Video Games • Page 32

fun fact: FF16 sold the exact same amount as CO33, thus bringing in about 20% more money due to a higher price, and is considered a huge flop.

 

I am sure this has been addressed in here but do you need to have played the first one?

 

That said, I personally would prefer the next FF to be turn based but let's not pretend it's a magic bullet for success.

 

Yeah, Square has bigger issues than a combat system for their mainline franchise

I don’t even feel like FF17 has started development yet based on how they keep talking about sales lacking of the other FF games

 

I think about this sometimes, not in relation to games but to movies, but I think it's all the same in the end.

Specifically about how some Marvel films lately are flops but still within the highest-grossing films of their year, and how it's all relative to the cost of making the product and the promotion used to sell it, and it makes me wonder what the answer is there.

So with what you just said, I wonder, is Clair considered a success because it was made for less money than Square would dump into a new Final Fantasy? Is that why FF16 is a flop? Like, when you're that high up the totem pole, are you just throwing good money after bad because you're at a level where you're almost expected to?

Like, we laugh about the insane expectations that AAA companies have of their games, and do they have those expectations because they're naive or greedy or do they have them because they've burned money in the investment? How do things work at that level?

 

I’d at least watch a summary video or something, as much as I love it the story is convoluted as hell and 2 just drops you right back in it

 

Some greed and more so opportunity costs certainly play a role, but it is also very expensive to make modern AAA games, to the point where a lot of these expectations aren’t actually insane given the costs. However, one might argue that it is insane to think that enough games do the required numbers to justify the gamble of making one. That of course leads to a larger point: do players expect more from AAA games than the market - meaning players - can sustain? Or do publishers just think they do? A bit of both probably?

EDIT: It’s not just AAA btw. Plenty of non-AAA franchises and individual games that were or would have been viable on pre-HD or even early-HD consoles and pre-Switch handhelds aren’t anymore because of HD development costs (which only have gone up rapidly).

 

PoE2 was pretty fun, still a work in progress. It's insanely complicated as far as character progression if you didn't already know, idk if you played the first one.

I will vouch for The Last Epoch, the big update they had a few months ago was the most fun i've ever had in an ARPG. I highly recommend it.

 

I spent two hours today mostly cutting down trees and making clothing. GOTY.

 

It's probably a bit of both and I think it's both a chicken and the egg argument and a matter of the gaming landscape being fragmented into different audiences.

Like you have some people who still think indie games are just shovelware. And I think companies are always out to get the investment of the casual gamer, the one that will maybe play 4-5 games a year, if that. So I can see how it becomes a competition to have the flashiest, most eye-catching experience.

But then games are also getting more expensive every year and more and more gamers seem to expect lower and lower price points but still get enough game to feel content, and I think with so many conflicting thoughts pushing and pulling, something has to give.

Maybe it already has, what with the constant hemorrhaging of employees from every sector of the industry.

Edit: I may just be conflating a lot of stuff together though. My mind is kind of all over the place.

 

I think that’s all true. Though part of these layoffs are probably due to shortsighted upstaffing during the covid video games boom.

 

Lmao I love this

 

lol What does that do?

 

Lets you continue with the game as if you beat the boss

 

Gold.

 

I really think all games should have that

 

Maybe not that, but I would be all for all games having a story mode offering minimal challenge for people who just want to enjoy the game world with no stress.

 

you might be thinking of Cairn? another climbing game coming out that's coming out in the fall. there's a demo out and I stopped because I think I'm going to love it and did't want to get too far.

 

Maybe that’s it

 

Octopath and bravely default exist, that’s your turn based FF

 

also Metaphor only sold 2 million copies, it's weird people didn't show up for it at all. Wonderful game.

also on Game Pass now iirc.

 

the gulf between one of the highest selling franchises of all time, pokemon, and the next most popular turn based games is kinda insane

 

One of them is designed with children in mind, so I’m sure that has a lot to do with it as well as how culturally ingrained it’s been for so long.

 

Definitely plays a role

 

Same thing why grown ass adults still care more about British wizards than trans rights