Forum - View topicThis Week in Games - Unfinished Business
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belvadeer
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Internal game company politics can be just as nasty as government politics. It is sad when a game people are hopeful for gets canceled for any given reason, but game companies have their own turmoils to deal with, just like any other business, and those sorts of things tend to turn messy. It's why so many potential projects in the past only managed to barely exist as surface concepts until they were shut down completely, despite the only assets that were created were simply sketches or a short trailer showcasing the game in development.
It's a case of "what could have been" and rarely does another company step in to scoop up those few existing assets and produce a final product of their own. To use an example in anime, Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon almost didn't happen because the production couldn't agree on how the story should go and on who would best handle directing it. If they hadn't persisted with calling someone else to take the place of each previous director, they might have outright cancelled it, and that was back in the 80s. With how much it costs to produce one episode of a show or even an hour's worth of game content, they can't afford to toss projects around like a game of hot potato. It's either do it or dunk it. As for games I'm staying toasty with while California is getting waterlogged with all this continuous rain, Tales of Vesperia Definitive is the main attraction until Kingdom Hearts III comes out on the 29th. Of course, when it is released, I'm still going to alternate between the two. That's just how I like it. : D Last edited by belvadeer on Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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AiddonValentine
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-Star Wars: Yeah, putting aside quality, it is baffling how EA has only gotten out TWO Star Wars games since it got the license for the franchise. What the hell? This is one of the biggest names on the planet and they can't get games out for it? Where's the new Jedi Knight or Rogue Squadron? They should have gotten those out solely on name recognition. At the very least it seems like there are some serious management issues that EA needs to sort out.
-Bungie: Okay, how did Bungie convince Activision to part ways with the IP? I suspect someone knows where Bobby Kotick hid the bodies. That aside, Activision has a scummy track record so it's probably for the best Bungie got away from them. Can Blizzard split from them now? Please? -Dragon Ball: Okay, new action rpg is a neat idea. Also, for DB FighterZ Season 2 they better put in Kale and Caulifla. The DLC for FighterZ was actually pretty lackluster |
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Greed1914
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My guess is that Bungie's contract with Activision included that Destiny was theirs if the partnership ended, most likely with some sort of buyout. I don't think it is a coincidence that it happened at a time when Activision is trying to get dev teams to crank out more games at less cost. Bungie possibly offering to pay and take what Activision considered an underperformer with them might not have been a bad offer. Sadly, the situation is very different for Blizzard. The company is actually Activision/Blizzard, as in they're stuck together. Bungie was only ever partnered with Activision and remained its own entity, which was probably a move done out of caution since Bungie left Microsoft not long before, but had to leave Halo behind. |
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BadNewsBlues
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And then what? have people whine and moan about how EA's efforts were nothing like the previous games? which is exactly what happened with the first Battlefront game (not that it was undeserved but still).
Or it could've been the same situation that happened with Rare and Nintendo.
I'm curious about this though if multiplayer destroyed it in spite of only being in the third game then why on earth did that game's ending proper basically end with the writers basically killing any hope of a sequel?
Yeah I only recommend the 2nd game as the first has forced touched screen controls (you can't turn off) which are not fun for the combat parts and has a lot of unnecessary backtracking. And to get it out of the way there's only two games meaning no Piccolo Daimao and 23rd budokai segments which the 2nd game setup for. |
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Lord Oink
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Isn't that the whole point of "games as a service"? Why would EA need to make tons of games when they can sell lootboxes and DLC out the wazoo for one or two and make more money for no effort? And lets be honest, I liked Jedi Knight back in the day, and will forever call out Disney for ripping off Kyle Katarn's story out for Rogue One, but those games weren't exactly blockbusters. They sold a few hundred thousands at best. Games back then weren't like now. Even after all the bashing and trashing gamers did to Battlefront 2, it still sold 10 million copies. A big AAA company isn't going to be making niche games like Knights of the Old Republic or Tie Fighter anymore. The franchise is mainstream pop culture now, like comic book movies, so they got to aim for the big boys like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto and can't be making stuff like RPGs and flight simulators for us nerds like they did back in the 90s when the franchise was dormant and only for nerds. |
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AiddonValentine
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Because, again, name recognition. Those games' names are ingrained in gaming culture having lived to the present day. Plus "First Person Jedi simulator" isn't exactly a hard sell, that it easy as heck to market. Same thing with Rogue Squadron (a million-selling series) which is "hey, wanna go in dog fights just like in the movies?" I mean, the marketing team would have to be exclusively staffed by idiots not to sell that properly. Even a KotoR-like would be easy to sell considering how well RPGs sell regularly (which EA has a history considering Mass Effect and Dragon Age). But even before that, the problem still stands: they aren't actually making games. In fact, they're outright struggling to even get them to a playable form. They are now an equal amount of games that have been released and canceled since EA got the license. This is outright embarrassing. You'd think a company that had a license that huge would start churning out product, getting multiple teams working on new titles ASAP, but instead they're just sitting on it. It's baffling, though from what Schreier did in a followup apparently EA CEO Andrew Wilson doesn't actually seem to want the Star Wars license. The whole thing is a mess https://kotaku.com/ea-s-troubled-decade-of-star-wars-games-1831807493 |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2713 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I think Heidi is much too harsh on Fight of Gods, because I just bought it & gave it a go just now, and I'd still call this a "good" fighting game. It's not a classic by any means, but the gameplay is solid, the combo potential is fun to figure out, and the concept is just so bonkers that you can't help but love it. What, is it the visuals that keep it from being "good"? Sure, they're very basic, but not terrible, but this is a fighting game that I can definitely see find itself a dedicated fanbase behind it, especially since it's now available on Switch, instead of being PC-only. All I'm saying is that I fully expect to see Fight of Gods at Evo this year. Not as a main attraction, of course, but as a side tournament. Hey, if Sailor Moon S on the Super Famicom can be given the side tournament treatment at Evo last year, then there's no reason why FoG can't be given one this year. |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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I don't know about that. Andromeda flopped so bad it literally killed the Mass Effect franchise, and Inquisition didn't exactly do much better. Besides, putting those in the same category of RPG as KOTOR is questionable. Out of all of them, only the first Dragon Age was really a traditional PC RPG. 2 basically turned it into an action game, and Mass Effect has always been an FPS with dialog options and level-up perks, much like what Fallout is these days. Certainly not the same kind of RPG KOTOR was which actually used turn-based combat and had an engine based on 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules, complete with dice rolls. Actual RPGS don't really do that well, which is why they only exist as low-budget indie games like Divinity and Planes of Eternity these days. If they did make a new KOTOR, it would most likely be an action game like Assassin's Creed or God of War. |
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Cam0
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Uhh... wasn't Inquisition like Bioware's best selling game? It was also critically acclaimed and received tons of awards. If there's a Dragon Age game that flopped, it would be Dragon Age 2. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6385 |
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Well we do have "The Old Republic"....which predates the deal by a couple of years or so and I would understand people who don't remember it, being it's never been ported to consoles along with the fact it's an MMO.
We know it killed the series based on what? Mass Effect 3 was not exactly well received by the fanbase yet it still led to Andromeda.
Think you mean Third Person Shooter. |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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EA's report said Inquisition was "the most successful launch in BioWare history." But gave no actual sales numbers, and still haven't given any lifetime total sales to this day. I always take it as a sign something didn't do as well as they hoped when they don't mention sales figures, especially given EA usually loves rubbing sales figures in people's faces like Battlefront 2 being a huge success despite all the gamers crying about lootboxes.
Well some spokesperson said the franchise was being shelved "for the time being" after they cancelled the DLC for Andromeda and the plans for a sequel. It might come back, but it's pretty clear it was a disaster Though now that you mention it I wonder if they decided to give the franchise to a newbie studio for Andromeda instead of their main studio was a result of the ME3 backlash. |
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Cam0
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That still speaks more of success than failure to me. |
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