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Flair posted:In the current climate of the games industry, it is either live service or bust Absolutely this. A game doesn't just have to be profitable, it needs to make up for all the other studio's failures. The announcements always say "Didn't meet sales expectations." From the article (this was just after Hi-Fi Rush released and everyone was raving about it): quote:Xbox reportedly isn't very happy with Hi-Fi Rush's sales numbers, with one insider claiming that it "didn't make the money that it needed to make". Not that it "wasn't profitable," but rather "it just didn't make enough money". I almost wonder if it's actually worse to be a somewhat successful game? Like the CEO perception of a game like Hi-Fi is that "it did well, but why didn't it do better?" As opposed to a absolute flop where the CEOs are like, "Well, at least we get a tax writeoff." It's just a weird juxtaposition when the devs say "this was a breakout success" and then the publisher says "we're shutting you down."
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May 7, 2024 18:32
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strategery posted:Pretty good stuff in there, provided you dont have gamepass and have played them all. Yeah, that's kind of how I was feeling on the Humble Choice: already hit up Like a Dragon and Hi-Fi Rush from GamePass. I suppose I'm a little interested in Steelrising, but...
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May 7, 2024 18:36
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:I think its gonna do well. The people are always gonna be hungry for the next open world skyrim type rpg. They've been trying to pull back from the perceived "Like Skyrim" comparisons. It's gonna be more like "Fantasy Outer Worlds", I think, in that it'll be a tighter smaller more focused/directed kind of game. Not so much the, "Set out in a direction and see what's beyond that hill" style
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May 7, 2024 18:37
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FutureCop posted:Yeah, that's kind of how I was feeling on the Humble Choice: already hit up Like a Dragon and Hi-Fi Rush from GamePass. I suppose I'm a little interested in Steelrising, but... Steelrising is (despite becoming beforehand) Big Lots Lies Of P. Almost the exact same game just not as good.
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May 7, 2024 18:38
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Microsoft leadership heard people complaining about "Having too many good games to play", then delivered the solution. Great job, Phil.
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May 7, 2024 18:40
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Velocity Raptor posted:Not that it "wasn't profitable," but rather "it just didn't make enough money". I am pretty confident that Starfield made profit from hype sales and completely failed at achieving the expected long tail of a Bethesda game. You know what to do, Phil Spencer.
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May 7, 2024 18:45
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Picked up the humble monthly basically just for Steelrising and Mediterranea Inferno, both of those look extremely like my jam - a weird Spiders soulslike set in France? A weird queer short visual novel? Hell yeah!
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May 7, 2024 18:50
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Velocity Raptor posted:I almost wonder if it's actually worse to be a somewhat successful game? Like the CEO perception of a game like Hi-Fi is that "it did well, but why didn't it do better?" As opposed to a absolute flop where the CEOs are like, "Well, at least we get a tax writeoff." It's a question of opportunity cost. If a $10 million investment in a game over three years makes money, that's good. But if it makes less that putting that same money in the stock market over the same amount of time, then it was comparatively a bad investment.
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May 7, 2024 18:55
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Lister posted:It's a question of opportunity cost. If a $10 million investment in a game over three years makes money, that's good. But if it makes less that putting that same money in the stock market over the same amount of time, then it was comparatively a bad investment. It can also just be a symptom of capitalism brain rot, in that you can make Number Go Up in the short term by firing a bunch of people, even if they represent a profitable asset. Investors and upper management love that poo poo, especially when their personal bonuses are tied to certain abstract KPIs. It can even be a legitimately bad move for the company in the medium and long term, they'll still pull the boxing equivalent of sawing off your leg to make weight for a fight
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May 7, 2024 19:04
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Lister posted:It's a question of opportunity cost. If a $10 million investment in a game over three years makes money, that's good. But if it makes less that putting that same money in the stock market over the same amount of time, then it was comparatively a bad investment. and this is why, for all the poo poo Valve gets, I deeply appreciate that they are privately held. Shareholders and ~investment~ is an absolute poison chalice that destroys so many things. Talent has nothing to do with it, skill nothing to do with it, time invested (heh) also has nothing to do with it. On the plus side, that's really just the big time stuff, same with movies. People want to make stuff because they want to make stuff and that's all that's needed. Always fantastic people making fantastic things completely separate from giant corporations.
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May 7, 2024 19:04
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ZearothK posted:gently caress, I am now scared for Obsidian if Avowed doesn't sell megabucks.
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May 7, 2024 19:12
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Velocity Raptor posted:Absolutely this. A game doesn't just have to be profitable, it needs to make up for all the other studio's failures. The announcements always say "Didn't meet sales expectations." Video game publishing has always been a spread betting game. Sometimes huge projects flop, sometimes some one man's seven year passion project sells a bazillion copies. The wins have to overcome the losses - that's not unfair, that's just how literally any industry where you are selling multiple products that are based on whims of the public works. At a very minimum, the win needs to be better than just sticking the development cash in the S&P 500 and watching number go up.
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May 7, 2024 19:39
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human of smells posted:Starfield killed tango. They kill Tango and yet they are STILL making that Perfect Dark AAAA reboot. Sigh.
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May 7, 2024 19:47
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Thanks for the replies. That makes sense that it's about investment in a game vs the market, and marginally better than my previous thought that each game needs to make up for all failures for the publisher. It sucks that it always seems to be the devs of successful games that get shutdown, though that's probably confirmation bias.
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May 7, 2024 19:47
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i think it's clear that piracy doesn't matter at this point since corps can just kill profitable studios Just Because while still making billions of dollars voting with your wallet has never mattered less in 2024 also at this point why buy a console if sony and microsoft are dedicated to reducing their exclusives year after year until all they have left is one all-game. i dont really get their long term strategy
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May 7, 2024 19:58
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profitability and production have come totally untethered from each other, it’s all abstract number-shuffling now as workers desperately try to maintain the illusion that they’re doing meaningful work (because whoever breaks kayfabe gets fired quicker)
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May 7, 2024 20:00
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welp https://twitter.com/JuiceHead33/status/1787860542398300383
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May 7, 2024 20:06
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Jack Trades posted:Even Arx Fatalis still totally holds up and is full of interesting ideas, some of which are still not really used anywhere.
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May 7, 2024 20:07
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Koburn posted:Humble Choice dropped: first Humble Choice I've bought in quite a while. Several games on my wishlist (particularly Mediterranea Inferno), and while I've already played through Hi-Fi Rush, I'm glad to have a copy that isn't tied to a Game Pass subscription. but yeah, that timing is one hell of a coincidence
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May 7, 2024 20:32
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I mean, duh? You generally don't tell a studio, "Hey guys we're gonna close you down in 6 months, so stop what you're doing. Go ahead and sit on your asses and collect paychecks in the mean time"
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May 7, 2024 20:39
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Koburn posted:Humble Choice dropped: Hell yeah!
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May 7, 2024 20:40
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https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256963148/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1692975592 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2278790/Grapple_Dogs_Cosmic_Canines/ playtest this friday. first game missed being my GOTY by half a point
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May 7, 2024 20:43
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boofhead posted:It can also just be a symptom of capitalism brain rot, in that you can make Number Go Up in the short term by firing a bunch of people, even if they represent a profitable asset. Investors and upper management love that poo poo, especially when their personal bonuses are tied to certain abstract KPIs. It can even be a legitimately bad move for the company in the medium and long term, they'll still pull the boxing equivalent of sawing off your leg to make weight for a fight Yep. Average CEO tenure is 2 years, they don't give a poo poo about long term stability or profits. Whatever can be gut in the short term to trigger bonus comp is, and then leadership is off to the next company by the time the impacts of their decision making actually need to be addressed.
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May 7, 2024 20:43
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Question about Hitman: from what I can see no other stores sell Steam keys for the Deluxe edition, but Humble does sell Steam keys for the regular edition. Is there anything I can't get from just buying the DLC individually that requires me to buy the deluxe? It has regional pricing in my store but it's still quite expensive since it isn't on sale. I tried the demo thinking it wouldn't be my type of game and it was tremendously fun.
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May 7, 2024 21:13
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The 7th Guest posted:
There isn't one. Generate maximum value for the shareholders right now is the only thing that matters. What happens next year or 5 years from now is someone else's problem
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May 7, 2024 21:15
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ok I should have bought the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection a long, long time ago it's very good
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May 7, 2024 21:20
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Azran posted:Question about Hitman: from what I can see no other stores sell Steam keys for the Deluxe edition, but Humble does sell Steam keys for the regular edition. Is there anything I can't get from just buying the DLC individually that requires me to buy the deluxe? It has regional pricing in my store but it's still quite expensive since it isn't on sale. I tried the demo thinking it wouldn't be my type of game and it was tremendously fun. From looking at this - and god, IO, you suck - you can buy the deluxe edition DLC on steam separately! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/30335/HITMAN_World_of_Assassination_Deluxe_Pack/ <--- this gets you the deluxe edition dlc So, yes, you can buy it on humble right now without missing out on anything!
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May 7, 2024 21:23
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Harlock posted:I don't see how it makes megabucks when every other company is asking you to spend $60-70 on their game and Microsoft keeps giving it out for free* ($9.99 on PC or $14.99 on Console) for people who have 6 months of gamepass already banked and doesn't bring in new money. yeah 
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May 7, 2024 21:26
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StrixNebulosa posted:ok I should have bought the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection a long, long time ago it's very good It's so good to play a game if I'm wanting to play something but not an actual video game. One day I will understand the Tarot ruleset.
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May 7, 2024 21:29
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Mr E posted:It's so good to play a game if I'm wanting to play something but not an actual video game. One day I will understand the Tarot ruleset. I use Coloring Pixels for this. It's literally just clicking numbered squares with the correct colour selected. It soothes my anxiety like nothing else.
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May 7, 2024 21:33
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It's funny that they renamed Hitman III to Hitman World of Assassination to simplify things and it's still confusing as poo poo.
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May 7, 2024 21:41
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Mr E posted:It's so good to play a game if I'm wanting to play something but not an actual video game. One day I will understand the Tarot ruleset. My trouble with the tarot one is that I've played this variant before and it SUCKS ahhhh. so little input, so much RNG. And yet I want to beat it anyways...
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May 7, 2024 21:51
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Detective No. 27 posted:It's funny that they renamed Hitman III to Hitman World of Assassination to simplify things and it's still confusing as poo poo. Every time I see a Hitman gameplay video I'm like "I should get this" and then every time I see a chart like the one posted upthread breaking down what's in which package the impulse goes away. Barry Convex posted:first Humble Choice I've bought in quite a while. I think it's going to be for me, too! Good deal on LAD and HiFi Rush, plus positive posts about some of the stuff on there I hadn't heard of.
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May 7, 2024 21:56
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Akratic Method posted:Every time I see a Hitman gameplay video I'm like "I should get this" and then every time I see a chart like the one posted upthread breaking down what's in which package the impulse goes away. Drives me insane because it's an incredible game and they're doing their damndest to prevent people from playing it
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May 7, 2024 22:02
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The worse thing is that this is still simpler than how they used to sell Hitman.
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May 7, 2024 22:21
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Akratic Method posted:Every time I see a Hitman gameplay video I'm like "I should get this" and then every time I see a chart like the one posted upthread breaking down what's in which package the impulse goes away.
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May 7, 2024 22:22
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Detective No. 27 posted:It's funny that they renamed Hitman III to Hitman World of Assassination to simplify things and it's still confusing as poo poo. Thank you. As someone not interested in playing Hitman and not really curious enough to ask I always vaguely wondered how this situation came about and this was the missing puzzle piece.
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May 7, 2024 22:34
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Kibayasu posted:Thank you. As someone not interested in playing Hitman and not really curious enough to ask I always vaguely wondered how this situation came about and this was the missing puzzle piece. It’s still worth getting, especially on sale. I’m pretty sure that Hitman World Of Assassination comes with the campaigns for the whole trilogy. There’s a lot of game there. Still, very confusing.
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May 7, 2024 22:46
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Heads up, Destiny 2 is doing a thing where almost all of the expansions will be free to play leading up to the release of the newest one. Probably still not gonna reinstall, but others might want to. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/bungie-continues-recent-streak-of-ws-by-making-most-destiny-2-expansions-free-to-everyone/
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May 7, 2024 22:46
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Mordja posted:Heads up, Destiny 2 is doing a thing where almost all of the expansions will be free to play leading up to the release of the newest one. Probably still not gonna reinstall, but others might want to. 
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May 7, 2024 22:53
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