Card-Based Marvel's Midnight Suns - Marvel universe card-based tactical RPG from Firaxis

[Grunker]

I think at some point they must have thought they were making the Western Genshin Impact, but then decided they weren't anyway?

That would explain how on earth they thought they could make bank on an ingame currency in a game like this, as well as the overly lengthy companion interactions etc.

 

[Galdred]

I didn't expect it, but there are actually mods for the game:

Most of them are QoL (or anti grind) or costume mods.

 

[Infinitron]

The price of failure: https://www.axios.com/2023/05/31/firaxis-layoffs

Firaxis is latest video game studio hit by layoffs​

Firaxis Games, the video game studio behind Civilization, has laid off about 30 developers, a source familiar with the studio tells Axios.

Driving the news: The layoffs happened yesterday, as studios are cutting roles across the industry.

What they're saying: The cuts were due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities," a rep for Firaxis publisher 2K Games told Axios.

• "The studio remains focused on developing critically acclaimed video games," they also said.

Between the lines: Firaxis' most recent game, December's tactical super-hero combat adventure Marvel's Midnight Suns, reviewed well but sold poorly.

• The CEO of Firaxis' parent company Take Two Interactive, had pinned the weak sales on poor release timing.
• In February, Take Two said it was initiating a $50 million "cost reduction program" that would include some layoffs. (Take Two purchased mobile game maker Zynga last year for nearly $13 billion.)
• That same month, 2K announced that Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon and longtime Firaxis boss Steve Martin were exiting the company, with Heather Hazen promoted into the leadership spot. The studio revealed it was working on a new Civilization game.

The big picture: Despite some slowdown in the past year, the video game industry is projected to grow in 2023 as it approaches $200 billion in worldwide revenue.

• But game companies have made personnel cuts big and small throughout the year, at times citing economic uncertainty or projecting a shift in development priorities.
• In May alone, Sony shut down its Pixelopus studio, CD Projekt RED cut around 30 roles at Molasses Flood and Sega's Relic studio laid off 121 workers.
• That's in addition to hundreds of roles cut at game studios and broader cuts in tech throughout 2023, according to a tally published by Kotaku.

 

[Dickie]

the video game industry is projected to grow in 2023 as it approaches $200 billion in worldwide revenue.

• But game companies have made personnel cuts big and small throughout the year, at times citing economic uncertainty or projecting a shift in development priorities.

It always annoys me when news cites numbers like this. It's so meaningless to say "the video game industry." Just because pay-to-win mobile games are generating $100B in revenue doesn't mean that some companies making real games aren't struggling financially.

 

[Fedora Master]

The price of failure: https://www.axios.com/2023/05/31/firaxis-layoffs

Firaxis is latest video game studio hit by layoffs​

Firaxis Games, the video game studio behind Civilization, has laid off about 30 developers, a source familiar with the studio tells Axios.

Driving the news: The layoffs happened yesterday, as studios are cutting roles across the industry.

What they're saying: The cuts were due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities," a rep for Firaxis publisher 2K Games told Axios.

• "The studio remains focused on developing critically acclaimed video games," they also said.

Between the lines: Firaxis' most recent game, December's tactical super-hero combat adventure Marvel's Midnight Suns, reviewed well but sold poorly.

• The CEO of Firaxis' parent company Take Two Interactive, had pinned the weak sales on poor release timing.
• In February, Take Two said it was initiating a $50 million "cost reduction program" that would include some layoffs. (Take Two purchased mobile game maker Zynga last year for nearly $13 billion.)
• That same month, 2K announced that Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon and longtime Firaxis boss Steve Martin were exiting the company, with Heather Hazen promoted into the leadership spot. The studio revealed it was working on a new Civilization game.

The big picture: Despite some slowdown in the past year, the video game industry is projected to grow in 2023 as it approaches $200 billion in worldwide revenue.

• But game companies have made personnel cuts big and small throughout the year, at times citing economic uncertainty or projecting a shift in development priorities.
• In May alone, Sony shut down its Pixelopus studio, CD Projekt RED cut around 30 roles at Molasses Flood and Sega's Relic studio laid off 121 workers.
• That's in addition to hundreds of roles cut at game studios and broader cuts in tech throughout 2023, according to a tally published by Kotaku.

Are you happy? These people were laid off because of you after all.

 

[J1M]

This new CEO sounds like a bad choice. The only game she was willing to mention on her 14- year industry resume was Bejeweled.

 

[Skorpion]

This new CEO sounds like a bad choice. The only game she was willing to mention on her 14- year industry resume was Bejeweled.

I just saw the name and knew but wow I didnt know it was that bad.
Sounds like she got Candy...Crushed!

 

[Fedora Master]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

 

[Alienman]

They will never sell it or give it up. It will put in limbo again.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

XCOM and Civilization studio Firaxis Games suffers a round of layoffs ​

Part of Take-Two's "cost reduction program"

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Published on June 1, 2023

The widely admired studio behind XCOM and Civilization, Firaxis Games, have undergone a round of layoffs affecting around 30 employees, according to a report from Axios. Publisher 2K Games later confirmed the news and said the job cuts were due to a “sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities."

2K Games also added that Firaxis “remains focused on developing critically acclaimed video games.” That likely includes the next entry in the Civilization series which was recently announced to be in development at the studio, alongside the departure of long-time creative lead Jake Solomon who’s planning to move onto a different genre.

The strategy studio’s last release was Marvel’s Midnight Suns which received a rave reception from critics - our review called it “the best Marvel game yet” - but it struggled commercially, with the company’s CEO pinning the underperformance on a crowded release window.

Despite that underperformance, parent company Take-Two still boasted about their “exponential growth in recent years” back in March, just as they laid off an unspecified number of employees at their publishing label Private Division - the arm responsible for OlliOlli World and The Outer Worlds. At the time, the company said the reductions were necessary “to position the company for another extended period of success.”

Take-Two first hinted at company-wide layoffs in a third-quarter fiscal report where they planned a “cost reduction program expected to yield over $50 million of annual savings” after the company failed to meet revenue forecasts. The cuts at Firaxis are probably a part of that program.

The games and tech industry have seen a barrel of layoffs in recent months, including several job cuts at Microsoft, Relic, EA, Twitch, Riot Games, and many more.

 

[v1c70r14]

Firaxis hasn't put out a decent game since the 2010's started or so, why do people on this forum care about layoffs at the company?

 

[Galdred]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

It's not like IP scavenging has brought much good, though...

 

[negator2vc]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

who care about the IPs?
XCOM and Civ IPs strengths lie on the gameplay mechanics not on the setting which anyone can copy (and already did )
Even X-Com original creator manage for ex. to create an interesting setting without relying on the XCOM IP (despite the flawed execution)

 

[Fedora Master]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

who care about the IPs?
XCOM and Civ IPs strengths lie on the gameplay mechanics not on the setting which anyone can copy (and already did )
Even X-Com original creator manage for ex. to create an interesting setting without relying on the XCOM IP (despite the flawed execution)

Humankind and whatever that Gollop XCOM knockoff was called were both shit

 

[Galdred]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

who care about the IPs?
XCOM and Civ IPs strengths lie on the gameplay mechanics not on the setting which anyone can copy (and already did )
Even X-Com original creator manage for ex. to create an interesting setting without relying on the XCOM IP (despite the flawed execution)

Humankind and whatever that Gollop XCOM knockoff was called were both shit

And having IPs would have changed exactly nothing. This is especially true of Civ, in which there is zero trademarked element you would need the IP for, except for the game name.
Just have a look at Master of Orion or Master of Magic to see what good IP is to 4X...

Even for X-COM, the various clones (Xenonauts, UFO:Aftermath/light/Shock, Extraterrestrials) having the IP would probably have changed very little, apart from the transport being rebranded back to Skyranger.

 

[Fedora Master]

In all seriousness, fuck Firaxis. I hope they burn, so the XCOM and Civ IPs can go to someone else.

(Somewhere, a monkey's paw curls a finger.)

who care about the IPs?
XCOM and Civ IPs strengths lie on the gameplay mechanics not on the setting which anyone can copy (and already did )
Even X-Com original creator manage for ex. to create an interesting setting without relying on the XCOM IP (despite the flawed execution)

Humankind and whatever that Gollop XCOM knockoff was called were both shit

And having IPs would have changed exactly nothing. This is especially true of Civ, in which there is zero trademarked element you would need the IP for, except for the game name.
Just have a look at Master of Orion or Master of Magic to see what good IP is to 4X...

Even for X-COM, the various clones (Xenonauts, UFO:Aftermath/light/Shock, Extraterrestrials) having the IP would probably have changed very little, apart from the transport being rebranded back to Skyranger.

I suppose you're right. Plus at this point other devs would just try to connect to the Firaxis versions anyway instead doing something new.

 

[Galdred]

Anyway, I think the card combat works really well. I'm glad I put mods that replace the needs for harvesting reagents, and to make friendship /Dark/Light increase faster, but even then, inter mission takes quite a lot of time, and having to walk between the card production station, and the card upgrade station is very stupid (as opposed to have either a single XCOM menu, or at the very least, have them on the same production bench).

They didn't joke when they said that they didn't pay any attention to balance. Some heroes (main char, Iron Man, Dr Strange) are way stronger than other (Deadpool , Captain Marvel...), and tanks are useless at higher difficulty : like Captain America can waste one of your 3 card plays to taunt enemies, and die during their turn... The only usable tanks are wolverine (because he can revive for free once) and Magik (because she has an invulnerable legendary, but there is a good chance you won't draw it).

Modding cards also requires a lot of grind. I gave up on trying to reroll mods, and just rolled with usable ones, but you have "choices" like:
+25% attack against enemies targeting you
+25% attack

or :
+15% attack
+25% attack

These sound like a very interesting choice! I would have preferred all choices to be able to shine in some situation at least, but here, it just encourages to reroll over and over.
The combat itself feels like a mix of Trials of Fire and Into the Breach. The environment damage really adds and works well with the theme.

 

[Jaedar]

Bought this since it was on sale, and after 40 minutes I'm seriously considering refunding. You can't skip or speed up combat animations, and skipping dialogue (because I read faster than they speak) seems to skip multiple lines with each click so you either skip all of it or nothing.

Looked around to see if mods could fix it, but mods seem to just be various forms of bonus xp/rewards and new character models.

Am I missing some option somewhere? The tactical gameplay seems fun, but I know I'm going to hate if after 10 hours if there's no way to skip animations.

 

[Fedora Master]

You ate the shit Infinitron dumps on the floor and now you wonder why you're sick of it. Good job, enjoy your goyslop

 

[Vic]

or just slow down and enjoy the animations, it's good for ADD

 

[Galdred]

Bought this since it was on sale, and after 40 minutes I'm seriously considering refunding. You can't skip or speed up combat animations, and skipping dialogue (because I read faster than they speak) seems to skip multiple lines with each click so you either skip all of it or nothing.

Looked around to see if mods could fix it, but mods seem to just be various forms of bonus xp/rewards and new character models.

Am I missing some option somewhere? The tactical gameplay seems fun, but I know I'm going to hate if after 10 hours if there's no way to skip animations.

It kind of stays the same. Animations are not as bad as dialogues because the between missions takes half of the time.

 

[Grunker]

Finally started playing this, and pretty much the collective hivemind is bang on: great combat system with tons of potential, decent progression systems, absolute trash tier secondary content and writing.

It's sad that this was the game to get this combat system. In another game, it could have launched a throng of spin-offs and sequels. Now, it seems destined to die and be forgotten.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I wouldn’t be too surprised if the gameplay comes back in some form given it’s the one thing people seem to be positive on with this game.

 

[Grunker]

I wouldn’t be too surprised if the gameplay comes back in some form given it’s the one thing people seem to be positive on with this game.

Game bombing seems pretty much a guarantee that the money machine will never look at the system again

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yeah, it bombed pretty hard, even causing Jake Solomon quiting both the company and turn based genre.