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The steady corruption of the AAA gaming industry


Zenpai

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I have really no reason to buy AAA titles anymore. Your reasons signify the greed and corruption that’s taking over these companies. What were the best games this year? Nothing made by EA or Activision! Sure they made money but il bet you titles like Need For Speed Payback will be Forgotten about next year. 

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As someone who has always been stuck a console generation lower and has an incurable MP allergy, I'm mainly watching this from the sidelines, but this doesn't make this gradual degradation any less terrifying. 

P.S. this moment when Amy Henning is more known for Uncharted games.... damn, I'm old

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3 minutes ago, Doomsdayman said:

1 man doesn't just change the direction of the industry, we all do.

 

Yes. More people have to take part, not just a select few. It's the select few who have their voices heard over a wide area. While most of us are lucky to even have a couple people stop and listen to our feedback.

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Became a but TL;DR for me (I'll read on at a later point when I have more time) but I agree with the sentiment. EA's monopoly on my favourite multimedia franchise, ensuring we've had a Star Wars Renaissance for five years now with zero fun Star Wars games, is just one of the major offenders. I think there's AAA gems out there - just this year, Zelda, Mario, South Park... The list of indie games I've enjoyed is much longer than the list of AAA games I've enjoyed though, and I generally believe myself to be someone who has no preference and tries to play whatever comes his way that seems fun.

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25 minutes ago, Bullstomp said:

@jrdemrThat was an amazing read! From the chronology of recent events to anticipated rebuttals and your responses to them, very well done!

 

I also have spent more time with last generation games/indies because of this MTX bullshit. I really hope more people do the same. This nickel and diming will not stop until it affects these publishers bottom line. 

 

I'm with both of you on this one.

 

I was against some people on these forums on lootboxes completely ruining Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Granted they didn't turn out to be all that terrible, but I am well aware on how they're going to be implemented in future games.

 

I have nothing against people playing many of the multi million dollar budget games of this generation. But I have definitely noticed creativity has really taken a decline, because nobody can come up with anything new anymore.

 

At least with the past generation you had games like Assassins Creed. I considered the story and concept original, with interesting characters. Today you basically see franchises that are just taking from the past generation and giving their products better graphics, smoother gameplay and faster load times.

 

You see all the remasters we've been getting this generation? Where were they back in 2007 - 2009 or so? Oh that's right, the developers were more interested in creating new IPs like Dead Space, Assassins Creed and Bayonetta.

 

It's easier to implement paywalls and microtransactions than it is to be original. Brian at PS4Trophies was mad about one of Destiny 2's trophies being locked behind a paywall and I don't blame him at all for being angry. Instead of creating a new gameplay mode, a new class or a new concept the developers just decided to force players to pay more in order to obtain the trophy.

 

They have also proven themselves to be full of shit. Therefore I don't see myself supporting them at all, and I refuse to play Destiny 1 and 2 because of that.

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Good post, good point, and good presentation.  Just to show you are right about the state of things my favorite games this year were death of the outsider, a hat in time, steamworld dig 2, shadow of war, hand of fate 2, horizon zero Dawn, and day of infamy.  Look at that only 1 multiplayer game.  EA doesn't know what it's doing anymore and I'm hesitant to buy any of their games now adays even if the trophy list is easy

Edited by Muskratateer
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3 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

There's no denying the degeneration of the AAA market, even if I'm squarely in the "don't care about MT's because they haven't effected me yet" crowd.

 

I think it starts and ends with the fact that AAA games have shifted in the last 5-10 years to be repetitive grinds... and people are (or were) eating it up because they insisted a game needs to be 100+ hours and/or virtually endless "replayability", to be worth their ~$60... and anything less than 60 hours ($1 per hour; because "bang for your buck") can f*** off.  The tone has changed now that publishers/developers found a way to monetize it, and on principle people are jumping on the "woo single player, take that EA" bandwagon.

 

Not to say it's right for publishers to exploit people's stupidity, and I'm glad people are steering away from the EA's of the world in favor of smaller developers that treat the consumers right, and that the indie scene is thriving.  But I feel like much of this could've been avoided by people appreciating (with their wallets) the more finite single player games place in the industry beyond the marquee titles over the years... instead of using that as an excuse to wait for sales or outright ignore them.

 

There's no question many of the masses are simply sheep who just buy the next Call of Duty or the next Battlefield because their friends did the same thing.

 

I always do my research on a game before I decide to go and buy it. But that's just common sense.

 

A big contributor to the decline of the AAA industry has been mobile games. Since everyone and their brother has a smartphone these days mobile games are being distributed like hotcakes.

 

I don't claim to know much about microtransactions but I feel somewhere down the line someone got the idea that AAA games could have the same paywalls as many mobile games do. I recall a certain Star Trek mobile game released a few years ago that forced you to pay money to make any real progress. Now granted most free to play games have microtransactions just like Star Trek so in this sense it's no different. But I definitely noticed a significant boost in progress when I paid a few dollars to buy up resources. Doing it all legit would take up to 10 - 20 times longer, so it was completely impractical and inefficient to play the game that way.

 

Even just trying to get the famous crew like Captain Kirk, Spock and McCoy cost money. Since then I have avoided every mobile game with forced microtransactions.

 

Two multiplayer games I played the most (World of Warcraft and Runescape) a decade ago began implementing their own microtransactions in the form of XP boosts, cosmetics and even transferring your character to another server. If you want to change servers in World of Warcraft you have to pay Blizzard money, and it's not cheap. Runescape implemented Squeal of Fortune which was a way to buy up XP Lamps and get other prizes that you probably couldn't get as easily if you tried getting them legit.

 

Middle Earth: Shadow of War has lootboxes to help you gain certain items and make the grind shorter. Need for Speed Payback has cards that give you parts for your car, which is EA forcing you to participate in lootboxes.

 

If anything I can just stick to the past generation of games and maybe buy up a few games here and there this generation. But the masses continue to buy these products, and therefore EA and Activision have people by the throat when it comes to these practices.

 

Sad state of affairs for this generation of gaming.

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The foot in the door was paid DLC. Paid DLC showed developers that gamers will shell out money for everything. It is the same with Online play requiring PS PLus on the PS4. You upgraded from PS3 to PS4, and as a thank you Sony added a kick to your butt making you pay for what you had for free on PS3. What do I hear? PS Plus is great because you get so many games for free? No, you don't. You get them for paying a monthly fee.

 

Microtransactions are a natural progression, and it will get worse. Why? Because people apparently are voting with their wallet, but not in a way we would endorse.

 

 

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I cant believe people buy FIFA every single year. I bet people waste hundreds of their money on buying player packs then a new game comes out 9 month later and you have to start from scratch all over again and not only that, the game is EXACTLY THE SAME AS LAST YEAR. I think everyone of their sports games has the same buy player pack system as well. EA and the COD franchise are probably the worst 2 companies when it comes to leaching every $$$ they can out of people. More people have stopped buying COD in recent years though, enough to make them change the direction they were taking the game. Its just a shame people don't do the same with FIFA.

Edited by SirPigFace
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10 minutes ago, Spaz said:

Sad state of affairs for this generation of gaming.

 

Is it though?  The best thing to come of this generation has been the growth of the indie scene, and they've released some of the best games since before the internet came around and ultimately drove all this post-release monetary interaction.  I wouldn't call that sad... just different.

 

The only thing that changed is corporate greed forcing people to think before they buy things... which should've been the case from the get-go.

As angry as thinking and educated purchases seems to make people.

Edited by Dreakon13
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1 minute ago, Dreakon13 said:

 

Is it though?  The best thing to come of this generation has been the growth of the indie scene, and they've released some of the best games since before the internet came around and ultimately drove all this post-release monetary interaction.

 

The only thing that changed is corporate greed forcing people to think before they buy things... which should've been the case from the get-go.

As angry as thinking and educated purchases seems to make people.

 

We've already seen indie games take a big inspiration from the 8, 16, 34 and 64 bit eras.

 

Shovel Knight clearly took inspiration from Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. There are games that were heavily influenced by the likes of Final Fantasy, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger.

 

I was clearly talking about mainstream AAA games.

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10 minutes ago, Spaz said:

 

We've already seen indie games take a big inspiration from the 8, 16, 34 and 64 bit eras.

 

Shovel Knight clearly took inspiration from Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. There are games that were heavily influenced by the likes of Final Fantasy, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger.

 

I was clearly talking about mainstream AAA games.

 

You were, but I don't see why that's "sad" even.  If AAA games were all we had, that'd be sad.

 

If anything this generation has been healthy for the industry and everyone involved, as these indiscretions have forced consumers to think more... something that was missing in this growing digital age of impulse sales and one-click purchasing.  And in turn, the little guys (indie developers) are stealing a lot of spotlight away with both their innovative games and their pro-consumer leanings.  I think that's great.

 

I just wish there were less restrictions barring "the little guy" from physical retail releases... since that's kinda my thing. xD

Edited by Dreakon13
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28 minutes ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

The foot in the door was paid DLC. Paid DLC showed developers that gamers will shell out money for everything. It is the same with Online play requiring PS PLus on the PS4. You upgraded from PS3 to PS4, and as a thank you Sony added a kick to your butt making you pay for what you had for free on PS3. What do I hear? PS Plus is great because you get so many games for free? No, you don't. You get them for paying a monthly fee.

 

Microtransactions are a natural progression, and it will get worse. Why? Because people apparently are voting with their wallet, but not in a way we would endorse.

 

 

 

People complained about DLC during the past generation. A lot of us already forgot about that since that occurred years ago.

 

I still have plenty of games in my library that have DLC that I am not buying simply because it's too expensive. I recently bought the Fallout 4 Season Pass for half it's normal price. There was no way in hell I was paying $50 for just DLC, I may as well buy a new game with that money or simply get three or four used games for cheap.

 

Paying for online was bound to happen. You have to pay to play online for the Xbox 360 and it's been that way ever since the console came out. I didn't see people complain about that, but that could be because the 360 had a better online experience than the PS3.

 

People are sheep. Advertisers know full well about this so they do their best to market to an audience that is naive enough to pay more money out of their pocket to these companies. Apparently it works.

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