I think a new AA market is on the rise. It's inevitable, honestly. The old players left but there's always demand for solid games in that price/budget range, and new companies are filling the void from both the AAA side (Hellblade) and the indie side (lots of companies are putting out AA-value projects now that the tools are available to them at an affordable price).
It's still a failure with great word of mouth and press at launch.
People were expecting Resident Evil, instead they got a new IP billed as a horror game with very little relation to Resident Evil.
Yes but I also mentioned large companies doing greedy shit, and a few other factors. Where did I make it seem like I was putting all the blame on the consumer?
I think Indie developers are evolving to get those spots and making bigger games. I mean what would you categorize a game like Divinity Original Sin? Lab Zero has a JRPG influenced 2d 40 dollar game on the horizon.
Most companies don't treat most of their employees horribly, dude. There are tens of thousands of people in the industry happily working for major publishers.
I think you're projecting a little bit here. Yes, the game is a different take on Resident Evil, but critically it did great, and tons of people think the game is excellent. Certainly there are fans who feel unserved (just like with 4,5 and 6), but it still sold over 4.1m units in just a single year, compared to RE5 and RE6 which have both sold over 8.2m across their entire lifetimes including rereleases. The notion that it's done badly is a weird one, and it should be noted that just because it's not nailing projected sales expectations does not mean it's not profitable. A similar situation happened with Tomb Raider when it first came out and didn't hit it's 5m goal that Square had set out for, but it had been profitable nonetheless. I think it's clear Capcom just had very high hopes considering we know the budget was under RE6's and they had just come off of RE5 and RE6 which are literally their two best selling titles (single SKU) of all time.
True but not enough. Big companies like EA, Activision and co need to diversify their port folio. That's one thing I like about Ubisoft, give them shit for their tower design but they have a range of games that vary both in terms of budget and genre. Capcom used to be like that during the ps2 era. Look at Rainbow Six Seige, For Honor, Rayman Legend, Mario vs Rabbids etc, those games did not cost 100 millions to make and are yet still profitable. In the meantime, they still have AC that take hundreds or thousands of employees to make. Companies need to adapt also. Yes the consumer has to suck it up and pay part of the bill but not all of it. With micro transactions and loot boxes, companies are expecting to hit the jackpot but it does not always work.
I think a lot of people are unwilling to accept this reality even as it stares them in the face. A lot of gamers talk big about the importance of this, and the importance of that yet in the face of statistical breakdown most of it is rendered null.
Yea I think a big part of the problem is games falling to quickly in value, combined with the fact that theres often signficant improvements in patches months after launch. So if Your willing to wait Your often getting a better Product MUCH cheaper.
100% agreed.
Because it was within their budget range without any funding by a publisher?
Many have also not, like Dishonored 2 and Mankind Divided. It really goes both ways and tbh the majority of the ones that have been sales successes have also been pretty much universally GOTY material. I think it's tougher than ever right now to be a good-but-not-GOTY-caliber AAA single player game.
Exactly, so they can't just *make Overwatch*, that's the point.
No but it proves it is possible.
I think his point was why would a big publisher fund Hellblade when they can make Overwatch?
Sure you will, but how about the majority of gamers out there that isn't you?
