Square Enix makes some of the best JRPG's in the gaming sphere. But the company itself seems to be at odds with itself in its direction for the future.
Learn about Kaleb Ruel, the newest addition to Skybound Entertainment's executive team. Find out about his experience at Activision Blizzard and the launch of Diablo IV.
With Arkane Austin shutting its doors this week, it's a good time to reflect on one the most innovative roguelike-inspired triple-A experiences of recent years.
I’ve got it, never played it. Prey is a game I really wanted to like and it’s a game I really should have liked, everything about it is right up my street. But I just don’t know what it was but I just couldn’t stick with it.
PlayStation funded Deviation Games had been working on two projects for PC and PS5 prior to being shut down.
We went over this month's ago. Great timing though considering all things going on these last few days.
Shts cute
This is the Microsoft defense force. They can't spin the current bad press in any coherent way, so all they can do is normalise the idea of studio shutdowns so that what Microsoft is doing seems completely normal as opposed to shambolic and a direct effect of bad decisions for the gaming industry. But hey, it's a cute attempt indeed.
Wake me up when Sony axes Housemarque after Returnal.
Then we'll talk.
If you don't know your facts, Tacoboto, maybe don't stand up to the podium. Deviation Games closing is a story from MONTHS ago:
https://www.ign.com/article...
All this article is, is some little clarity on what they were working on.
Lay offs happen. Games fail. Shutdowns happen. They're sad. But it's life. Even Naughty Dog endured it with The Last of Us Online. It hardly points to an industry collapse. The industry isn't imploding, it's going through a transitional period where big brand publishers are facing the reality that bloated budgets, GAAS, five different subscription services, unrealistic sales expectations and budgets, gamers playing habits, poor quality and incomplete games, mismanagement of studios and excessively delayed development times etc. are real problems affecting triple A development. If the industry was imploding, we'd be hearing that God of War Ragnarok was the best selling game in PlayStation history but it's a commercial failure and the studio needs to be downsized. We'd be hearing that Forza didn't turn a profit. That Nintendo can't sustain new Marios and Zeldas. That game and console sales are at record lows.
Deviation Games closing, for whatever reasons they did, is NOT the same as the utterly abnormal and shambolic situation of Hi Fi Rush, where the game and its studio were a massive success but were closed as a casualty of Microsoft's acquisitions and the need to recoup those costs and cease risky investment in new IP or niche studios that don't sell millions.
My cynicism at this story is because there is an emerging opinion like yours that the industry is falling apart, and it's going to lead to the terrible opinion that games need to be more expensive or have more monetisation options to be sustainable.
Yet, who are the ones responsible? The losers like Microsoft, Warner Bros, EA etc. But because lay offs are happening we feel the need to lump all in the same basket and call a crisis. Gaming has been growing for a very long time, but it cannot grow indefinitely, the market is at a point where it's adapting to new trends like mobile and handheld gaming making a return and subscription services and consumer buying habits changing.
Yet publishers still make Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, watch it burn and fail and then say sales are "disappointing" and triple A games are unsustainable.
the desperation of making your favorite company look better by comparing it to garbage, if that's what keeps you asleep at night, good for you, doesn't change the fact that Sony also axes studios. Every negative thing Sony does gets swept under the rug cause boogieman xbox and it's pathetic. Everytime the sony camp says: we don't want gamepass it's bad for the industry because we wanna pay more, but when Sony shuts down a studio, which is also detrimental to the gaming industry, it's all cool.
@Michiel1989 Um, yes Sony does? What's your point? They're a large corporate business and not our best pals. Take Days Gone. It sold five or so million copies, but it took six years to make and had mixed critical reception and Sony wasn't confident that a sequel was worth the investment. I EXPECT decisions like this in business. But you also have to respect that Sony funds and supports games like Days Gone and Dreams or Death Stranding or Ghosts of Tsushima or Helldivers 2 in this era, and invests in risky new IP.
If you've been alive for longer than five minutes you'd have seen Sony come under fire for Stellar Blade's backtracking on censorship, the Helldivers 2 fiasco, the silence on their first party studios. Their practices get attacked, but they have a loyal fanbase because they DELIVER WHAT THE FANBASE WANTS. Which is quality new games, passionate creativity and console innovations each generation. They haven't done this for a couple of months, they've done this for over 20 years since the PS1 era. Take Nintendo. People constantly criticise their practices, but they know their audience so well and cater to them in the gaming space and with innovative consoles.
But the issue I have is lumping ordinary business happenings like studio departures, or studio closures or layoffs, with the astronomically different scenarios of Hi Fi Rush, which is the death of a great studio that made an awesome game for no other reason than Microsoft's hubris and Game Pass canabalising sales, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, where Warner Bros and Rocksteady did everything in their power to destroy their own success and bloat the development time and disrespect their fans, and then cried that the game didn't sell. I'm sure Rocksteady will have layoffs now.
Shutting down a studio isn't detrimental to the industry on its own. Context matters. Sometimes it's necessary because at the end of the day making money is essential if we want to keep enjoying our hobby. I will have a big problem if Sony shut down Sucker Punch after Ghosts of Tsushima, or declared Spider-Man 2 a commercial failure despite being the best selling PlayStation game in history, or any of the other hyper alarming things that point to terrible management and anti-industry.
Let's be clear here. If Sony was like Microsoft or Warner Bros, I'd have ditched them ages ago and kept to my gaming PC. And yet, Sony delivers the games I want. So why shouldn't I support their developers?
The industry is imploding and you people are obsessing over everything revolving around Microsoft.
Microsoft spent like 100bn on studios and all that proved is that the industry will *never* revolve around them.
Stop your obsession. Xbox is falling apart. EA is ushering in AI. Sony is restricting game sales to a few dozen countries. Square can't manage poop going down a clockwise toilet. Switch 2 is as close today as it was in 2020.
There are bigger things to worry about than "How can I spin this to be about Microsoft?" especially when now you're deflecting the first place platform maker's problems to still be related to those of a platform that hasn't been relevant in a positive light since 2021.
sh*ts so bad at MS the paid shill had to dug up old news just to find something to distract people lmao
Sony shutting down studios whilst being profitable? An outrage!
Funny how the rules only apply to one on this site...
They’re a former shell of their innovative and risk-taking selves. After Sakaguchi left, the culture started a decline and then [current] stagnation. People like the Xenogears creators and Yasumi Matsuno brought flair and novelty. Now, they either rehash their old masterpieces or just put out bland crap. Talent is more important.
Too much focus on their own game engine, which apparently doesn't work, and projects like FF13. The first version of 14.
Their older stuff I would drool over back when these days I like a couple of their games. I hated what they did to ff7remake as far as the actionness of it. Dq11 was dope and has by far and large taken over as my favorite square rpg. Used to be ff for years. I really liked star ocean 6, but it's been an action rpg from the beginning.
Far as ff16 I'm personally not looking forward to it myself. Just doesn't grab me the way the older do and did. Way to westernized imo. Then add in the dmc people. Nah. In the end I'll play it to atleast try it but it'll be 25 30 dollar mark. Maybe I'll change my mind but idk on this one.
I have liked I am setsuna, lost sphear, dq11, star ocean 6, and I'm sure a couple others. I'm just more looking forward to dq12 then I am ff16 by a Longshot.
Selling exclusivity to the highest bidder
Next stop for Square? Pachinko machines.