The Videogame News Thread

[Wandering Swordwoman]

only because feh is so fucking dogshit
also tbh i question the future of franchise given three houses was mostly outsorced

I thought people like it

[weeblord]

Pretty sure Tales of had two phone games since Berseria came out, and they still have the big shiny Arise coming down the pipe.

Tales of entries are able to break a milli so theres still incentive to keep making them. Sakura Wars was a big commercially successful multimedia franchise 20 years ago but now after 15 years of hibernation they had a soft reboot with quite lukewarm sales. if the gacha game is successful, i fear that might be the future of the franchise. excuse my aggressive pessimism regarding this medium but so many franchises i love have either gotten canceled because of a gacha game that flopped or stopped making the things i loved in favor of gacha.

[Mattias]

I'll agree that one bad gacha, especially with a series that's been dead for years or on consistant life support, can kill a franchise. But I think most developers know that gacha is more of a stepping stone. I remember reading an interview with a GranBlue developer who said that all thier gacha stuff is just so they can make the bank to make the proper videogames they wanted to from the start. And it makes sense. Sure you can get the occasional ultra whale who shells out thousands of dollars for NP5 Scathach, but a lot of people are cheap F2P or spend maybe 10 dollars a year on it. And compared to selling a few million copies of a proper videogame at $60 a pop is more reliable and more rewarding for the team making it.

[Wandering Swordwoman]

Valkyrie Anatomia is prime example of dead series that only still there because of gacha

But the game series that rely too much on one gacha or few phone games, usually they are already almost dead even before their gacha game come out.
So i won't worry too much on game series that can big without it in the first place

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I'll agree that one bad gacha, especially with a series that's been dead for years or on consistant life support, can kill a franchise. But I think most developers know that gacha is more of a stepping stone. I remember reading an interview with a GranBlue developer who said that all thier gacha stuff is just so they can make the bank to make the proper videogames they wanted to from the start. And it makes sense. Sure you can get the occasional ultra whale who shells out thousands of dollars for NP5 Scathach, but a lot of people are cheap F2P or spend maybe 10 dollars a year on it. And compared to selling a few million copies of a proper videogame at $60 a pop is more reliable and more rewarding for the team making it.

because less money to make it and more money they can get

[Deathhappens]

I thought people like it

FEH players have been nothing but complaining about the game the past two years straight, I think anyone still playing it is purely doing it out of sunk cost syndrome nowadays.

[Wandering Swordwoman]

Ah yes false "limited" digital games from nintendo. Hhmmm yeess squeeze that money from fans

[Aozaki-desu]

Sure you can get the occasional ultra whale who shells out thousands of dollars for NP5 Scathach, but a lot of people are cheap F2P or spend maybe 10 dollars a year on it. And compared to selling a few million copies of a proper videogame at $60 a pop is more reliable and more rewarding for the team making it.

That is wrong though, there is a reason biggest gaming market is mobile market. No "normal" game can make billion in profits, let alone multiple billions.

[LegalLoliLover]

What do MMOs count as, then?

[Laserman]

That is wrong though, there is a reason biggest gaming market is mobile market. No "normal" game can make billion in profits, let alone multiple billions.

That only happens sometimes. And even then, it's over the many remains of the ones that failed. Also, the biggest gaming market?

[Aozaki-desu]

What do MMOs count as, then?

PC market. I mean at the end of the day its all microtransaction shit, because thats where the money's at.
But imo MMO's are kinda dead and buried, because they have been essentially cannibalized by mobile games.

That only happens sometimes. And even then, it's over the many remains of the ones that failed. Also, the biggest gaming market?

It is. Mobile market share beats pc and console markets combined.
Do you realise how much 1 billion in revenue compared to games which makes their money "per copy?" An AAA title selling 10 million copies (an absurd number only select few mainstream series can approach) would not even touch that number, while having magnitute higher development costs.

And the kicker is you dont need to be next FGO or Pokemon Go to succeed. Have a crappy mobile title with niche audience who is willing to pay? Your company is probably easily making bank. While its true that mobile games that break billions are outliers, the market is huge and there are absurd number of shitty or stupid games that should not make money at all yet they do. Its casual market. Everyone has a phone.

[SteelBeowulf]

The thing is that mobile games is too good of a bet. The development cost of mobile games alone in comparison to other video games in comparison to their potential profit is massive.

Let's say that you built your mobile game for $500,000 (I highly doubt it can cost more than 1 million in terms of software development because Shenzhen programmers are basically vegetable prices.)

You make your most expensive currency but the highest "value" package like: $5 for 5 currencybux, $79.99 for 200 currencybux.

You only need ~6300 player who is willing to pay within one month to break even. Furthermore, now you have a game that can potential make you money for at least a decade so long as you add characters and farming "levels" every three months or so.

Now compare it to AAA, AA, or A, or even indie titles. Less AA and A titles are being made relatively because players either focus on AAA or indie titles, suddenly there is a market split on video games of different production values, even though they are on the same platform.

Now look at the cost:

Half-life 2: 40 millions

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: 80 millions

Dead Space 2: 60 million

L.A. Noire: 50 million

Not including marketing cost.

I know that many AAA titles still profit, but from a business standpoint, you are actively risking multi-millions for one game that may flop. The development cost risk alone is simply too high for one single product.

So:

50 million for 100 mobile games that you only need 1 to make millions in profit or 50 million for 1 game that may not breakeven?

The bet is obvious

[SteelBeowulf]

"you can still build low cost games"

Absolutely, but the production company will throw the stats of market shares at you, and will lecture you how much marketing in non-mobile game genre cost. Senua's Sacrifice "micro-budget" is still ~9 millions.

"just go indie then"

you have $500k of cash laying around? Why would someone just quit their day job to make the next Undertale? Unless they are absolutely invested in some personal cause.

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Tales of entries are able to break a milli so theres still incentive to keep making them. Sakura Wars was a big commercially successful multimedia franchise 20 years ago but now after 15 years of hibernation they had a soft reboot with quite lukewarm sales. if the gacha game is successful, i fear that might be the future of the franchise. excuse my aggressive pessimism regarding this medium but so many franchises i love have either gotten canceled because of a gacha game that flopped or stopped making the things i loved in favor of gacha.

Can't blame people for forgetting a franchise a publisher decide to neglect. Probably the reason why people like me have to rant about Tsukihime once in a while to remind myself that it existed once.

[Wandering Swordwoman]

SEGA is still running PSO2 as their money maker. But it look like it's not enough

[LJ3]

So how much does PSO2 make then on average? since it's been around for nearly a decade?

[Wandering Swordwoman]

Dunno never checked the actual number. But it always been highlighted as one of games that contribute a lot to SEGA's income

[LJ3]

Dunno never checked the actual number. But it always been highlighted as one of games that contribute a lot to SEGA's income

so this is from 2017:

https://mmos.com/news/phantasy-star-...oneymaker-sega

and an August article on the Western release passing one million players

https://twinfinite.net/2020/08/phant...2-one-million/

so yeah, looks like still a success story

[Reign]

Hell yeah

[weeblord]

Dont like musou but gonna buy anyway.

[RoydGolden]

I'd read fan-speculations from a while back that a Hyrule Warriors sequel might be set in the backstory to Breath Of The Wild, since it gives the chance of more screentime for the Champions (otherwise they got fully-realized personality and abilities for characters who basically only show up in flashbacks). Interesting that if it stays true to canon this might be one of the few Zelda games with outright dark/tragic endings, since we know Link "dies" and Zelda has to sacrifice herself sealing away Calamity Ganon for the next hundred years. Would be cool if the final battle is playing as Zelda and fighting Calamity Ganon to seal him away.

[Mattias]

I don't know how I feel about it. On one hand it was a great game, and a sequel on superior hardware is even better. On the other, some of the best parts of the game is the giant roster, and if it follows the BotW plot, there's no reason for Midna to show up.