The Great Extinction of DEI

[@DarthChrisB]

They always say *"The game wasn't made for you"* and then wonder why it doesn't sell well.

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

The game was only made for 0.0003% of you, says the publicly traded company. Would explain the 18.73% drop in their value in 24 hours.

[@HanDaimond]

Even worse than that, they say absolutely nothing after the sales are revealed, pretend that they were a success and just jump onto another DEI game to defend against The BiGoTs.

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

Developers: The game wasn't made for you! Gamers: Okay. (Closes wallet) Developers: :| >:|

[@aetherland1883]

Each time anything goes woke, it is automatically out of touch with reality

[@Syrock1]

It's great when they tell me this because it lets me know the money i made isn't for them 😊

[@Micolashcage1]

Lets be honest. Asmon played a huge role in making it ok to criticize DEI on public platforms without being called a racist

[@Bouchiba-bu7yp]

the roach king strikes again

[@moqo]

He has also just focused on the negative outcomes and never really addressed why DEI exists and how it could/should have been done.

[@kulerthankule]

True

[@Epck]

​@@moqopeople should not be treated differently bc of their race, that wpuld be racist

[@adamcarey5321]

I miss Ray ❤

[@StefanoBorini]

I'm not going to spend 60 dollars to be lectured by HR.

[@Acoto]

TransHR simulator

[@ryandemboski6313]

good way to put it

[@aetherland1883]

Expensive Feminist Propaganda, hence why I am happy with classic consoles and games and I will never give modernity a chance until they mend their ways

[@jonathanward1527]

Nailed it! Exactly this.

[@traiforse5777]

It's worse when you know who the director was. The whole misgendering and the mirror bs makes sense. Literally wasting millions of dollars and ruined the careers of the people in Bioware just to make a Tumblr rant.

[@JayImmortalTV]

4:08 "This is a single-player game." I just googled for Cyberpunk 2077's numbers, and it's sat at 35,206 concurrent players as of the writing of this comment (midnight, MST) with a nearly 40k 24-hour peak. This is a hair more than 10x the numbers DA:Failguard is producing in its (currently) nearly 3-month lifespan, compared to C2077's 4 years and 3 weeks. This is a staunch failure of a AAA title.

[@gamingtonight1526]

Yet, there are rumours Witcher 4 is going to be woke, due to CDPR asking for DEI game developers.

[@JayImmortalTV]

@@gamingtonight1526 Yes, and?

[@Piett_]

Good point. They are searching for reasons that DA failed but it shouldn‘t be DEI.

[@EvanOfTheDarkness]

What he means is that having some drop off is normal, as most players finish the game, and only a few will stick around for repeated playthroughs. What isn't is that the drop off is from less then a hundred thousand players. Cyberpunk 2077 had a million at launch. These are indie game number for a AAA release.

[@TimmyInTarky]

Skyrim is at 60 000 currently.

[@syrindark]

Had a DEI hire at my job. She was a total nightmare, always a victim, always causing problems. She had the highest HR submissions the HR Dept has ever seen literally doubling all prior reports COMBINED. It was insane. She later quit and stole company equipment on her way out.

[@ruinerblodsinn6648]

I thought it’s super easy to terminate employees in the US (for basically any reason). Why wasn’t she kicked out ?

[@user-jp4cj3ds7p]

How do you know she was a dei hire?

[@TheMrComentarista]

How are you so sure she was a DEI hire?

[@neotalin7238]

@@TheMrComentarista Well, it's part of the HR submissions. non-DEI hires would work and not report "microaggressions".

[@TheMrComentarista]

@@neotalin7238 I don't think overly reporting to HR means it was a DEI hire

[@Steve-of1kb]

Never forget: Jason Schreier didn't report on Blizzard sexual misconduct until it was financially expedient

[@karndorbad6536]

I wish they would bring the bro culture back wow sucks ass now

[@Steve-of1kb]

@ true brother.

[@JobisontheMove]

@@karndorbad6536 Right on brah!

[@idonuttylikezenorship4547]

The last name says it all... one of THEM

[@MichaelWinsteadYT]

@@idonuttylikezenorship4547 German or German Jew?

[@ruidecas5640]

Three thing that are killing modern day western AAA in my opinion: 1.Making products that are "decent enough" to sell, but not actually good. 2.Engaging in predatory monetization. 3.Making changes based on contemporary ideological craze.

[@chrish7308]

The first 2 they could get by barely, have been since they found out how much mobile games make with less effort, but now they have a product no one wants because of ideology

[@marcoscunha511]

The 3rd is the 1st.

[@thebigbucktheory5488]

it's going to be like music inevitably. Taylor Swift is probably the most popular artist right now but I wouldn't exactly call her the best musician, or someone who writes the best music. A majority of radio rock/pop is all not that good to me but is super popular. same with games.

[@dieptrieu6564]

The first 2 was never problem. In fact, it's how they made bank. The 3rd one is an issue but it's not that big, either. The problem of modern AAA is that they focus on the wrong things. Like graphics, acessibility, etc... When the most important thing is still the gameplay.

[@DisappointedSon0813]

I think 3 is a WAY bigger issue then only making it to 3 on your list. It's number one, no contest.

[@microj80]

Compare this to helldivers. Arrowhead said they will never add social issues into the game. When it was first released there was a big push/attempt to add a rainbow cape and Arrowhead said no and didn’t cave.

[@Erik-i2f4d]

They were banning wokies for acting political too

[@Hyrule409]

And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, in Modern Warfare 3 reboot, the ONLY calling cards that were available on day 1, aside from the default one, were flags of every kind of different sexuality. I shit you not. Not even country flags, just sexuality flags.

[@Erik-i2f4d]

@Hyrule409 Last time I played COD was the BLM era. It wouldnt let me make a WLM clan tag name, so I made this: vvl_M Oh, and I sure used that purple lightning bolt graffiti tag a lot. I'd put SS everywhere hahahaha

[@bencastor9207]

It's still blocked in most of the world, they're just as bad, nobody cares.

[@alex_zetsu]

Honestly I wouldn't mind a rainbow cape if a rainbow stayed a rainbow instead of being a political message.

[@jessearmstrong6583]

1.5 million is still way too many people that tried this crap...

[@TheStonewall117]

Exactly. What’s worse is that I can’t believe some people say it’s the best dragon age in their opinion ….

[@aj.j5833]

This is why I call gamers stupid and very slow.

[@RealJohnnyGuillotine]

In that 1.5 million number is Gamepass players, and people that got the game for free from buying a graphics card. So, the actual sales numbers would be lower... How much is the question

[@familhagaudir8561]

It had a franchise reputation. That reputation was set on fire. Pronoun. Stuggle. Sessions.

[@courtneyharris1006]

They farmed their brand name. People will be more cautious next time.

[@RodinaJanikova]

"If you don't like it, don't buy it." And we listened.

[@Ixar900]

Then they keep crying about how you are a hater

[@long_dennis]

“NoOoOoOoO wE dIdNT mEaN iT lIkE tHaT. wE mEaNt YoU hAvE tO cHaNgE aNd Be LiKe Us” -DEI enjoyer, probably

[@Sgt_Glory]

​@@long_dennisI'd put real money down that that exact phrase was in fact uttered by someone at some point.

[@hlwanmoe1981]

I'm 44, I play PC games since I was 13. If any game studio came up with this bs DEI, they'll never get my money. Period.

[@IronD-12]

39 here, almost the same story but with the exact same ending. Only difference with me is if i want to check it out, it gets pirated and modded 😂

[@zRidZz]

24 but same

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

32, my first game was probably on the NES, when I was maybe 3. Probably SMB or SMB3, but it coulda been Duck Hunt, Fester's Quest, or Batman. I've kind of tapped out of AAA games for a long time now, they kinda peaked with 7th console gen IMO and there has been little that is interesting or innovating for the past 8 years in that end of the industry, it's very stagnant. Even back in 2018, my GOTY experiences then was a game from 2013 and a game from 1994. It really feels like the future of videogames is going to be spearheaded by AA and the most ambitious and talented of indies. Nobody fucking wanted Veilguard, not even the lefties, and Ubisoft are collapsing under their own excess bloat, but then a guy puts out a Roguelike game about playing Poker, and EVERYONE loves it. 2024 was a year of contrasts.

[@----.__]

Nearly 50, started gaming on the 2600 and the C64. These companies are so foolish it beggars belief. I've worked my way in to a high paying engineering role, I pay inordinate amounts of money on collectables and hardware, yet I won't spend a single penny on anything that contains gender politics. I saw a clip from this new DA where one of the characters openly states "okay, so I'm non-binary" and I had to close the video. I just stared at the screen for 5 minutes wondering how we got here, fired up an A500 emulator, and started smiling again. Games are for fun, they're not for lecturing, if I want to take a class in something it will be something worthwhile like STEM and not underwater lesbian basket weaving theory.

[@Jay84476]

I'm pansexual and genderfluid and I hated the shoehorned in crap, write characters in properly or not at all

[@Pkob1922]

Roaching out away from X is the perfect admission of self-defeat.

[@svitii]

Remember: Veilguard is already on the EA game pass. Wouldn't be surprised if a couple hundred thousand of those players never bought the game.

[@daniel29263]

Yes, they 100% are including those numbers.

[@TheKyledmusic]

It is not on Gamepass yet

[@RuneBiker]

@@TheKyledmusicIt’s on EA’s version of game pass. EA Play.

[@rochellemcnally7601]

@@TheKyledmusic You're right. It is on EA Play though.

[@hippiebrother3]

I got a month of ea pro to try it myself. As you can see from my name, big fan. I literally stated on my cancellation “I got this subscription to try out veilguard for myself because I was afraid it would not be worth $70. I was right.”

[@DetectivePikachu37347]

What is frustrating is that BioWare had 10 years, a great antagonist and the perfect setup from DAI. Instead of giving us fans what we wanted. They decide to make a lecturing simulator with poor gameplay, sideline Solas and shame us for not using the proper pronouns.

[@majora919]

The revisionist history is kinda bothering me a little dragon age Inquisition had a lot of controversy with the game itself coming from the last title

[@Kododie]

You wouldn't get a good game out of them because it was stuck in developement hell for these 10 years. If they had a good product in oven it would be out way sooner.

[@aspret315]

Agreed. Total disgrace

[@TheRationalist.]

Inquisition was trash. It was a shell of the game that origins was. It was generally thought of as mediocre at the time and had plenty of the trappings of dei in it.

[@luuin]

The best part was when they dropped trou' and took a big ol' deuce on the established lore by saying all the prior antagonists were being mislead by whispers from the Forgotten Ones. Completely assassinating their character writing.

[@Justacatlmao]

DEI stands for: Discrimination Exclusion Indoctrination

[@Lurker_Z]

*Incompetence

[@CptWhoopass]

Donald Ended It 💃🕺

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

Didn't Earn It

[@mothbreeder641]

@@CptWhoopass Yeah, now it's just called BRIDGE. Belonging, Representation, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and the G is to BRIDGE the gap with all of these. Literally in the articles about DEI being ended at Walmart etc. they talk about expanding and renaming it..

[@kevinhale628]

Remeber in the early days when dei changed its name from die?

[@noskalborg723]

As a conservative Christian (Latter-day Saint) I would actually love to see a game where they represent woke, but do it similar to the way Dragon Age represented mages vs templars in Inquisition "not all of either side are bad, but both sides have some severely bad actors that need to be put in their place". I oppose woke, but i know that not all who follow woke are rabid and unkind. Some just don't understand what is going on. They live in a virtual bubble the radicalized them, and they are taught that people who want to take it away from them are mean at heart or blind to the option of "kindness" as they call it. It would be awesome to see a game that makes the woke confront the reality of conservatives that want to get along with liberals, znd vice versa, a game that depicts dishonest extremism in all its glory, next to the lives of the people both extremes have trampled.

[@dominic2196]

A Mormon that thinks they understand what's going on... now that's a good joke.

[@off6848]

@@dominic2196What are you talking about

[@Miratesus]

​@@dominic2196 If he is able to separate his faith to his everyday life to a relatively high degree he is way better at understanding what's going on that the avg liberal/progressive i'd say.

[@whatNtarnation90]

This would be the best way to do it. Unfortunately however that sounds like just good writing. Wokeness at its core isn’t about making peace or overall understanding either, that’s just the surface level bait used.

[@noskalborg723]

@@whatNtarnation90 Thank you. you are correct about good writing. And you are correct about Wokeness not being about Peace. Just like how the Gadianton Robbers weren't really about putting a birthright Lamanite in charge of the birthright (which is actually about taking care of the unfortunates of the family). Instead the Gadiantons placed inherited guilt on the Nephites for a perceived theft of power, and used that as an excuse to justify every single crime, so long as the victims weren't (in the gang). some get dragged into woke by ideological peace bait, others get pulled in by an appeal to sexual or drug related freedom. Still others are offered a cloak for their known serial abuses (or we expose them). And finally, some are bullied into initiation through various kinds of threats and actual harm. But all initiates to the true cults of woke are hazed with doing crime and swearing both allyship and secrecy (the higher the position, the worse the crime)

[@Just_a_turtle_chad]

This is what happens when you make a game for 1% of people who are the 1% of people who don't play games.

[@thisisntme5742]

It really is simple math. There is clearly a large overlap between people with this ideology and those who shit on gamers. Their marketing departments must have been under the DEI umbrella.

[@natebroadus8474]

The media is to blame. Gaming media pushed DEI,because the journalists themselves were likely DEI hires,or just blindly woke.

[@stevenyee1055]

Bashing gamers on forums while their simps artificially inflate the numbers.

[@cryptohappy66]

0.1

[@JakeTheStakeNowIn3D5024]

It's not even 1%! This is only for like less than 100 people, out of millions of gamers.

[@filipvadas7602]

The game director jumped on board, ruined a beloved franchise & what was left of Bioware's credibility, potentially losing hundreds of people their jobs in the process with their nonsense, and then dipped out the moment it was obvious the game is a failure. Calling them a roach is an insult to roaches tbh

[@kawkasaurous]

Unless there's evidence of employees speaking up and trying to stop bad mechanics and wokeness in their game .... Good

[@Bjorn-f5l]

More like a wasp. Insert your ideology in their victims and move on once the victim explode.

[@dogbot55]

But she/her did such a job

[@Wolfgang_von_Caelid]

I get where you're coming from and generally agree, but I am SO SICK of this "devs losing their jobs!" narrative. If you make a GAME where the GAMEPLAY isn't fun, and the product subsequently flops, losing your job is perfectly reasonable. If I royally fk up a marketing campaign as a marketing manager, I should expect to at _least_ be reprimanded somehow. This idea that all devs, and specifically AAA devs no less, are perfect artisans, all deserving of their positions, is absurd.

[@Eren-cy6ln]

A leech is the correct term.

[@Isaygoodday5]

The most ridiculous cope I've seen from the Veilguard sub is one person who was insisting that when it says "engaged players", that actually means players who get really into the game, because they think that's what they really care about, and so the actual sales number is probably way higher. Just the most insane copium.

[@Psycorde]

😂

[@michaelmarsh1723]

That's actually insane, bro

[@Isaygoodday5]

@@michaelmarsh1723 and they kept arguing that they were the only one interpreting it correctly over and over again

[@allylilith5605]

ofc, they sent out an 8 page formular out to every player and then they manually checked the responses and concluded based on that whether or not the player was engaged and worth putting into the statistic. so, its fair to assume that the game was actually sold 1.2 times for every person who has internet acces on planet earth

[@bsavagestudios]

"Engaged" has always been used by companies to dishonestly project success when "engaged" includes things like ad views. You scroll past an ad and it auto plays, you just "engaged" with it.

[@mango2538]

Dude gamers are a different breed. If the game isn’t fun, we just aren’t playing it.

[@rogan4338]

Even sports gamers are catching on now. FC25 sales are down. Never thought I would see the day.

[@KING-dz1qv]

exactly like if we need games for DEI purpose then there shouldn't be people playing games to begin with it ruins the game

[@micheljolicoeur6094]

@Asmongold, the EA statement says "1.5M engagement". Does even say players. People that bought and refunded without playing are being counted as well. EA also reported a loss of between $400M and $550M for Q3.

[@thebenc1537]

With how much they spent making and advertising this game, 3M in sales would be the break even point. They were expecting to sell more than 3M, otherwise why make a game that only breaks even. So even with this admission they are still lying to their investors.

[@suaveclt]

I've never heard of this game before

[@iJedi_aye]

Does it also include up- and down-votes on the game service (Steam or Origin or whatever? I don't know enough about it to know even that much)? And any mentions of it on social media? Those could all also be considered "engagements" with the game.

[@8bitchiptune420]

1.5m sold played or not.

[@Malam_NightYoru]

even just clicking in ads is engagement 😂 They are joking at this point 😂

[@ghostridergunship]

1:48 Jason Schrier can only be found on Blue Sky, where he will be soon forgotten into obscurity. That should tell you all you need to know.

[@eljefeamericano4308]

Tells me he couldn't make it on X.

[@AsdAsd-nl6xg]

So he found safe harbor on the child corn platform

[@EvanOfTheDarkness]

Liberals are trying to make bluesky happen, ever since Musk bought Twitter. It makes sense he wouldn't want to support Twitter, even if he looses some followers in the process. Unlike influencers he is not chained to the platform, for him it's more like a blog.

[@darkmaster539]

He's employed by a major paper, so I doubt it. Social media isn't his own platform.

[@bigmikeisaman]

"Everything woke turns to shit."

[@younmefrien]

i wise man once said.

[@myrchantkobold8268]

Everything conservative has been and is always shit. The trick is being progressive but respectful to the art. Many big companies lose the respect they should have and treat fans as statistics.

[@indeedinteresting2156]

​@@myrchantkobold8268 you people really like to think about things in a black and white metric. Not everything conservative is bad, not everything progressive is bad.

[@Blodhelm]

@@younmefrien *Anyone with eyes said.

[@redglint6451]

​@@myrchantkobold8268 wym everything conservative is sht tho Everything has its flaws the conservative thing included but the majority still holds up very well even nowadays but rn the focus of so many videos is "[progressive item] is [bad adjective]" both conservatives and progressive thing can be crappy but progressive tends to fail more often than conservative does in the current "meta"

[@chrischurch4551]

He's only on Bluesky. That explains a lot.

[@bubdubs5294]

I heard him talk for the first time the other day, and yeah. Dude is Definitely into men.

[@MegaManDied]

Not JUST them using the 'Players' metric over the 'Sales' metric, but ALSO that 3,000,000 projected sales number is always under what the company is actually hoping for. The reason for this is simple: the company is actually expecting like 5 million, but reports to the ignorant yet rich shareholders they expect 3 million; they lowball the shareholders to always look good. This is devastating, because they couldn't reach half of their LOWBALL.

[@Lurker_Z]

I've noticed and said this before, the shareholders are definitely a part of the problem. Management has been tanking companies and stock with DEI for years, yet the shareholders keep them there like lemmings. There's some level of collusion there.

[@misterbrady100]

Not every shareholder is rich. Some might have a 401K or other retirement account, and all they want is to retire with enough to survive on. Most shareholders only want to know if they should buy, hold, or sell. It looks like for a lot of people it was sell.

[@formes2388]

Ya no, not how it really works. Without some significant reason for a drastic deviation of sales, that is reflected in the rest of the market - or, stands out as a clear benefit, if your target estimated sales is significantly higher or lower then your target (and 20% qualifies, let alone 40%) - is so out of wack that it actually suggests you have no idea about the market you are dealing with, or consumers, and so on. And that is exactly what is showcased here. Edit: A good reason to be way over sales target - Achieving Game of the Year in one or more game awards. A good reason for being under: An unexpected depression state of the economy reducing people's disposable income.

[@Blodhelm]

Earlier they said that they expected 11 million sales, they were delusional.

[@LaurenVignec]

Yes. They were expecting to sell 10 million, which was just a little less than the previous Dragon Age title had sold. The failure to even sell 1.5 million copies is incredible.

[@alleystargrowley2784]

When I was at the VA earlier, the staff was talking about how they already received notice that all Federal hiring has been halted until the DEI practices have been removed.

[@msihcs8171]

Please let us hope getting some of the non-working gunk out of the chain makes the VA more efficient. There are far too many "paper pusher" jobs that pretty much LITERALLY push a paper from one place to another at the VA (having been a patient with them since 2008, and having worked at one for a bit in 2011/2012)

[@myrchantkobold8268]

@@msihcs8171 It will do the opposite, now you end up with fewer workers.

[@XiaolinDraconis]

@@myrchantkobold8268 please refer to the comment above yours. Aside from that did you forget about Twitter? Fewer employees is not always bad.

[@Jordabrz]

​@@myrchantkobold8268fewer workers can be a good thing if it eliminates positions that get paid to literally do nothing, people in those positions are not "working" or contributing

[@bluelunarmonkeytarot8533]

all its doing is eliminating the waste. they will hire more workers as needed and train them properly. ​@@myrchantkobold8268

[@bowlofrice1006]

Jason Schreier literally just posted about ACshadows. Ubi is paying and he is willing to take the check every time 😂😂😂😂

[@drockopotamus1]

He also posted about Veilguard's failure despite his claim that it "owned the chuds" just a month ago lol. Dude is a clown.

[@fixyourautomobile]

He is doing gods work on his own reputation. His attitude sucks from what little I know of this guy.

[@ghoulbuster1]

Member of the tribe...

[@jimyif]

Love to see “journalists” own-goaling themselves publicly online, way to go for your “career”

[@Wolfgang_von_Caelid]

Omg, go on his bluesky account and read the replies to his Veilguard underperformance post. The delusion is so strong that it's _almost_ blackpilling me on the future of gaming as a medium; I say almost because I have some faith in the suits seeing these numbers and making a _drastic_ course-correction, not on GaaS or mtx necessarily, but _at least_ on the woke grandstanding

[@keselekbakiak]

A decade ago i play requiem, tera online, archeage and BDO, filled with sexy clothes. I didnt see people complain about the skimpy costume. But now AGS censor blue protocol short skirt, and lost ark trailer. The fear of sexiness in game is stupid.

[@rodrigofreitas3288]

Tourist activists got really triggered by some of these games around 2014. One of the reasons 'progressive' corpos had been trying to dictate the gaming industry.

[@Yarharsuperpirate]

What you need to realize is, a big brand AAA game that was marketed to hell and back, debuting with only 58,000 peak player count IS ABYSMAL

[@CodyRPierce]

Compare that to halo 3 which had over a million concurrent players at its peak

[@TheTexasDice]

Dragon Age Veilguard lost to Dragon's Dogma 2. Dragon's Dogma 2 is unfinished and a sequel to a game barely anyone played, while Veilguard was the fourth game in a franchise EA considers a pillar to their company. It's laughable.

[@jimmythecrow]

@@CodyRPierce i was in line that night to get the game

[@Gameprojordan]

​@@CodyRPierce mind you Halo 3 was EXCLUSIVE to one single console that required an subscription to play online when it came out. It also came out in 2007 when online gaming wasn't nearly as widespread as it was now. The game was so popular on release that Xbox had to shut down and revamp their online server to handle that much traffic at once

[@angel_of_rust]

@@Gameprojordan these companies probably missed those days were server outages and upkeep were their biggest concerns. where they only suffer a little because of success, not forever because of stupidity.

[@KaptainKerl]

the Veilguard subreddit is another example of reddit being a cesspool of delusional people who will debate and defend the dumbest shit.

[@aaronerickson9453]

reddit is the worst.

[@michaelbowman6684]

I mean hey, TheLastOfUs2 subreddit is a shrine of "fuck this game" so not _all_ of Reddit is bad.

[@EldenLord-wh4ov]

​@@michaelbowman6684the Bloodborne subreddit is pretty chill too

[@dj_koen1265]

the worst thing is when a game you love gets taken over by delusional people who will call you everything bad or outright shame or ban you if you disagree with them

[@jackofastora8962]

I got banned from that sub for 999 days because I told someone “you shouldn’t compare people who want to be meaner in veilguard to people who want to force roleplay rape in a dnd game”

[@Nurucoffeez]

I remember losing a job to a DEI hire. Buddy of mine was a recruiter at the company and didn't have a choice. They had three years less experience and were from my previous company as well after being fired for incompetency

[@ThatchNetherfold]

I feel bad for you having to deal with that nonsense, brother. But it will change within this 4 years, that I believe.

[@veikovasko5603]

Stuff like that can redpill You in an instant.

[@divine0enigma]

If you can work for a job that requires a security clearance it'll be much more difficult for that to happen. That was my approach anyway.

[@rerako4755]

Honestly with my level of imposter syndrome I'd fear being a DEI hire...

[@Erowens98]

​​@@ThatchNetherfoldprobably not. The ideologs with the money still believe in this and still own the major financial institutions. At best over the next 4 years we'll have a little break.

[@justacomment123]

Jason....Jason....It's hard to "top" the charts when everyone behind the movement is a clear bottom.

[@fluffypinkpandas]

I think the biggest noticeable thing with DEI is that it led to pipelines where we couldnt tell if the devs actually played the final product long enough to understand whats going on with the player. Now we have Fallout Dev yelling at us for not knowing what we want, but heres the thing we never had to describe it before. we got things that felt right because we trusted the devs played it til it felt right for them too. now we have to describe game-feeling to those that do not feel their own product or feel other products weve consumed. we all have to rediscover fire TOGETHER AND REINTRODUCE IT TO PROMETHEUS by showing HIM how he used to cook. We are picking up where Cheff Gusteau left off like its fuckin ratatoulie. we gotta fix the recipe or he boomed emself in vain. We dont know how to cook either but we are piloted by rats that know by-sense what shit in gaming is supposed to smell, feel and taste like, without being able to explain it to the sous chef.

[@LibraritheWizardOfficial]

That Prometheus explanation is pure poetry

[@Wolfgang_von_Caelid]

Man, this is a really great analogy brother, I'm putting this in my back pocket. Another point tangentially related to this that is worth bringing up; it feels like most of the directors/writers for these modern AAA games don't even _want_ to work in gaming, what they _really_ want is to be working in Hollywood, and they are attempting to use games as a springboard to advance their career into what they actually wanted to do all along, presumably because they didn't have what it takes to make it in Hollywood (which is apparent when you look at these abysmal narratives). What gets lost in all this? GAMEPLAY. These are GAMES, they need to be FUN, if I want an incredible story I will watch a movie or read a book. /endrant

[@fluffypinkpandas]

@ yeah bruh its like “ur John Fire… what do you mean you dont know how to use it or what we’d try and use it for? you didnt like….. play with it urself?”

[@fluffypinkpandas]

@ yeah too many games are being produced by John RPG who forgets roleplay games are supposed to have roleplay elements and not just shit tons of number interactions and encumbrance management. or by a failed writer games dont feel like they are being made by players anymore. and if they are. its a “write what you know” but “code what you know” type scenario where lame devs that make lame games are lame players who got inspired by other lame games. every genre of game is part of a generational cycle. but memetic instead of genetic in terms of the game’s DNA cool shit inspires ppl to make cool shit lame shit inspires ppl to make lame shit and think its cool

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

The devs don't even play their games anymore. Most devs nowadays are contractors whose job is to get a certain task done. Many are done and out, which is how you end up with teams of 1000 and a a game like Concord.

[@Xalantor]

Remember when Square Enix said that Tomb Raider selling only 5 million copies was a disappointment? AHAHAHAHAHA "players reached" probably includes press copies, people immediately refunding, Game Pass, and also those who just watched the trailer

[@ravindavinthescandinavian4998]

I would count as one of those “players reached”. I got the Square trilogy when each of the games was either on sale or free with the PSN monthly pass, but have barely touched any of them since. Definitely not engaged but it depends how you measure it.

[@RazSofer-xh3qs]

It’s not extinct. It’s dying but can come back again. We need to make sure it never comes back even in generations to do so

[@refugeehugsforfree4151]

It will be replaced with * children Privileges.

[@aj.j5833]

Far from dying, KCD2's studio, Warhorse, got captured by them.

[@Xzoviac]

its not just woke stuff as woke stuff was in bg3 and that has 61000 people still playing right now and 70000 this week, it had body type 1 and 2, it had male gnomes running around screaming about its husband, it had a random lesbian god/demigod i personally think bg3 would have been better with out this stuff, least we can mod it all out DGV has 3000 people right now playing its peak is 89000, so it can only just compete with bg3s left over players

[@LawfulBased]

DEI ironically made it harder for people of whatever minority identitys to be seen as valid to be there. Shows that modern liberals are simply not up to the task.

[@thefallenvalley4340]

You can expect me, a normal gamer, be part of the anti-woke movement for my entire life.

[@michaelmorrigan614]

As someone who works full time, runs an FC on FFXIV, and tries to play single player games as they come out (as well as keep up with other games I like to play on a regular basis like Elite Dangerous, CIV 6, and Uboat); I can only buy/play a few games every year, so I really appreciate games like this and AC:Shadows for making my choices easier.

[@alexfortin7209]

“Republicans also buy sneakers” - Michael Jordan explaining why he avoided most political controversies Video game makers need to remember that “Conservatives also buy video games…”

[@R.....1-56]

i remember that i the 80s. i had a pair of lebrons i threw them away after he got so political in fact i do not wear any pro sport clothes any more not since they took a knee i tossed out thousands of dollars of jerseys fool me once ok ok but i wont be fooled again ... i grew up watching Nolan Ryan so new athletes have ruined it

[@JRBaldOPPA]

@@R.....1-56how dafaq can you have a pair of Lebrons during the 80s when he was drafted in 2003

[@R.....1-56]

@@JRBaldOPPA i had a pair in like 2008 im well aware he did not play in 80s i was stating i threw all of it away

[@R.....1-56]

@ i remember that in the 80s........A period means i started a new sentence

[@R.....1-56]

@ i remember Jordan saying that in the 80s is what i was trying to say

[@fellowninja]

Players understand that “DEI” is shorthand for “DEI is more important than this thing we’re making, and that’s all we as creators care about.” It’s not racist, sexist, bigoted, phobic, or even adjacent to those things to believe that programs which explicitly prefer, not favor, one group over another are inherently wrong. No one is going to complain about something made for [INSERT] audience. They’re complaining when something is made to flatter one audience and disparage another.

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

It's even simpler than that. It's not even a moral issue. Any one person, as a customer, has the legal and moral right to choose what they do and don't buy with their own time and money. Rejecting a game with DEI in it is no different than rejecting a game with centipedes in it. You are allowed to not buy things, and nobody can tell you otherwise.

[@Wolfgang_von_Caelid]

Agreed, but I think the more nuanced take is that this wouldn't even be a problem if these devs put their politics _in their own, new IPs._ What they have been doing the past half decade+ is worming their way into these organizations and corrupting tried-and-true franchises with passionate fanbases. Not only will the games flop, but you will produce massive sh-tstorms from those fans; if it were all in new IPs, at least the sh-tstorm part wouldn't happen and the games would flop in obscurity, like that "Unknown 9" game (perfect name as well).

[@unknown_cat6969]

​@@Wolfgang_von_Caelid they did put politics in their own IPs like Concord and Dustborn...lmao

[@obliviouz]

Yup. By definition, if you're prioritising DEI, you're not prioritising everything that makes a game good.

[@Wolfgang_von_Caelid]

@@unknown_cat6969 exactly, and what happened? We all pointed and laughed. Imagine if Dustborn's design ethos was applied to, say, the new Ninja Gaiden game that just got announced. What do you think the reaction would be then? People would be _pissed._

[@Nightwalk444]

Even considering that Veilguard is a singleplayer game, you can simply compare it to Witcher 3, Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. 14 years later Skyrim still has 46k 24h peak on Steam, 10 years later Witcher 3 has a 23k 24h peak. Cyberpunk is a little newer but still older than Veilguard and has a 33k 24h peak. Veilguard? 4k peak.

[@mikeben4584]

Lmao good lord

[@urwifesbf]

Sheesh, i knew it was bad but I didn't expect it to be THAT bad.

[@huntermad5668]

Skyrim has multiple versions also.

[@plume_A]

And the mods for Skyrim are simply fantastic

[@antonkirilenko3116]

Baldur's Gate 3 has 72k 24h peak, too. Which might increase again when Patch 8 is released.

[@blecis74]

Don’t really comment on Asmons videos but I was checking Steam charts and looked at popular fantasy RPG numbers. Dragon age the Veilguard: 2624 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: 38999 Baldurs Gate 3: 55019 I do find it funny how Skyrim which is going to be 14 years old this year has more than 10x the player numbers than a game that game out this year. Even BG3 which came out the year before has more people playing it, why? Because Larian made a game to make a game not to push agenda.

[@maxrice6990]

Sadly the executives will view this as "gamers don't want single player games" and fail to understand it's bad writing and forced social issues that are annoying their customers

[@shatteredsentient5321]

Black Myth Wukong?

[@mymaudlincareer]

baldurs gate 3 still having around the same amount of concurrent players as black ops 6 should say otherwise but we all know those dipshits think that game is an anomaly and too hard for their multibillion dollar company to pull off

[@BeczaBot]

No, I think many will wake up after the value of their stock keeps tanking.

[@angel_of_rust]

how can they be that dense?

[@proton3748]

Np, we'll just play other single player games Not like we are forced to buy their game only

[@MarkusRamikin]

This wasn't a "divisive" issue, it was a hated issue. It was 50-50, except like this: 50%: "It's another Dragon Age, I must play it no matter what" + Asmongold-like "I don't even listen to the dialogs, but the combat is ok" 50%: "I'm not touching this shit writing / give me a refund"

[@Entropy67]

unfortunately shit writing impacts even those that don't pay attention as the situations encountered in the game are far more mediocre

[@Lurker_Z]

Asmon "liked" the combat, but ignored how he's always down to 1 health and not dying. That's an immense red flag even when you only care about combat, what do you mean failing in a battle has no consequences on the character?

[@likwid_smoke]

@markusramikin the mage combat was good imo. The writing was awful. Especially with the companions. Solas was the best character in the entire game.

[@Thalanox]

@Lurker_Z Do you prefer Dark Souls or Tarkov for your failure consequences?

[@cyriell]

So it was a divisive issue, they divided the entire possible customer base on what you said, these devs know people will sell out anyway due to branding, so they chose to split up the entire customer base to spread their idealogical messaging, while knowing the entire idealogical messaging (dei "woke" etc) was allready a hot topic to put it lightly to begin with

[@davidhamilton7865]

5:26 they didn’t know it was divisive, they live in bubbles. all of their friends think just like they do and if they don’t they cut them out of their life

[@Pikwhip]

nailed it, also a good summary of "toxic positivity"

[@otromae]

Lol they are in echo chambers where only what they say is heard

[@ForeverYoungKickboxer]

This is true. I work for a State Agency protecting civol rights, it's filled with ideologues like this who don't realize THEY are the ones lumping everyone into monolothic groups, forcing people to carry the weight of representing an entire race in every single interaction, every single day.

[@noskalborg723]

10:00 these people aren't gaslighting themselves. What happens is "i made him an offer he couldn't refuse" and then they act like they are gaslighting themselves, because they have made oaths of activism and secrecy.

[@ThmsDouglas]

Holier than thou gonna change the world types.

[@kravmaga2466]

bingo

[@noskalborg723]

@@ThmsDouglas that is how they get recruited sometimes. But sometimes it's through threats, and sometimes it's because they are already very corrupt, but have no protection from an organization, so they get recruited and initiated.

[@skenzyme81]

All you have to do to save your company is pull up the list of every job title and Ctrl+F for *DEI,* *Diversity,* *Equity,* and *Inclusion,* and fire every person with one of those words in their title. 100% guaranteed fix.

[@aj.j5833]

They are changing the titles like ATF just did for theirs.

[@Copoc10]

a quick check for blue/pink/green hair and/or pronouns wouldn't hurt either

[@EvanWilliamG]

Blizzard or w/e the fuck the company is called now needs to do this

[@UraFuqinIdiot]

And this is why none of you people run a company.

[@LawfulBased]

*DEI* _"didn't earn it"_ and it's true meaning was always *'Division Exclusion & Intolerance'* 👌

[@guillermoperez25]

There's always a market for games that represent modern social issues. But bringing that crap to popular established IPs and FANTASY SETTINGS is batshit crazy.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

There's also a right way and a wrong way to do it. When you bring it into a fantasy world, it needs to make sense in the context of the game's world. Trails of Cold Steel ironically dealt with a lot of DEI issues like divisions between ethnicity, economic class, and social class. But, it made sense in a world that was rapidly mechanizing and integrating people of different backgrounds and tribes as they dealt with the threat of new wars.

[@FuzFuz]

Shoving it in estabilished IPs and ruining their lores is the issue. I don't have any problem with devs that decide to make an original game of their own with those messages. I could safely ignore it (or not), but I can't ignore when they ruin an IP I like.

[@TheTexasDice]

@@ohnosmoarlulcatz Agreed. We used to have allegories and symbolism to tackle these issues in a fantasy coat. Remember how elves are treated in Witcher? They don't necessarily represent any particular ethnic group, but that isn't the point. The Point is to portray the idea of what racial oppression feels like and how those who are oppressed by a system will lash out against it. But allegory and symbolism don't work on zoomers. No attention span, no subtext, no critical thinking.

[@theholydemonofficial8165]

EXACTLY! Nobody would care at all if they did it in their own games, like Dustborn got shit on because it sucked but other games got it way worse because they ruined the IP's as well!

[@levinstream]

Spoken like a grifter. DA:O had gay romance options years before gay marriage was legal in the US. This series started with modern social issues. You've never played these games, have you?

[@SpiceCh]

It also bears remembering that the 1.5 million players most likely includes free promotions like graphics card bundles, as well as discounts. A chunk of those players didn't pay full price for the game, which means they don't even really contribute to the "player/sales goal". This is how they manipulate the numbers to make it look like less of a failure than it really is. You can probably reduce that number by 250-500.000 to get the actual full price sales numbers. They most likely didn't sell more than 1 million full price copies and they needed 3.5-4.5 million to break even

[@borismaric130]

you are correct also EA subscription

[@internet_warlord]

4:55 They did not divide gamers 50/50. They divided it 100/0 against them. The ones they are pandering to aren’t even gamers.

[@jamesweible5357]

Growing up poor has interesting effects. For instance, I was always too poor to buy the latest thing, so I never got caught up in hype trends, never allowed myself to want for new shiny things, and then when I grew up and made my own money, I was far better able to resist the traps I saw everyone else falling into. I even shared some of my ways of thinking with others and for some it broke them out as well. I got into KOTOR from discovering mass effect, shortly before EA bought BioWare. So I had just started thinking of BioWare as a trustworthy company, when EA bought them. EA being a megacorp I knew they weren't to be trusted, so I just let my love for BioWare die and mourned it's loss. I WANTED to hope that EA wouldn't destroy it. That their execs had just bought the company to make them money and wouldn't nibble it to death, but I knew better so I killed that hope. I tried to help others start mourning as well, and sadly didn't succeed much. I do have hopes for studios such as Larian and CDProjectRed, as they stayed free during the time when many studios got bought, and weathered the storm of gotcha to maintain most if not all of their reputation. CDPR obviously hurt themselves big time with Cyberpunk, but I think that was a well learned lesson, but we shall see. My advice to everyone (knowing few will take it) is to ignore hype, but games that look good to you, not what anyone else says, and support and fight for smaller companies trying to stay away from megacorps. It broke my heart when HareBrained Schemes sold to Paradox, but now they have left them again, so they learned a hard lesson as well, and because of that, I will do all I can to support them so they can keep making great games, and hopefully become another major studio people can look to who avoid the megacorps. Only with those examples will the megacorps lose their power and we will start getting a bunch of great games again.

[@OffisianO]

Same story as you and i couldnt comprehend why anyone would ever preorder a game honestly i still dont think i understand

[@gslang3489]

Movies are starting to stand up to DEI too. I saw Nosferatu last night and i was shocked at how good it was and how they avoided all the aspects of modernity.

[@mikeben4584]

The way count orlok dropped the little girls body 😂 edit dragon age: veilguard over that kids head

[@gslang3489]

@mikeben4584 Bro that scene was amazing. I was so happy that they didn't shy away from showing that. The sound engineering in the movie was fantastic, the set design and the casting was so immersive. Real prosthetics, real sets. Man Johnny taught his daughter how to act too!

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

Not including DEI isn't the same as standing up against it.

[@gslang3489]

@MorMacFey-v2g did you see movie? Seemed like they stood up to it. They took that award checklist and burnt it up.

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

@@gslang3489 I don't have to see any movie to know that. Did the movies from the 1980s stand up to DEI or did they just not have it?

[@FrankKritzman]

I think if they went into a meeting with the board of directors and showed them the cut scene where they “have to do a barve,” the whole studio would be immediately laid off

[@Joshua-pr9vg]

Self-flagellation?

[@DavidJoshua-zc8df]

How about that one really messed moment where Tash gets uncomfortably close to the player and pins them to the wall because Tash assumes your flirting with her?

[@Erowens98]

They'de probably clap and cheer knowing that their ideology is being pushed. There are a lot of very rich people who believe in this stuff. Thats why its so prevalent these days.

[@ЕвгенийПершин-е1ь]

They were under impression that this bs = money, so they may cringe, but then think about profits and laugh it off "peasants will buy this!😂"

[@mrvampire7577]

Blackrock gives writers & managers cash bonuses (bribes) for each diversity box that’s ticked in an entertainment product. Additionally failure to include these themes results in a bad social index score on the stock market.

[@Startrance85]

Filling their studios with DEI wasent that smart.

[@しらこ-465]

Its not gone, just going into hiding. DEI is the tool and not the goal. The people pushing it still have the money and power, and are considering their next approach.

[@filidhdeklend893]

And Trump put them on notice at Davos earlier.

[@kirigherkins]

DEI roach mode activated, better check under the cupboard

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

@@filidhdeklend893 All Trump is doing is playing his part. He acts like he is shutting down DEI but they shut it down and have already rebranded it last YEAR!!!!!

[@Joshua-pr9vg]

The goal is to suppress the voices of the working class underneath a thin veneer of communist feminists. This keeps the rich rich and keeps everyone else grinding for a living.

[@jdog2302]

BRIDGE

[@Zabam]

Asmon is a flashlight. He simply points stuff out and gives such a reasonable center explanation you cant put him on any side

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

Which is why he's such a threat to them. They want you to either be cheering them on, or one of the bad guys that they can stand against. It doesn't matter which, so long as you're a resource they can take advantage of. Asmon isn't either: all he does is give a matter-of-fact explanation of things as he sees it, no more no less. It undermines their entire "good guys vs bad guys" narrative, which is an existential threat to it since you can't radicalize supporters without it.

[@NicoleMarie.]

It’s a skill, I’m certain of it.

[@DragoonKain3]

Note that the report said "Dragon Age ENGAGED approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter." Emphasis mine. As such, that 1.5 million includes people who played the game through their subscription service, and since it's for the quarter a ratio of that engagement is through when the game was on sale. So yes, definitely that number is best case scenario, which to me signals that Mass Effect 5 is going to be in BIG trouble.

[@shawnmassicotte861]

I really hope you are wrong cause dam that first trilogy was amazing besides the ending of course. Andromeda definately had potential but they just fumbled. Let's hope they don't this time or the franchise will be absolutely dead.

[@Claudekr]

It was in big trouble since the moment we saw the first ad for Veilguard, now the trouble has went from "Wow this is going to be DEI slop" to "Wow the studio might close before their next DEI slop gets made"

[@archmagemc3561]

That number also included people who played and got a refund on it.

[@JohnPlissken]

That "engaged" would also include people who immediately refunded it. It might even include people who cancelled their pre-order and never actually played it, depending how loosely they use the term "engaged". It includes people who downloaded it through Xbox Live but never played it, or played for 5 mins and then deleted it. I doubt if even half is legitimate sales.

[@ephemispriest8069]

Andromeda showed us there is no chance they do a good job bringing Shepard back.

[@HervisDaubeny69]

Whenever I hear Jason’s name all that comes to mind is Internet Historians video on No Man’s Sky. “Jason Schreier from the soon to be defunct Kotaku…” is the first thing that comes to mind.

[@Ss4Goten]

Fun fact: Schreier in german means screamer. A very fitting name for Jason Schreier I think.

[@anonemoose7777]

Oy vey!

[@harmhoeks5996]

Genetics are important So a guy who yelled out the news before printing press?

[@gadman85]

Concord will unfortunately be remembered as, "That's what happens you try to make a new IP". It won't be remembered as what happens if you put in a bunch social issues into the game. Veilguard might be remembered as an example of what happens when you put in a bunch social issues into an beloved IP. More likely it will be used as another example of how "Single-player story driven games don't sell."

[@godlynewbie]

oh definately

[@IronD-12]

I dont know i think concord will be remembered as a woke pos new ip. There is just to much that it had to not be in my opinion

[@sidiov]

​@@IronD-12to many it will be, but 10 years from now it will be on lists like 'top 10 great games that weren't given a chance!'

[@cyanmage1]

persona 5 is all you need to point at when people way single player story games don't sell or that turn based games are dead

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

I think the biggest problem for Concord by far was cosmic overspending, DEI was just a smaller part (relatively speaking). If you look at the new Marvel superhero game everyone is playing, or Overwatch before Blizzard wrecked it, those probably didn't have even a fraction of that kind of budget behind them for development and advertising combined. I would not be surprised to learn that some of the massive budget alotted to Concord's development was in actuality embezzled by someone at Sony, because the game really doesn't look like it cost the reported astronomical sum behind it, and I can't remember seeing any marketing for it even once.

[@matthewwatkins512]

I believe their is one reason to play the game. If you rush the main storyline and do NONE of the side quests/relationship quests or whatever you call it, all of the main characters die at the end. So if Veilguard has one thing going for it, it's a great speedrunner game and you still get the best ending.

[@yesman3208]

They expect the people to conform to the product instead of conforming the product to the people. They expect them to establish their values as the “status quo” without it actually being reflective of the majority’s opinions and values.

[@MrTickleTrunk]

DEI is just changing it's name and going into hiding.

[@kevinhale628]

Absolutely, these wierdos still have most of their money somehow

[@ryzkyjaeger07]

Yep, look out for BRIDGE

[@moxdonalds925]

DEI is just affirmative action rebranded

[@myrchantkobold8268]

It's a style of hiring and onboarding, that is all. It's not like women and immigrants get liquidated if there is not some DEI program.

[@paccawacca4069]

@@myrchantkobold8268 A man could only dream... Imagine how much better america would be. Oh well. Maybe someday.

[@davidhammond5304]

I get reprimanded by HR at work for posting a cute cuddly ewok in the work thread, then go home to relax and get reprimanded for misgengering a npc in a game.... I'll never give AAA or dei backed games my money again...

[@Krapvag]

concord not even breaking 700 players was the moment

[@Arcademan09]

"I like Jason" You need to stop thinking like that

[@Fiffelito]

yup. since at the very least 10 years ago. he was in it for the paycheck and the parties, nothing really changed since his time at Kotaku besides going all in with that "ideology". The only reason he is relevant is that his name is known by devs and disgruntled devs leaks him information every now and then... information that is blatantly obvious to everyone like 2 weeks later.

[@Unemployed-Commenter]

Dei is Latin for God. Like Agnus Dei or Gloria In Excelsis Deo. I found it fascinating that DEI acts like a new religion and it calls itself god.

[@thahirshibu5042]

And their followers are reverse flash level haters with Solomon Grundy intellect

[@zacharyperdew4007]

I’m not the only one who noticed this. I’m not sure what it would mean but it’s definitely not coincidence.

[@magnusnilsson9792]

Dragon age: the Fail-god.

[@stevenyee1055]

Facinating, good to know. Reminds me of Yuji Horii Interview on Dragon Quest III HD Remake, about religion, the concerning rise of western idolatry and Japan's vigilance against it due to past experiences.

[@filidhdeklend893]

It also isn't a coincidence that it shares the same acronym as the Roman practice of "Divide and Conquer", Divide Et Impera

[@ERBrd]

Jason gets to be an industry insider because he is their plant. He covers of crazy shit and goes to bat for devs because its his job. He leaks stuff to promote sales & to get news traffic.

[@ffguy91]

One thing I'd like to add to the "It's a single player so once people finish they're done" bit; with a big RPG, you're more likely to have people play through more than once to see what other choices/decisions/outcomes they can have. Older bioware games had quite a few variations of things. Baldur's Gate 3 kept quite a few players for a while after it came out for a few months, obviously the game being extremely large, plus coop being added and such helped a lot with the player count, but it's still pretty dang high, and I still hear people saying "Trying this weird idea on this playthrough". Obviously not everyone is going to playthrough a longass singleplayer game multiple times, but I still think it's a factor when you look at the drop-off rate because it shows people don't care enough to go through it more than once.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

Games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Stardew Valley have surprisingly good retention because of it.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

Dragon Age : Veilguard and Baldur's Gate 3 is a real Goofus & Gallant dichonomy.

[@Leeeeegion]

@@ohnosmoarlulcatz Still playing stardew. Great game

[@TheMasterblah]

The drop off in players is exceptionally shocking since this is an iteration in a long running series that was known for its high replayability value.

[@GeorgeCraig-b3e]

Actually, not just for a while. Baldur's Gate 3 has more players today, more than a year after release, than Veilguard had at its peak, the day of release.

[@rocketdyneF1]

It’s like watching the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[@mrh4900]

It’s okay to be Anglo Saxon

[@GigglingStoners]

Not if you're hoping to survive the next few centuries...

[@Javaris_Jamar]

dats racist

[@sakidickerson]

Yes! Proud Anglo Caucasian. I can finally say this without fear!

[@AlsMrBseat]

DEI IS SO DONE THANKS TRUMP!

[@RandoCDN87]

Cool story bro, say something more original than a copy pasta.

[@MrEvtmazda]

I work for a major worldwide corperation that has been doing terrible these past few years. All because of DEI hiring and allowing people to fail upwards. The cracks have been showing for a while having managers based upon skin color and what they identified as instead of being qualified and performing well. This company will fail eventually if they don't turn this around now. The cracks are massive and showing...

[@ArnoldJudasRimmer..]

Man leave as soon as humanly possible...

[@kevinhale628]

It trickles down to every consumers through every market. You can see it behind the decline of well established companies that cant seem to tie their own shoes anymore

[@mboyce44]

I was 100% going to buy Dragon Age Dreadwolf. I loved Inquisition and wanted more. When the game got rebranded to Veilguard and unveiled the purple softcore image, I was still fine with it, more Inquisition type game is fine with me Week of release I was ready for a single player RPG, hyped to have something for the winter months. Early review videos were positive and I was feeling good. But then I watched a video that didn't say what was bad about the game, but had a huge buyer beware warning So then I dug deeper and looked for more reviews, and heard there was a lot of sjw type shit in there. I messaged a friend 'Veilguard can't be THAT bad can it?' and he told me to just wait and see, and I'm fuckin glad he did. Then the video of the pushups as punishment for misgendering someone came out. And I am so happy I am $70 and 10 hours richer. Rip bozo

[@ClassicLaraCroft]

Same. Won't touch that pile of crap. Sucks cuz DAO and DAI were damn awesome for modern RPGs

[@SemekiIzuio]

I played DAI and it was such a great game but I was not that deep into the franchise like a friend of mine is. He was looking forward to another DA but he showed me the trailer of veilguard and was upset. At first I didn't see a problem with it, it just looked average, no gameplay or anything just a cutscene. Little did I know the game was littered with bs. He unfortunately bought it day one as a fan but was very dissapointed in it lol I on the other hand saved myself from this catastrophe.

[@Gawdrek]

The "pulling a barve" clip was enough to let me know what the game was like.

[@BB-pc2xi]

The problem with the access Journalism that companies don't seem to get is, if you rate a game favorably to maintain good credibility with the companies who give you those sweet delicious early access review opportunities and it sucks; you lose reputation and less people will traffic to your site. Which, eventually, will lead the game companies to slowly favor you less regardless because giving you that early copy won't bring them the Pre-Orders and Day 1 buys they're looking for.

[@laszlo3547]

That trade off makes sense from the journalists perspective. They would lose sponsors quicker if they didn't do the advertising they are paid to do than they lose by lack of viewers.

[@cynon6]

You know they're lying when they say it only performed at 50% of what they projected. They probably expected it to hit more like 5-8 million, at least.

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

and mathematically they needed 30+ million to make a single dollar. Sounds like open fraud to shareholders and charity to woke moron employees.

[@toomanyaccounts]

the sales number was over 10 million they had projected. so no they are indeed gaslighting the shareholders. thing is a lot of them are now smelling the methane and dumping the stock

[@thescarletarcanatarot]

My opinion on DEI in the video game world- I don’t think the average player cares that their avatar doesn’t look like them. If the game doesn’t hold your attention, and the minority characters seem contrived and modified “ for the sake of inclusion”, it’ll turn people off. Hell, I was a kid when NES came out. I was stoked I could play as Princess Toadstool on SMB 2. But I was just as happy playing as Mario, Luigi, or Toad

[@Draconisrex1]

Your opinion is, in fact, wrong. People care tremendously about their avatar and the research has shown it! We're talking something like 85%, 12.5% neutral and just 2.5% don't care.

[@Voldrim359]

We actually care... My friend was playing the other day Howarts Legacy, she was streaming on her Discord server, while she was doing her character, i notice something about the model and asked her to turn the character, change the model, and turn the character again... It was the same model, the only trait we could distinguish from being M or F was the head, the body didn't change at all, she raged about it because she wanted to be sexy in game

[@DrPebis]

We use video games to escape reality not embrace it

[@picklemetimbers3003]

BlueSky at this point is doing us a favor. All the bears in one forest...

[@dairefitzpatrick797]

I think most gamers, irrespective of their political or social beliefs, generally prefer that video games remain separate from real-world issues, serving as a form of escapism. When an ideology is pushed as an agenda, it ruins the experience.

[@dubletrouble2985]

What DEI really stands for: DIDN'T EARN IT. Bout time we brought back competance into the nation.

[@AlsMrBseat]

DEI IS SO DONE THANKS TRUMP!

[@bobgaming-lp2is]

i agree with removing DEI but you're the same people that hate h1b visas despite them bringing competence to the nation. be a little more consistent lil bro

[@itariwasashi1645]

oh my god i agree with you but can you puppets stop posting the same exact comment everywhere

[@keiththompson4300]

Look up Julian Khater he was let out of prison by Trump. Cop killer. No big deal.

[@XUNsc]

@@itariwasashi1645 Bots/NPCs telling Bots/NPCs to not be Bots/NPCs 🤣

[@robinthrush9672]

Not sales, engagement. This doesn't exclude refunded copies, free copies, game passes, or character generator-only play.

[@nobody8717]

2:20 OMG logic? you can't use that! You'll get banned from reddit for that!

[@Lurker_Z]

That sounds like a good thing to me.

[@MrBonebus]

You get banned for any contrasting opinion. Don't like a game mechanic? Ban

[@Citation007]

I think it'll be remembered because it's the first "big name gamer darling" franchise to destroy itself. It also is very hard to pretend its not due to the hamfisted messaging.

[@heikobecker4237]

engaged Players are NOT Sales > this includes EA Play and shared accounts (Steam Family Share), could also include refunds

[@StanTheWoz]

Really hope this is the one that actually makes executives and project heads wake up. I genuinely wonder how much of this was a result of how corporate environments can be a progressive bubble where it's easy to assume everyone agrees with the stated opinions, and not realize how disconnected they've gotten from the average person.

[@Captain_Desolation]

So it cost them 240 million and they made 90 million in sales. Not counting how much they have to give to video game stores and promotions. They prolly took home about 45 to 60 million doesn’t sound like I’d want to invest in them

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

Well you should they run an awesome charity where they house unwanted devs doing what they like.

[@echoesofmalachor3700]

Are you think 1.5 million was a sales number and then multiplying that by $60? The report said 1.5 million players ENGAGED. It said nothing of sales numbers

[@Nico78Not]

Take into account the mass refund and the fact the game was offered freely with consoles, with the subscription service and to activists. Even 60M would be an exageration.

[@Rushtik9506]

They could make this negative to be their positive and just hire more people to make videos about veilguard mostly duscussing their failure, and wait for it to generate views, but that's too late I think.

[@OGPatriot03]

Why should a video game ever cost anything close to 240 million to develop? Pure waste considering the low effort products....

[@murrowboy]

10:15 tell that to Disney. They are 100% knowledgeable about what the public thinks about it. They double down.

[@Corndwag]

The problem was that the writing was fucking shit and forced. The themes in the story arent bad the writers were. They were so focused on pushing their message that they forgot they were writing a narrative driven story. Stories with similar themes and messages have been made since the beginning of time and have generally been accepted, but when the characters dont feel real (despite the setting) and are only there to push an agenda instead of pushing the actual story forward, then they stop being characters and become billboards and the story becomes a manifesto.

[@jessicapinto3817]

7:12 that drop off is so big I can see Nemo swimming there

[@VisariDaBst]

Bioware exemplifies the Theseus paradox. If you replace all the boards, it is indeed no longer the ship of Theseus.

[@Sanguinarius9999]

Bluesky is an amazing example of people moving to "communities" / platforms that support and never question their world views and create non constructive echo chambers.

[@AJRestoration]

Currently the DEMO of Half Sword has 2,372 In-Game players. Dragon Age The Veilguard has 2,486 In-Game. Let that sink in.

[@roaming740]

Cant wait for Half Sword to release Great game

[@jackkiller0008]

Dude, dwarf fortress a game 20 years old has half of this at the moment...

[@artursisson]

Palworld is a single-player game with 15 times more daily players than Dragon Age.

[@richardgibson2158]

When I see these charts I get sad. Not for DEI dying but because of all my favorite IPs being sacrificed to get here.

[@AliciatheCho]

Amazon’s Rings of Power gives me a killing rage

[@richardgibson2158]

@AliciatheCho ThEre iS a teMpeSt... 😣😖🫨😵‍💫😮🤯 iNSidE oF ME!1!!1!1!

[@AliciatheCho]

@ Lol exactly. That show is a hate crime

[@johncordero1248]

Guys, I know how to make Veilguard good: make a mod so that when you start the game it takes you to DA Inquisition and you just play through that game.

[@WannabeShady90]

Inquisition was trash as well.

[@chittasticchitta1164]

As a german It's always funny to hear "Bluesky", as here in Germany Blue is the color of the AfD party. Thats the party getting called nazis every time they are mentioned. I knows there isnt really a correlation, but i do think its funny.

[@TickleFight94]

It is also the party which Elon Musk is friends with - go look at some of the stuff they’ve said, it’s wild.

[@Matt-qf6pd]

Scary shit

[@trunks1392]

​@@TickleFight94 never saw anything , can you clarify bro ? Wanna know, if u have time to explain. Or was ist "funny" comment cause of the Pose Elon Musk did ?

[@zm1786]

​@@TickleFight94it's the party led by a lesbian married to a Sri Lankan immigrant. They are not radical at all

[@chittasticchitta1164]

@@TickleFight94 not wild, common sense, which is why they got my vote

[@krognak]

Asmon in his Garrosh arc: "You are BLIND. I WILL FORCE YOUR EYES OPEN."

[@JamieHitt]

Inclusivity is divisive. If it don't fit, don't force it.

[@ItsSVO]

It’s not the inclusion of divisive components that’s the issue, it’s how they’re implemented. The way BioWare inserted “inclusivity” was lazy and forced which is terrible execution. It’s the same with representation, you can do it well or like in modern media, terribly.

[@JamieHitt]

@@ItsSVO No offense, but that's the actual problem. Inclusivity means forced inclusivity. No different than quotas, or dare I say it, ...tokenism. The whole premise of "inclusivity" relies on the very false assumption that certain people have been intentionally "excluded" through discrimination. A group of misguided individuals noticed that certain "groups" were statistically under-represented in various places. They then went on to assert that this MUST be due to various "-ists" and "-isms". Long story short, it is indeed "inclusivity" itself that has become the problem. Not just how it is implemented. There is no correct way to implement inclusivity when inclusivity itself is misconceived. Intentionally seeking to INCLUDE "X" is no less of an "=ist" or "-ism" than those who might seek to EXCLUDE said "X". Discrimination is discrimination.

[@ItsSVO]

@ no, forced inclusivity by definition does not mean inclusivity otherwise the word “forced” wouldn’t be necessary I agree that forced inclusivity and tokenism is what we see in the veilguard but that is a seperate issue to inclusivity which if done correctly can be well written and not be in your face and we have evidence for this. I’m also with you 100% regarding the modern reading of inclusivity but I also think it’s the application of these things that are more at fault. Many of the people being “included” do not feel represented by the DEI versions as they are shallow and tokenised. The real issue here is that all stories and games etc are already inclusive by default and always have been. Anybody who tells you a book, game or any other form of art isn’t inclusive is a narcissist. It’s that simple.

[@JamieHitt]

@ Any amount of "inclusivity" or "representation", if done intentionally, is therefore "forced". Think of the possible aspects of what is called "intersectionality". With all these traits and characteristics already KNOWN to be possible traits and characteristics...it serves no point to express or verbalize them unless it is pertinent to the story. First of all, the sexuality or sexual orientation of another is never our business...nor is it to be assumed. Quite frankly, it is of NO consequence and does NOT need to be known or discussed within a story UNLESS it is somehow important to that story. One introduces themselves by stating their name. Perhaps their name and title. Perhaps even their name, title, and where they are from. Imagine being told to introduce yourself by stating both your name and that which you are sexually attracted to. Nobody would ever do that. But that's inclusivity...and it is ALWAYS forced.

[@ItsSVO]

@ then you’re talking about intention being is the contributing factor that dictates whether something is or isn’t forced. That being said, the premise of your argument is flawed because technically anything included in a story or game by the creator is always intentional therefore are all aspects of the game now forced according to you? The issue here is that you’re trying to make one thing mean another when it doesn’t. Forced inclusivity and inclusivity are different things otherwise you’d have just said inclusivity and you didn’t. When you actually say the word forced you’re actually referring to something being disconnected and presented poorly, such as can be the case with story beats, character development etc and that phenomenon takes you out of the experience as a result and destroys the suspension of disbelief. A romantic storyline can feel “forced” if it’s not written with skill and that’s exactly what happens with DEI writing, it’s not the subject that’s the issue, it’s the execution. Nobody is excluded from a story or game based on their identity therefore by definition both of these mediums are inclusive by default. Having divisive themes or political/moral messaging has existed in thousands of stories for years but they were written by people who excel at their craft, not by DEI hired narcissists pushing a message.

[@CrimsonFIame]

Thank god. Maybe the western gaming industry will actually focus on better story telling and hire real talent now rather than solely focusing on what that person identifies as their gender or the color of their skin. Not all western gaming companies were doing this but you'd have to be completely ignorant to believe none were. Dragon Age died because of this sadly

[@russellsales7796]

Eventually. The executive order just went out. It's going to take some time.

[@braintrust12]

i dont think western culture will be able to recover from democrat leadership. hollywood is both physically and metaphorically gone. our games look old and stale, while china/japan's games look inspired and exciting. even american music has had a major recession during the woke times. sad that a whole ass generation of american kids grew up with shitty art, because millennials decided that there wasn't enough institutional racism and that we needed more of it lol

[@panda.paradox.91]

@@CrimsonFIame All they care about is profits.. DEI was just an annoyance for them. I don't see this as a fix.. I hope I'm wrong.

[@Yonah_144]

At my old job, there was this guy that was always walking around the facility and calling people racist. He also kept talking about how nobody liked his ancestry, and the entire planet wanting his people to die. This guy got canned very fast.

[@Kevin-mx4vm]

👃?

[@tbcstuff3634]

So they guy was right.

[@OrionDawn15]

@@tbcstuff3634 The dude was literally being a nuisance, he sabotaged himself lol

[@Yonah_144]

@@OrionDawn15 He also got employee of the month before he was terminated. I know for sure that was a cover up just in case the EEOC got involved. But yeah, it was because of his trolling.

[@Hewbroc]

I bought all 3 Dragon Ages to play them again in the lead up to the fourth game. Welp, guess that dream has died. Goodbye, Thedas. You were a beautifully crafted world.