Re: Sony: Blockbuster Games Are "A Death Sentence"

On 19/10/2024 19:20, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Anyway, it's an interesting conversation. What do you think: would the
industry be better served with AAA publishers changing focus, or do
you think they should just stick to the tent-pole games they're famous
for?

I definitely think there's merit in the argument that the bigger publishers need to think about whether only focusing on the best selling triple AAA (or for the really ambitious quadruple A) titles is a wise long term view especially when development costs are only going up and I think it's questionable how much longer gamers will put up with marginal gains for yet another price increase. It also doesn't help that it often feels like your getting the same game just in a different package for which you're paying £70.
Why not start looking at what smaller/mid-sized devs. are doing and put those in the mix. They may not have the high fidelity, polish or scope of their bigger cousins but I still find them fun games. For me there's also the case that with that lower price my expectation is also lowered. So take the Outer Worlds, not the longest of games at 25hrs or so but a fun little romp. Now if that had cost me top prices and not £25 then I'd have been disappointed.
Some will flop, some will do ok and some will do really well. For the last you can then add some DLC and even, shock horror, take some of those new mechanics that made the game a success and use them in bigger budget games.