What's up with Amy Hennig and hot takes recently ? I get that she got the end of the stick multiple times recently but it's not because she's having a hard time that everyone in the industry does.
edit.
Does she mean contractors to assist in-house? Or completely external?
Sony has shutdown Guerrilla Games Cambridge, Evolution Studios and a couple other smaller studios this gen. They also laid off 50 people from Santa Monica as recently as 2014 after killing their new IP.
lol why do you put so many specific stipulations on it? Nowhere did I mention anything about crunch, because I could not care less about that
I do not agree with the ERA "consensus" about anti-crunch. In life I know many direct family, relatives, friends who work in long hours jobs outside of video games. So that's life to me. I have relatives who have been residency doctors that work 80 hours per week for years. One cousin who is an investment banker in NYC. Attorneys.
Right now during tax season, how many hours do you think CPAs and accountants are working?
How come ERA never complains about those professions? For some reason ERA thinks it's only video game devs who work over 40 hours
Nobody should care about what she thinks. Her achievements in video games are not outstanding compared to other than say AAA games matter and are the future.
Not at all.
Remember when Nirvana showed up with Teen Spirit and the music industry changed overnight?
Think of any random Motley Crue big stage live video released only months earlier. All the explosions, lights & pyrotechnics. All that glamour & bluff.
Then look at Pearl Jam's first videos Evenflow & Alive. Just 5 dudes on a stage wearing street clothes with zero to no stage production.
If AAA buckles under the weight of it's increasing budgets games will still be around. They'll just be stripped down. And hopefully more interesting than generic AAA templates.
I know I'll probably get a ton of hatred for this, but... I don't understand why a really talented creative at this point would want to work on AAA titles for (most) AAA publishers. Most of the current AAA games seem to become GAAS titles, most of the time you'll have to implement Microtransactions or Lootboxes, most of the time you'll be VERY limited as to what you'll be able to do creatively since publishers (rightfully so) are scared to take too many risks on a 70-150m USD production and worst of all, most of the time YOUR creative input will be very much diluted since there are literally hundreds of people working on the product.
If this wouldn't be gaming, but cooking, It kinda feels like there are almost no high class restaurants anymore and now working in the AAA space feels more like running a McDonalds - No risk, do the same thing everyone else does (aka, follow the recent trend that makes money), really just worry about making as much money as possible and don't even try to be creative cause higher ups are scared to take risks.
Granted, there are exceptions on the publisher side, but these exceptions seem to become fewer and fewer.
So why would a REALLY talented person sign up for that? Especially since a lot of these AAA games are 3, 4, 5+ years in production, which is a long time to commit to something in your life.
We've been pretty lucky at Moon Studios that we now get to choose what titles we wanna make, we usually get full creative freedom and our partners usually trust us to know what we're doing. Granted, our budgets are a lot lower than what AAA Studios get, but it feels amazing that we can do what we really want to do and aren't stifled creatively. So I dunno, maybe it's too daunting for experienced AAA folks to start fresh with a new team? I just know I wouldn't be up for that ride, I'd rather make smaller stuff where I can make my own luck purely by how well I'm doing as a creative.
AAA development has been unsustainable for years. Games cost too much to produce, and consumers will not pay more than $60.
The solution is not to keep experimenting with unwanted and insulting post-purchase monetization methods. Instead of trying sneaky ways to raise revenues, publishers need to lower their expenses. Cut bloated game budgets. Make AAA into "AA+". You don't need to be cutting-edge in visuals, scope, and technology, all in one project, every project. Hell will not freeze over if you stop trying to do this. Consumers will still buy. Not to mention, less absurd expectations means less absurd workloads, and less "crunch". Everybody wins if the people making decisions just come to their senses.
Nintendo realized this 20 years ago, btw...
lol why do you put so many specific stipulations on it? Nowhere did I mention anything about crunch, because I could not care less about that
I do not agree with the ERA "consensus" about anti-crunch. In life I know many direct family, relatives, friends who work in long hours jobs outside of video games. So that's life to me. I have relatives who have been residency doctors that work 80 hours per week for years. One cousin who is an investment banker in NYC. Attorneys.
Right now during tax season, how many hours do you think CPAs and accountants are working?
How come ERA never complains about those professions? For some reason ERA thinks it's only video game devs who work over 40 hours
I don't think everyone can follow the Nintendo route, it's their style and everyone expects it from them, but most publishers already set a pretty high standards of productions and if they downgrade a beloved IP from that standard they will likely get shaky reviews and a lot of community hate...
I don't think everyone can follow the Nintendo route, it's their style and everyone expects it from them, but most publishers already set a pretty high standards of productions and if they downgrade a beloved IP from that standard they will likely get shaky reviews and a lot of community hate...
'Styles' have to start somewhere. When Nintendo first backed-off the graphics race in the GameCube/Wii era they were criticized for it, and they did indeed lose some fans in the short-term. But it worked out in the long-run. Some of those "disappointed" fans eventually even came back. The games were still high quality, just lower tech. And they saved a helluva lot of money and potential layoffs with their new strategy.I don't think everyone can follow the Nintendo route, it's their style and everyone expects it from them, but most publishers already set a pretty high standards of productions and if they downgrade a beloved IP from that standard they will likely get shaky reviews and a lot of community hate...
Wow, I'm glad you agree. Love your work btw :)I think that's a crazy thing to say. It's all about quality, if any dev out there can make a game at the quality level of Odyssey or BotW, they'll do just fine. Who cares that Anthem has nice visuals if the game sucks? Most people out there really don't care about the tech porn - they care much more about good art direction.
I mean... if she's trying to say that AAA game are unsustainable for *some* development studios, then sure that's true.
But clearly there are at least a few devs/publishers who are still able to make AAA games that sell great and make money
Agree. Most people don´t give a shit about high end graphics and just want the games to look good. BotW is the living proof that you can make amazing looking games on relatively weak hardware. People bought the Wii in droves, the Switch is selling like hot cakes and both are nowhere near what you would call a technical powerhouse. It´s all about the quality of the games.I think that's a crazy thing to say. It's all about quality, if any dev out there can make a game at the quality level of Odyssey or BotW, they'll do just fine. Who cares that Anthem has nice visuals if the game sucks? Most people out there really don't care about the tech porn - they care much more about good art direction.
It's by far the healthiest it's ever been.To think some people here believe the industry is healthy rite now. lol
What's up with Amy Hennig and hot takes recently ? I get that she got the end of the stick multiple times recently but it's not because she's having a hard time that everyone in the industry does.
I know I'll probably get a ton of hatred for this, but... I don't understand why a really talented creative at this point would want to work on AAA titles for (most) AAA publishers. Most of the current AAA games seem to become GAAS titles, most of the time you'll have to implement Microtransactions or Lootboxes, most of the time you'll be VERY limited as to what you'll be able to do creatively since publishers (rightfully so) are scared to take too many risks on a 70-150m USD production and worst of all, most of the time YOUR creative input will be very much diluted since there are literally hundreds of people working on the product.
If this wouldn't be gaming, but cooking, It kinda feels like there are almost no high class restaurants anymore and now working in the AAA space feels more like running a McDonalds - No risk, do the same thing everyone else does (aka, follow the recent trend that makes money), really just worry about making as much money as possible and don't even try to be creative cause higher ups are scared to take risks.
Granted, there are exceptions on the publisher side, but these exceptions seem to become fewer and fewer.
So why would a REALLY talented person sign up for that? Especially since a lot of these AAA games are 3, 4, 5+ years in production, which is a long time to commit to something in your life.
We've been pretty lucky at Moon Studios that we now get to choose what titles we wanna make, we usually get full creative freedom and our partners usually trust us to know what we're doing. Granted, our budgets are a lot lower than what AAA Studios get, but it feels amazing that we can do what we really want to do and aren't stifled creatively. So I dunno, maybe it's too daunting for experienced AAA folks to start fresh with a new team? I just know I wouldn't be up for that ride, I'd rather make smaller stuff where I can make my own luck purely by how well I'm doing as a creative.
If that was true Nintendo hardware wouldn´t sell and most people would be playing on high end PC´s and the Xbox One X (which couldn´t be further from the truth).This here is part of the problem.
Gamers aren't happy unless they have their pretty and pretty costs money.
I'm sure we'll have plenty of people saying she's wrong like we did in the last topic about publishers not greenlighting short linear AAA games. Because I'm sure so many people on Era know more about AAA development than she does.
Most people out there really don't care about the tech porn - they care much more about good art direction.
Without AAA Games though, how many publishers want to keep hundreds or thousands of devs in their employ?
lol why do you put so many specific stipulations on it? Nowhere did I mention anything about crunch, because I could not care less about that
I do not agree with the ERA "consensus" about anti-crunch. In life I know many direct family, relatives, friends who work in long hours jobs outside of video games. So that's life to me. I have relatives who have been residency doctors that work 80 hours per week for years. One cousin who is an investment banker in NYC. Attorneys.
Right now during tax season, how many hours do you think CPAs and accountants are working?
How come ERA never complains about those professions? For some reason ERA thinks it's only video game devs who work over 40 hours
Going with your Avatar Pic, something like DMC 5 is definitely considered AAA. But I guarantee you, Capcom isn't needing 5-6 million on that game to break even. That's what most of the talk is, you can offer these AAA experiences without going so far down the path that missing your 7 million sold mark is actively hurting your bottom line.
While Japan isn't void of this (From the rumors on FFXV and Luminous, Square wasted all kinds of money). They seem to be finding their footing these days a bit more than western devs.
They could develope more games instead.Without AAA Games though, how many publishers want to keep hundreds or thousands of devs in their employ?
But those same pubs don't just churn out hit after hit. They're coasting on a few big successes a year and that's not something you can count on.I mean... if she's trying to say that AAA game are unsustainable for *some* development studios, then sure that's true.
But clearly there are at least a few devs/publishers who are still able to make AAA games that sell great and make money