Absolutely no need to do that tho
They're locked down unless they want to make an entirely different game for someone else. Why subjugate yourself to the whims of randomly losing some of your workforce to cut costs every handful of FY quarters
They're locked down unless they want to make an entirely different game for someone else. Why subjugate yourself to the whims of randomly losing some of your workforce to cut costs every handful of FY quarters
It would change literally every non Helldivers project they try to do
Yep. Most fun I've had with an online multiplayer shooter since Bungie Halo
Sony doesn't pull data out of the ether to base their decisions off of. They have access to far more data than we can imagine. All we can do is draw conclusions from their statements and actions to guess at what that data is telling them
Assuming companies have all the data doesn't work because we see tech companies make uninformed and stupid in hindsight decisions all the time. I think what's happening here is many of us are exaggerating the savvy of a company we just like especially well lol
They're around 100 employee studio. They aren't going to do anything else in any reasonable amount of time. Name one even remotely similar sized studio which has had multiple projects with new IP in the mix after success on this scale.
I mean it's one thing to be wary of consolidation and I'm also against it in general, but it's also a bit disingenuous to say that Arrowhead isn't a very special case in terms of possible acquisition by Sony. Them being owned by Sony would without a doubt bring security and resources to a studio that's bound to work with a Sony IP anyway.
Why are we assuming their next project is going to be Helldivers 3? If anything, HD2 taking so long probably means they wanna do something new next.
No it really isn't a special case, it's the same as every other case if people want to be consistent lol. Their first game, which I have fond memories of, isn't owned by Sony. It really just feels like a case of people picking and choosing which consolidation they want to be against
Yep, i would have skipped it if was full price (usually don't play MP games). I got physical copy for 36 euros few days after launch. Great game.
Sales of Sony's Game & Network Services segment reached a total of 1,097,331 million yen. Of that, PC sales accounted for 54,456 million yen. So them being a platform holder accounted for 1'042'875 million yen of their sales.
Ultimately, Sony has to decide if releasing everything day-and-date doesn't hurt their position as a platform holder. Because that's what still generates most of their sales. Also, not every game will be as huge as Helldivers 2. There is a reason why people call it a surprise hit.
Ultimately, Sony has to decide if releasing everything day-and-date doesn't hurt their position as a platform holder. Because that's what still generates most of their sales. Also, not every game will be as huge as Helldivers 2. There is a reason why people call it a surprise hit.
Watch more Star Trek 😋
Heh, I'm tapping out since we've had this convo before and I need sleep
Pretty sure every dev team is now scared shitless about being acquired now.
Do we know the split? I imagine it's 4-5m on PS5 7-8m on PC. Day one PC power, I think the gap for all their games will shrink
Lmao really!
I was one of them! 😅
This game did probably 10m more than their most ambitious projection 😁
Sony confirmed months ago their GaaS are Day1 on PS5 and PC.
You mean years ago, as far back as 2022 I believe in an interview with Hulst.
Not assuming anything. Their next game isn't going to release in ten years at least, no way around that with a company of that size and with how many years Helldivers 2 will need the support of the whole studio.
Lol all you want, but it's the same case as with Insomniac, Playground and developers like that. Just because these studios have done something else when they were basically a start up doesn't mean it completely changes the case. It's different to acquiring developers that are 100 % third party, multiplatform devs. Arrowhead has been working with Sony for 10 years for god's sake. Doesn't mean they have to be acquired, but being owned by Sony would 100% also help them and it's not like this kind of acquisition consolidates the industry in the same sense or has the same impact as when a multiplatform dev is acquired. Like come on.
I don't think your going to see a new game from Arrowhead for a very long time unless HD2 starts performing super badly. The game is going to require all hands on deck for years if it wants to continue to be a big player in the GAAS space.
They've been working with them for ten years because it took so god damn long to make both HD1 and HD2. That is zero indication that they want to be tied up, although there aren't a whole lot of indie dev owners who wouldn't like a nice fat check lol. We already saw how a major publisher interference almost caused a major hit to Arrowhead's reputation. We'll have to agree to disagree on any of those cases being different or somehow "better" for the industry, especially as it's becoming abundantly clear that being acquired is far from guaranteed safety. Hell we even had an Insomniac game be pubbed by a different publisher last gen. I'm largely indifferent to acquisitions as I think this 3 console industry is already an ultra consolidated hellscape, but I think there is some irony in cheerleading for certain acquisitions while play fighting against industry wide consolidation (not you or the person I quoted but a growing number of this board). It really feels like we're making up rules as we go
Arrowhead is not putting 100 people exclusively on HD2. This isn't Fortnite
Are you? Because you seemed to want to question those that were anti-acquisition before in the Acti/MS threads, whether or not they were being genuine, or if they were just rooting for a team. Or are we seeing why this shit is bad no matter what platforms you prefer?
Considering they are already struggling to release new content and fix all the bugs at the same time, the last thing Arrowhead is probably thinking about is moving people off of HD2 to work on a new project. You don't take 8 years to release a GAAS, and take off a large portion of the developers to work on a new project when your studio is struggling just to maintain the current project.
Take a chill pill lol. I'm not even that personally that against acquisitions, this industry is already far gone in terms of consolidation hence why we have three consoles. I just find it interesting when ppl have double standards regarding them, that's all. Let's stop with the cross thread drama, this isn't Reddit. I don't even have any consoles except Switch atm.
They are likely struggling because not everyone is on the project anymore. There is no doubt some part of Arrowhead that is doing preproduction work for a new title which will go into full production within the next couple years, if it hasn't already. Yes working on a new project is exactly what you do when you spent 8 years on one
People said that?
I knew the game was going to be good even before all the new recruits came pouring in. So glad it exceeded all expectations though. Grats Arrowhead and Sony!
Yeah the double standards is shitty considering we can see Sony and their agreement with Bungie, where they can take over management if the latter underperforms over a period of time. Even when the initial terms were "good", Sony was always going to come out on top with a buyout.
It came up more than a few times.
To think this game was debuted with CG on that severely underwhelming 2023 Showcase.
At least Jim got the last laugh.
At least Jim got the last laugh.
Basically every job opening on their site lists working on the HD2 team, there is very little chance they are working on anything else but HD2 for the foreseeable future. They even say so in the job postings:
This is a live service title in the early stages of post-launch updates and we aim to support the title for many years before you would move onto any upcoming future titles.
Source
Then Arrowhead is making a poor decision, it's clear that a lot of the issues with HD2 is starting to boil to the point of large player frustration with the game which is resulted in folks starting to drop the game. I'm not sure sacrificing HD2 for some new title years and years down the line is a good idea.
I would have never bet on this from marketing.
Super glad for the team and all the people having fun
Super glad for the team and all the people having fun
"Major publisher interference", just... They've been working together for ten years. That partnership made the whole game possible and clearly it has worked out. The whole PSN account integration was announced when the game launched and wasn't some ploy by a major publisher to interfere with the launch. Of course Arrowhead knew about. They had 100% agreed on it with Sony way beforehand. You don't think Sony doesn't have the right to plan on that kind of account integration when they own the IP and have paid for the whole 10 year development? You don't think you wouldn't plan on doing something like that if you were in their shoes? Doesn't mean it was handled well or that PSN is ready for that, but to say that it's just "major publisher interference" is just so damn stupid and ignorant.
It just feels like you have absolutely no grasp how this type of companies work in general, or how this kind of collaboration works. They actually do work together. It's not like some Sony person just pays their bills and they have zero contact on top of that. After ten years of basically having a business relationship that can't work without the other and after delivering a massively successful game because of that, you think it's likely that Arrowhead now wants to pivot to some other publisher entirely?
I don't care whether they get acquired or not. All I'm saying that in this case it definitely has benefits specifically for Arrowhead, and it does make sense. I also know that you will never, ever agree to that regardless of what I'll say, so let's just leave it at that.
It can go either way; they can hope and make the title their entire platform, and probably be on it in perpetuity as a actual sequel will be very risky, which yes, is the fortnite model, or they can plan support it for 1~2 years and then move on to developing the next entry (or even, another game) the same way that something like Splatoon does. There's of course risks involved with both approaches.
Not everything is fortnite and given the well publicised state of development to keep fornite going, nobody should want them to be the standard.
It's what every developer who doesn't want to close does. Sales will drop off eventually anyways and they will need to not be starting fresh on a new project
Not every dev is like Epic who has like a billion streams of revenue
They supported HD1 for nine years and only worked on HD2, and the new release is significantly more successful than the previous.
Wild numbers. It got a lot of buzz at launch. Despite some server issues the early chatter was certainly positive. The PC on day 1 thing also.
First thing I've played on my ps5 in like two years.
First thing I've played on my ps5 in like two years.
They were told to include PSN integration about six months before launch while the game was obviously in development for much longer. Please don't call me stupid and ignorant over such an inconsequential thing and one which you clearly didn't even know about. If the game was in development the entire time with PSN integration then it wouldn't have worked so easily without it. Many third parties work with Sony and continue to develop other games after, they don't all get acquired. You do not need a first party partner to survive as an indie dev. What Arrowhead does next is likely dependent on what they want to work on next
Yes, they were working on HD2 (new title) while supporting HD1 (old title). What exactly is your point?
It may be for more than just live service games, following Totoki's previous statement and these sales figures. Even for a single player game, capturing the zeitgeist (much like Baldur's Gate 3 did, for example) is what everyone needs nowadays, and you can do that much better if you release day and date on PC than if you do it two years later.
Still can't see this happening for tentpole titles judging from what is happening to xbox. Sony is not blind to that fact.