Richard Bailey Jr. of The Koalition writes:
When Sony and Microsoft released their latest home consoles at the tail end of 2013, both companies seemed poised and ready to compete with one another for the attention and money of every consumer and gaming enthusiast on the planet. While both sides focused a great deal of their efforts on the development of first-party exclusives, the quick approach of picking up third party timed exclusives served as another way to lure fans in and stifle the competition.
Now that we are in the mist of what is expected to be a phenomenal year of game releases, it’s important to point out that some of these timed exclusives will carry more significance than others. To illustrate this point further, I decided to put together a list on 6 of the most important timed exclusives of 2015.
Despite No Man Sky's rocky launch, Hello Games managed to turn it into one of the best space exploration RPGs out there.
HG could have stopped after making 3-4 updates and the debt would have been paid to those why are crying about paying full price. However, they have continously provided free updates for the last 6-7 years. No other developer in hostory has ever done this and probably never will.
There are many AAA games that disappointed but the devs normally move on or close the studio rather than fix the game.
I hate the whole concept of "comeback story" because at the end of the day it doesn't remove the core issue we had in the first place, that we were lied to, it was disappointing and it launched with bare content to what was promised for years.
Any bad game can have a comeback story if it's supported enough after launch but for me if you launch in a terrible state then you had your chance. I can applaud you for what you've done after but at the end of the day there's not much of a choice since most gamers would blank your next product if you ditched your last game so fast, it's not about repairing the game but spending your time repairing gamers trust before you launch your next product otherwise it would be dead on arrival.
With these stories and the games being updated, the only way is up most of the time so of course it's going to improve the game and feel better over all, getting better and better as time passes. No Mans Sky, Sea of Thieves, Fallout 76 etc but then you have games like Anthem, Suicide Squad, Redfall and The Avengers where the devs just clearly moved on, now if they have another product people won't be as exited for it, I mean hell Guardians of the Galaxy was a great game but because of the Avengers it didn't help its sales since people were obviously still sour at that point.
I still think despite the improvements to games like No Mans Sky and Cyberpunk along with being better now overall the games are still not up there to what was promised and hyped as for years.
If we keep celebrating these “comeback stories” then unfortunately it only strongly supports the concept that these studios / publishers can continue to push half arsed broken products out for the sake of quick sales instead of waiting until they are fully finished. We need to condemn this awful behaviour or sadly we lose all voice and power as consumers.
I feel the same way about Cyberpunk 2077. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm not a fan of comeback stories as well. But No man sky developer was a small indie team compared to CDPR. It's worse when it's coming from a AAA developer
"Any bad game can have a comeback story if it's supported enough after launch"
You make it sound so simple and easy. It's not. After release Hello Games poured countless hours into getting their game closer to what they originally wanted, without charging a penny to anyone. That's not normal.
The reason NMS and HG are held in such high esteem and calling them liars is a weak stance is the amount of work they've put into it, for free. They're not chasing a quick buck, they've dedicated their lives over the last few years to giving their fans the game everyone wanted.
They are liars though...
We are not revising history here, I'm sorry but we're not
They built this game up for years and they launched it knowing full well it wasn't up to scratch to what they originally showed off or hyped it up to be.
"They're not chasing a quick buck, they've dedicated their lives over the last few years to giving their fans the game everyone wanted"
And like I said above most of that comes from the fact that if they had just moved on straight away nobody would have supported their next game. They've washed most of that sour taste away after supporting No Mans Sky so now they are doing a new game which more people feel like they can support and get excited for.
Anyway how can you say "You make it sound so simple and easy. It's not" and then make the point that "Hello Games poured countless hours into getting their game closer to what they originally wanted, without charging a penny to anyone"
This means that if a small team like this can turn a game around then big AAA games like Suicide Squad, Redfall, Anthem and the like should have been able to do it no problem, oh but that's right they didn't want to put the time or effort into it. They can do it but some people just decide not to.
"You make it sound so simple and easy. It's not. After release Hello Games poured countless hours into getting their game closer to what they originally wanted, without charging a penny to anyone. That's not normal."
People paid for the game at launch and got lied to. Now the game is what it SHOULD have been from the start (what people paid for) and we should be happy they aren't charging EXTRA? Its free because people ALREADY paid for the game at launch.
People PAID for what the game is in its current state (what it should have been at launch), not what it was when it released. Charging people AGAIN would result in even more backlash.
"You make it sound so simple and easy. It's not. After release Hello Games poured countless hours into getting their game closer to what they originally wanted, without charging a penny to anyone. That's not normal."
They already charged for the full price game. All of that work is owed because it was already paid for.
Fox ... sure HG made a huge mistake, but they have also done more then any development team that I have seen to fix the problem and go way beyond in supporting the game. And every update has been free, so I don't really get why you are holding on to this grudge.
Whatever happened at launch is in the past. By your logic they could have supported it for a year got it to the project they promised then stopped but they didn't. They're still supporting it to this they, they've released more content post than pretty much any game I can think off. More than most MMOs. They didn't have to go this far but they have and don't have any plans of stopping. All for free too.
Yeah they had a shit launch and they've apologised, learned and more than made up for it. I was pissed off at them at launch, but not petty enough to keep slandering them 7 years later.
You have much bigger studios releasing half assed games and fixing it later or even worse not even bothering.
The DLC costs money. But yeah, people are hanging on to this one longer because of their previous reputation.
And it doesn't change the fact that the game is a boring procedurally generated environment in which your repeat the same actions over and over again with no real purpose. I hate when they say that the game became good.
I really enjoyed it at launch and had every trophy by August 2016.
The experience I had is no longer in the game: It was just me and my ship. It was a survival game and the feeling of loneliness in the universe was pervasive. There was no way to ruin too far from your ship and, in an emergency, you grenaded a hole in the ground to survive.
I miss that aspect, but since then, I love what they've done.
Yep and the way they actually did it where Bahamut destroyed the original FF14 and the realm was “reborn” seals it as the best way to do something like this, lol.
Orbital update drops today, also bringing with it engine improvements and UI refresh.
The support they've given this game only makes me more interested in their next game.
If you're looking for 'must have' PSVR 2 games then look no further. These are the 10 titles every PSVR 2 owner should have in their library.
If you're wanting more PSVR 2 support, you should probably buy all of these games.
Speak with your wallet!
Bit rich to have to buy games you don't want because you want Sony to support the expensive headset they sold us which cost as much as the console it runs on beyond paying third partys to support it.
Seriously in terms of first party we have horizon on day 1 and a gt 7 vr mode.
They seemingly have made little effort to support it beyond paying Capcom to make re games in VR or a second party studio to make firewall which was mismanaged.
I'm a day 1 psvr2 user and the only thing I'm excited for right now is PC support.
I commented recently this bespoke VR game development model we have right now clearly doesn't work
On the one hand I feel like there's been plenty of smaller non-AAA games to play and occupy me as a supplement to my flat screen gaming.
But I agree that Sony has done nothing to elevate this beyond the niche it's in and into the mainstream where it would be economical to create AAA games for it.
Most of these games are worth owning for most people; I own all but 2 of them in fact. So I agree with kevco33. I think you're crazy if you downplay this list quite frankly. Sony can't keep funding software if people don't buy any of it, the ball is squarely in OUR court.
Sony has spent a lot on 3rd party stuff this gen like RE.
Saving up for the headset is my first hurdle. Let alone buying games I don't want lol
People downvoting you for not having enough finances...what a world we live in, haha
@mudako
They feel affronted at the very thought that I don't plunk down 500 immediately lol I have a little over 900 games in my backlog I've been buying games instead of hardware ever since I got my PC and ps5. I just don't know if vr is really for me honestly. Every time I have a couple hundred allocated to video games it makes more sense to buy a bunch of flat games instead of vr ones
I have 9 out of these 10 games. I try to buy all the VR games I like to support the advancement of VR!
I spoke with my wallet after watching the first headset get weak support. Easy pass until Sony earns my money. Feel bad for those who parted with 500 bucks, falling for the hype that Sony was actually gonna support this thing.
I'm trying to decide if it's worth holding onto my psvr 2. I enjoy what it has currently, but it seems unlikely to get anything else. Might be better off just waiting for something with more support if that ever comes.
As a fellow psvr2 owner the question seemingly comes down to do you own a PC.
I think I'm all in I have a habit to hold onto my systems anyhow I still have my psvr1 to hell I still have my NES.
But while it's still worth something yeah you could sell it and if Sony turns the ship around you should be able to buy another one for less than you soldmit for I feel like we won't see any fix for the headset for the next 2 years rumours show that Sony has no current first party VR games in active development after they closed London studios
The whole psvr2 situation has left me feeling a little burnt on PlayStation as a whole to be honest. The first psvr felt experimental but it was supported far more than this superior headset
GT7 surprised me, because I hate racing games, but i poured 100 hours into it way too quickly.
I’m looking forward to the Metro VR game this year, and I hope that WW2 dogfighter game releases eventually.
I have most of them 😅
Waiting for a sale on Synapse and Arizona Sunshine 2.....also Metro coming this year looks great.
Man I almost forgot about The Witness. The biggest game on here is definitely No Man's Sky. Everyone is going to be talking about that when it's released.
No Man's Sky is definitely the most important game on this list as far as indies go. The mainstream title that will also be important is Rise of the Tomb Raider because of all the controversy the game has received since it was announced.
Hellblade, The Witness, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and No Man's Sky
some good looking games on this list
some very cool exclusives on both platforms on that list
Timed exclusives need to stop, they do nothing but fan the console flame wars.
How does a game coming out on system before another really benefit us, the gamers?