Game Inbox: Is the video game industry broken?

Bad day
I’m constantly bothered by people who keep referring to the current crisis in gaming as ‘negative’ or implying that it’s a minor or exaggerated problem. It’s not that they’re sticking their heads in the sand but that seems to be a lot in the industry as well.

What have we done so far on Tuesday? Xbox sales continue to decline, Twitch hasn’t made a profit in 10 years and is now fearing layoffs, and Bungie has laid off over 200 people. But there are still people who despise the situation or, more precisely, are indifferent and frustrated that people even discuss it.

I’m afraid we’ve reached a point where the gaming industry is not only broken but the people in charge have no interest in fixing it. Not in terms of returning to the place of the last generation – or even the beginning of this.

What I also find unfortunate is that the release of Switch 2 and GTA 6 next year will cover up a lot of issues and when the smoke clears we will be in a worse position than we are now. now.
MatrixPoint

A predictable disaster
Are we getting the message now that consolidation is not a good idea for the video game industry, or maybe something else? First it was Microsoft and now we have the predictable and long dreaded news of major layoffs at Bungie.

I would say that I don’t know why these companies agreed to the takeover, but it’s very sad: because the executives look like bandits and after that what do they care what happens? Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie and now two years later they are losing 17% of their workforce and cutting jobs. Does anyone think Bungie should stay independent?

The damage is done now, though. Even if Bungie somehow became independent again (which it has done with Microsoft), hundreds of people would have lost their jobs. And Activision Blizzard will not escape, unless Microsoft leaves the game industry – which is already something that cannot be done.

They’re broken though, probably can’t be fixed. And this week’s news suggests that Sony would do the same if they only had the money to do so much damage. Nintendo’s future just looks better by the minute.
Focus

Failure to empathize
When it comes to acquisitions in the game industry, when it’s a low way to grow the company I can’t really complain about the company taking on the risk of investing billions.

Also, when it comes to all the layoffs that have happened in the last two years, I’m sure no one wants that to happen, but every news site seems to agree that the game costs too much and all the costs are staffing, which is what we need. to cut staff.

What I think people can take issue with is what people do when they sell their companies for money. It was never revealed how much Microsoft sold Bungie, nor do we know how much debt it built up since then. But with a head count between 900 and 1,000 when Sony bought them for $3.6billion that is 3.6 million each, and I doubt the debt would have been that high!

Fair enough investment companies just want to make a profit, but there must be some who are gifted with incredible wealth who can share 10% with people who have made money and are now going to lose it. project.
The team

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Copy and paste
I was impressed by how shameless the Palworld developers were. First, the main guy admits he doesn’t like coming up with new ideas and then they complain about ‘soulless’ copycat games. Man! You use AI to remove your creature design from Pokémon! I’d say it’s almost surprising that this game doesn’t reward that kind of attitude.

I also think it’s an indication of just how easy it is to become another rip-off, the game has been successful. If you have something like Marvel Rivals, which is almost a photocopy of Overwatch, all you need is money and a fairly competent programmer and you’re out of it. Of course there have been a lot of layoffs lately, because publishers have started to value creative people even less than usual.
biscuits

Platform partners
After the email from Onibee, I think a side-scrolling platform game would be the best way to marry Mario and Sonic again. I know the two platformers are very different, and I believe they should stay that way. But if each level has a separate but interlocking Mario path and Sonic path, where one character can change, influence or unlock elements for another character it works.

I always prefer Mario but this kind of interaction will help me warm to Sonic.
Ed

Evil reinvented
I’d love to see Resident Evil do so well. It’s going to be my favorite franchise ever, since the PlayStation original. I’m a bit cautious about open world games, because I always feel Resident Evil is best when it’s claustrophobic, but it’s new so I’m all for them to try.

I think that the secret to the success of the series and indeed any long-running franchise: constant reinvention but not forgetting the essence of why people like the game. Resident Evil 4 and 7 were soft reboots but still two of the most successful entries, which I say a lot.

So I say try to open the world and if it doesn’t work, try something else. I’d also like to see some experimentation with spin-offs. Isn’t it turn-based strategy or role-playing? Instead of making all these multiplayer games that you don’t want, I want to go back to the old days of lightgun games and weird portable titles.

It doesn’t have to be anything special, just throw caution to the wind and make something happen. It’s one thing Capcom has always been good at and I urge them to do more.
Lempton

small change
With the recent download discussion in my inbox, I just updated all the games on my Xbox 360 before the store closed, at least each game update is 1, 2 or 3MB! The biggest update is 15MB for GTA 4.

I don’t have Call Of Duty on my Xbox 360 but for all that my downloads are few compared to now. Some games have 480KB updates!
Andrew J.
PS: For those who like Arcane Season 1, like me, they are releasing the physical disc in 4K or standard Blu0ray in October and it is already listed on Amazon UK. I’ll pick up a 4K SteelBook at some point. Looking forward to Season 2 in November on Netflix.

budget constraints
I saw that almost all Star Wars Outlaws previews seemed to agree with GC’s, because they thought the game worked fine but was extremely common. I’m not surprised at this, but it makes me wonder if there could have been anything else, given the amount of money it would cost.

You don’t get avant-garde with a mega budget Star Wars game and that doesn’t mean it’s doomed to be more than okay. You could argue that in terms of gameplay something like The Last Of Us isn’t better, and you might not be wrong,

What sets The Last Of Us apart, and Sony’s other open-world games, is the story and the technicalities that don’t require additional costs. Of course, you need decent actors and facial animation, but the most important thing is that only a few people type the script.

But everything I’ve seen and heard suggests that the Outlaws are also unscrupulous. This should have been pretty obvious since Star Wars and the big difference between the original trilogy and the rest of the movies are the likable and memorable characters. I don’t see a sign in the game.
Famebot

Inbox well-rans
I’m really glad that the follow-up to Thumper doesn’t look too good. I was miffed at first, as to why they would make it VR-only. It still seems like a dumb idea, but it doesn’t matter now.
Robot

How can CeX sell The Crew understand it can not be played because it is only an online game, even in single-player, because the server has been turned off? However, this game is very incompetent sold for he for that reason.
Leigh Dappa

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