Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe. In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design. We will maintain the stunning visuals, authenticity in the Star Wars universe, and focus on bringing a Star Wars story to life. Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.
In their statement about the game, this particular line sticks out:
"It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design."
Translation: This game was a story driven singleplayer game and not a GaaS, so we're shutting Visceral down and are gonna turn it into one if we don't cancel it.
Yeah outside of Sony and Nintendo's 1st party studios, the AAA singleplayer game is largely becoming a thing of the past. Games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2, and Prey have all bombed. I get the feeling The Evil Within 2 isn't doing well either. We'll see how well South Park and Wolfenstein do.
I don't like this direction at all. The only GaaS game I play is Splatoon 2. Looks like I'll be sticking to Sony/Nintendo 1st party games and indies in the future for the most part.
Geez I swear the news "EA bought our studio" is only good for shareholders. By now that has to translate to "update your resume and start looking for a new job".
Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
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Visceral is like the sixth or seventh studio they're closing down in recent memory? Bioware Montreal earlier this year and I believe one or two last year as well. It's like they only exist to ruin the entire industry...
Yeah outside of Sony and Nintendo's 1st party studios, the AAA singleplayer game is largely becoming a thing of the past. Games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2, and Prey have all bombed.
Bethesda has like no service games besides their TCG, they're gonna continue to make the kind of games they do. They can survive pretty well as long as Elder Scrolls does well, and you're forgetting Wolfenstein which will do well for them.
Moreover, Capcom still makes series like Monster Hunter, RE, and DMC — only their fighting games are services. MH might be a bit different from an adventure game, but it's always been a game you can play singleplayer.
Honestly, when was the last time EA or Ubisoft made a singleplayer game that wasn't open world. This isn't anything different from what we've seen the past few years.
Man, I remember the day I rode home from middle school on the bus and reading about Dead Space when it was in its conceptual stages still. I can't believe they were reduced to the studio that made Dead Space 3. I really feel bad for them, and every other company EA owns. I hope they can work together in the future.
Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
Japanese NNID:RyuNiiyamajp
Team Cupcake! 11/15/14
Team Spree! 4/17/19
I'm a Dream Fighter. Perfume is Love, Perfume is Life.
@Ryu_Niiyama@Octane To be fair, Dead Space 2 sold 4mil and that wasn't even break even. Its nuts. 60 million budget, and 4 million doesn't cover it.
But this is the AAA industry now. This is why season passes and DLC and microtransactions are showing up en masse. Even 4 million sellers aren't enough and that was with the hardware and available scope of LAST generation.
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Yeah outside of Sony and Nintendo's 1st party studios, the AAA singleplayer game is largely becoming a thing of the past. Games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2, and Prey have all bombed.
That's cos none of them seemed interesting. There are plenty other single player AAAs that still do well.
GTA and Red Dead, Soulsborne series, FF15, Resident Evil, The Witcher series, Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter in Japan.
Alright, so there's one. But that's still more of a gameplay-only game than a story-focused one. I guess they also do South Park, another comedy RPG. My point still stands, companies like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft don't make classic singleplayer games outside of artsy initiatives like A Way Out. All of their big franchises have been open world for a while now.
So, it's now release day and the status of my GT Sport pre-order with GAME (UK) is still 'unshipped' ..I'm not playing it today am I ..ah well, I've always got Splatoon 2 I guess!
All of their big franchises have been open world for a while now.
My theory is that it's because it's something that's easy to do marketing for. Given that these companies spend millions on advertising, they want games that are easy to attract people to via adverts.
Story games are the hardest to do this with.
The easiest ways of getting attention for a game is to either have the most advanced graphics, to have a really unique gameplay idea, or to have a bigger and more detailed world than anyone else.
Story on the other hand, is hard to demonstrate in a trailer, and also easy to fake in a trailer. Like that Breath of the Wild trailer that made it look like it would be as story heavy as Skyward Sword. That trailer essentially lied about the nature of the game (as opposed to the E3 2016 trailer which depicted the nature of the game completely accurately)
Story on the other hand, is hard to demonstrate in a trailer, and also easy to fake in a trailer. Like that Breath of the Wild trailer that made it look like it would be as story heavy as Skyward Sword. That trailer essentially lied about the nature of the game (as opposed to the E3 2016 trailer which depicted the nature of the game completely accurately)
Yuuuuuup, don't I know it. "Open world" has been a buzz word for years now. Sheep only buy games if they're open world anymore, so even games like Prey have to market themselves as 'open world.' It's a really tragic homogenization of the art form that will only scar this generation (and possibly beyond) in history. There is also a trend that could be called the 'trailerification' of games where games are developed almost for their marketing cycle. They commonly have 2 year+ marketing cycles where every last interesting detail is presented/spoiled well before release. Examples include the old games that made vertical slices for shows like Aliens: Colonial Marines, FFXV, and to some extent Breath of the Wild.
@IceClimbers Yes, open worlds are what they do for almost all singleplayer games while the multiplayer games are done as services.
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