I think the sales are going to be so lopsided towards the PS4, it might as well be.
Since I somehow got spammed by a bunch of twitter notifications from people I don't recognize calling me out because they're hyped for E3 and I'm apparently being a sourpuss, I should note that I'm not saying not to get excited. If you want to be excited, be excited. I'm excited. And I'm not saying companies will literally cease to announce games. Obviously, that's not the case. Obviously every publisher plans to announce new games and most publishers will occasionally try new IPs. Ubisoft is going to launch their open-world-ish RPG-ish swords and dragons type game (I think concept art from that leaked recently, right?)
And I'm not devaluing AAA games just because they're annualized. I play many of the franchises that release annually. I'm not saying that you won't enjoy Sony or Microsoft's conferences, or that they won't announce new IPs at their conferences. I am 100% confident that Sony and MS will announce new titles.
What I'm saying is that there needs to be an adjustment of expectations--the generational jump, the tech leap, the budget jump, these have caused very predictable business outcomes. And that's something to get used to. Of course there will be fewer announcements when it takes 300 people 2.5-3 years to make a game than when it took 25 people 6 months to make a game. And this is going to result in some conferences where you see the same few games you did before.
Square Enix is working on Deus Ex 4, Hitman 6, Tomb Raider 10 or whatever it is now, Final Fantasy 15, Kingdom Hearts 3*, Kingdom Hearts 2 in HD, Sleeping Dogs 2, Just Cause 3,a reboot of Legacy of Kain (6) as a F2P MOBA, they just released Thief 4. And yes, they just released Murdered: Soul Suspect. That kind of thing is becoming much less common. Square Enix cancelled several projects that were supposed to have been of a similar scope (ISTR that that Vampire mobile game they made was a down-shifted console project; Nosgoth was originally single player and multiplayer and got sort of shrunk when they cancelled the single player elements and expanded into what it is now). It is more likely in the future that you will see more games as a service, more sequels, and fewer original titles.
The first reply in the Sega thread is to express incredulity at how thin Sega's lineup is this year. What would you expect? Sega releases Football Manager, Total War, Sonic, and they still have the Alien license. Fewer, bigger releases. More people, fewer games. Four franchises. Outside those, they have a second tier for Warhammer and Company of Heroes, and then some Japanese curiosities like Miku and Yakuza. Don't agree with my characterization? Go to their website right now and look at how they view their output. Look at their financial reports. "We're organizing ourselves around 4 main pillars". I don't think this is going to stop them from announcing an HD update of the PSP Valkyria Chronicles games at some point, of course, but I'm saying I wouldn't expect them to be launching tons of hot new IP. I'd expect them to play it safe in the overall.
Konami has been reduced to PES, Japanese-only Baseball Games, and MGS. More people, fewer games. Why does Ground Zeroes exist? As an expression of this problem; it's so expensive and takes so many resources to make the few franchises that they feel safe putting out to market that they need to find a business model that works. Luckily for Konami they've managed to reinvent themselves making money in mobile/social stuff and running health clubs or whatever they're getting on with, but what I'm saying is that I wouldn't expect Goemon EXCLUSIVE PS4 MEGATON. That's not the industry that exists anymore.
Capcom needed Microsoft's help to launch one of their marquee franchises from last generation; their other major franchise (Lost Planet) from last generation is presumably dead after the pushed-out 3rd installment; and the closest to a third franchise (Dragon's Dogma; itself one of Capcom's most expensive games ever and yet met with middling performance) they built last generation is getting an F2P microtransactions-funded pseudo-spinoff sequel. More people, fewer games. Of their existing franchises, they're clearly having trouble making money on Mega Man, and it's telling that DmC was outsourced because they needed to grow the brand, but the outsourcing didn't work and the brand shrank. Fewer viable games.
How did BioShock Infinite sell millions of copies but still result in the studio closure? Because it had to sell millions more copies. Take 2 doesn't even pretend, they openly sell themselves as a hit-driven company. Max Payne 3 didn't meet expectations. BioShock Infinite clearly didn't meet expectations. The Bureau obviously didn't meet expectations. LA Noire may have but the studio closed down. Civilization is a performer. Rockstar can still launch, but only after long, acrimonious development periods with ultra-high budgets and massive marketing. Borderlands is a hit, which is why you're seeing them trying to get it closer to annualized. Mafia II may have broken even after the unexpected success of Mafia I. Mafia III had a terrible development and has been rebooted with a new developer. I wouldn't place my bets on Mafia IV if it doesn't knock it out of the park.
You can walk through any company and see the impacts of more people, fewer games. Why does Nintendo have droughts in their production pipeline? Why were they forced to uncharacteristically announce games far far away from completion, and even those end up delayed? Why haven't they released more little, quirky titles in the mean time? Because budgets are rising, and it's even harder when your hardware isn't working out because there's a certain baseline of software sales you miss out on.
This isn't a dire warning or anything. I'm not saying the industry is on the verge of collapse. I'm saying you're seeing the natural adaptations companies needed to make to survive. And one of those consequences of those adaptations is that you will get fewer surprises, and you will hear more about the games that do exist and hear about them more often, because marketing is increasingly important.
I replied in the thread not to "spit hot fire" about "the state of the industry", but because some people expressed disappointment that they were hearing about Destiny AGAIN (shades of "Why the hell is everyone talking about Titanfall ughhhh" complaining from last year), and because we're starting to see grumbling about how "Sony ain't got nothing". This is the new normal. Big products will get big promotion, and they will show up everywhere. More games will be delayed. Fewer games will be released. More of what is released will be sequels or annualized titles. If that's something that bothers you, it's time to start looking at other ways you can adapt--indie titles, playing older titles, not being an early adopter, paying a little less attention to games so that the news that does come out seems more exciting, whatever floats your boat.
Just got a mailer on it from the UK PR agency repping Activision.
Square Enix is working on Deus Ex 4, Hitman 6, Tomb Raider 10 or whatever it is now, Final Fantasy 15, Kingdom Hearts 3*, Kingdom Hearts 2 in HD, Sleeping Dogs 2, Just Cause 3,a reboot of Legacy of Kain (6) as a F2P MOBA, they just released Thief 4. And yes, they just released Murdered: Soul Suspect. That kind of thing is becoming much less common. Square Enix cancelled several projects that were supposed to have been of a similar scope (ISTR that that Vampire mobile game they made was a down-shifted console project; Nosgoth was originally single player and multiplayer and got sort of shrunk when they cancelled the single player elements and expanded into what it is now). It is more likely in the future that you will see more games as a service, more sequels, and fewer original titles.
IDK man, an open world, mmo-esque RPG doesn't exactly scream "remaining 360 crowd" to me. Maybe I'm wrong though.
From what I've seen it's only MMO-like at superficial value; there's also a question as to how open-world it is. I get you can join up in public events w/ other players, which has that MMO appearance but it's basically seamless multiplayer w/o the lobby menus. The loot stuff sounds interesting if you like collecting lots of crap, but that's not my cup of tea. I don't think anything's been said about factions, and the story doesn't seem to have an immediate hook or angle to it. Some of the weapons look fun tho.
I'm sure there are factors and game mechanics there to make it a very unique shooter- and it does look fun in the image of just another fun FPS- but I haven't seen anything of them yet. Nothing that's showing the wonders of a $500 million budget.
Maybe in a few days, we can only hope.
Ughhhhhh why are you spending your time on this, Sony? You've already demo'd it and it comes out in a couple months.
Ughhhhhh why are you spending your time on this, Sony? You've already demo'd it and it comes out in a couple months.
Ughhhhhh why are you spending your time on this, Sony? You've already demo'd it and it comes out in a couple months.
Why do you say that? Isnt it more likely that a greater majority of the Xbox playerbase will pick it up?
Hope it's short.
Destiny is Sony's big holiday game, guys. How is it a "waste of time" to demo it?
Because it is going to be freaking massive and because they aren't going to be announcing 7 original new Japan developed IPs and The Last Guardian.
I can't wait until Tuesday so people wake up.
Because it is going to be freaking massive and because they aren't going to be announcing 7 original new Japan developed IPs and The Last Guardian.
I can't wait until Tuesday so people wake up.
How is it their big holiday game if it's on Xbox One, not to mention Xbox 360 and PS3, as well. Yeah, okay, it gets some exclusive tidbits and some DLC earlier. Whoopdee-do. If Sony are really treating this as their holiday ace, especially given that it launches in September, then I'm really worried about their pipeline.
I highly doubt that because so many people I know interested in it are surprised to find out its not just a PS4 game. Activision and Sony partnering for ads and content has pretty much made this game 'seem' exclusive. I haven't seen 1 Xbox link to this game in months, outside of the official Xbox stamp on official materials.Despite Sony pushing hard on Destiny, I think it's gonna end up selling better on Xbox consoles.
Again, you guys need to keep up. Watch Dogs boosted PS4 sales 94% in the UK. That's similar to the bump Titanfall gave to the Bone. There are 7 million PS4's out there. Only a couple million of those were bought for Killzone and inFamous.
Multiplats DO sell systems. Especially when every commercial has "out now for PS4" at the end of it.
Frontrunner for most hyped game to fly under everyone's radar. I don't foresee this game doing too well sales wise.
Watch_Dogs is in a whole different league to Destiny. The science fiction links in Watch_Dogs are the science fiction equivalent of low fantasy. It's way more grounded in reality and more believable and able to be related to by the Average Joe.
Yeah, me too. E3 should be about announcing new and exiting things. It only comes once a year, after all. If you want to give more information about a game we've known about for ages now, there are other ways to do that, partnership or no.
How is it their big holiday game if it's on Xbox One, not to mention Xbox 360 and PS3, as well. Yeah, okay, it gets some exclusive tidbits and some DLC earlier. Whoopdee-do. If Sony are really treating this as their holiday ace, especially given that it launches in September, then I'm really worried about their pipeline.
It's going to be massive? Like Titanfall was going to be massive. Just because Activision is prepared to throw $500 million at it doesn't mean that it's going to be successful. It's an online-focused, science fiction FPRPG. It has absolutely zero chance of being the next big thing.
I do agree with you, though, that there is no way that Sony will announce Japanese IPs or show The Last Guardian. But that's merely a reflection that they might not have anything to show at all.
I think E3 is going to be a massive disappointment all round, to be honest. Feel foolish for taking two days off for it, now.
I see what you did. But you also left out "in the US only" as another qualifier. Would not pass the MS Xbox PR interview.
I assume you base this on bungie being xbox-only for a long time and destiny being a fps?Despite Sony pushing hard on Destiny, I think it's gonna end up selling better on Xbox consoles.
Hope Bungie have had hand training.
Not being grounded in reality sure stopped Star Wars from becoming one of the biggest franchises in history! And it's not like Avatar grossed $3 billion or anything.
Seriously, what are you talking about? Sci-fi has huge mass market appeal.
Because it is going to be freaking massive and because they aren't going to be announcing 7 original new Japan developed IPs and The Last Guardian.
I can't wait until Tuesday so people wake up.
I can't honestly believe you're holding up Star Wars and Avatar as the bastions of sci-fi. In fact, if anything, it proves what I'm saying: they're successful because they're not truly science fiction.
If science fiction had mass market appeal, things like Trekkie wouldn't be a borderline insult.
I say this as someone who is a fan of science fiction. It's still a fairly niche genre and Destiny is certainly trending towards the more alienating side of science fiction.
But whatever, we can go round in circles about this because it hasn't been released yet. But I'm going to go on record that I believe Activision is betting on the wrong horse and that Destiny isn't going to reward a $500 million investment.
It's going to be massive? Like Titanfall was going to be massive. Just because Activision is prepared to throw $500 million at it doesn't mean that it's going to be successful. It's an online-focused, science fiction FPRPG. It has absolutely zero chance of being the next big thing.
Watch_Dogs is in a whole different league to Destiny. The science fiction links in Watch_Dogs are the science fiction equivalent of low fantasy. It's way more grounded in reality and more believable and able to be related to by the Average Joe.
Yeah, me too. E3 should be about announcing new and exiting things. It only comes once a year, after all. If you want to give more information about a game we've known about for ages now, there are other ways to do that, partnership or no.
How is it their big holiday game if it's on Xbox One, not to mention Xbox 360 and PS3, as well. Yeah, okay, it gets some exclusive tidbits and some DLC earlier. Whoopdee-do. If Sony are really treating this as their holiday ace, especially given that it launches in September, then I'm really worried about their pipeline.
It's going to be massive? Like Titanfall was going to be massive. Just because Activision is prepared to throw $500 million at it doesn't mean that it's going to be successful. It's an online-focused, science fiction FPRPG. It has absolutely zero chance of being the next big thing.
I do agree with you, though, that there is no way that Sony will announce Japanese IPs or show The Last Guardian. But that's merely a reflection that they might not have anything to show at all.
I think E3 is going to be a massive disappointment all round, to be honest. Feel foolish for taking two days off for it, now.
I assume you base this on bungie being xbox-only for a long time and destiny being a fps?
What you should keep in mind is that the majority of console owners are not bound to loyalty, unlike fanboys. We don't have to guess actually, since there is an example already available: cod ghosts. Call of duty was played more on x360 throughout last gen and yet it is on ps4. Why? I assume because there are more ps4 owners; new and converts.
Destiny is a new ip where only a small fraction of gamers know that it is being made by the "halo guys". So there is even less reason for it to be more successfull on xbox. That's my take.
Yes, it is going to be massive. It already has record pre-orders for a new IP.
I can't honestly believe you're holding up Star Wars and Avatar as the bastions of sci-fi. In fact, if anything, it proves what I'm saying: they're successful because they're not truly science fiction.
I say this as someone who is a fan of science fiction.
I like you to explain what you mean by "not truly science fiction"?
Anyway Halo is science fiction game and yet it's one of the biggest game franchises. And here's another big science fiction game: Gears of War.
Just got a mailer on it from the UK PR agency repping Activision.
The way it's worded makes me think it's information on release and/or Beta, more than new footage. If they were showing lots of new gameplay and features I would think they'd be hyping that, rather than just "Latest Destiny News".
My bet is at the end of the conference, "Go home, Destiny Beta available now!".
Even if they don't announce a Beta date, I'm still stoked for this game and I'm happy to see some more footage. Just don't make it too long.
This is comedy gold. I know some people were extremely down on Watch_Dogs too but Activision doesn't deal in flops
The way it's worded makes me think it's information on release and/or Beta, more than new footage. If they were showing lots of new gameplay and features I would think they'd be hyping that, rather than just "Latest Destiny News".
My bet is at the end of the conference, "Go home, Destiny Beta available now!".
Even if they don't announce a Beta date, I'm still stoked for this game and I'm happy to see some more footage. Just don't make it too long.
tip: dont wear such tight pantsHope Bungie have had hand training.