“Maybe after the Marathon catastrophe they will learn-”, no, they won’t. They didn’t after Concord, this isn’t different.
Because with just one success they pull out, the profits, in their eyes, will be infinite, everlasting even…
Let’s not forget that these guys are mad ludopaths at a fundamental level.
Kinda obvious, I know, but is good to remember.
I wish this was a shower thought but it’s just plain reality for AAA studios.
No matter how many times studios fail and close live service games, players continue to flock to them and dump money on them instead of supporting great indie studios and projects allowing the cycle to continue.
I mean, I understand where you’re going but I don’t remember many people throwing money at Condord, Babylon Fall, Anthem, etc., but the usual ones, Fortnite and the like.
And people ARE playing indie games, especially on PC, it’s just that there are so many coming out every day that it’s overwhelming and it’s more common for them to be unprofitable than becoming the next Hollow Knight.
The point is if they can make the next big thing it is worth the attempt for how much money it makes, and people constantly supporting those kinds of games drives the larger companies to chase the dragon. They will also make some money in the attempt a lot of the time, making them more likely to keep trying.
It is the same with microtransactions. Everyone hates them, yet enough people use them to make it massively profitable.
Be the change you want to see. Instead of making a post complaining about executive decisions, make a post about the great indie games you played recently and get the word out about them.
I think the misunderstanding here is that because there will always be an Overwatch/LoL/WoW/StarCraft/StreetFighter/SuperMarioWorld/PacMan/Pong that exists, and because this event appears in the statistics to be random, the financiers have a confirmation/perception bias that this is something you can force by shotgunning the market with product. A failure to realize that massive blowout successes are not because of random statistics and hidden secret variables in the market, they’re from a mix of unpredictable behaviors that may or may not even occur.
I recently started playing Disney Speedstorm as a fun casual kart game without Nintendo.
The gameplay is fantastic. The music bangs. The netcode is… alright. The game is fun!
But holy crap am I glad I don’t care about cosmetics and characters. This game is printing money on the backs of parent’s credit cards. Assuming everything was unlockable, you’re probably looking at 4-5 figures.
I’d gladly pay $80 for a game of this quality, but this kind of predatory nonsense should be illegal. And until it is, I can understand why companies are drawn to making games like this - it’s an unpatched infinite money glitch.
