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Former PlayStation exec says there's a "collapse of creativity" in the industry
(www.eurogamer.net)
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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There's no collapse of creativity. There's just a collapse of the industry that now is in the hands of shareholders whose only goal is profit.
As soon as your company gets controlled by those, your creativity becomes a need to make another soulless "blockbuster".
Look at the indie world instead. There is creativity, it's just incompatible with the AAA business model.
And it’s not just happening in the gaming industry. Across the board the people who do the actual work are beholden to massive managerial structures that add huge costs and zero value, all to look like they’re doing something important.
It is not just huge costs and zero value, it is actually negative value because they actively prevent the people doing the actual work from doing that properly.
The other day I started a she called Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. You lose a hand of cards to a Wolfman and he turns you into a hobo skeleton tasked with traveling the US to spread folktales. The wolf is voiced by Sting, the whole game pays homage to an idealized peak of Americana, and I've never had to decide what button to map "hitchhike" to before.
Creativity is alive and well, flourishing even. This guy is just blaming others for the problems he brings to the table.
The amount of creativity in the indie world is insane. It's been a lot of years since I last played a AAA game because of this.
Have you ever played as a crow? There's an indie game for that.
Have you ever played a shooter in which you literally shoot people trendy clothes instead of bullets?
The creativity is there, you just won't find it in your typical AAA, because that game's only goal is to milk your wallet.
May I introduce you to EthrA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MVZDpyAlbTM
What SE has failed to do, appeal to fans of final fantasy sprite games. StoneLabs Studio is filling that void with amazing creativity. I support Indy devs. The more As a company adds to their games, they less I consider them viable products. I flat out ignore their existence.
Game makes me want to strike out and look for that place over the ridge where the water tastes like the sweetest wine.
Yes. Most AAA stuff now is just copy and paste because games cost so much to make and so they want a guaranteed return on their investment.
But I think consumers are getting tired of that now, as Ubisoft's declining sales seem to be demonstrating.
I swear it's only expensive because of the CEO taking most of it, and the rest being spent on ads and other trash like that. Basically propping up their friends
I'd be shocked if they spend close to 50% on the actual game design/function
You're also hitting issues with asset creation. You need a larger team to create assets for AAA games than an indie game.
For sure..
https://www.ign.com/articles/fifa-21-legacy-edition-switch-review
That definitely is the line we hear from CEOs when they raise prices, cut labor costs, and over monetize. Do you have any proof that production costs for games have gone up more than any other industry has? They pretty famously don’t pay game developers very well compared to other programming positions so I don’t know where this inordinate cost inflation would be coming from.
Mismanagement. They keep trying to make 9 women deliver a baby in 1 month, and switching out mothers mid pregnancy - some of these games have 20 formerly independent studios churning out content for the same game. That creates a need for a ton of oversight and coordination, and leads to a ton of wasted effort
I believe them when they say their costs have ballooned...I also know the tools have become extremely powerful, and that far smaller studios are creating far better games for a fraction of the cost