One reader claims that the inability to create big-budget single-player video games is a long-awaited change for the gaming industry.
Like other gamers, I've watched the events of the past few weeks with a mixture of confusion and despair. Thanks to the corporate anecdotes, we had no idea what Microsoft and Sony were doing and were left with only the vague impression that triple-A games would be quite rare in the future. . I don't know why it took until now for the game's budget to be out of control, but it looks like the message has finally gotten across.
Personally, I think this is a good thing. It may not have been obvious to them that things had gotten out of control a long time ago, but I think it was obvious to the average gamer. I think it was only allowed to last this long because big-budget, single-player games were so important to the success of the PlayStation 4, and at the same time money wasn't that important to Microsoft. Buy out the rest of the industry.
But now, the next morning, so to speak, they realize that none of this is sustainable. Yet, coincidentally or not, they've led people to expect great looking games that last over 60 hours… They can't afford to make them anymore.
It's not hard to imagine how some gamers who don't follow industry context will react to the idea of single-player blockbusters being eliminated. I imagine this idea of addressing this issue is one of the reasons why it took Microsoft and Sony so long to do something about this issue.
But now that they've acknowledged the problem (I don't think they've actually come out and said “games are too expensive now”), I hope we see the necessary changes. I don't know why the employee had to be laid off, but I hope that ends too.
What needs to happen now is that publishers need to be in a position to ensure that games have reasonable budgets and can be produced within two to three years. Yes, that means it's probably not as long or beautiful as modern games, but I don't think the difference is that significant.
The increased power of the current generation consoles should make up for a lot, and there are some PlayStation 4 games that are better than the PlayStation 5 exclusives. Also, many games have a bloat problem, so removing that and focusing on a smaller game world should help maintain the level of detail.
Looking at what some of today's indie developers are doing with their games, I'm sure the graphics drop would be barely noticeable, and probably non-existent at all. At the same time, the fact that games weren't that expensive to produce meant they had the luxury of being more experimental and original.
There are no particular drawbacks to this. I just remade the PlayStation 3 game The Last Of Us Part 1 for the PlayStation 5, and it looks and plays pretty much the same. High-end games will still look great, and even if low-budget games from smaller developers aren't as good as they used to be, I really think that's a small price to pay to keep the entire gaming industry from collapsing. Masu.
I don't plan on spending the rest of my days playing only mobile or live service games. I think it's easily forgivable if you can avoid it by simply putting a cap on your budget.
UberBandit by reader
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