What franchises ought to do - catering to the fans or widening their appeal - is a very divisive subject among gamers. But before the argument even begins, why not at least try to assess whether or not widening a franchise’s appeal actually helps or hinder subsequent sales? Here, we have a look at the data for 5 million selling series.
Many of you who have already played Rise of the Ronin may have noticed some elements of our previous works such as Ninja Gaiden and Nioh from Team Ninja. Today we’re excited to share some of the behind-the-scenes development stories for the first time. Plus we share details on an upcoming game update.
not a good title FPS RUSSIA. should have gone with: "new content added'. ... or something like that
try : 'New and expanded content 5 new Ally Missions added. + Addition of dojo training partners"
They don't make games like this anymore.
Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.
Agreed with those sentiments. The quality of the CPU controlled characters make or break a stealth game and they are pretty poor in all the Splinter Cell games by today's standard. This is what led me to playing Spies vs Mercs all the time in later games just to get a better stealth experience from a real person. Arguably Sony are making better stealth games albeit not Tom Clancy stuff.
You should stick with fortnite or one of the countless bloodborne style games then. What a joke.
I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.
They are making a remake, I think. I loved the original game when it was released, but I tried to play it again in recent years and just couldn't get on with it. The same with the older Hitman games.
Yeah chaos theory still holds up though I gotta say. If you’re a fan of the series I highly suggest you go back to that one. Ubi has said they are remaking sc for “modern audiences”. I don’t have a lot of faith for the future of that company
Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.
Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!
Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnessacery Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games.
Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnecessary Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games, they just weren't 100% focused on stealth with Conviction and they remedied that in Blacklist. The only thing they have released recently that I was disappointed with was Watch Dogs Legion, and Skull & Bones. Everyone seems to be salty about the misleading trailer for the original Watch Dogs and The Division. Which are also, both good games, and actually Watch Dogs seems like it was ahead of its time even with all the trailer drama (having gone back and played recently, can say the game didnt deserve all the flak). Yeah the misleading E3 trailer that had better graphics than release is understandable to a very small degree, when most Teaser Trailers, or Game Demo's only have that portion of the game developed so they use the highest quality assets of w/e they have being showed, or what they are showing was made purely for the showing, allowing for extra polish . As to the gripes about minor game design changes, or cut features upon a games release just goes to show how unknowledgeable most gamers are in terms of how game development works or to even understand what what the hell a WIP, let alone titles still in early development.
Good games from Ubi since 2014 (Year that SC Blacklist Released) include:
Watch Dogs 1 & 2
The Division 1 & 2 (Although I had a hard time getting into The Division 2 at first)
R6 Siege
Ghost Recon Wildlands & Breakpoint
Immortals Fenyx Rising
AC Origins, Odyssey, MIrage (Haven't finished Valhalla games too damn long)
Far Cry Primal, and 5 (6 also has a length issue)
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown
Haven't played a couple of titles those being For Honor (played at launch but didn't honestly give it an actual go), The Crew, R6 Extraction and at the time of writing this xDefiant.
Even if you absolutely hated any of the above titles, they aren't inherently bad games, they're just good, but not always top quality either.
I say give Ubi credit where credit is due, they at least fix games post launch if they start out rough, Breakpoint is an excellent example this and is such an enjoyable experience now compared to it's launch.
Got that retro survival horror bug? Here's Chit Hot's picks for the seven best survival horror games from yesteryear.
Eternal Darkness was way ahead of its time especially for a Nintendo exclusive.
I would love to see a remake or sequel (multiplatform)
4 people love Eternal Darkness.
Quick! Jump on that remake, whoever holds the rights these days.
So there appears to be lots of evidence to suggest that trying to appeal to wider audiences, dumbing down or rebooting a game, doesn't help it and yet its only happening more and more.
Yeah?
Problem is you have to consider franchise momentum. People buy a game based on the next entry and things like reboots can be used to basically reset that short term memory. Look at splinter cell. Conviction pops out and lots of old fans cry and the publisher feels it in their wallet but then what's blacklist but another reboot. People retain optimism and think it might get better. It's a reboot right so it might be better? Not really.
So really it's gonna take another few games before some crafty companies like ubisoft feel the pain of their stupidity. Other companies like crytek felt the pain in reduced sales almost immediately but still show no sign of genuine repentence.
Seriously they're all idiots.
Capcom has actually come out and said that Resident Evil 5 was their best selling game of the series. So there's definitely something to be said for that.
I'm one if the people that jumped onto RE with 4. I had always heard about the game, but never felt it was quite what I was looking for. Then I heard about 4 and gave it a shot, and freaking loved it. It's in my top 5 of all time.
But the reverse would be Mass Effect 2. Let me just say right away, I DONT care for RPGs. It takes something truly special for me to want to play one. The first I played and loved was KOTOR. So since it was Bioware I gave ME a go. I Loved the first one. The story was amazing. Exploration was fun. Combat was good enough. And I spent Hours customizing my weapons and armor to where I wanted it. Then ME2 came out and threw it all out the window. I liked ME2 as a game, but not as a sequel to ME.
"A game that everyone likes."
That's a tall order. Let's try to understand what it means first. For starters this concept would be coming from the developers table. It is more than likely it sources from the demand to make more money. They want to make a game that becomes a hit and sells alot. They are willing to apply this concept to already established franchises as well as new ones.
Realistically, it is near impossible to make everyone happy, although that is the developer's goal. Since we can rationalize that developers want mass appeal to get more money, we can then tie that to sales numbers. If we tie that to sales numbers then we can get an idea of what types of games are selling the most. If we tie the content of the highest selling games and merge that with the content of current franchises then we can start to see where video games are heading.
The biggest selling products seem to involve online, family, and friends. Because of that the main driver to invoke high sales strongly ties in with level of popularity and word of mouth. Now, the question to answer is this: Does a game become popular because it is great or does it become popular because the person who plays it is?
From my experience the best games I have ever played never really amounted to the sales these developers are shooting for. Nor have I ever seen a strong tie between great games and high sales. I do, however, know that popularity plays a really strong role in game sales, regardless of the quality of the video game. I also know that the maturity factor plays a big role. Meaning a mature title is more likely to cut off most of the audience rather than a title meant for "everyone". Why? Well because a title for everyone can still be appealing to older audiences.
I believe the developers are lost and have no clue that the video game industry is no longer about making great games based on their content. It is now a fashion statement these developers are seeking. Just look at the trends. Family, fitness, friends, service, celebraties, convienance, gimmicks, apps, mutlifunctional features, nongaming related features, etc. Anything but video games. And the franchises they got right, they decide to change that too. They will end up losing their core audience and the people they are shooting for. Why? Because those people really aren't into gaming. They are into everything else you don't understand. That's why the industry expanded this much in the first place.