240°

I've Lost All Hope For Hogwarts Legacy 2

Saad from eXputer: "Despite the success of Hogwarts Legacy, WB's decided to focus on live service and I've lost all hope for a potential sequel."

banger8880d ago

Let's just chalk this game up as a fantastic one-off, and WB can go f******* rot in hell.

Notellin78d ago (Edited 78d ago )

No, David Zaslav and everyone in the WBD executive office is scum and deserves the absolute worst.

DarkZane78d ago

It was actually pretty repetitive. I got bored after a few hours and forced myself to finish.

mudakoshaka78d ago

Thank you! Beautiful facade but no real depth to the game.

-Foxtrot78d ago

I'm hoping with the layout and foundation already done now they can spend their time in the sequel to refine things and give it a lot more depth so things don't feel repetitive.

Profchaos78d ago (Edited 78d ago )

I have no idea how eceutive teams can look at both Hogwarts and suicide squad next to each other and go hey our critical and commercial darling was a fluke suicide squad was the real success they just didn't know it.

Seemingly there's some weird ego involved someone wants to be proven right

--Onilink--77d ago

I mean, not to necessarily give them any kind of credit, because they clearly have some pretty dumb ideas… but the reality of AAA development has meant basically all big publishers have had to look at Live Service games in one way or another to try to cope with increasingly bigger budgets and longer development times.

The 5 years it took to make HL (with no doubt a massive budget) cannot be hard to manage when they are also expected, by gamers AND shareholders, to come up with several quality releases each year, just look at how much complaining (warranted or not) there has been about Sony’s first party release drought (with Sony also going through their own Live Service issues)

I cant really fault them for trying to find a sustainable and profitable live service game or two that helps keep their quarterly and yearly numbers looking good while they would, ideally (and this is where they appear to be going wrong), using that time and money afforded by their live service games, to fund their big non-live service projects.

Espangerish77d ago

For this reason the industry needs to move away from so many 50+ hour long AAA games and focus on high quality but shorter stuff. Obviously they would sell at a reduced price too (don’t want £70 12 hours games) but you know what I mean hopefully!

HarryMasonHerpderp77d ago

They look at charts. One of them is how much money live service games make and the other is how much money single player experiences make. Hogwarts may have sold really well but it's a drop in the ocean when compared to an on going live service game if you manage to get a hit.
Personally I don't understand why so many people dump their money into live service games and I find it super sad that they're so popular. The kids absolutely love them.

Profchaos77d ago

I agree I'm the same I don't understand the appeal I've never wanted to pay for cosmetics I've always felt that should be included in the game but kids love them

Think thats the thing about getting old you aren't garunteed to know why the next gen loves something you hate I guess my parents hated the music I listened to growing up maybe this is the same thing

Ironmike78d ago

I bought thought it was okay first 10 hrs then boy did the repeative gameplay kick in

scorpio_204978d ago

Yep. The castle was so fun. The overworld was just like every other overworld. They should have doubled down on the castle/student stuff.

The game overall was mid.

GhostScholar78d ago

They will realize that live service games die pretty much as soon as they begin and then they’ll stop and we may still get a sequel.

Zhipp78d ago

For sure this is what they're thinking.

DOMination-78d ago

If you strike gold with Live Service, you have guaranteed mega-income for years. If you fluff it, then you just have a single player game. This is the way publishers who don't really care about gaming see it.

I don't agree with it btw - but this is why it is how it is. Publishers see no downside - just up-sides and dollars.

glennhkboy77d ago

PUBG, APEX, MW & numerous mobile games show that IF publisher can make a popular live-service game, they will have a cash cow in their hand. That's why publishers keep trying.

GhostScholar77d ago

Yes, IF it’s popular. Of all live service games, something like 3 percent are “popular”

Kyizen78d ago

If Hogwarts was a live service game you wouldn't need a part 2.

Show all comments (31)
100°

Why is Steam Blocked in Vietnam? Government Shares Reason

Finally, the Vietnamese government has officially responded to Steam being blocked in the country.

Read Full Story >>
spieltimes.com
blacktiger3h ago

AMAZING! Thank You Gabe, stand for freedom of speech!!!!

PRIMORDUS2h ago

VPN to buy games, fuck that if it's allowed or not, or just use a VPN and torrent what you can.

250°

Take-Two CEO Doesn’t Think AI Will Reduce Employment or Dev Costs; “Stupidest Thing” He’s Heard

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.

lodossrage1d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

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.

CS71d 7h ago

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.

Huey_My_D_Long1d 7h ago (Edited 1d 7h ago )

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.

Darkegg1d 6h ago

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.

BlackOni1d 6h ago

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.

Einhander19721d 3h ago (Edited 1d 3h ago )

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.

hombreacabado8h ago

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.

Extermin8or3_7h ago

@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.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 7h ago
Number1TailzFan1d 7h ago

You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time

1Victor1d 6h ago (Edited 1d 6h ago )

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

senorfartcushion1d 5h ago (Edited 1d 5h ago )

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.

porkChop1d 3h ago

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.

neutralgamer19927h ago

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.

Extermin8or3_7h ago

Not reliably they haven't. Coding done by ai is generally abysmal for all but the most generic tasks.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 7h ago
jambola1d 9h ago

Ceo says stupid thing
Part 5837384

Zeref1d 7h ago (Edited 1d 7h ago )

I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.

DarXyde11h ago

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.

romulus231d 7h ago

As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.

RNTody1d 7h ago

Hahaha yeah trust the CEO suit over the actual developers making the games. Good one.

Show all comments (37)
200°

Sony shares big new PS Plus stat, but not the one we want to see

PlayStation Plus has improved the split of PS4 and PS5 players on its priciest tiers, but Sony continues to hide total subscriber numbers.

Read Full Story >>
theloadout.com
mandf3d ago

lol acting like it’s equivalent to ms numbers

Mr Logic3d ago

Uh...They're definitely not equivalent.

"Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers."

"the total number of PS Plus subscribers across all tiers was 47.4 million"

darthv723d ago (Edited 3d ago )

That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN.

bloop3d ago

That's not the "gotcha" you think it is Darth.

darthv723d ago

^^it's not supposed to be bloop.... it's just an interesting observation.

Einhander19722d ago

darthv72

"That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN."

Have you ever heard of a PC before? I hear they are pretty popular.

fr0sty2d ago

MS started lumping gold subscribers in with those GP numbers... keep in mind.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 2d ago
shinoff21833d ago (Edited 3d ago )

What. Definitely more os plus subscribers but that makes sense due to actual console sales

Darth the difference between the bases are huge your right but you gotta think. Ps players buy more games, where as the Xbox base relies on gamepass for their gaming. So it makes perfect sense

darthv723d ago (Edited 3d ago )

What makes perfect sense though? You say PS players buy more games... so then logically there should be more PS+ subscribers given the increased number of online multiplayer games in the PS4 generation alone. The PS4 was the first time that + was required for online play much like Gold was for 360 users.

Keep in mind we are talking subscribers, not simply XB/PS users. I assume you meant to say offline single player games, which is most likely true as well. That gen also saw a significant increase in games with an online component comparted to the previous gen.

victorMaje3d ago

I for one will be going back to essential at the next renewal. When I feel a game is good & right up my alley, I’ll check trusted reviews & just buy it.

jznrpg3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I have the top tier until 2028 as they gave me a massive discount for all the years I had left but I’ll most likely go to essential as well. I buy my games but my kids do use the service occasionally. They do prefer to own their games as well since any game can leave the rental service at some point and they don’t like that idea. They mostly use it to demo games then ask me to buy games if they really like it.

RedDevils2d ago

For me, I will cancel it all together but unfortunately I still have it till 2030 lol

meganick3d ago

I would like to see Sony add a fourth tier of PS Plus for people who just want to be able to play games online without any of the perks like monthly games, store discounts, or anything like that, and it should cost $20 annually, $30 maximum. There’s no way I’m paying $80 just to play games online. Even the original $60 fee was too much, and I would often wait for sales to re-up my subscription.

P_Bomb2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

Essential is too expensive, I agree. We’ve got one Essential and one Premium sub. Dropping the Premium when it expires.

gamerz2d ago

Just let my subscription lapse for the first time since 2010. Will sub again every now and then for a month or so to access my old ps+ games but for me it's the end of an era.

DivineHand1252d ago

Let those numbers continue to drop because it is now too expensive. $80 per year just to play online. I noticed they didn't offer any discounts on the subscription or controllers during this year's days of play for the first time in many years and they will feel it when people choose not to renew.

My subscription will lapse next month and it will stay that way until further notice.

KevtheDuff2d ago

There were savings on subs and controllers here in the UK? I bought a controller yesterday in the sale..
It would be weird if those deals were not in other territories too?