What do you all think of Google Stadia? Is it too good to be true? Or is it really the future of this industry?
While it looks very cool (and I do think, with time, it might actually be great) there are a lot of questions that are being unanswered by Google about the platform. Most of the topics they are dodging involve pricing, required internet speeds, and working to not promote toxic content creators. There’s potential for some serious ethical issues with Stadia, and the whole “anyone can use it” mantra seems unrealistic (seeing that not everyone has access to speedy internet).
Hopefully they’ll reveal more about those things this summer, possibly at E3(?).
For years, we’ve been paying the same price for video games: $60. Is that inevitably going to change, though? You bet.
We’ve seen game companies push the boundaries in terms of game prices before—specifically in price decreases. Just recently, Ubisoft released Far Cry New Dawn for $40, and smaller indie games like Celeste release closer to the $20 mark. The idea behind this is that because you aren’t getting as much content as you would from a larger game (and in Far Cry New Dawn’s case, its re-skinned map), you shouldn’t be paying the usual price of $60. That’s great!
But doesn’t that make a much better case for games of massive scale (The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) to raise their prices? Even though it isn’t ideal for us consumers, there is a really fair argument that we’re all making out like bandits for paying a measly $60 for these gigantic experiences.
Put it into the context of movies. When you go see a movie in theaters nowadays, you pay around $17 dollars for a film that lasts from about an hour and a half to two and a half hours. That means in movie world, $60 would only get you about three and a half hours of movie watching time. In game world, that same $60 can get you 100+ hours. See where I’m going with this? (I use this example because film is the closest form of entertainment I could think of at the moment in relation to games.)
Do I *want* the price of games to increase? No. Would it be fair if they did? Probably. Is it going to happen one day, no matter what? I guarantee it.
Microsoft continues to make innovative waves in the industry.
Just recently, rumors began stirring that Microsoft would bring a large portion of the Xbox games library to the Nintendo Switch—now word has gotten out that we may be seeing an Xbox console sans disc drive very soon (possibly by May this year).
Pretty much everyone in the games industry believes that the future of the medium is moving towards streaming and digital-only titles, and if this rumor turns out to be true, it only makes that hypothesis more realistic.
It has to be a weird time to be at EA. The contrast between the success of Apex Legends and the poor reception of Anthem happening at the same time—it makes for an uncomfortable situation.
Why is it that these two service-based games are having such different stories, though?
On the side of Apex Legends, Respawn’s communication with players has been pretty impeccable so far (knock on wood). But it seems like the same can’t be said when it comes to Anthem—it has pretty much just been a mess.
The hype that surrounded Anthem’s release surely matters here—it didn’t have the advantage of having no expectations like Apex on account of their “surprise launch” (it had already been leaked a week before). What players are mad about is that so many promises were made leading up to the launch of Anthem that weren’t made good on. A bar was set that BioWare was never going to reach with this game, and they ultimately let a lot of people down.
The most glaring issue, however, is the multitude of technical issues and bugs that made it into the final game. Long and frequent load screens, enemy AI that didn’t seem to react to the player until the game’s servers caught up, and various matchmaking mishaps took all the joy out of a game that generally had solid moment-to-moment gameplay (when it worked). Some players recently reported that Anthem had bricked their consoles, and many have gotten full refunds for their purchase. Anthem seriously feels half-baked—like it still needs months of work to get to an acceptable state. Did BioWare need more time that EA wasn’t willing to give them? Did these bugs *really* just go by unnoticed until now? The latter is doubtful.
Which leads to another question: Is it just the norm to release unfinished games at this point?
We’ve been seeing this often lately, especially with service-based games like Anthem and Destiny. It makes one wonder if the plan is never to have these games completely realized until well after it gets into the hands of the players, and to fix issues as they come up via additional patches and updates. Big game companies know that people will buy the game with the help of good PR leading to launch—so maybe they feel like they can get away with it? It seems that they can.
Looks like last year’s reporting from Cecilia D’Anastastio has inspired some change within Riot Games. Last year, a Kotaku investigation revealed an extremely toxic workplace culture within Riot that allowed for rampant sexism.
It turns out that the company has now hired a Chief Diversity Officer, Angela Roseboro. Roseboro told The Verge:
“I can’t wait to get started and to do my part to make sure we have a culture that embraces the uniqueness of every Rioter and a community where everyone feels a sense of belonging.”
Riot’s current game plan is outlined in The Verge’s article (reported by Shannon Liao), and a lot of it sounds really positive.
This doesn’t fix things, but it certainly is a move in the right direction. Hopefully, this isn’t just a PR stunt, and Riot Games pushes toward a better future.
Early Impressions of ‘Anthem’ Aren’t Very Positive
Early Anthem impressions are... rough to say the least.
Reports of insufferably long (and frequent) load screens, high-priced cosmetic items, and overall buggy-ness are not boding well for the game, which is getting a full release this Friday.
It’s a real shame because this is going to have an effect on a lot of different people just because Bioware was forced to release a game that obviously still needed some more time in the oven.
1.) Those who paid for the game’s early access option are pretty much eating their money at this point. A week’s worth of bugs and what sounds to be a pretty broken game definitely couldn’t have been worth the extra cash (that they most likely will not get back).
2.) I feel for the devs who spent countless hours crunching on this game that’s being met with shitty impressions just because higher-ups made a bad decision in terms of the game’s release schedule. That cannot feel good when you worked so hard.
This tweet certainly didn’t help the game’s cause from Corporate VP of Microsoft/Xbox Mike Ybarra:
Hitting back at game criticism as “whining” is cringey and, frankly, a bad look.
It’s too bad – a lot of people were looking forward to Anthem. Sadly, I think this one is going to lose a huge base of players after early access and be forgotten instead of revered as one of 2019′s best games as a service (I guess we can leave that to Apex Legends).
Google to (Probably) Announce Their New Gaming Platform
Google is planning to reveal something big – and it’s during GDC.
Hopefully (and most likely) we’ll be getting all the details on what the company has been doing with all the funds it has been pumping into video games. Most would guess that it will be the long-rumored streaming platform that will allow you to stream games from anywhere – including on Chrome.
What has been confirmed is that Google is taking a three-pronged approach to this initiative:
1. The streaming platform.
2. Some sort of hardware.
3. Plans to bring game devs under the Google umbrella through large acquisitions or recruiting.
This could be a huge step in gaming innovation, as cloud-based game streaming is said to be the medium’s not-so-distant future.
I spent a large chunk of this weekend playing through Titanfall 2′s campaign – mostly because Apex Legends got me interested in it and I missed it when it originally released.
Wow. People weren’t joking when they said this game was underpraised. This campaign is easily one of the best FPS shooter campaigns I’ve ever played (and I’m usually not a huge fan of them). The mechanics are amazing, each mission comes with a surprising amount of variety, and I found myself connecting with the game’s characters much more than I thought I would. I also am loving the context it provides for the shared universe surrounding Apex Legends.
I hope that the tentatively continued success of Apex gets Respawn to make a Titanfall 3 (they confirmed that it isn’t currently in development) because I think it really has the potential to skyrocket to Call of Duty popularity levels – a series that is significantly not as good in my opinion.
If you haven’t played Titanfall 2, do it right now. It’s like dirt cheap on PSN.
I love it. Easily my favorite BR game to date. The little things are what make it, and the big things they share with other BRs are the best they’ve been.
Highlights: The legends themselves/abilities, the ping system, gear color-coding, the Spitfire and Peacekeeper.
Lowlights: The Mozambique. lol.
I can’t wait to see the support this game gets moving forward.
Yesterday, at the exact moment Activision Blizzard chief executive officer Bobby Kotick hopped on a quarterly earnings call to inform shareholders that his company had just gone through a “record year,” employees across the publisher of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and more were being brought into conference rooms and informed that they were losing their jobs.
This story is incredibly disturbing.
After a “record year” for Activision Blizzard, the company announced that it would be laying off 800 employees across the publisher. This news comes after months of rumors that the company would be making these cuts, but not many expected the scope of what it would turn into.
Since November, Activision Blizzard employees were hearing from multiple avenues that they may soon be out of a job – with no word from their higher-ups at the company whatsoever. Many feared for their livelihoods from that day on, and now that nightmare has become a reality. Reports say that these layoffs have affected junior, veteran, and contract employees (with the latter reportedly not receiving a severance). For some, a role at Activision Blizzard was a dream job – now they’ve been dropped like they never mattered.
Unfortunately, this treatment of games industry professionals is all too common. Before this, there was the downfall of Telltale games and Dan Houser’s admission of intense crunch hours at Rockstar Games. Now, the industry is reaching a boiling point, and a large percentage of those involved are calling for serious unionization efforts.
Some have pushed back against the idea of the games industry unionizing (mainly those who benefit most from the absence of it), but others are completely gung-ho. While yes, unionizing may not stop companies from laying off employees en masse, it would give them the leverage needed to negotiate for better communication from their employer so they can’t be left in the dark when it comes to these things – and better treatment for when it does happen.
Something to think about very seriously in 2019.
Sidenote: CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, made about $30 million last year, yet this is what’s happening to his company’s employees. Cringe.
Of course, there's also a good chance that the somewhat-disastrous launch of Bethesda's Fallout 76 has helped the Outer Worlds Gain traction.
I think The Outer Worlds may be ramping up to be a really special game. The thought of a smaller RPG experience (somewhere between 15-40 hours) to offset huge games like The Witcher 3 really grabs my interest. I love open world RPGs that take 100+ hours to complete as much as the next guy, but there simply isn’t time to play all of them. The Outer Worlds might be just the thing to popularize these types of games in the future.
Respawn finally unveils what all the leaks have been talking about: a new PS4, Xbox One, and PC game that's available to download now.
Pretty interesting move on Respawn’s part by releasing a free-to-play battle royale game instead of what most people were expecting: Titanfall 3 (which turns out it isn’t even currently in development).
I haven’t played the game yet (downloading now) but from what I have seen it looks like a pretty cool take the battle royale style that has been saturating the game space for some time now. What’s different about Apex Legends is that it also acts as a squad-based hero shooter in which each playable character has specific abilities to experiment with. Also, the game has a pretty remarkable amount of polish.
Excited to see what people think about it later this week!
Metro Exodus becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive has been followed by a busy week of confusing and conflicting statements.
A giant mess indeed.
I’m not sure what influenced this decision but I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that Steam takes such a large percentage of every game sold (around 30%).
The threat of no future PC releases was a little off-base but I don’t think it’s very legitimate or lucrative for the next Metro title. We’ll see how this gets resolved leading up to Metro Exodus’ release next week.
