Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 8, 2024 10:05:41 GMT
Had to look it up, but Hellblade 2 is out in 2 weeks. I don't think I've seen any marketing for it beyond appearing for a few mins in presentations. It sounds like it will have an extremely high polished presentation for a single player action game and potentially win awards for graphics and performance maybe...but can the devs feel secure after hearing this news, particularly if MS isn't pushing it.
Bit of a sobering moment here. No doubt Microsoft will, as they always do, be slow to respond to this news and be on the defensive long after the news has had time to settle.
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robthehermit
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Post by robthehermit on May 8, 2024 10:15:23 GMT
It does suck, but not as much as Redfall (admittedly I haven't played it since launch, so this might be an erroneous statement).
To be fair to our corporate besties, when they started the acquisition of ActiBlizz the market was a very different place and industry wide shutdowns weren't happening.
If the bean counters want their money back they should just release everything on Playstation. As much as I love Xbox, they should just give it up and become a publisher. Even if Game Pass wasn't eating massively into game sales, they could make the best exclusive in the world and they'd still lose money because they simply don't have the install base to cover the costs.
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askew
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Post by askew on May 8, 2024 10:19:13 GMT
Had to look it up, but Hellblade 2 is out in 2 weeks. I don't think I've seen any marketing for it beyond appearing for a few mins in presentations. It sounds like it will have an extremely high polished presentation for a single player action game and potentially win awards for graphics and performance maybe...but can the devs feel secure after hearing this news, particularly if MS isn't pushing it. Bit of a sobering moment here. No doubt Microsoft will, as they always do, be slow to respond to this news and be on the defensive long after the news has had time to settle. Woof. That’s a big fucking dividend. |
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Post by baihu1983 on May 8, 2024 11:04:48 GMT
Sounds like Mikami might have taken a lot of staff with him when he left Tango.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on May 8, 2024 11:05:50 GMT
Hellblade 2 is definitely the kind of game that will sell just enough to get the studio closed
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Post by dfunked on May 8, 2024 11:09:05 GMT
They really are shit at hyping games. I had it in my head that it was coming out in June which still allowed a bit of time to market it, but nope... Less than two weeks away and barely a sausage out of them.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on May 8, 2024 11:10:11 GMT
Don't think they will close them. If it comes out and is polished experience that will be just the sort of thing they are looking to keep.
Really looking forward to playing it, hopefully it doesn't run like shit.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 8, 2024 11:18:12 GMT
The Hellblade 2 push should be starting this week
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Post by JuniorFE on May 8, 2024 11:29:48 GMT
So their big marketing push starts *checks notes* the week before release?
I know news and hype travel quickly nowadays but isn't that a bit too small of a timeframe?
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robthehermit
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Post by robthehermit on May 8, 2024 11:36:34 GMT
Yeah, but they haven't got to tell many people. It's a niche title and anyone likely to play it will need little more than a reminder of the release date.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 8, 2024 11:38:08 GMT
Don't think they will close them. If it comes out and is polished experience that will be just the sort of thing they are looking to keep.
Obviously Redfall failed to clear this bar, but wasn't Hi-Fi Rush pretty solid at launch from a technical standpoint?
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Post by baihu1983 on May 8, 2024 11:46:41 GMT
Yeah rush released in a very good state. Think it's only had a couple updates since release and one of them was to add the anniversary outfits. So their big marketing push starts *checks notes* the week before release? I know news and hype travel quickly nowadays but isn't that a bit too small of a timeframe? Do many games get tv ads weeks before release? Plus considering they didn't seem to release a single tv ad for Starfield this is a step up. |
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Post by Whizzo on May 8, 2024 12:10:19 GMT
Ninja Theory are hopefully going to have a mega smash or they're fucked like Tango.
Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen.
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Post by JuniorFE on May 8, 2024 12:19:20 GMT
Yeah rush released in a very good state. Think it's only had a couple updates since release and one of them was to add the anniversary outfits. So their big marketing push starts *checks notes* the week before release? I know news and hype travel quickly nowadays but isn't that a bit too small of a timeframe? Do many games get tv ads weeks before release? Plus considering they didn't seem to release a single tv ad for Starfield this is a step up. Maybe, but the quantity and type of media isn't going to help if there isn't enough time for anyone to see the ads to begin with... Even in this thread there's people that didn't even know it was coming out this soon, and we're the people that actually follow game news (sometimes)  |
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 8, 2024 12:20:07 GMT
The thing about HI-Fi Rush is that there was no marketing buildup to it because it was announced and released on the same day. But it came out exceptionally polished and has been Xbox's best exclusive game this gen unless you're counting something like Forza into the mix. Typically character action games don't sell that well but there was a stat that was hyped up by MS that over 3 million people had played it and as pointed out elsewhere, they publically said the game met all their metrics and were happy to continue working with Tango. In fact they said they wanted to get a stronger foothold in Japan by working with Japanese dev studios...until they shut down their only one yesterday.
Hellblade 2 has a bit of a mountain to climb. Little marketing and the fact it's a sequel might make people hesitant to jump on and buy it and GamePass members will play it. It's terrible that we're in a spot now where we're judging whether a high production, high review scoring, award winning game will even be enough for studios to stay afloat. And not just Microsoft, Roll7, the makers of Rollerdrome and OlliOlli World got shut down too despite making award winning games. It's fucked.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on May 8, 2024 12:43:36 GMT
Hifi rush was very polished but then the studio lead left and took a chunk of the team with him. Maybe what was left wasn't worth salvaging.
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Post by Whizzo on May 8, 2024 12:48:22 GMT
John Johanas was Hi-Fi Rush's game director, he found out Tango was closing the same time everyone else did.
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Derblington
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Post by Derblington on May 8, 2024 12:48:50 GMT
Tameem Antoniades left Ninja Theory earlier this year too. Lets hope that isn't foreshadowing.
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hicksy
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Post by hicksy on May 8, 2024 12:52:06 GMT
Two biggest factors imo…
1. Huge over-saturation of games. Average backlog of a gamer who regularly purchases games? Must be 5+ yrs I would imagine if you tried to finish them all!
2. The new kids on the block are heavily live service focused. I begin to wonder if a monetised game within a game such as Fortnite would actually sell more than as an independent release.
This all said (and we all hate to see industry recession) the real elephant in the room imo is AI and the impact on future creatives. Impact could be far larger than any strategic restructures such as this!
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 8, 2024 12:54:53 GMT
Shining Mikami left Tengo and some senior leads with him. But the foundation of the studio was done in Mikami's words to bring up a new generation of talent under his supervision. Maybe he left because he heard the writing was on the wall. It's very sad
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 8, 2024 13:00:35 GMT
Maybe Mikami's departure was the final straw for Tango, especially if a bunch of other people left alongside him.
Then again, I don't know to what extent he was any more than a figurehead at the studio - The Evil Within was the only game he actually directed (being credited as 'Executive Producer' on The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire, and Hi-Fi).
Whatever the minutiae may be, it completely sucks, and I hope Ninja Theory, Obsidian, etc. don't end up in the same boat.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 8, 2024 13:26:44 GMT
Tameem Antoniades left Ninja Theory earlier this year too. Lets hope that isn't foreshadowing. He was going to leave after Hellblade was finished but stayed on for 2 years to help the studio transition. Sounds like he had little to no input on the sequel. |
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 8, 2024 13:51:12 GMT
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Post by zisssou on May 8, 2024 14:39:51 GMT
Two biggest factors imo… 1. Huge over-saturation of games. Average backlog of a gamer who regularly purchases games? Must be 5+ yrs I would imagine if you tried to finish them all! 2. The new kids on the block are heavily live service focused. I begin to wonder is a monetised game within a game such as Fortnite would actually sell more than as an independent release. This all said and we all hate to see industry recession the real elephant in the room imo is AI and the impact on future creatives. Impact could be far larger than any strategic restructures such as this! I do feel like an old man yelling at a cloud. Perhaps this is what the previous gen who grew up on Atari etc felt like. I had no real interest in anything prior to NES growing up in the 90s. Now I feel a little bit like I have no real major interest in AAA aside from the odd game. It's really Nintendo and indies for me. |
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apollo
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Post by apollo on May 8, 2024 19:10:58 GMT
When speaking on Giant Bomb's podcast, Jeff Grubb says he has "been hearing for years that Perfect Dark is in a rough state. Sounds like it's in a very rough state." Apparently, it "doesn't sound like it's really come together in any way" since it was announced in 2020, even with the extra help from Crystal Dynamics.
Echoing Grubb's report, video game historian Liam Robertson says they've heard that the Perfect Dark reboot is "just a big, protracted mess."
The studio has not shipped anything yet but wonder if MS might kill the game like that scalebound game?
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Post by baihu1983 on May 8, 2024 19:17:21 GMT
Pretty sure they said it was coming along nicely on GBs Not E3 show last year? Plan was to show it off at next month's event.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on May 8, 2024 19:23:15 GMT
My Reddit feed is full of adverts for hell blade 2, not sure if it's from today or before and I'm noticing it today as people are saying it's not being pushed.
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Post by stuz359 on May 8, 2024 20:30:31 GMT
I feel like live service games are kind of ruining the industry.
One, publishers are putting an insane amount of resources into creating the next big one. If they fail, they're taking down the developer, possibly the publisher (look at Suicide Squad).
If people play a live service game, it's usually to the detriment of every other game out there, because it's a time sink. How many gamers are exclusively playing Fortnite, FC24, COD, Helldivers 2 or even something like Candy Crush?
In the battle for time, as others have pointed out, how large is your backlog? If a huge amount of gamers are only ever playing one game, what space does that leave for other developers?
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Post by Whizzo on May 8, 2024 20:33:25 GMT
Doesn't look like Microsoft are stopping, buying AFK seems to have got the beancounters in Microsoft concerned that costs need to come down in the games division.
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apollo
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Post by apollo on May 8, 2024 20:42:10 GMT
these companies shouldn't be allowed to buy all these companies and then turn around start cutting staff. MS having all these major publishers should not of been allowed as its bad for the industry.
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