Co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot opens up about the importance of staying independent.
Finally, the Vietnamese government has officially responded to Steam being blocked in the country.
VPN to buy games, fuck that if it's allowed or not, or just use a VPN and torrent what you can.
I just cannot believe we haven't had a game from them this generation nearly 4 years in.. crazy!
If the game is crap then yes there will always be negative feedback it comes with the territory. It's called word of mouth or welcome to the internet. Where the truth about a game comes out really fast whether the game is good or crap. If you can't handle the criticism because of a game then why publish the game. Why should people who never criticized or even played the game be punished? Vietnam has some really screwed up laws block Steam because they don't answer us rule. And going on a witch hunt with Steam please. Where's the proof, where's the evidence of this witch hunt. Somebody is butt hurt and has a Vietnamese Karen leading the witch hunt.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think AI will reduce employment or lower development costs, and calls it "stupidest thing" he's ever heard.
They already have AI trained to do coding.......
How he thinks it's stupid is beyond me, Especially since we see it happening in real time.
Company A has 300 employees and lays of 200 to replace them with AI to release the same quality game.
Company B has 300 employees and keeps all 300 but instead uses AI to release a game with dramatically larger scale, scope, complexity, short dev cycle etc.
Company B would release a dramatically better product by using humans + AI and consumers would buy the better game.
I actually agree with this concept.
This is key facet. Its how the AI is used. It's actually is impressive as is and really would make an amazing addition to alot of people in their jobs, not just tech. It also has the potential for businesses to use to lay off large amounts of people, as much as they could to save money on labor. I hope too many companies don't go with the latter. But since usually companies are worried about bottom line over people...we will see some try and hopefully fail. But yeah, if its to help workers like in your company B scenario I'm totally down...Just scared Company A may be too enticing to some ceos and businesses.
Value of AI and value of humans will both be increased with human-AI complex. Each, by themselves, will not be independently better than the other. Whether AI will ever be independent from humans is the fear question of humans, ironically because of our doing. At this stage, most of the doing is because of humans, not because of AI. AI is doing exactly that by our design, until we have failed ourselves with an AI development that went awry. The biggest take is that humans have only ourselves to blame when things become wrong, and we have to decide what is the ultimate goal with AI we want to accomplish. It would take a person with high morals and high ethics to make right of AI. I would not want businessman to decide what AI should do or what capabilities it can have. AI should be in the hands of people with high moral fiber, or those operating on love, kindness, and compassion.
AI is SUPPOSED to be used as a tool, not a replacement. It's designed to do two important things artists can take advantage of immediately.
- Make the ideation/reference imaging process much quicker and easier (basically using it as a google search)
- Make mundane and time consuming tasks faster and easier so more time is spent on creation.
Unfortunately, what many have done is used it as a way to replace rather than supplement.
CS7
In the ideal world yes.
In the real world where companies have shown little desire to innovate and spent every effort to maximize profits the end result will be the same quality games (if were lucky) made by less people and more AI.
Company Real World: Fires 200 people and makes the same game cheaper using AI and the executives get record bonuses.
Edit:
Lets look at history, specifically auto manufacturing.
In the 70's and 80's the auto unions tried to oppose automation of jobs (robots) stating that they would take peoples jobs. And the people in charge who wanted to make more money said the exact same types of things that are being said about AI. But we can look at history and see that countless types of jobs were in fact replaced by automation, that was of course even compounded upon by computers.
The net effect was that the rich got richer less jobs were needed so wages were forced down by competition for the jobs that were left.
that concept works in the initial beginning phase of AI but once AI learns and surpasses the knowledge and coding expertise of even the best human employee than this CEO will no longer need competent humans in that line of work.
@Hue_My£D_Long
Yes but that is a choice then by massively increased productivity and this greater income and wealth and stagnating with similar levels of productivity and output and not creating much wealth. Usually the option that creates wealth prevails because a rising tide raises all ships.
You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time
WARNING WARNING ‼️ SARCASM AHEAD
Sure Strauss and robots didn’t take jobs from car factories.
Edit:Sad thing is he believes it and unfortunately he won’t be replaced for a long time by AI
He doesn't, he's just lying. These people lay people off so they can get bonuses. If AI takes jobs, their bonus goes bigger and the workforce goes smaller.
Because he sees AI as a tool to aid development. He wants to use AI to help make bigger and better games in the same timeframe. Other CEOs want to replace devs with AI to cut costs and make lifeless games faster for a quick buck. Strauss has the right idea, this is how AI should be used. To extend and expand the capabilities of devs.
There will be few companies who will go overboard and try to replace their employees with AI tech. The ones that will make the most money will be the ones that utilize ai, along with their employee talent, to make the best product possible
AI could handle some of the most time consuming processes. To expediate the development, so in return, costing the publisher's last money end time.
Not reliably they haven't. Coding done by ai is generally abysmal for all but the most generic tasks.
I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.
I think you mean candor, not intelligence.
If you take him to mean what he's saying at face value, sure.
I don't. And I think he's clearly lying.
As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.
As PlayStation announces its new strategy to encourage PC users to choose PS5 it is a bitter-sweet moment for PC gamers.
I mean, it's a business based on hardware market. Do we expect them to not even try? It's not like Nintendo doesn't do the same by not putting any games on PC and Microsoft until recently did the same. I don't care what they attempt, as long as they don't abuse the community or lie about their goals/requirements.
Will it work? Not likely. Should we care? No. Let them waste their time, it doesn't affect anything.
let them try ... at the end of the day, we get few extra PC games ... yay ... and also promotes game preservation via PC ... so double yay.
If only Playstation games provided the ease of pc gaming features.
Primary being very few PS games support m/kb.
If only PC games supported controllers more. Main reason I play primarily on console. So many games have shit support on PC. Playing Dark Envoy now, and it's quite frustrating since I have to switch to keyboard during cut scenes just to make sure advancing conversation doesn't also auto-select a decision. Let alone it's quite rough to select between characters and inventory screens are bad bad bad.
Anywho, similar complaints for both I find. But, I 100% agree that both PC and consoles should support both as best as possible.
As someone with a high end PC, I feel like the ease is on PS5. Too many PC games are a troubleshooting nightmare, which few people have the time for when all you want to do is pop in a game & play it.
I just use an Xbox controller on my laptop for everything 😆 .. I haven't used a keyboard / mouse combo for PC gaming since 1996
@Yui_Suzumiya
While I agreed... I also can not agree completely. Many of my PC games from pre-2000s era do not support a controller through non-official means ("non-official" means I can't map KB/M commands to a controller without the need for 3rd party apps). I would prefer not having to download shoddy apps from Joe's Programming Imporium™ just to play ye olde PC games. In those cases I make due with KB/M. Also, game preservation is hit or miss for the same reasons. The official support is spotty. Without 3rd party emulation of old PC games... for newer PCs. It's a big old mess on PC. The real disappointment will be that PS might not ever implement full PS library support in future consoles... but PC gets so much slack when there is very little official support from the major OS developer Microsoft for the same thing.
Adding to the hypocrisy of PC gamers is the fact that MS is locking down Windows OS more and more with each new update to Win 11 never mind each new numbered OS version (same on Android - iOS was always the most restrictive along with Mac OS or OSx). Eventually all PC gamers will need to morph into Linux power users just to enjoy most, but not all, of the stuff they claim they want most from PC as a platform and then they'll be strangled by much poorer and slower driver support while still paying a hefty premium for all their HW. Dual boot will be their future at best which introduces its own set of issues.
I don't think you understand what I mean by the lack of m/kb support on PS.
Over a thousand titles have PS controller support on PC.
Not even 30 titles have m/kb support on PS5.
Once you are done with the single player title, you'll go back to playing your daily shooter/looter/mmo etc which the pc gamer has mastered with their mouse and keyboard.
Why would any pc gamer make the switch?
PC is secondary to PlayStation for them. Mouse and keyboard would affect development. Live service will have it but most single player games aren’t going to have it as PC is not the focus
I didn't miss it. I explained why I, a former PC only gamer, now play primarily on consoles. I don't play MP games, and the games I tend to play are better supported with controllers on console. Let alone some games aren't even supported with controller at all on PC. On console you are guaranteed the best support since it's the primary input. The fact is, PC isn't the best choice for every gamer just like consoles aren't the best choice for every gamer.
If you wanted to only disparage consoles and ignore any benefit of console, cool. But that's not how it is. There is no perfect platform for everyone. It's why we have the hardware market that we have.
Were none of you around in the 90s?
PS already did this and likely I'm not the only PC to PS convert. Even if I were the only person on Earth to see the horrible direction of PC gaming and recognizes the PC platforms failures only got worse (DRM only became more draconian and now phyiscal games are like a myth with GPU manufacturers - not just Nvidia - making mistakes left and right with APIs degrading performance of games more than the aforementioned draconian DRM along with the asinine pricing model that everyone complains about and then prides themselves for pirating games software to save a buck when PC games are already the cheapest and I could go on forever)... PC as a platform their audience by and large and the fragmentation of HW... PC is a whole huge a•• mess! Windows is also the PCs own walled garden that no one wants to admit. Linux is only currently being seen as ok for PC gaming because of Steam OS not Proton or WINE or any of the emulation pathways available (WINE, Proton and all the others I forget the names of are all forms of emulation)... Who games on Mac? PC covers any desktop laptop or otherwise static or portable electronic non-communication device capable of running a wide array of programs users may purchase from basically anywhere... but if you play videogames... you're on Windows or trying to emulate Windows. Also the love of Steam Deck just shows PC Gamers are in a state of complete confusion.
Hardcore PC Gamer: 'I love PC fully maxed out power, can't stand 30FPS, 120FPS or bust at very high/max settings or bust. Console gamers are such peasants on cheap slow HW!'
Steam Deck launches...
Same HC PC Gamer: 'I take my Steam Deck everywhere, its not at all a dealbreaker to play huge PC games at ultra low settings at an intolerable and wobbly 30FPS in resolutions well below 720p! Also, consoles still suck.'
Sounds demented, but we see this all the time here and everywhere and its not just online. I know several PC gamers like this IRL. I was never that kind of PC gamer, but I am a graphics snob. Some of the most impressive games with the best visual presentations were console games. Driveclub is still amongst the most visually spectacular games ever created.
I wish them the best of luck.
But PC players are often a patient bunch, many will even wait for Epic launcher exclusivity to end until a game comes to Steam.
If they didnt buy the console when its games were exclusive, why would they do it now theyre not?
All you need is that one game that'll make a few switch at a time. Like a game a PC player REALLY wants.
It just doesn't work that way though. Plenty of the best games ever made were never available on PC. That didn't make PC gamers buy consoles to play them. This kind of strategy has never worked in the past and it won't work now. It's fine for PS to hold their games back and release on PC later, but to think that will boost console sales is wishful thinking. All this will accomplish is some double dipping, which is obviously good for business.
People aren't going to switch from pc to ps5, why would anyone do that for a game?
Most sony exclusives aren't all that to begin with, and pc has the option to upgrade what they want when they want it. Having access to some ps5 games, gamepass and steam.
Thinking this would happen is naive
I mean if there's 10 million pc gamers out there...getting atleast just 1 million from there is probably a good thing..right?
PC players are not a monolith, I don't know why people keep thinking they speak for the entirety of all PC gamers like they all know each other personally. You think out of the millions of PC gamers not one single person will be impatient?Well Sony is willing to bet there will be. Why would they do it now? People's feelings change and new PC gamers come along all the time that may also feel different about waiting, that's why.
PC gamers are just too patient and loyal to their gaming set ups, something they've spent a lot of money on to perfect. They have backlogs of games which many never get round to finishing or get round to at all and will always have other multiplatform releases to keep them going.
Over the many years Sony has published so many awesome titles such as The Last of Us, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Infamous, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Dreams, Puppeteer, Resistance, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo, Motor Storm, God of War, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne
If none of those games BEFORE all these PC ports convinced a hardcore PC gamer to get a PS5 console then why on Earth would porting them them to PC now make any difference? All PC gamers now know 100% is that they just have to be patient, which they are good at anyway to get a PS5 game 2 years later.
I get GaaS games or multiplayer focused titles but if people really want to play these games they'd have gotten a PS console years ago.
Not sure they're aiming to convince the hardcore PC gamer.
Not sure why people are obsessing over his comment...it seems pretty simple to me.
He will do all he can to entice gamers to move to his ecosystem. As you say....exclusives existing hasn't moved many gamers over. But if they get to try them and love the games then they might change their mind about waiting 2 years.
We're in an echo chamber on this site...I've Personally seen people with Xbox and PC setups but no PlayStation. I've also seen people with small PC setups but no console. Not every pc gamer invests thousands and many may decide to put one in the living room.
They're not looking to convince all of players to buy a PlayStation...just a few...and really it is just a PR statement after all...they have to give a reason why single player won't release day 1....not to mention they also have to ensure current PlayStation gamers don't jump ship to PC. It goes both ways and they're ignoring the big L by putting any of their games off their platform.
it's not just about loyalty or sunk cost, pc is an open platform while consoles are closed platforms. If you for example want to mod, you will play on pc, no question about it. Also if you like indie games, steam is a fucking goldmine for that. I've been playing a lot of indie games over the last years and there just seems to be an endless amount of them on steam. Also not having games locked to a certain fps is a prettty big deal for me and I assume a lot of other pc players.
@Walalon Steam sales are basically the same as PS sales. I was going to buy a Steam Deck and I heard about these Steam sales but the games I was interested in were not any cheaper. Indie games were cheap and older AAA were cheap but the same can be said for PS store sales. I didn’t end up getting the Steam Deck as there weren’t any games that I wanted to play that wasn’t already on PS and prices aren’t much different
And how do you know out of the millions of PC gamers that not one single person ever went ahead and bought a PlayStation console for one or more of those games? People keep speaking for the entirety of millions of PC gamers like they know them all personally. Here's one example for you, I'm currently typing on a recently purchased PC that cost me over twenty five hundred dollars and is more than capable of running any game including Sony exclusives that come to PC and yet I still bought a PS5 so apparently I'm not patient or loyal enough to my set up, hope it's not mad at me for not being loyal.
Some of those people will consider getting a PS5 some wont. I was a PC gamer for a long time and I’m a console only gamer now. Everyone’s different.
Lol. A lot of those games were PS3 games franchises, and a lot of PC gamers picked up a PS, PS2, PS3, and a PS4 for those games. Why wouldn't the same happen for PS5??? Even the biggest PC fanboys admit they have at least one current console. There aren't as many hold-outs as you think there are. I myself got my start playing videogames on PC as a young child. PC quickly became secondary to PS even as most of my favorites were on PC... what I didn't know was that my favorite PC games were PS first-party games. And that is what pulled me more into the PS ecosystem. Now I'm mostly on PS and PC is generally post-secondary to mobile gaming. I don't play a lot of modern phone games, but many of my non-gaas 'ancient' phone games still work on my most recent phone with Android 14. So, I do play more on my phone than on PC these days... it's something else. If you told me in 1994 that I would be a console gamer. By the year 1998, I'd demand you to explain your reasoning. The chronic unchanging issues of PC forced me away and ultimately the user experience of playing and just enjoying games instead of constantly fiddling and no longer having to hope that new software will work properly kept me focused on console. Primarily PS, but I still had some fondness for Nintendo up until 2012. Xbox killed my interest in them with my relatively short experience playing on Xbox 360 for a few months during the PSN outage.
Who cares? Then just stay on PC and play the waiting game. No big deal. Sony wins in the end anyway.
Yup. If the strategy doesnt work, all they have to do is to change their mind, publish the games on PC, and they still win anyway.
If the strategy doesn't work they'll pull their games from PC yet again.
This happened before, in the 90s and yes I'm one of the PC to PS converts and ultimately it was Psygnosis' future WipEout games going to PSP that pushed me over the edge. If PS games on PC continue to underperform PS will pull out of the PC market. They know releasing day and date on PC will only give PS gamers a reason not to buy their HW and this might result in software just not selling especially since some will wait for that game to build their PC around. If that HW is too expensive some gamers will just wait for the price of HW to drop and software will be forgotten. How many times has that happened to you? Well, you forgot about it so...
I mean if there's any single player Sony games that I actually want that aren't on PC then I would buy said console to play them on. But the ones that I like that aren't on PC are few and far between anyway so no loss for me.
If I game, it's usually multiplayer titles, otherwise I like playing around with some other software.
Astro Bot is the game that just did it for me. I'm gonna have to grab a PS5 again for that.
I did this for Ratchet Rift Apart too but ended up selling the PS5 after getting my plat. Rebought it on PC and other than GoW Ragnarok and Horizon FW (which eventually I could get anyway), I haven't had a reason to downgrade my graphics, controller features, ease of recording, and increase my game costs and monthly subscriptions throughout this entire generation.
I play on a TV with a controller but this has been the absolute worst console gen for both consoles. Never in my life thought I'd be a PC gamer but I've been spoiled by the cheap costs, cross-platform controllers and mostly the unbelievably useful Steam controller config.
The only way this would effect me is if they were taken over and scrapped the idea of beyond good and evil 2 and wild. But it's not like they are making and finishing those games to begin with now. He talks about creativity but the same shooting games keep come out of the company over anything else with copy and paste.
When you show images of the game, concept videos of Jade and Peyj, then absolutely nothing for a long time, even a hint of caring about it, then gamers will lose hope and move on. I don't even buy Ubisoft games anymore because of that. Same with EA. Can't get a burnout, road rash or any previous fun games, but we get the same yearly shooters and sports games with no innovation. Don't buy their games anymore either besides the license buy ups.
If they get bought, wouldn't be any different than any developer being bought. It would be just another day in the game industry. If you can't take some profits to finish the smaller franchises or take risks on them, you lose me as a customer because those were the games I played.
Nothing on bgae2 is probably had about 20 operations that been scrapped the team need to stop smelling farts and make your game not make it wait 15 years for it scrapping about 45 million concepts come up with an idea and get it done this has been going on for too long now and we need this came out and about
I wonder what risk Ubisoft is taking to make staying independent even matters.
Finally he recognises that assassins creed can be phenomenal once again now that they have scrapped the stupid annual cycle.
Vivendi pretty much destroyed Sierra when they took them over. When they sold them they were gone within a couple of years.