Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[agris]

Microsoft may exit the gaming business if Game Pass subscribers doesn’t increase enough by 2027.

God willing they will miss their target and shut down all their acquisitions

 

[Tehdagah]

Microsoft may exit the gaming business if Game Pass subscribers doesn’t increase enough by 2027.

God willing they will miss their target and shut down all their acquisitions

But Gamepass is great.

 

[Butter]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

 

[Tehdagah]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I remember Microsoft saying Gamepass is profitable.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I remember Microsoft saying Gamepass is profitable.

With more than 30 million subscribers it can be, yes.

And why would MS leaving gaming collapse the AAA scene? Most games on Game Pass aren't AAA. There's lot of indies and AAs there and GP money is especially attractive to smaller studios. It's the bigger once like Larian that can tell MS to eat a dick.

 

[scytheavatar]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I remember Microsoft saying Gamepass is profitable.

With more than 30 million subscribers it can be, yes.

And why would MS leaving gaming collapse the AAA scene? Most games on Game Pass aren't AAA. There's lot of indies and AAs there and GP money is especially attractive to smaller studios. It's the bigger once like Larian that can tell MS to eat a dick.

Did you not see Spiderman 2 costing 300 million? And one of the slides in the Insomniac leak had someone asking "is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?"

If Microsoft leaves gaming don't expect Sony to hang around for much longer too. The entire console market increasingly does not make sense and AAA gaming makes even less sense. Unless it's a live service game like COD. There are good reasons why Sony tried to invest heavily into live service games despite their history of making The Last of Us type games.

 

[ArchAngel]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I remember Microsoft saying Gamepass is profitable.

With more than 30 million subscribers it can be, yes.

And why would MS leaving gaming collapse the AAA scene? Most games on Game Pass aren't AAA. There's lot of indies and AAs there and GP money is especially attractive to smaller studios. It's the bigger once like Larian that can tell MS to eat a dick.

Well Palworld is on gamepass now so it is saved :D

 

[Lord_Potato]

Did you not see Spiderman 2 costing 300 million? And one of the slides in the Insomniac leak had someone asking "is 3x the investment in [Spider-Man 2] evident to anyone who plays the game?"

If Microsoft leaves gaming don't expect Sony to hang around for much longer too. The entire console market increasingly does not make sense and AAA gaming makes even less sense. Unless it's a live service game like COD. There are good reasons why Sony tried to invest heavily into live service games despite their history of making The Last of Us type games.

Exactly. Sony, CD Projekt, Larian and some other companies are outside Microsoft system, Ubisoft and EA will continue even if Game Pass is done, they even have their own subscription services they need to feed with sporadic AAA. Why would retreat of Microsoft (that really doesn't fund so many AAAs) collapse the AAA market? That's just one actor of many. Sony will still need its system sellers. CD Projekt will still create big, expensive games, with their current plan several at the same time. And so will Ubisoft.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

 

[Butter]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

This is backwards. AAA games don't exist because there's a demand. They exist, and so marketing departments drum up the demand.

 

[Readher]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

This is backwards. AAA games don't exist because there's a demand. They exist, and so marketing departments drum up the demand.

This isn't true. The biggest group of gamers is console casuals that buy a few games per year, and those games are always sports games and/or biggest AAA releases that year. They buy a game because it has "movie-tier" photorealistic graphics and is shilled everywhere, from TV, through city billboards to match stadiums. If you want your game to sell a lot and make loads of money, you need to pander to those people, and thus you need to make AAA games.

The problem is, the quality expectations of AAA have been constantly rising, while developer steadily declined at the same time. This led to a lot of games with AAA budgets but without AAA quality that don't manage to grab the attention of the large casual group and end up underperforming.

 

[Grunker]

I'm not worried about enemy animations at this point, that can get fixed down the line

hopeless optimism

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

This is backwards. AAA games don't exist because there's a demand. They exist, and so marketing departments drum up the demand.

gamerbrain shitwit cope take

 

[Nikanuur]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

This is backwards. AAA games don't exist because there's a demand. They exist, and so marketing departments drum up the demand.

gamerbrain shitwit cope take

Actually, you are not correct, and Butter is to a large degree (or very likely is).
If you only went to see any training for a businessman and minded the first thing on their list, you would also know that their trade isn't about appealing to a demand but instead about creating a need (where there is none initially).
And if my word is not enough (I doubt you will do what I said anyway—I know, I wouldn't), then go see the Wolf of Wall Street movie. It's got many good pointers on what naivity is and how money, or supply'n'demand, actually works. (not saying you are naive; I am saying that in a general sense of the meaning.).
Actually, you know what? Here's the famous gist of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UspZGJ-TrI

 

[AwesomeButton]

The problem is, the quality expectations of AAA have been constantly rising, while developer steadily declined at the same time. This led to a lot of games with AAA budgets but without AAA quality that don't manage to grab the attention of the large casual group and end up underperforming.

It's an inequation where boths sides seek equilibrium. Deliver the optimal volume and quality to get the best profit. If AAA is too good, we'll gradually raise prices and optimize the dev process which will end up reducing the quality, until there is pushback. Then we'll make concessions until we arrive at a good deal again.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Actually, you are not correct, and Butter is to a large degree (or very likely is).
If you only went to see any training for a businessman and minded the first thing on their list, you would also know that their trade isn't about appealing to a demand but instead about creating a need (where there is none initially).
And if my word is not enough (I doubt you will do what I said anyway—I know, I wouldn't), then go see the Wolf of Wall Street movie. It's got many good pointers on what naivity is and how money, or supply'n'demand, actually works. (not saying you are naive; I am saying that in a general sense of the meaning.).
Actually, you know what? Here's the famous gist of it:

It's of no consequence whether demand exists and supply rises to meet it, or if demand is artificially "fostered" beforehand. The demand still exists. Exploiting human nature vs fighting human nature, which would be more successful?

 

[Delterius]

i need to go back in time and kill the first person to ask wether the chicken or the egg came first

 

[lukaszek]

i need to go back in time and kill the first person to ask wether the chicken or the egg came first

interesting problem as you will have to keep going back in time. Find the guy, beat him/persuade to point the finger at source, travel back, repeat.
Quickly language will become a barrier. Eventually species might change(it no longer being about chicken).
You might have to limit this search a bit. Do you focus on english language? Homo sapiens? Chicken? What is a chicken in this context?
What if you find the source but it was local minimum, as in there exists at least 1 point in past when something, somewhere articulated such problem?

Maybe its easier to solve problem at its source - by eliminating the problem in first place: find the egg laid by animal that was not yet the chicken.
But then it might not be that easy as you will change the future and another chicken will emerge, like with crabs?
Maybe lets start from beginning in that fantasy of yours: how does time flow? Can you change past or you just jump to another parallel world? If you stop chicken from being born, how many bloodlines 2 will get released?

 

[Hobknobling]

i need to go back in time and kill the first person to ask wether the chicken or the egg came first

interesting problem as you will have to keep going back in time. Find the guy, beat him/persuade to point the finger at source, travel back, repeat.
Quickly language will become a barrier. Eventually species might change(it no longer being about chicken).
You might have to limit this search a bit. Do you focus on english language? Homo sapiens? Chicken? What is a chicken in this context?
What if you find the source but it was local minimum, as in there exists at least 1 point in past when something, somewhere articulated such problem?

Maybe its easier to solve problem at its source - by eliminating the problem in first place: find the egg laid by animal that was not yet the chicken.
But then it might not be that easy as you will change the future and another chicken will emerge, like with crabs?
Maybe lets start from beginning in that fantasy of yours: how does time flow? Can you change past or you just jump to another parallel world? If you stop chicken from being born, how many bloodlines 2 will get released?

 

[user]

One thing is for sure - if marketing didn't affect demand at all, we would be getting much better products.

 

[AwesomeButton]

When speaking about entertainment specifically, I guess the idea that demand is manufactured is as true as it could be. Entertainment as a service is extremely prone to substitution. If there were no AAA games, watch movies, watch tv shows, read a novel. There are people for whom reading the Bible is all the entertainment they would ever need. Everything else has to be manufactured for them to find they have a need for it.

 

[AwesomeButton]

For my decision-making, I'm trying to answer the question "Is this game showing me anythjng I haven't seen before?" This is in the context of narrative - comprising worldbuilding, story, characters, branching and quest structure. Then in the context of RPG mechanics - combat and non-combat build possibilities, encounter and enemy design. Then exploration.

To use an example - I don't need to play AssCreed Odyssey if I've played Origins. I likely don't even need to play Origins past the point of reaching Alexandria. It simply offers nothing past the 20th or so hour of playing. Similarly, I'm not satisfied with Avowed if having played ToW makes playing Avoid completely redundant.

I understand the desire of corporations to stuff "content" into my brain endlessly, so that I keep paying for more, but it doesn't enrich nor entertain me to watch all the Fast & Furious movies.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

The value of gamepass to corporate isn't the subscription monies its leveraging the subs and IPs into investment products. It's an example of rent seeking and ultimately a race to the bottom. Gamepass will only ever be a dumping ground for garbage. Even first party titles can't be launched there forever, because it's just throwing money away. See also: Disney plus, where first party titles are either removed due to not wanting to pay royalties or aren't launched on the service because it's lost revenue.

The shift in Microsoft to an Indian company also eliminates any romanticism attached to the Xbox brand.

 

[Removal]

Microsoft may exit the gaming business if Game Pass subscribers doesn’t increase enough by 2027.

God willing they will miss their target and shut down all their acquisitions

Given the new round of layoffs, 10% of their gaming division, there's gonna be heads rolling on non-successful products moving into the future

 

[agris]

Gamepass is great precisely because it's costing Microsoft shitloads of money that they won't recoup. Them abandoning the gaming industry will collapse the AAA scene and normies will flock elsewhere. Incline will reign.

I'm sad to say it but this is pipe dreams. Idiots are not going to go away. If there is demand, supply will emerge to satisfy that demand. If it's not Microsoft it will be someone else.

This is backwards. AAA games don't exist because there's a demand. They exist, and so marketing departments drum up the demand.

you're getting torched by the button brigade, but this is exactly how the entertainment industry works. that's the playbook for big movie releases, and why marketing is such a huge part of the budget, they need to create the demand.

 

[Delterius]

you fuckers. its all concomitant. both things exist at the same time and are also interdependent