Death of a Game: Crucible

Merch: teespring.com/stores/nerdslay...
Patreon: / nerdslayer
Amazon: www.amazon.com/?tag=nerdslayer...
Humble Bundle:www.humblebundle.com/monthly?...
Twitch: / nerdslayerrr
Twitter: / nerdslayerg
Discord: / discord
#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
Sources: venturebeat.com/2020/05/19/lo...
www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/te...
www.cnbc.com/2020/05/20/amazo...
screenrant.com/crucible-game-...
www.espn.com/esports/story/_/...
store.steampowered.com/app/10...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relentl...
www.vg247.com/2016/09/30/amaz...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucibl...)
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/cr...
www.gamespot.com/reviews/cruc...
www.pcgamer.com/crucible-review/
www.ign.com/articles/crucible...
www.playcrucible.com/en-us/ne...
www.theverge.com/2020/6/30/21...
www.fastcompany.com/3037064/a...
massivelyop.com/2016/09/07/fo...
www.slashgear.com/breakaway-k...
www.pcgamesn.com/crucible/sea...
/ playcrucible
www.engadget.com/2019-06-15-a...
www.pcgamesn.com/crucible/lau...

[@TheDoctorThrax]

Oh no, the next one is gonna be Anthem, this is gonna be a fun one.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

First person to guess it I've seen!

[@DavidDundee91]

ind i was one of the fools that pre ordered ANTHEM

[@NicoNoInteresa]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss please include everything that happened behind the scenes, that jason article showed so much of how things worked internally, Bioware even had a crying room

[@Arcodus]

@@UndyingZero Terminally Ill and on Life Support of a Game: Anthem!

[@TheDoctorThrax]

@@UndyingZero it’s sort of a lose-lose situation with it, there’s no timetable, we don’t know if it’s going to be free with heavy microtransactions or paid for, it’s a very small team, only things that have been shown are barebones concepts, and by the time it comes out interest would most likely be minimal.

[@akba666]

When you underbake a cake and put it back into the oven. Then you check on it 30 min later and find that it had turn back into whole eggs and flour.

[@anothervocalist1944]

So bad at cooking that you unmake food

[@razagan1343]

@@G-Mastah-Fash did not need that mental image

[@optidalfprime3904]

Reminds me of this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/apC9iXyMeq9nnKc

[@joshuabennett6656]

“But it’s weird that everyone seems to forget about Breakaway” I can’t forget something I never knew existed

[@rawovunlapin8201]

Yeah - wtf was Breakaway?

[@RolandTemplar]

True, sounds as a payday spin ofg

[@TheZoragon]

I didn't even know Crucible even existed.

[@RolandTemplar]

@@TheZoragon is ok

[@DR3ADER1]

@@rawovunlapin8201 It was the game Amazon had Double Helix(the Killer Instinct remake developers composed of former Shiny Entertainment and The Collective developers) develop, before killing the game and the developer before it was even released.

[@AceDreamer]

>company wants to make a new hip moba shooter >flawlessly repeats the same mistakes previous companies made on the genre >predictably bleeds players and everyone returns to Overwatch/Paladins >company wants to make a new hip moba shooter >flawlessly repeats the same mistakes previous companies made on the genre >predictably bleeds players and everyone returns to Overwatch/Paladins >company wants to make a new hip moba shooter >flawlessly repeats the same mistakes previous companies made on the genre >predictably bleeds players and everyone returns to Overwatch/Paladins >company wants to make a new hip moba shooter >flawlessly repeats the same mistakes previous companies made on the genre >predictably bleeds players and everyone returns to Overwatch/Paladins *"did i ever tell you the definition of insanity?"*

[@drowzydullahan]

@jocaguz18 Yeah.. If they cleaned up their spaghetti code a bit, the game would be so much better. There's so much promise there. lol

[@SacredDaturana]

It feels like the 2000s MMO gold rush all over again.

[@RogerNbr]

i wonder if paladins is gonna survive hi-rez moving on to rogue company their previous game before paladins didnt fare too well...

[@TheeOK1]

@@drowzydullahan it's hirez, they'll never fix the spaghetti. They don't know how to polish for shit.

[@sekratano]

@@TheeOK1 I'm honestly surprised of how polished it is compared to years ago, but the servers are absolutely fucked with no fix in sight

[@MatthewCobalt]

God, this feels like a "How not to make a multiplayer game" DOAG's greatest hits Album.

[@jillhopkins4842]

More like... Now That’s What I Called This is How You Do Not Make a MMOG.

[@arnox4554]

Nah, they missed other hits such as "Too Many Microtransactions", "Lootboxes", and who could forget the classic, "The Game Doesn't Fucking Work".

[@onemorescout]

@@arnox4554 they released the game so unfinished even half the microtransactions weren’t in it yet, only other studio I’ve seen do that is DICE

[@MelancholySky]

Crucible feels like a collection of devs all with widely varying ideas and development strategies all being bundled together and told to make a game with little/lacking direction. Each higher notoriety dev most likely tried to pull the game in the direction they saw fit thus leaving it scattered and in the state it ended up in.

[@jesperburns]

The very same can be said of New World, considering all the changes of direction they've had. It's like they give the chef's hat to another person every month.

[@ExarchGaming]

Agreed.. They need to play to these guys strengths. Taking the founder of Westwood, their best bet, and what would generate incredible amounts of hype, would be to stick him in charge of producing a Command and Conquer spiritual successor. The guys from guild wars 2? Stick them on New World. If they want to build a moba they need moba developers, get people from League of Legends, Dota 2, or even Paladins or Overwatch. Blizzard is bleeding talent all over the place right now. if Amazon was smart they'd start snapping some of these devs up.

[@donsunwukong127]

@@ExarchGaming if they are making a third person moba..ex-Smite, Gigantic and Paragon and Blizz devs would have been best for sure

[@129das]

That still the devs fault you can take 1 night and come up with a game concept. By that point you start on the core features that you can build a game around then they at least have a direction. But the Engine Issue cant blame them for.

[@Bankai90]

Sounds like New World XDD

[@SangoProductions213]

Want my hypothesis? Amazon had no idea what they wanted. They just said "We want to also be into gaming. Make us a game that'll be a continuous income stream. Here's the AWS money. You have a year." It worked for them for basically every market they tried to get into, so why not games? EA does it. Well, EA knows that they don't need more than a single unpaid intern to make their cash cows in the yearly sports rereleases. Anything else is gravy, and outsourced to sub-studios with actual game ideas. I don't know if I'm comparing Amazon positively or negatively to EA. I guess I'll let you decide.

[@crawlingchaos2811]

I really do think it is the uniqueness of the video game industry that did it. The secrecy, the deadlines, the constant need to adapt to upsets, it's all kind of different with video games. Being behind deadlines is super common with games, especially big ones and amazon higher ups probably arent used to that lol. Also the idea that the engine is bad to them was probably more like a worker blaming their tools. Being secretive and then like dumping info probably works for innovative tech development but for a game (especially a new ip) it's like "oh..okay a hero shooter? Coming out in a few months?" It just requires a different mindset and maybe they shouldve hired outside help for that publisher role specifically and then the rest of them could continue to uh idk one of the 1000 ventures they got alongside it too.

[@Belkan2087]

Same happen with Stadia and Luna. Thats why they are going to fail.

[@nyft3352]

EA definetly has worse reputation but surely they do have years of experience. Compared to Amazon, EA knows what they are doing even if it doesnt seem so, in some way they know how to make a cashgrab and thats waht Amazon didnt know.

[@cattysplat]

@@crawlingchaos2811 They used the same project management style as with their website and database systems. This involved reporting to higher ups constantly, who would often demand to see functioning work, whilst also demanding immediate changes. Making any changes in game design can take months to design everything for the new idea. It was completely impractical and all 3 of these Amazon games have nightmare stories of being constantly changed in design vision and scope with constant corporate meddling. Amazon having little experience in making and publishing games heavily shows in that they can barely get 1 PC game off the ground.

[@ridhosamudro2199]

Just like that time when they launched a phone then?

[@Genghis_Pro]

So Lumberyard wasn't designed for multiplayer games, but every game I've heard of using it (including Star Citizen) is a multiplayer game. Brilliant.

[@samuraisokolata]

SC ended up heavily modifying and enhancing the engine to the point where it's unrecognizable. But the limitations really showed throughout the years of development. Yikes

[@cattysplat]

Even worse they aimed for them to be Esports or heavily streamer interactable.

[@bl1nder898]

Which is weird because Hunt:Showdown runs on crytek and is online only and works fine

[@igorz4582]

@@bl1nder898 game has awful optimization and only allows for 20 people per session

[@bl1nder898]

@@igorz4582 the point about 20 people is a good one, optimisation is fine tho, it was shit in early acess but now its actually very good

[@self1sch]

As somebody who isn't a developer and never worked on a single project for years, I can't even imagine how it must feel for your game to get cancelled so shortly after a premature release and basically no marketing. Sure the devs still get paid but damn, it's gotta feel like years of your life wasted for nothing.

[@flufychickens]

Yaa as a fan of crucible, when I heard they pulled the plug I was crushed. Cant even begin to imagine how they felt

[@jynxed66six54]

crushing for the actual hard workers, but frankly im glad it turned out this way. management staff shouldnt be rewarded with successful games when they fail on every level like they did here

[@pocketheart1450]

"Flash in the pan" does not refer to cooking, it's a reference to old style muzzle-loaded firearms, like flintlocks. Near the back of the gun, near the touch hole was the flash pan, which held priming powder. The idea is that you would ignite this, which should cause a brief flash of flame that *should* go through the touch hole, ignite the powder, and fire the weapon. Sometimes, this would not go as planned, the flash would not ignite the gunpowder and fire the gun. This was referred to as "a flash in the pan". The expression later transformed to refer to a short, spectacular start ultimately leading to failure.

[@Nightkrowler]

You spared me the typing. Thanks :)

[@Sterisk]

He's gotta remake the video now

[@draculamd7100]

@@jonahfalcon1970 you're wrong because reasons

[@Ezichim]

@@jonahfalcon1970 yes that's it.

[@ridhosamudro2199]

@@jonahfalcon1970 Objections: The phrase have been used since the late 17th century, so it can't be from the 1800s More over the meaning, in multiple definitions it meant something _did_ happened- albeit briefly, as oppose to the "gold in the pan" analogy, when someone _thought_ something happened, but actually never occurred.

[@asecondcycle]

This game was just chasing fads that had long since faded out of relevance, this is conjecture in a way but even Overwatch has fallen out of the "mainstream" (as compared to indie games like Fall Guys, Phasmophobia and Among Us if we're gonna use recent examples) so the team-based hero shooter genre has definitely seen better days.

[@tyrantking2322]

And good thing too, the hero shooter gets boring real quick just like its preceding trend...battle royale

[@Tragedyval]

why the game trying so hard to be big why cant it just be casual like paragon ?

[@tyrantking2322]

@@Tragedyval simple, if you can cash in on whatever is popular right now, would you? Cause that's how most big companies see trends, a money milker which is also why there's so many superhero movies and tv shows

[@RolandTemplar]

@@tyrantking2322 not all genres can be e Sports

[@KingKong-mp6gj]

I'm at a point where i just turn off as soon as i see the term (super)hero attached to it.

[@yomejjuan]

I think part of Amazon's issue was that they should've just acquired a studio instead of building something from the ground up. It would've reduced risk of having their first products being flops. If new worlds ends up being a flop I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon guts its game development sector.

[@el_mr6439]

I guess they took a "high risk, high reward" decision

[@EasilyDistractedPlanner]

@@el_mr6439 Which is what they do with everything they do... And it often doesn't work out. They break the back end on Amazon about once a month or so because if a team isn't innovating something (that isn't needed 99% of the time) then it gets cut. So people are constantly 'innovating' and consequently breaking everything...

[@ingram2617]

@@EasilyDistractedPlanner And most of that is so they can write it all off in taxes as "Research and Development"... What a joke.

[@OatmealTheCrazy]

@@ingram2617 tax loopholes obv make everything better

[@EasilyDistractedPlanner]

@@ingram2617 Potentially, but also because they want to be the 'most innovative' company in the world. If you're not constantly 'innovating', then you're kicked out. That this means that you've constantly got teams literally undoing the work some other team was doing 2 weeks ago and that teams have no idea what other teams are doing and that sellers and customers are suffering because of it... They don't care one bit. Every month, around the 15th of the month, the author back-end of the Amazon website is wonky and unstable, books you publish during those days have problems with their files, with their covers, sales are not being registered properly and royalties come in late. This has been going on for a decade. Because the 15th, they verify all the sales of the previous month. You'd think that after a decade, they'd have streamlined this and wouldn't break their own system every month. But they created the verification system once, it works (mostly...), and it's not 'cool' and 'interesting' so they keep the same jank they've been using for the last decade. No innovation there because there's no bonus fixing a system that's not 'cool' in the eyes of the company, so they prefer to 'innovate' on something that is considered 'cool' so they can move up in the system. This and the 'rise and fall' of Crucible are perfect examples of how Amazon's system is toxic in everything that they do and touch. It's not healthy, there's no real 'innovation' or 'creation', they just have too much money and will throw it at people hoping that they will make more 'cool' things for the company. That's really all.

[@mcgamerson8043]

I've played a lot of Crucible post closed-beta-reversion and have recently talked to Jon Peters about Crucible. His take on the game's death was that it launched with many lacking or missing features expected from their game and even after implementing many of those features and changes in the closed beta, they could never recover from the negative perception impressed on consumers who had already tried the game and never garner enough new players to facilitate decent queue times.

[@jesperburns]

Well, they massively fucked up the entire concept of queueing as well. Instead of dropping you in a team and then allowing you to pick a hunter, or allowing "counter picks". They had you select one before hand, so that if you picked one of the popular ones, your queue time would be longer because there couldn't be two of the same hunter in one team. Not sure if they fixed that later on but to have such a system in place is just mindboggling.

[@mcgamerson8043]

@@jesperburns What you're saying rings true. And while it's not enough of a plus to offset the downsides, one upside was that they gave each character their own queue music. :P

[@rawovunlapin8201]

@@mcgamerson8043 that's cute

[@cattysplat]

@@jesperburns That would definately increase the queue times massively, especially since there was so few characters to choose from.

[@howdyfucker443]

@@jesperburns that’s what ow does

[@SurikatMeerkat]

Regarding Internal Testers: Internal QA will look into the stability and integration of a client. And some other things like performance, compatibility and such. But rarely will they be as invested into the fun / immersion factor as the actual end users. This is always the fundamental issue with using only internal testers IMO. I've done it for over 10 years now, it's never clear cut.

[@the_mad_fool]

Yeah, from what I hear from QA testers, it's hard to even find the game fun after a while anyways, after you've spent hours and hours tediously running at walls.

[@SurikatMeerkat]

@@the_mad_fool depends on the tester. But you are correct. Of all the games I've tested, I've never played them after they released. The appeal is just gone. Already know the story or twist or gameplay mechanics and after spending 300 hours testing it I definitely don't want to see it again.

[@Soul7aker]

True, also the dev hands are tied to the BA's decissions.

[@the_mad_fool]

@@SurikatMeerkat Dude, you guys are unsung heroes of game dev. I feel like a lot of people underestimate the skill required to do QA. Like, every time I play with the QA team in playtests, I'm floored by how they can not only play the game really well, but at the same time be eyeing every detail of the particle physics and AI and everything else. Then at the end the dev team is like "okay, any issues?" and the QA team is like "this is wrong and this is off and this feels bad". Meanwhile I'm just like "uhhh...it was fine?"

[@SurikatMeerkat]

@@the_mad_fool Thanks brother. But it's fine, in my personal opinion I'm just happy to provide my feedback and do something I enjoy.

[@Rhaz1057]

I'm waiting for Death of a game: Marvel Avenger.

[@Starexe97]

I am guessing that is the next video's title? XD

[@curiositykilledthecat5118]

won't be long

[@ououkuaipao]

Not quite dead yet with a average 1k daily noobs still playing that game

[@Runk3lsmcdougal]

Oh god I can't wait

[@dickpays]

@@ououkuaipao 1k players a day, is pretty much dead. Compared to its numbers at launch.

[@soulflame99]

As someone who has worked at amazon for 8+ years. I saw this coming the DAY they announced the 3 games lmao. If you think these games are unfinished af i wish you could experience ANY new program they roll out that the employees are forced to use to ACTUALLY DO THEIR JOB which end up broken for months and shittier in everyway than the third party programs they used. Also ofc the programs aren't tested at all before they launch "They use them in other buildings" is generally the response and we get about a week notice before they make drastic changes like this if we are lucky.

[@srnigromante9214]

@jocaguz18 I also worked on Amazon and yeah that was a pain in the ass

[@MhnFive]

Sometimes I wonder how it must feel as a developer to know your project is more known for it's failures than the actual project. Even with all the bull they had to deal with, it must just hurt hearing the height of their relevancy is coverages like this. Guess that's just another day in the industry.

[@Genguidanos]

These were the people who saw an overcrowded marketplace and said, “Me too!”

[@Obelion_]

and about 3 years too late and with a subpar product

[@Yuno.Kashiki]

Hero shooters? Not an overcrowded marketplace

[@S3Cs4uN8]

@@Yuno.Kashiki Not Overcrowded, but definitely very solidified.

[@Yuno.Kashiki]

@@S3Cs4uN8 I think the attention that it got and the massive playerbase that it launched with is indicative that players want a good new hero shooter. Having had the pleasure of talking closely with a few of the developers, Crucible just had too many issues to retain that attention.

[@00110000]

I don't know why, but the first time I saw the gameplay, I just felt like this game reeked of mediocrity. Something about the bland, messy UI and the unfocused world and art direction. Like I could feel my blood-pressure dropping just looking at it...

[@indavalucazo3277]

It had paragon syndrome written all over it tbh. From the graphics to the lack of polish

[@medes5597]

I mean it's very obvious why. It looks like every other similar game, it is very generic. It had no identity like DOAG said. No mystery.

[@RogerNbr]

it looks like every other brown-ish realistic-ish serious-ish game seriously underwhelming

[@00110000]

@@QuintaFeira12 Wow what a throwback. Personally, I played a tiny bit of Dawngate, but didn't stick around with it because I was already invested in League (those skins aren't cheap). But I do remember really liking some character. As a whole though, it was pretty stock-standard. Hearing your mention of it though, had me googling it and looks like there was a Kickstarter to revive it a few months back. Weird.

[@sw4gl0rd69]

I'm very interested to see you visitng TERA. I loved that game when i was able to play it after it became f2p. Booted it up again at the beginning of this fall just for old time's sake. Oh boy... it was a shadow of it's former self!!

[@FerrickAnima]

and now that EME is gone, I wonder how much lower it'd go

[@pagannova3621]

what's gone wrong with it? not played it in some time..a long time actually.

[@OatmealTheCrazy]

This was true even like 2 years ago honestly

[@WhiplashSL]

Some Death of a Game video suggestions: Evolve OnLive/Stadia (when it inevitably dies out) Sega (Console division, not the company overall) Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Anthem Update! Guess there's another game to put on here that just happened earlier: Friday the 13th: The Game.

[@Aussie_Tom]

Still kind of disappointed to see where they went with NT. I LOVED the PSP Dissidia games and was hoping for more of the same. I know NT is based on the arcade game but I was kind of hoping for PC they put in the extra effort to make a proper campaign like the PSP versions.

[@00110000]

I would love an Evolve DoaG. That game and it's development really fascinated me.

[@dorpth]

"Huge maps with tons of downtime after death with lots of never encountering other players" is the same reason why I never understood the huge popularity of Battle Royale in general. "Wander around 15 minutes before you die to an unseen sniper" is my experience in 90% of BR matches.

[@michaelanderson3958]

I instantly knew this game was a failure due to it being absolutely unappealing - partially in design but also in how convoluted yet bland it was.

[@PenguinDT]

All of Amazon Game Studios feels like a vanity project of a rich person. 'I want my own video game, so imma gonna buy myself a studio', said Bezos (probably). It feels like there is no passion behind the games, only corporate interest to be in the games market. EDIT: Some of the hero designs were visually interesting, though, so at least some of the concept artists were having fun.

[@Obelion_]

i think its good that amazon tries new things that risk failure instead of playing everything super safe like almost all other big companies. they have the money so why not. though the big mistake is the games are all very cookie cutter and not innovative. if they want to experiemt with the games market, give some creative people a couple millions and let them realize their vision. feels like the game was made by market analysts not by the developers sadly.

[@PenguinDT]

​@@Obelion_ Well put, that's precisely it; they are cookie cutter. All that money in Amazon vaults and all we get is the triple-A equivalent of those Chinese knock-off mobile games. If it weren't from some great art, I would bet that being the case. That said, it also leads me to believe that they aren't trying new things. I'm saying this, because I actually really like flawed games that aim high by trying new stuff, yet fall short in the eyes of the many. I don't see any of that 'rugged charm' here. It's almost as if Amazon's HR hired as many online game devs they could and handed them a paper saying "We want an MMO, an Overwatch and a Rocket League. My analyst said kids love those on Twitch right now. Sort it out among yourselves. Signed: Bezos".

[@TheRogueWolf]

This one practically qualifies as "Stillbirth of a Game".

[@s_ludge]

A part of one of their "internal teams" was a paid testing group. I was apart of that group, I've played both Crucible and New World. This was a month or 2 before slated for release for Crucible, and the state it was in then even it was not ready, I wish I could've said this wasn't worth paying attention to. I want to say the same about New World, they're both absolute crap and the point of throwing money at a hired studio thinking you'll get something good is just even more solidified by these 2 titles.

[@universalperson]

Who is the idiot executive wasting money on these failed games?

[@Phrikeares]

Testing studios only test if the game works and if there are any bugs. If they only included "is it any fun though" in their unit tests

[@RottenRotny]

You had me until you said NW was crap, which makes it clear that you're full of crap.

[@s_ludge]

@@Phrikeares Can't entirely disagree, honestly Earl was super fun but he was just so damn OP.

[@s_ludge]

​ @Rotten Rotny If you want to have your own opinion, that's fine man. You do you. When I played it I wasn't testing for fun similar to what Blue Diesel said, although that could be a factor, but it was an unoptimized mess. Full of bugs, loading times were god awful, rendering was like playing Minecraft with low render distance only everything was blurry instead of foggy- the input lag felt atrocious, the cramped, messy UI, the world felt unnecessarily big even for what was cleared for testing, nothing was explained and the crafting felt too over the top, skills might as well either been worthless or OP. I (tried) playing War Mode, and everything I mentioned previously but this was with what, 50 or so toons all in one area? Half the shit didn't even render, and if there was anything it was a simple geometric placeholder. You could lay in the grass and snipe people with a rifle and noone will ever find you cause you ended up clipping into a rock. The worst part about all of this? Every time I tested it, this was a server stress test. Not an evaluation of the game itself, but how well their servers could handle a big influx of people all trying to squeeze into that little networking tunnel. No wonder it has to keep being delayed. They don't have a game, they have a bandaged up mess of various elements they don't even know what they are.

[@Suika_Ibuki_The_Drunk_Oni]

"3 game modes and 1 map" *spit take* Come again?

[@LucretziaOfficial]

Suggestion: Death of a Game: Hand of the Gods (the SMITE card game)

[@onigames7309]

There was a Smite card game?!

[@LucretziaOfficial]

@@onigames7309 yeah, it was actually kinda fun for a little bit but it died FAST.

[@-8h-]

I think you can still play it lol Hirez won't move my 90$ worth of gems in it over to smite =/

[@lordkeyblade1936]

Be real honest When I first started watching my brain had completely switch Paragon and Crucible like I thought one was the other

[@BlackIrisBalloon]

Great job on the vid, even though Crucible is such an easy case to crack. I'd love to see a video on Evolve. During it's launch window, I saw some videos and thought the game looked pretty fun on the surface, but never grabbed it. Then I forgot about it until the news of it "dying" were running around the interwebs. I'm curious to see exactly what happened in that intervening time.

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

never been so early. Never played this game but was interested at one point so now i'm here to see this lmao

[@FastJohn443]

Same man

[@lobomiser5046]

Well damn, this video is the first I even heard of breakaway. Now to the rest of the video.

[@bayonetababe9697]

I knew Amazon had released a game before Crucible but had no idea what it was.

[@Nersius]

I was in the process of falling in love w/ Breakaway just from the clip he was showing, then immediately had my heart stomped by his cleats. I will never love another sportsball game again, unless there is a Pyre 2. I want Pyre 2.

[@EMPERIC]

Funny enough, I played a lot of Breakaway (even had pleasure of being flown out by AGS to attend some LANs for marketing) and Breakaway also deserved more.

[@Vyporware]

I'm begging you to look into the dead MMO, Black Prophecy. I loved that Sci Fi space sim so much. It had a killer soundtrack, interesting mechanics, and a story setup that could have been so good. But then GAMIGO happened. From what I heard, it was originally supposed to be a subscription AAA MMO, but the deal fell through and with the game basically ready to be launched, Reakktor had to settle for browser game giant, Gamigo. I'm sure you could dig up more though. Maybe even get a hold of the Reakktor guys, they made an Arena Shooter awhile back called Toxikk. Additionally, I uploaded a couple of the end of "tutorial story" missions leading up to the faction choice with no commentary and just gameplay and cutscenes on my channel if you need footage. I've also got the whole soundtrack still as well.

[@Sleeprocket1]

Didnt Toxikk also flop hard

[@Vyporware]

@@Sleeprocket1 Unfortunately, yes. Which is a shame cause they really put a lot of love into it. But sadly, Arena Shooters just aren't the same craze that they were back in the early 2000's.

[@Lapouchy]

Jon "The 5 Signet PvP Warrior" Peters. Jon "Necromancers aren't weak in PvP, they just haven't mastered Shroud yet" Peters.

[@shanecoffing]

I played crucible for a few days. Dealt with the many bugs, but tired to give it a chance. Then I loaded into a match that paired me and my friend against 6 people. 2 vs 6. How is your code messed up so bad it turns a 4 vs 4 into a 2 vs 6. That was the final straw for me, great video btw.

[@muhannadburwais8400]

That was fast

[@dtanobo]

Took me watching 10 seconds of gameplay to know I was never going to try this game. How painfully generic.

[@RennyNanaya]

Only tangentially touched on in the video, but one year ago today you made this video including comments about New World. Now we are in the future and watching as New World slowly gets out it's shovel and starts digging it's own grave for you to analyze in another year.

[@JeremyBX]

First time seeing this channel and i gotta say, i LOVE the Noir theming.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thank you. We have more coming in the ways of branding too, more shirts, badges, and membership options. Thank you for the support.

[@skynet0912]

I never even knew this game existed, until i was notified by a friend that it didn't exist anymore...

[@LaughingMan_d8D]

Better prepare for New World to be up for DOAG as well. Having played during Alpha, talked to some guys during the closed Beta, then playing the entire "preview" period, that game also doesn't know what it wants to be as a game. Maybe they correct it before releasing it, but I don't have high hopes.

[@steezyastro]

You're killin it bro, keep uploading good stuff

[@Lorkynn]

I gotta say, the world and character designs are actually interesting and probably would've drawn me in if it wasn't for the reviews, and what felt like an obvious mad dash to release a game to make an instant pay out. Amazon doesn't know how to handle non-mobile games, and I hope that New World doesn't meet the same fate, even though I personally don't have an interest in the niche title.

[@ExeErdna]

What could have helped if they allowed them to use those minor millions they won't miss because there's billions over their heads. If they focused on everything this game and stopped trying to do too much they could have dropped something with 3 stages like 5 modes and maybe 30 characters. But noooo Corpos ironically do not know how to make money

[@Lorkynn]

Sadly, that probably won't happen. Amazon is only interested in a quick profit. They really aren't looking at this for the long term

[@x_voxelle_x]

New video in barely a week? That's awful fast, but I appreciate this.

[@deadbatter3y434]

this is nice to get the scoop on all these games thank you !!

[@micahreamy8454]

Pretty good content bro. Keep up the work !

[@ShardulIyer]

Yaas, NS finally made the video on crucible. Was so looking forward to this.

[@Synyde]

Hi! Sorry to ask something of an old game at this point but... For any chance can you make a Death of a Game for "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - First Assault Online" I really loved that game but neople and nexon manage to kill the game quite fast

[@Tankji]

Your death of a game videos are awesome dude, keep the good investigation!

[@Kothyn]

I miss this game a lot. Playing Tosca was such a fun experience. I know nobody probably cares about this game anymore but I still miss it

[@mrtumcat]

I remember this game too, I really enjoyed it! Was sad to lose it too, it filled that void that Gigantic left behind. I'm amazed and so happy Gigantic is back for a second chance, and it'll almost certainly never happen for Crucible, but I wish this game got a second chance too..

[@DevelonLP]

when i tested it every game i played in the 5v5 mode it was ALWAYS 4v6 and i am not joking we were 4 and the enemy team had 6 and they didnt fix this issues for days after 3-4 days i uninstalled it. if you cant even hotfix such a crucial bug then you know it will fail.

[@Hornswroggle]

What's it with so many Publishers and Devs abusing an Engine for something that it's not made for... BioWare's Anthem with EAs Frostite, Bethesda with Creation for FO76 and now Crucible with Lumberyard... You can't put a truck engine into a Minivan and expect things to work out just fine without serios adjustments that may or may not be even possible...

[@amatsu-mikaboshi]

I've been waiting for this one for so long

[@footbawlsamich]

I hope future game devs find your channel and learn from the mistakes of past game companies. Keep up the great work man.

[@warp00009]

I tried to play it when it first came out in wide distribution this summer, but gave up after a week because "it just wasn't fun". Spent more time trying to race across the map, back to the action, than doing anything else - so I could get killed in 5 seconds and then have to do it all over again. I hope Amazon can figure out how to develop some better games in the future since the industry needs some better competition.

[@djouze00]

Found out about this game on Yong Yea's video and got interested to know how it died... Thankfully people like you exist!!

[@sourcens]

You should cover Loadout. It was an amazing game that still sits in my library to this day.

[@lexsargos]

great video, keep it up !

[@CDirk1]

Though i didnt knew this game, it's cool to have a video so close to the last one, last time was like months lol but i know you take the time you need ns

[@alexanderjohnson6178]

I’ve been looking forward to this

[@blazechar0011]

Wow, this DoaG came out quite quickly after the previous one.

[@PY5RA]

Detective Conan theme song at the end ? Heck yeah ~!!

[@-8h-]

Death of a game suggestions: - Duelyst - Hyper Universe - Maple Story 2

[@DestroyerArcher]

He's covered Maple Story 2 already. The other two he hasn't done yet.

[@marlowencna]

Duelyst :(

[@pavma7]

@@DestroyerArcher Marvels Avengers

[@weedblaster2125]

Omg two videos in less than a week, keep it up👍

[@thatguynobodywants3716]

Hope we are still alive to see Death of a Game: Megacorps game Case: Google Stadia and anything streaming related

[@kylejones2318]

Or even starcitizen... when it comes out in 60 years

[@S3Cs4uN8]

@@kylejones2318 Implying they won't still be milking saps for megabux by that point.

[@hug-the-raccoon]

looking forward to this!

[@bangus978]

Everytime I try to get here early ;) Love your content Nerdslayer!

[@F3ND1MUS]

Always love your content, thank you. 🇺🇸✌💚🙋‍♂️

[@kittyface3505]

I knew this game would be on doag as soon as I played it. Nice video

[@cattysplat]

They used the same project management style as with their website and database systems. This involved reporting to higher ups constantly, who would often demand to see functioning work, whilst also demanding immediate changes. Making any changes in game design can take months to design everything for the new idea. It was completely impractical and all 3 of these Amazon games have nightmare stories of being constantly changed in design vision and scope with constant corporate meddling. Amazon having little experience in making and publishing games heavily shows in that they can barely get 1 PC game off the ground.

[@SimonSater]

Looking forward to see "Death of a game: New World": all the clues that it will fail are there

[@johnnyjoestar7595]

thats sadly true .

[@Hopesfallout]

So true, based on all I've learned from watching Nerdslayer for years, that game is pretty much failing by the numbers.

[@TheJanissary90]

I play to preview and I can say game pretty polished and solid But u never know. 🤷‍♂️

[@universalperson]

@George Stokes * googles the phrase * * only labor unions pop up * Sounds like your just repeating coporate propaganda, buddy

[@universalperson]

@George Stokes Not really. I think more people are fine with diversity. The reason unions aren't happening is because a minority of assholes who'd rather simp for elites than accept other people. Why should I cater to traitors? I'd rather throw them in jail...but no matter how we feel, the world is what it is.

[@andrie4266]

I was there when it launched and I played it for a while. So sad that it didn't work out. It had so much potential. I'll miss the characters the most.

[@LiteralChips]

What a great way to end the night. Good timing all around

[@Hugo-mh1pe]

Great video as always, these are so interesting to watch! Makes me feel super immersed in the gaming world lol. That said though, I have to remark on one recurring theme that I've been a bit frustrated about in your videos, and that is your need to point out that big publishers aren't "necessarilly evil", which I don't think needs to be said. Wether or not they're evil feels quite unimportant to me as their business practices and the way they (especially EA) treat studios and developers can be so rude and disconnected from any kind of artistic vision. Of course I agree that developers bear responsibility too, but an entirely different kind. It's hard to say what these games would've looked like if given enough time and thought, working under an unwavering deadline and with the weight of having to please a large publisher is bound to put an intense pressure on the developers. As long as publishers do very much what record labels do, aka claim art more or less as their own and reaping the biggest benefits, I don't think they deserve to be defended. Evil or not, it's an unfair and detrimental dynamic.

[@barryaulis1104]

Enjoy your content and another great video.

[@THANE_MITHRA]

NEver have i missed nerds content ... getting wine ... and yaaaas!

[@nickandres7829]

I feel more and more like the DOAGs from a few years back were all games I had at least heard of, if not played personally. Whereas increasingly aside from a few exceptions (Overwatch, Battleborn, Fortnite, Marvel's Avengers) increasingly DOAG covers games I'd never even heard of until now. I'd never heard anything about any of these Amazon games, and while I knew Amazon had a game dev studio, I'd never even heard of a single game they've ever produced.

[@drocksaint]

I'd love to see a DOAG episode about Duelyst! It was my favorite card game, played it for 3+ years and it got shut down in February 2020 :(

[@SheikAshii]

I liked and played both Crucible and Breakaway and was sad to see them go each time. I am starting to feel that the kinds of games I like, everybody else hates and I'll never be able to keep a game for long

[@nexus3756]

its been a year and its looking like we are gonna have a death of a game new world and death of a game amazon game studios in the future

[@bisexualichigo4227]

I never thought waking up at 3am would bring such good video. Need to relax the game with something, cause later is voting time.

[@boared7168]

I heard of this game so long ago and forgot about i had no idea this happened until now

[@drewx420]

Just found your channel & I'm loving the content ! I Im sure you get alot of requests but Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine or Mega ten imagine was a great mmo which had the english version of the game killed when the company merged, I played AO , Imagine and SWG in the early 2000s. Either way i applaud the work your putting in!

[@DuyNguyen-cs5jj]

I was surprise when you blasting the detective Conan theme, ahhh my childhood

[@ninochaosdrache3189]

4/10 not enough Destiny in this video /s Great job NS, as always. Although the fall of Crucible doesn't really come as a surprise. It just looked like so generic when being released and while the PvPvE aspect in that one mode is potentially nice, I could play The Circle for that as well

[@fantasticfungus6659]

i tried crucible while it was available on steam, i honestly had a lot of fun with it despite the poor optimization not letting me play very long, and i was sad to see it go

[@masterblasterT47]

My takeaway from this debacle is that if you want to brake in on a new market maybe giving your new intellectual property the same name as the primer PvP mode of one of your competitors,the Destiny franchise in this case isn't the greatest idea.

[@bayonetababe9697]

Yeah I was surprised he didn’t mention that. I read in a lot of comment sections people thinking it was Destiny and not a new game.

[@Updated8SecondsAgo]

Good episode 🍿 👏

[@lilo19951995]

holy shit. i can’t imagine working on this game and then this happening lmfao. brutal

[@Uberphish]

Having worked very briefly on this title (in 3rd party QA, so no deep insights to provide), I was sad to see it die the way it did. Some of the worldbuilding and character they had going on, and things they planned for the future, were extremely interesting! In my opinion, they would have done a lot better to drastically lower the time-to-kill and focus the game more around stalking and actually HUNTING things - AI and players alike. They had some solid mechanics for slow, methodical map awareness, but once fights started, it was just a slugfest. They had a real opportunity to make something unique focused around the tenuous teams and environmental threats, but it just tried to pull in too many different directions...

[@Bentami]

These vids hit different at late night

[@mariokarthero1997]

Great video. I personally never heard of this game, and I can see why. Seems like it was a recipe for disaster from the jump.

[@supermansdaddy7019]

I actually tested this game, and I was shocked they released it in the state it was in. It was obviously unfinished and had a lot of good ideas, but it was definitely in the "THIS IS A PROTOTYPE" stage that needed more than just tweaking - it needed way more characters and a rebalance of movement and capturing resources.

[@FredsDotW]

This game seemed completely all over the place. Wish you would cover Heroes Of Newerth, one of my favourite games back in the day.

[@okayfornow]

Can you do Scalebound? Really want to know what happened with that game. I was hype

[@Cmakovllluk]

Nothing beats a cup of morning coffee and another death of a game video to start your brain working

[@adriang.4628]

I played this with my brother and it was kind of fun, the team balance was really bad. We would either get destroyed by the other team or easily destroy the other team. The only time we had fun was hunting down events on the map during the capture the point gamemode. This would give us a boost in points or buffs. So in conclusion, the sidequests where you fought alien bots were more fun than the PVP

[@quantumtp5872]

I remember playing this release day one and wondering "why does the military guy ahoot so weak? How come nothing i do feels powerful? Why do melee characters kill me in 2 hits?" That was the only match i played

[@shir0923]

Great video, but I want to add a few things. At 10:40, you state that the BR mode didn't have items or really any BR features; this is a bit wrong. There was an in-match perk tree accessed through killing monsters across the map and limited healing supplies. There was also a limited stealth and detection mechanic. But it's a minor complaint. The timing of the removal of the modes was also somewhat off. They planned on removing the BR mode first, and they did. They were going to remove the control point capture mode late, but never did. Also missed were the community playtests. After the announcement of the mode removals, there were designated playtimes because the playerbase was so low. Right before the final announcement of the game's shutdown, I showed up to a playtest and never found a match, hilarious enough.

[@georganatoly6646]

I think it's pretty apparent the game directors, lead designers, and internal testers were not avid active gamers within the target genre. There's really no excuse for a game to release in such a state. For example, you want those groups of people making/informing design decisions playing multiple hours together on competing games within the genre so they can take and compare notes on what works, what doesn't, brainstorm ideas on how to innovate within the genre, playtest the competing games under various conditions - for example Jill plays on a decade old gaming PC and Jack's rig imitates a weak network connection - to give the most information to make target audience appropriate actionable design decisions.