evil Calvin]

It's a CEO and shareholder issue. Adjust expectations. Reduce expectations. Reduce scope and lower exec salaries.

 

[proandrad]

No epic, high budget games aren’t selling on your platform.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Games take 4-6 years to make now.. thats why trend chasing is fucking stupid when in 6 years it may be gone... and thats exactly what's happening, they went into the development bunker thinking the world will only get more woke and got out in rising woke rejection by the mainstream... be woke or gaas ... both trends are fcking stupid

Some trends last longer than 6 years.

 

[RCX]

 

[Ogbert]

It’s almost like Nintendo had the right idea all along.

 

[CGNoire]

Playing a game with no edits cuts was extremely noticeable and cool. Many gamers even stated that during and after playing GOW 2018. It was a different perspective. Don't forget that video games are a form of entertainment. It isn't JUST a game. 1917 it was.

Nah. Its the Emperor's New Clothes.

Long cuts are cool within a scene for sure but keeping it up throughout the entire game provides no immersive benefits for the reasons I listed before.

 

[DeepEnigma]

It’s almost like Nintendo had the right idea all along.

Don't push political messages, don't chase fads, and make legacy traditional fun games.

Who knew? /s

 

[asdasdasdbb]

It’s almost like Nintendo had the right idea all along.

The way things are going, Nintendo might be the last one standing.

 

[Sinfulgore]

Go back to $60 games. $70 plus tax is too much.
Go back to 15-20 hour games. Spending 50-100 hours in a game is like getting a second job and prevents people from buying more than one game at a time. A 50 hour game could take a month to finish.
Stop making every lead a woman. This is a male dominated industry. Appeal to the men. Have female characters in your games if you want but make them attractive. No one wants to see ugly people in tv shows, movies and games.

Is $70+ tax really too much? I went to the movies not long ago and for 2 tickets, 2 large drinks, and one large popcorn it was $63. $63 for 3 hours of entertainment and no real food. Compared to other forms of entertainment I don't think games cost too much for what they offer. The problem is with the nature of games. Games, for the most part, get better over time and are cheaper over time as well so there is less incentive to buy single-player focused games on release day regardless of the cost or even quality. I know all of EA games will come to game pass so why would I ever buy an EA game that isn't multiplayer-focused? There is no reason so I don't, I just wait for them to come to game pass. I think there a large enough gamers out there like me who don't care about FOMO or realize that it's smarter to wait 6 months(or more) after a single-player game is released to play, not only will it be cheaper but more than likely it will also be a better experience.

 

[tkscz]

On the other side of the coin, Sweeney's mention of a slump among some big-budget standalone releases seems on point: Suicide Squad, Final Fantasy 16, Starfield, and most pointedly Star Wars Outlaws have all been letdowns to some extent, even though they all carry the branding Sweeney is so enthusiastic about.

There are a multitude of reasons why those games didn't meet expectation, and not just not being a GaaS. From having gameplay that's way to repetitive, to having DEI activist developers who rather chase potential customers away. Hell, SS was a GaaS and it bombed hard, along with like 4 other GaaS released this year like Concord, Foamstars, and I can't remember the others., so the idea that everything is moving to GaaS multiplayer games only is a farce.

 

[mckmas8808]

The way things are going, Nintendo might be the last one standing.

You're assuming Sony is doing things wrong. Have you been paying attention? Don't let the "Concord" talk cloud your judgement.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

You're assuming Sony is doing things wrong. Have you been paying attention? Don't let the "Concord" talk cloud your judgement.

I believe Sony execs believe if they don't get a Top Tier GAAS hit, Playstation is doomed.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Stop chasing photorealistic graphics and 4k resolutions, completely unnecessary imo

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I believe Sony execs believe if they don't get a Top Tier GAAS hit, Playstation is doomed.

I agree

PS5 is Sony's most profitable console gen ever after just 3 years, beating PS4 by over $36 billion in sales

It's already generated over $10 billion in profit

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I agree

PS5 is Sony's most profitable console gen ever after just 3 years, beating PS4 by over $36 billion in sales

It's already generated over $10 billion in profit

www.gamesradar.com

The issue is that PlayStation thinks 5 - 10 years ahead. They have to.

Gamers only think in the now (and past).

So gamers look at PlayStations profits now, but PlayStation can't afford to do that, they have to position themselves for 5 - 10 years out.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

The issue is that PlayStation thinks 5 - 10 years ahead. They have to.

Gamers only think in the now (and past).

So gamers look at PlayStations profits now, but PlayStation can't afford to do that, they have to position themselves for 5 - 10 years out.

Of course

But in 5-10 years we could all be looking back at GaaS and laughing at what a ridiculous fad it all was.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Of course

But in 5-10 years we could all be looking back at GaaS and laughing at what a ridiculous fad it all was.

 

[mckmas8808]

I believe Sony execs believe if they don't get a Top Tier GAAS hit, Playstation is doomed.

I pray to God you are wrong. But fear you maybe right. It's sad because we all know for a fact that they DO NOT need a top tier GAAS hit. At least nothing bigger than Helldivers 2.

 

[mckmas8808]

Of course

But in 5-10 years we could all be looking back at GaaS and laughing at what a ridiculous fad it all was.

Exactly THIS! I don't think it will be a "fad", but I also don't think it'll be the end all be all either. In literally every single form of entertainment, being able to tell an interesting story has always worked. It's worked for the human race for literally thousands of years.

Why would telling a good story that's entertaining not work in gaming 5-10 years from now, all of a sudden?