Tuesday's Letters Page complains that Bend Studios is producing a live service game due to one reader's concerns about the Zelda movie.
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death and rebirth
I guess it's not surprising to read that a publisher's answer to the gaming industry's current problems is to return to sequels and familiar IPs, but it's still depressing to read about. As for the issue of high budgets and no growth, it seems like no one is willing to do anything other than basically give up and make live services and mobile games instead.
To me, it feels like the entire video game world is collapsing, or at least permanently declining. Even though these problems have been around for years, the “response” came suddenly and without warning. I've been playing video games for over 25 years and you could say that's my main hobby, but now it feels like the last days of VHS.
Looking ahead, Nintendo and indie developers will definitely be the ones who survive all of this. Because they make the best games and don't spend a lot of money on them. I'm not sure about the other dinosaurs, especially Xbox and PlayStation. I would like everything to go back to how it was at the beginning of the generation, but I don't think it will ever be, at least not for many years.
We are currently facing the collapse of the secondary industry, and I think it will be a tough few years. I hope the video game world is better on the other side.
cranston
long term plan
It still seems crazy to think that The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be released until 2028. If the rumors of 2026 are true, we will be far into the next generation by then, and who knows how much longer the war will last. , economic recession, environmental disaster.
I don't see how they plan that far ahead considering all the variables and how many other similar games will come out between now and then.
I can only hope that the mixed reactions to Starfield will cause Bethesda to shed its previous reputation and change course. Because it was easy to imagine that the new game wouldn't be all that different from Skyrim.
cubby
price of failure
So Bend Studio is also working on live service games? That's a big deal. It's basically all Sony studios, except for the ones who were able to break out of it like Naughty Dog. Imagine if we gave the people who made the awesome Returnal the job of creating a live service game full of battle passes. I hope that's not happening, but it's hard to imagine it isn't.
And what will happen to all these studios if the game turns out not to be a hit? Now that Helldivers 2 is a hit, Sony has a taste for blood, but that won't happen with every game Surely you know that? Unlike a decent single-player game, there's no guarantee that even a good live service game will sell. He doesn't want to think about what will happen if one of them flops.
sniper's dream
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change focus
I like the director's enthusiasm for this Zelda movie, and the new Planet of the Apes trailer looks well-done, but I've never actually seen Zelda in action in live action. It may be animated, but what is its purpose? The story is always the worst part of the game, but the movie focuses on that.
The director says this is something fans have always dreamed of, but is it really? Who among you plays Zelda and thinks, “I wish it was linear, non-interactive, and centered around the series' only flaws?”
Men want to get paid, I can understand that, but I don't understand any other way of thinking. I don't even know what they plan on doing with the second Mario now that the novelty is over. No one plays Nintendo games for the story, so it's nearly impossible to turn them into movies.
tory
raise your voice
I decided to give it a try on my MacBook. I'm not very good at it so far, but I'm really enjoying it.
However, even though my intended format was on Xbox Series X/S, I currently cannot hear any in-game audio when set to anything other than uncompressed stereo sound (the game uses 5.1 Dolby Digital). I know it's from a single developer, but I'm hoping for an update to fix the sound issue within a reasonable period of time.
Does anyone know if the developers are aware of this issue and working on a patch? Changing the sound settings for a game and then changing them back again is no fun in my opinion .
Chaospehere 616
late riser
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a great, classic role-playing game. I wasn't mad at the original, but maybe it's because 2012 was a great year for games (Dishonored, XCOM, Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2!). I think I just had a choice. But in the second version, the core elements of the game are largely the same, but significantly updated for users in 2024, so it's like reliving the old days all over again.
I think a lot of that should be assigned to in-game design decisions. This really helps you get lost in the world. The lack of fast travel makes each journey feel meaningful and “real,” allowing you to stock up on camping kit and supplies for the adventures ahead, and your pawns learning in the environment. Because it will help you.
And perhaps controversial. I also like the rule of saving one character. This means you're not spending tons of time constantly rerolling your characters, like in Baldur's Gate 3, for example. Instead, I stay true to my choices and can switch professions whenever I want to avoid the staleness that can come from playing the same character for 100 hours.
Also, the name of this awesome game cannot be typed online without the word microtransactions being thrown around, so I really don't think I've ever seen microtransactions in this game, never been told about them, or needed them. I have to say that I have never done so. not even once. I think I'll have to actually go look for it.
Plus, I'm really happy when other people spend their money on things they like. I don't. But wouldn't the extra money and success the game had mean we could potentially see more of it in the future via DLC or sequels? The more, the better. Of course!
Mr. K
waypoint horror
An open world Resident Evil game? I'm not completely against the idea, but it's going to be extremely difficult to get the movie right, and I'm not surprised by rumors that it's the most expensive sequel ever. Open world games aren't cheap to make.
Just don't try climbing towers or following waypoints Ubisoft style. Please make it more Zelda-like than Far Cry. Nothing wards off fear like a big arrow telling you to go somewhere or repeating the same old side quest ten times.
pinky
AWOL schedule
Sony Bend's job posting for a senior live services developer made me wonder again just how bad Sony's first-party studio release schedule is.
Days Gone was released in 2019, so it will be five years (next month) since Sony Bend's last game shipped. The company's live service games could still be released for several years, according to the job posting, which includes talk of “redefining the studio from traditional 'boxed product'-focused game development to a live service development studio.” It is.
Of course, I could be misunderstanding this, but it doesn't seem like there will be any new games released by them anytime soon.
There are concerns about how severely the shift to live service games appears to be impacting Sony's first-party studio production. The last few years have seen a lack of announcements of new single-player, narrative-driven games (i.e. the type of games that led me to buy a PlayStation 5 before this silence happened) and Sony's lack of announcements about live service games and PlayStation 4 With all the focus on remasters and watching the remakes, I'm already wondering if I'll buy a PlayStation 6 within the first few years of release.
Hubert
GC: I would say your concerns are completely valid. Remember, Sony has already said that no major franchises will be released until next April, and it's already been more than two years since a new single-player game was announced.
Inbox also ran
It's sad to think about what has happened to Overwatch since the sequel was released.There was a time when it seemed like that of It used to be a big video game franchise, but now it's gone and there's nothing left.
Urona
This is truly amazing and I have no words. Rest in peace, except Leslie Nielsen.
garfield 2
GC: That's really great.
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