How is everyone?

[ExtraWildGames]

Is it me, or are these execs selling ideas to market to show "innovation" to share holders, as a way to spare investment and tick a box?

I have been feeling for a long time that it is not about the consumer at all, but rather the share holder as an easy out for contractual obligations to them. There is also statements in most of the jobs i have worked under in engineering, medical and gaming (i am a contractor), with all contracts to date stated "you are to do all you can to protect and spur investment in the company and industry". Regardless of waht ever that means to it.

Now imho the consumer is the crop which should be tended to, in terms of spearing investment and buying in to products, but companies keep making bone head decisions like above, which cost performance to look more shinny, like shinny means more then game play and story, which pushes the majority of us away. So, my questions is why if we need to buy the products they are making?

Sorry for ranting and if this is the wrong place for it, but i am seeing this kind of pattern more and more, and it makes me simply not want to invest in current gaming landscape, which is for the most part predatory.

Yes. A lot of these new trends/fads/gimmicks are made to "woo" investors, which is why the PS5 pro reveal seemed more like a marketing pitch you'd see from some private business event instead of something a consumer would actually want.

Now you as a consumer might not be going apeshit over some dumb garbage like "AI resolution scaling," but show this to some disconnected dudebro wall street investor and they'll think "megabillions" if they invest into Sony's company for this technology.

As far as sales go, I really can't find anything concrete but this GR article, and even then they don't give full numbers.

PS5 Pro Launch Sales Numbers Compared to PS4 Pro

A new report indicates how the sales of Sony's recently released PlayStation 5 Pro compared to the PlayStation 4 Pro, which was launched in 2016.

gamerant.com

Because these bastards have tons of hedgefund/legacy money to throw out, the average consumer's opinions/money is just seen as "dirt" while investor influence are seen as the pretty flowers that are more attractive (the irony is, you need dirt to plant the seeds for the flowers).

Basically the large majority of the gaming public's opinion is getting tossed out the window in favor of corpo douchebags who understand nothing about games, don't care how they're made, and don't care if all games play exactly the same, The gaming industry, for whatever reason, wants to be like Hollywood. Literally just celebrating and circle jerking themselves because they "make art." Which is why you see this weird fixation on harwdware specs, multimedia usage, etc. instead of ACTUAL games and the content they want.

 

[Gr0undP0und]

Yes. A lot of these new trends/fads/gimmicks are made to "woo" investors, which is why the PS5 pro reveal seemed more like a marketing pitch you'd see from some private business event instead of something a consumer would actually want.

Now you as a consumer might not be going apeshit over some dumb garbage like "AI resolution scaling," but show this to some disconnected dudebro wall street investor and they'll think "megabillions" if they invest into Sony's company for this technology.

As far as sales go, I really can't find anything concrete but this GR article, and even then they don't give full numbers.

PS5 Pro Launch Sales Numbers Compared to PS4 Pro

A new report indicates how the sales of Sony's recently released PlayStation 5 Pro compared to the PlayStation 4 Pro, which was launched in 2016.

gamerant.com

Because these bastards have tons of hedgefund/legacy money to throw out, the average consumer's opinions/money is just seen as "dirt" while investor influence are seen as the pretty flowers that are more attractive (the irony is, you need dirt to plant the seeds for the flowers).

Basically the large majority of the gaming public's opinion is getting tossed out the window in favor of corpo douchebags who understand nothing about games, don't care how they're made, and don't care if all games play exactly the same, The gaming industry, for whatever reason, wants to be like Hollywood. Literally just celebrating and circle jerking themselves because they "make art." Which is why you see this weird fixation on harwdware specs, multimedia usage, etc. instead of ACTUAL games and the content they want.

100% and as you say "you need dirt to plan the seeds for the flowers", so if demand goes low enough, they will lose investor interest, and eventually the market will collapse.

I am no investor, even i know that the finance is a 0 sum game, meaning if you do not supply to demand, then you are not promoting cash flow.

I just hope they do not f up so badly, that they take down societies, heck Sony japan seem to be fighting back attempting to by from software, but part of me is dreading this, as from held on to older ideals and design methods (fun and engaging story telling), which is why their games are lorded and sell so well. Sony Japan is attempting to buy credibility in my view, and more investor confidence, how much that will mean to their consumer, is any ones guess.

Regarding the "make art" idea from their side, well "art" takes time, effort and needs to communicate to the person consuming it, hence art is relative to the person who experiences is. For them i think "art" is make numbers go up! I would add an f to the start of that word, if that's the case.

So everyone lets press "f" for the games industry!

Sorry for the cringe joke!

 

[antime]

As far as sales go, I really can't find anything concrete but this GR article, and even then they don't give full numbers.

For November, the PS5 Pro accounted for 19% of total PS5 sales in the US, 26% in the UK, and 63% in Japan for the launch week.

There will always be a demand for more/better graphics, and in many cases the Pro means you no longer have to decide between "performance" and "quality".

 

[ExtraWildGames]

For November, the PS5 Pro accounted for 19% of total PS5 sales in the US, 26% in the UK, and 63% in Japan for the launch week.

There will always be a demand for more/better graphics, and in many cases the Pro means you no longer have to decide between "performance" and "quality".

Thanks for the statistics.

 

[Tiviat]

Is it me, or are these execs selling ideas to market to show "innovation" to share holders, as a way to spare investment and tick a box?

I have been feeling for a long time that it is not about the consumer at all, but rather the share holder as an easy out for contractual obligations to them. There is also statements in most of the jobs i have worked under in engineering, medical and gaming (i am a contractor), with all contracts to date stated "you are to do all you can to protect and spur investment in the company and industry". Regardless of waht ever that means to it.

Now imho the consumer is the crop which should be tended to, in terms of spearing investment and buying in to products, but companies keep making bone head decisions like above, which cost performance to look more shinny, like shinny means more then game play and story, which pushes the majority of us away. So, my questions is why if we need to buy the products they are making?

Sorry for ranting and if this is the wrong place for it, but i am seeing this kind of pattern more and more, and it makes me simply not want to invest in current gaming landscape, which is for the most part predatory.

I've been feeling like "some" games are just elaborate pricey tech demos

 

[ExtraWildGames]

I've been feeling like "some" games are just elaborate pricey tech demos

Not only that, but they all play pretty much the damn same. You play 1 hero shooter, you probably played them all. You play 1 GOW/TLOU clone, you played them all. These games are trying to profit off the backs of other successful games with no creativity/unique input from the devs. Just literally copy past inventory, crafting and other unnecessary garbage design trends that have plagued the modern gaming market.

 

[Tiviat]

Not only that, but they all play pretty much the damn same. You play 1 hero shooter, you probably played them all. You play 1 GOW/TLOU clone, you played them all. These games are trying to profit off the backs of other successful games with no creativity/unique input from the devs. Just literally copy past inventory, crafting and other unnecessary garbage design trends that have plagued the modern gaming market.

The reason why they all feel the same, is because MOST games utilize the newest Unreal Engine, with the exception of COD and Battlefront which is being ran on a proprietary in house engine. Even now, all major fighters are ran on the Unreal Engine, which NOT only makes them look similar, but also play the same too. For example, Tekken 6 was the LAST TIME Namco/Bandai made their game engine IN HOUSE(aka from scratch), and with subsequent tekken games, they opted for the UE to help them make their titles. That's when articles noting platform instability started to surface. But, having the engine saves some development time , which helps get the game out the door quicker for money and market sake. But, the overall feeling on the consumer's end sucks, because now its like its a cheap experience. To me, this seems deliberate, if you ask me.

 

[Gr0undP0und]

The reason why they all feel the same, is because MOST games utilize the newest Unreal Engine, with the exception of COD and Battlefront which is being ran on a proprietary in house engine. Even now, all major fighters are ran on the Unreal Engine, which NOT only makes them look similar, but also play the same too. For example, Tekken 6 was the LAST TIME Namco/Bandai made their game engine IN HOUSE(aka from scratch), and with subsequent tekken games, they opted for the UE to help them make their titles. That's when articles noting platform instability started to surface. But, having the engine saves some development time , which helps get the game out the door quicker for money and market sake. But, the overall feeling on the consumer's end sucks, because now its like its a cheap experience. To me, this seems deliberate, if you ask me.

That "quicker" regrading the engine i can accept as long as they higher the invested talent to work on it. As the engine in it self does not make the games always look 100% the same, more who is using it to make said game imho.

People often forget (or ignore not saying you do, but i would like to bring this to the front of the conversation) that the talent pool involved in the game count to what we see, but companies want the same contractors (cheap and often overworked) who are not invested in the game, and just want to "do thier job to move on to the next one" (i am one (engineering not gaming), i know the feeling and some jobs are not worth the investment, tick a box and move one).This is why job posting are looking for recent graduates with 5 years experience..... or a junior engineer / developer with 10....cheap short term labor they can get rid of on a moments notice. Meaning you get the same base product.

The person directing traffic such as directors, writers and designers are no better, in today's industry allot of them not all, but allot are hacks, that just want to finish the game and ship it out the door asap, as the people above (often overpaid blow hards), are putting the pressure on, as they want to show a return of some kind to try and balance the books in some way for the next investor rallying. Another thing that feeds in to this quick and dirty ideal of gaming dev imo is the advent of day one patches / updates, meaning delivering broken games on launch and burning the bridges of your customer base. They need to higher quality people and let them bake, that is all there is to it!

More needs to change, i have had the argument of in house engines (which if talented people where working on it, could produce some amazing stuff with little power, just look at the ps2 days) vs generic off the self solutions (epic, unreal, crystal tools, etc) for years, yes the off the shelf stuff serve a purpose, and get things done sooner, but they also bloat the costs which is usually taken out on the dev and other "easily replaceable staff even though there is a "shortage"" hide and they produce a worse game no one wanted overall.

(Do not get me started on the whole flooding the market to make wages cheaper argument, it is valid but not for this forum. )

And these are only some of the problems plaguing the industry right now imho.

As always, sorry for my bad english.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

The reason why they all feel the same, is because MOST games utilize the newest Unreal Engine, with the exception of COD and Battlefront which is being ran on a proprietary in house engine. Even now, all major fighters are ran on the Unreal Engine, which NOT only makes them look similar, but also play the same too. For example, Tekken 6 was the LAST TIME Namco/Bandai made their game engine IN HOUSE(aka from scratch), and with subsequent tekken games, they opted for the UE to help them make their titles. That's when articles noting platform instability started to surface. But, having the engine saves some development time , which helps get the game out the door quicker for money and market sake. But, the overall feeling on the consumer's end sucks, because now its like its a cheap experience. To me, this seems deliberate, if you ask me.

I mean even with fighting games, they still have a more varied look to them, despite their use of Unreal. KOF XV doesn't look like Tekken 8. Tekken 8 doesn't look like Guilty Gear Strive. Etc. That argument of "UE games all look the same" I can definitely see applied to a lot of modern fantasy and shooter games. But that's also not Unreal's fault, and some of these games aren't even running on Unreal at all. It's more so due to lack of creativity from developers more than anything, rather than an issue with the tool itself.