Every AAA game company should watch this video on targeting & market research from Masahiro Sakurai

[@YongYea]

The level of trend chasing we are seeing from so many AAA companies is the pursuit to make the most money from what market research tells them. Sakurai correctly highlights the folly of this approach, as it means you're not chasing after untapped markets that come from innovation, the stuff market research could never predict. PATREON: www.patreon.com/yongyea TWITTER: twitter.com/yongyea INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/yong_yea TIKTOK: www.tiktok.com/@yongyea TOP PATRONS [BIG BOSS] - Devon B [BOSS] - Gerardo Andrade - Michael Redmond - Phil

[@Xidphel]

,

[@kevingame3198]

Except they don’t AAA has been apologizing so much but with so little change. It's time to say no to AAA. Ubisoft ships Star Wars Outlaws Aug 30 and AC Shadows in November. Send a message, and DON'T BUY THEM. And now to add Dei and esg to the equation is going to make the game industry worse

[@drayz9655]

no. just get ur bag dude. noone buying this tho

[@OmniVenom]

Did you source yourself by putting a link to your video under SOURCE?

[@MilesKiyaAnny]

I'm afraid youngyea it is impossible. The AAA now aday control by their share holder and bosssess not the actual game dev now aday.

[@TheArtist808]

The difference between marketing to "children" and "beginners" is profound

[@Falcone45]

The marketing would have turned me off games as a kid.

[@thatswedishguy638]

I don't really get this "Nintendo is for kids" argument, never have never will. Nintendo's franchises are for everyone. There's games for the youngest like Kirby and for more mature like Metroid but every franchise can be enjoyed by both. Often times Nintendo's games are easy to get into but hard to master and 100%. And I'm glad they make games with more colors than just different shades of brown, grey and muddy greens. 😅

[@zacziggarot]

​@thatswedishguy638 Pokemon pretends it markets to kids, but their player base is in their 20s typically

[@carlwheezer623]

@@zacziggarotlegitimately, competitive Pokémon might be the single most granular strategy game of all time, and I love f***ing love it 😂😂

[@hggpi]

when i was a kid i played games that werent marketed towards me at all. (god of war etc) in fact highly 18+ i dont really think you need to market video games towards any group other than gamers and if people want to they going to play them anyways. Mortal kombat is popular among non gamers too

[@fayte0618]

What AAA is facing I think is similar to what big budget Hollywood is facing: Suits and shareholders that dont play video games making the decisions because they hold the money

[@richanater99]

This is exactly it.

[@arandompasserby7940]

Sadly, the change started happening as soon as the video game industry made more money than Hollywood back in the early-mid 2000's. It's also worth pointing out that, before that point, most gaming companies were started and run by people who, themselves, were programmers who were interested in making games, not businessmen. Carmack, Romero, Newell, Wright, Meier ... if you have a chance, check out the Ars Technica interview with ND co-founder Andy Gavin on Crash Bandicoot and how he hacked the PS1 in order to run it. It's incredibly informative, intelligent and entertaining, and really highlights the difference between old devs and new devs.

[@sean7221]

jews

[@maxmikester8185]

This is why the stock market is a mistake. It allows people to grab ownership of what they don’t understand and milk it dry till they have all their money. I’ve said it for years, ABOLISH THE STOCK MARKET.

[@wagnersouza4463]

It's not only suits and shareholders, the workers in the field are the problem too, around the world ( because industry work with pros around the world ). I work in entertrainment, and as in lots of markets, we're having problems with Millenials ( I'm a millenial ) and adult Gen Z workers, we work less hard, with few passion. Too much complain for little things. Too much politics. Expectation to be paid more, doing less, thinking that we're doing more than past generations. I'm not saying to follow the japanese work ethic, that's insane, but the current scenario won't produce anything above mediocre. For the company side, also have lots of problems, lots of messy workflow, too much effort to looks cool, instead to looks a real job, but the results are strange deadlines, fake deadlines, unncessary meetingsand so on.

[@my_name_les]

"let's make a game based on how much money we can make on skins, battlepasses, and microtransactions. To top it all off, lets all mix it up and package it with our ever growing live service" - Publishers and Developers 2024 and beyond

[@daeamiralis]

"Story? You mean, like, content, right?"

[@lifesymbiont5769]

Mostly just publishers, a lot of devs don't want that

[@theSato]

this is honestly a nothing comment. most players want- no, expect - games to be cheap or f2p for them to take off. and obviously you are gonna need skins, BPs and so on to make up the lost revenue if you use that model. the full price games that have these deserve a knock for it sure - but all the f2p live services are absolutely fair and reasonable that way and those are the 90% with that model

[@broodwarjc1517]

Lets also bring in consultants who want to push a political beliefs message instead of helping us make interesting characters and a compelling story.

[@aerostrafe1075]

@@theSato Never played Apex Legends before huh? Successful F2P makes more money than full priced games almost every time I believe. The worst offenders then try to find the worst ways to make more money under the guise of "its f2p" or "its jsut cosmetic". The goal is just to trick people with fomo to buy things that are blatantly overpriced with any marketing tactic to trick your brain into convincing yourself its not a scam.

[@georgem2768]

EA, Ubisoft and Activision are not going to watch this video. They’ll continue to oversaturate the live service market to death.

[@j33k83]

making new ideas and making it into material takes alot of time and money and resources, hence why big companies especially these you've mention avoid it. Hence why you see recycled, Copy paste games like Modern warfare, assasins creed and EA's FIFA are a yearly release, doesnt take alot of money to reskin and name it a new title yet it milks for them because they caters brain dead audiences

[@Senteri]

I don't mind, I don't like live service games anyway. So others can make the games I like instead.

[@thefiresworddragon927]

And Sony

[@madhavoc1]

AND NOT with games that cater the the normal population either . "Wink" "Wink"

[@Xport9]

Don't really care, personally. I just refuse to support it. I just want more singleplayer games with high value quality. GaaS is awful.

[@Shadyguy111]

All of Sakurai's videos on his channel are incredibly informative. Anyone looking to get involved with the industry should study the relevant videos to their area of expertise.

[@ewjiml]

I mean is anyone surprised? Suicide Squad, Concord, Anthem, Forspoken, Starfield …… all these games were created by Market Research. Half of them think they will be the next money maker like Fortnite. The other half are chasing trends for open-world designs. None of these games have innovated. One was ruined by a guy named Todd.

[@masterquake7]

I know I myself really wanted a Starfield, but I wanted more Skyrim in space instead of a boring and empty space sim where you spend more of your time gathering resources alone instead of actually exploring unique locations full of things to discover.

[@ewjiml]

@@masterquake7 I understand the hate for Starfield. We all wanted Skyrim in Space. Instead, we got an empty shoebox with shoelaces.

[@TheSpeedfoever]

Todd Howard is a legend respect it

[@Toastybees]

​@@TheSpeedfoeverMaking good games over a decade ago doesn't excuse you forever. Part of being a legend is knowing when to stop so you cement your legacy, people will remember your work as a whole and when half your work is a hit and the other half is a miss, remember that 50% is a failing grade.

[@lonewolffang]

​@ewjiml That's kind of accurate. But I still enjoyed it.😂

[@GLIEPNIR]

And suddenly Nintendo is the one Company making sense... As brutal as they've been as of late, they are making sense... Wow

[@yagokain4189]

When it comes to game design, i dont think Nintendo devs were ever all that much behind others. Its not like they refuse to make better looking/running games, they're just limited to what they can achieve on the shitty platforms the company provides them. As a company they're still huge cunts, but their devs are cool.

[@goldosprey]

They always believed the customers having fun. they get brutal with the crackdowns, but if the game isnt fun to play, whats the point in their opinion

[@goldosprey]

@@yagokain4189 Oh no doubt they are limited with their tech, which inspires some innovation

[@ZeroXSEED]

While they hate their fans and dictatorial about IP, their business strategy never make zero sense. It's always been focused and realistic.

[@boburanus69]

Nintendo does a great job in many areas of game design/creation. However, they completely ignore a huge demographic of players and force exclusivity at the cost of reaching more people. A game like Pokemon is fantastic at being a pokemon game, even 30 years later, not because they have copied the rest of the industry, released a Pokemon game with a bunch of DLC, patches, udates, and microtransactions... but because the experience of playing a pokemon game has remain largely unchanged in 30 years, despite there being new ways to play it and some of those being lesser obvious cash grabs by studios partnering with Nintendo.

[@calvinnguyen1870]

You can always count on Sakurai to be absolutely based

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

Honestly, the only thing I think he was seriously wrong about was his reasoning for the lack of cutscenes in SSBU's World of Light. Besides that, I generally agree with what he's saying.

[@Ko700el]

TLDR : The marketing departments usefulness is very overrated A few years ago i worked part time (due to the distance from my home) to confectionary company, doing creative work (directing, video editing, casting) for advertisements of out product.Our ceo wanted us to talk to him in a first name basis and so we did, during one of our meetings that i was a part of he asked as a question about future plans and my response was pretty sarkastic, the words that all company men want to hear but in a sarkastic tone, so he asked me wtf am i talking about ? and i asked if he wants an actual honest response and he said yeah 100% ....i went on a mini rant ....stop wasting money on marketing crap to people that their main job is to tell you that schematic goes UUUUPPP = GOOOD based on phone questions. The marketing department didn't like that at which i responded, of course you wouldn't like that, it was a calculated question and gave a calculated answer with 100% effectiveness, ergo i should be paid heavily for that, IF and that's a HUGE IF, you're answer was in any way different then I FAILED and shouldn't be taking the minimum wage and thats because of how the law works and not because i would deserve it............but you still wouldn't like that would you ??? because that would mean actual work, consistent work. Who wants to work when they can just say schematic gooooeeess uuuupp = gooood, you get most of the budget to tell me something that trends is trendy, while i just did several times more effective work that you did for the last 3 years with ONE calculated question....they tried to sell that i don't know wtf i am talking about but the ceo knew that i have a degree in marketing which made their side irrelevant since i knew what i was talking about more than they would since they would be the defending their job party. The sad part is that even if everyone at the meeting knew i was right, they did nothing, the company is closed now, most got let go, i was one of the few that was fired as a present/apology from my former ceo so i would get compensated while the marketing team was let go before the bankruptcy so they wouldn't get more money. (This is how the law works here and as a result bankruptcy is something that mostly don't get greenlight from the IRS until most are satisfied under the ceo's or boards personal expenses)

[@Carlisho]

@@LloydTheZephyriani dont know what reason he gave, but I know for sure the actual reason is just the game was so damn expensive (for nintendo standards) that there was no more budget for cutscenes

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

@@Carlisho Last I heard, he was mad that people uploaded the Subspace Emissary to KZbin. Every game with cutscenes is gonna have said cutscenes uploaded to KZbin. World of Light might've been bearable if there were some more cutscenes to add more flavor to such a bland "adventure" mode.

[@Carlisho]

@@LloydTheZephyrian lol that was not the reason I was expecting 😂

[@Seven7swords]

If this was a Western game dev, this would be a seminar behind a $2000 paywall and it would focus on monetization, dlc, and hunting whales.

[@arocomisgamusclademork1603]

while Konami or Japanese side, changed Monetize games like Final Fantasy

[@kosog6584]

You think only western companies can be greedy? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@gamerkingdom1442]

Yes, yes they need to hear what Sakurai is saying. AAA has become so delusional of themselves. The problem is, WILL THEY EVEN BOTHER TO LISTEN….

[@lockekosta9014]

The insulation of billions of dollars makes it hard to hear.

[@aestheticmirror9257]

No they want that billion dollar fortnight money

[@shadowkhan422]

Guess its hard to hear anything when you are impersonating Scrooge Mcduck by literally swimming in money.

[@DC-hw7fw]

I think we all know the answer. They live in a bubble, much like another entertainment industry.

[@wdvitajohnnyssrb8227]

In my opinion, it is more of will the stock/share holders give a crap and be patient. Corporate BS is always and only about make big bucks at lightning speed. Things will finally get better when those stock/share holders are one of us; players that wants great games.

[@nicktan8578]

A game that follows what market research wants is a product. A game that follows what the developers want is art.

[@Polygarden]

It boils down to the very definition of what creativity is. Famous artists didn't care about trends, they had to create new ones.

[@Nicholasmcmath-cr1xl]

Same

[@ganggang3788]

And there are plenty of starving artists 😂

[@maxmikester8185]

A game that can find the perfect balance of both, is a MASTERPIECE.

[@wernerfuhry]

Probably the first good and profound comment I read, compared to the others that are just there to scratch the itch of having said something about somewhat they may feel passionate about, yet the expertise and outcome is as shallow as the puddle of water left behind from the few raindrops of last night.

[@gobsleigh5871]

In France, Karim Debbache made a serie of videos about cinema called Chroma. In one of those, he talks about remaking the same recipes using a good example : "If I print a paper entirely in blue, it works well. But if I photocopy this same blue paper, and photocopy this copy, then do it again, and again, and again... At some point, ou can't even see the blue on the copy."

[@Sketchcraft]

We used to have a saying in our art dept that the suits hated. "Sales tells us what sold in the past and artists predict what will sell in the future". If you let the sales dept dictate the future, eventually you will see negative returns. You can't innovate following past trends.

[@cathallynch8269]

I love that phrase!

[@InternetMouse]

Oooh that's such a good Statement here. Definitely will be using this in my life here lol 😂

[@joeofoysterbay7197]

Game companies in the 70's, 80's, and 90's were started by people who played and loved games. They attracted many of the same kind of people. When they sold those companies for massive sums, and you know the names, they were then run by people who were into money, taking care of the shareholders, and squeezing more profit out of what they already had on the shelf and in the pipeline when they took over. That's a horrible recipe for creating innovative and exciting games.

[@ahmadhama1981]

in the past they done it out of passion and love of innovation now it is just business and agendas

[@lunerlilly]

What gets me is just off of a good reputation and letting the original visionary teams stay, their stock would have just let the money build on itself. Their own stupid power trips ruined their own investment and workers lives =/. It's why indie games are growing popularity because it's the gaming growth boom all over again. Games as a species are just something we are always going to enjoy. So gaming will never permanently die, it will just change hands and ways of doing it. 😊

[@TryssemTavern]

@@lunerlilly People who think going to collage and getting a degree in business means they understand every type of business that exists. But when something shows promise of profit, slime comes out to squeeze it dry. At the same time, you have a few small studios and Indies keeping the spirit of game development alive. The folks over at Terraria, for example, can't leave well enough alone and keep coming back to add more free content to the game. 😂

[@kiryuchansboyfriend]

Honestly, Japanese companies (not you Konami and Square Enix) and numerous indie studios are the only video game creators I trust to consistently release decent content anymore. Not to mention 99% of AAA American, European, and Chinese corporations care more about preying on their customers, employees, and reputation like sharks at a shipwreck than giving the people what they want (edit: just look at how Overwatch released an $80 weapon skin instead of the weapon inspect animations they promised).

[@r3zaful]

Konami is like...doing great? Their momotaro dentetsu sells better than zelda in japan, they are simply just bad at foreign market.

[@arocomisgamusclademork1603]

"Not to mention 99% of AAA American, European, and Chinese corporations care more about preying on their customers, employees, and reputation like sharks at a shipwreck than giving the people what they want" Time and resource are money they wanted, company never ran with human, simply theif official. Korea games no offline games

[@TryssemTavern]

Why do I feel like you just insulted sharks. 😶‍🌫

[@NewWave3313]

Sakurai puts so much passion and love into his projects, he doesn’t have time to age

[@illegalalien6542]

And yet he decided to spite the competitive Smash scene with his petty ass "tripping" mechanic...

[@williammoore1030]

He is not technically a Nintendo developer, he has his own studio that partners with Nintendo on Smash Brothers.

[@Raystorm002]

Would it be safe to say he's a 2nd party developer?

[@williammoore1030]

@@Raystorm002 yes that is what I would consider his role in smash.

[@Derpalon]

True, though its not hard to see his sentiment seems to be reflected in Nintendo's internal studios as well.

[@Swampert384]

@@DerpalonTrchnically speaking, Nintendo has only 4 internal studios that go by different names, plus Nintendo EPD. Those are Monolith Soft, Next Level Games, Retro Studios, and Shiver Entertainment. All the others (such as Hal and Intelligent Systems) are independent of Nintendo but work with them frequently.

[@andrewglidewell2699]

@@williammoore1030 this guy was just WAITING with an “ummmm, actually”

[@ABXY]

Masahiro Sakurai, Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, are the goats. RIP Satoru Iwata 🕊

[@explodedglue5509]

May his soul rest in peace

[@OrphicPolytheist]

And Koizumi. Koizumi is the greatest story writer Nintendo ever had, the genius behind the story of Rosalina in Mario Galaxy, the sidequests of Majora's Mask, and quests in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door.

[@raf7550]

I'll never forget hearing about how when the initial sales of the WiiU & 3DS were underperforming, Iwata slashed his own salary in half rather than layoff any of his employees.

[@ABXY]

@raf7550 another reason why Iwata was the best!

[@superdudu12]

K..... ​

[@XRustyRockX]

Especially for EA...Ubisoft...Blizzard.. I dont even think they will ever go back to their roots sadly

[@gogaming8778]

I miss EASportsBIG but EA had to over saturate the market with too many releases within 8 years. Now if they were to bring SSX back or any of the Street games back. It would sell because it hasn't been done in 16 years. But EA just wants easy money with FC or Madden re-skins every single year for the simps 😑

[@nathank2289]

Squenix too. They don't even bother making their own games, just clones of other peoples games.

[@aestheticmirror9257]

The roots left a long time ago

[@badboy-gn8fu]

EA, Ubisoft, and Blizzard only cares about agendas

[@thrufirefirst2156]

Hard to return to the roots when the whole tree is rotten and in denial about it.

[@ThatDamnedGamer1]

This also perfectly the rise and fall of MMOs from the WoW clones. In the end most of the MMOs that came after WoW in some way tried to copy them completely and then failed.

[@paledrake]

The worst part of MMOs is that they almost never innovate. F.e FF14 hasn't changed in any major way since Stormblood besides the combat system getting more simplified with every expansion, which makes the classses feel more and more the same to each other. Each expansion has almost the same copy/paste format with very very few new additions.

[@darkmistress1980]

@@paledrake FFXIV has changed. have you seen the complaints on the difficulty spike in just the normal dungeons regarding mechanics?. yeah some classes are feeling similar but they are trying to cover their bases incase raid teams go "um yeah that class sucks bring *insert class here*". i will admit this expac hasnt excited or pulled me in like i had hoped but im cutting through it. FFXIV is TRYING to be something different but when you are follwing special interests groups and making things more open to casual/beginners it dilutes the experience.

[@darkmistress1980]

oh yeah and i hate to say this but WoW's last expansion was basically a copy of FFXIV shadowbringers. the only difference was their bad guys werent interesting or morally grey enough

[@Axterix13]

A bunch of those early MMOs often did try to innovate... and most of them failed, same as the copying ones. You had ones like Shadowbane, focused on PvP. Hellgate: London, which tried to be an FPS. Planetside, an FPS with leveling. Earth & Beyond. Really, the problem for most is that they all wanted to be the next big thing. So they'd launch big, then lack of content or various design issues would result in a massive drop in player-base, and that would basically be that. If they had been willing to start small, grow over time or stay at a size their niche warranted, like EVE, they'd potentially have done better. And instead you get games like SWG, which had a niche audience, doing its New Game Experience that drove away its existing audience while failing to draw in "all the money". Incidentally, the copying ones were the ones mostly that succeeded. Those being the likes of WoW and some of the Korean MMOs, which would fall more into that category of copiers, rather than innovators, for the most part. These games all copied EQ's homework. Especially WoW, which, in the fine tradition of Blizzard at the time, just took someone else's design, slapped a different skin on it, and then polished the hell out of it. That said, it is all still a case of trend chasing, which led to fighting over the same audience, and they only have so much time, especially when it comes to forever games. And unlike gacha games, MMOs are designed to provide lots of things to keep busy, which means there's a limit to how many you can play. So these games tend to have a high barrier to entry, as you have to provide something above what the current players have, to a sufficient degree to pull them away from what they have already invested a lot of time into.

[@TryssemTavern]

@@darkmistress1980 WotLK was the last time WoW could claim to have a good story line. But I'm bitter in that a lot of detail was cut from the game and you were expected to read the bloody books to know more about what was going on in some instances. The story in WoW is a disjointed mess and I stopped trying to care after they dropped the bombshell that apparently Silvanus was hoarding souls since Wrath. Not that any of the death deities we encounter between Wrath and then breathed a word about souls not appearing in their realm... At all... Bwonsamdi I'm looking at you my dude! Not to mention every end game villain is just some misunderstood entity trying to prep ups for the next looming threat. And how Tyrande abandoned her people to burn like a coward.

[@Noblesix84]

Say what you want about Nintendo when it comes to their business/corporate actions, but when a company who's made half a dozen different IPs work, grow, and improve over decades I think you might want to listen a little when it comes to making games.

[@flamingscar5263]

its crazy how successful companies will often do things like this, expose their secrets/success stories, and the rest of the industry just doesn't listen? like why? this also reminds me of when Bungie talked about at GDC how they made Destiny into a succseful live service and yet I see litterlly none of modern Live Service games make use of ANYTHING they say, and then those live service games fail and I just think "Yall literally have a blueprint for success sitting in a GDC conference recording, how are yall messing this up?"

[@GalliaUchiha]

That's the real secret. You tell everyone and then their own arrogance drops then even further down into the hole they dug themselves into.

[@mightylink65]

Game companies be like "wow, the last 37 live services where all spectacular failures... lets make more of those!"

[@schmushschroom3873]

The devs don't wanna do it i guess. Most of the live service slobs are executive idea not the devs. Ain't no way I'm gonna give anything more than a bare minimum to make something I'm not passionate about.

[@stevemuzak8526]

Ask companies who take money from BlackRock. That's why.

[@BraveAbandon]

Imo those game devs are gamers too and they're telling the world how to make good games so they can enjoy playing them lol

[@ignskeletons]

Trend chasing leads to failed games like 'Concord' which took years to develop, and released when interest in the genre was at an all time low.

[@dark-cn9yq]

Yup. Another example is all the Genshin Impact clones that started showing up after its huge success and popularity.

[@xtranathor8143]

​@@dark-cn9yqa lot of those clones went with more advanced combat gameplay though, which sets them apart. I don't know how well they are doing, but I think most of the big named clones have a different target audience

[@freespeechisdead7233]

It also didn't bring anything new to the hero shooter genre in terms of gameplay mechanics and features, you know, things that gamers would actually care about. For what I could see on steam charts; No one gave a single f*ck about character pronouns nor their "diverse and inclusive" designs. LMFAO

[@John-du2mq]

Even with its pronoun that supposedly "all modern audiences love" lol. These companies are a joke.

[@gapinzonr]

​@@freespeechisdead7233because the only people that care about pronouns shit are terminally online Twitter land whales that don't play videogames

[@matten_zero]

That's why I look down on people who over rely on statistics. You can lie with numbers and miss A LOT of nuance when you only look at numbers. It's also why Disney has lost touch with its audience.

[@Swampert384]

Pretty well stated. Too much focus on numbers, too large of an investment to be able to afford a failed project, and now it’s come back to bite the studio. Hopefully they can recapture their magic in the near future

[@OniGanon]

Disney lost touch with its audience because it got infiltrated by ideological zealots determined to push propaganda instead of creating entertainment. It has nothing to do with numbers; if anything they appear to be ignoring numbers entirely as they produce failure after failure after failure, lose billions of dollars, and still refuse to learn their lesson.

[@HasekuraIsuna]

Statistics is nothing without analysis. There is this old joke: A statician checked the data. The Japanese doesn't drink much alcohol and doesn't eat a lot of fatty food, and live healthy. The French drink a lot of alcohol and eat a lot of fatty foods, and live healthy. On the other hand the Brits and the Americans drink a lot of alcohol and eat a lot of fatty foods, but get many heart attacks. So the statician concluded that speaking English kills you.

[@laurencefraser]

@@HasekuraIsuna Reality is that the statistician would actually conclude something more complicated and in line with the data... and then hand his report to his boss. The problem comes as each layer up the chain (and possibly also the media) add their own layer of spin to it based on the needs of Their particular circumstances and goals, and the end result is quite disconnected for the initial data, even no one in the chain is actually lieing or Trying to sabotage or undermine anyone/thing.

[@DANIELKURORO]

Numbers don't work with art

[@kojyxenia2746]

Masahiro's comments can of course be applied to multiple industries. Many movies for example won't earn a gazillion dollars at release but overtime they'll make a profit thanks to word of mouth, in some cases they could become instant classics that people will watch for years to come to the point that DVD/Blu Ray sales, along digital purchases can lead to bigger profits. Besides the obvious mention, the market sometimes will decide poorly, NTFs, IA, Fidget spinners for god sake, the meta verse, team based multiplayer games, battle royals. Don't get me wrong, there are or course exceptions to this failures but as Sakurai said, just using market research to prove what works and what not will leave out thousands of ideas in the trash. I mean would market research have said that video games were worth doing after the crash of the 80s?

[@Offroader210]

Everyone needs a Sakurai in their lives.

[@astreagc1187]

If only that philosophy would be applied to Pokemon games.

[@jerryborjon]

That’s GameFreak, not Nintendo.

[@user-to9lk8ix6h]

Or Mario games, or Zelda games.

[@Ashurman666]

@@user-to9lk8ix6h Mario games continue to innovate and be fun. Zelda games continue to innovate, try new things and be a fun, quality product. Dunno WHAT you're talking about with those.

[@mortredpta]

@@user-to9lk8ix6h bro have you played the last zelda games?

[@chiquita683]

​@@mortredptathe last two zelda games werent Zelda. They were lame versions of no man sky with big open worlds that are empty. No dugeons or real progression system, mid at best story

[@user-db1rn4qn8u]

it’s depressing to see the current state of gaming for both game developers and players. the focus on monetization in games over fun quality gameplay and innovation is frustrating. i completely agree with masahiro. we really need to prioritize creativity and player experience again.

[@Mario1080p]

Been behind on his video uploads, but good that people are spreading awareness of his channel.

[@KadeemG61]

Every AAA company needs to learn from Nintendo (Sony and Microsoft need to pay attention) that audiences just already had enough of AAA live-service games and a growing list of predatory loot boxes and microtransactions. If the gaming industry wants to change, they need to step up and stop making greedy excuses.

[@r3zaful]

dragalia lost is one of the failed attempt by nintendo, also nintendo have gacha games as well.

[@jefurihartono1630]

Dragalia died due to being too generous. Nintendo has conflict with cygames as nintendo literally on interviewed mentioned to cut off the amount of gacha spending should be allowed. ​@@r3zaful

[@carleffique2687]

At least playstation is doing something now starting with an astrobot game. Less AAA titles, more lesser budgeted but innovative gameplay design.

[@jefurihartono1630]

@@carleffique2687 after 4 years of PS5 Life. The result of this new moves will come in next 3 year lol

[@KadeemG61]

@@carleffique2687And Sony continues to flop with Concord. Sure, Astro Boy is coming, but the PS5 is still a second fiddle to the big brother, PS4. What are they doing something now? continue to be anti-consuming pricks after their stunt was pulled with the Helldivers II PSN linking controversy on Steam.

[@Thordrel]

Instead of chasing AAA trends, the companies should be creating them. Set the new standards for gaming, push the boundaries of what's possible both in terms of technology and gameplay/storytelling. And if you do have to chase trends then do it with caution. Don't just copy and paste things coping that it will the big hit and if not, well, screw the studio who make it. We'll just try once again.

[@Axterix13]

Problem is, "pushing the boundaries" is very expensive in a lot of ways, with a high degree of risk. The opposite needs to happen, in a lot of ways. Less focus on graphics, 3 billion FPS, and physics, and more on quality of the game play, though ideally with some unique aspect there. Heck, look to past games that showed potential, and then realize that potential. Indy games can innovate, because players won't whine about not having 120 FPS, and so on. Nintendo can do it, because their hardware limits means people know they can't have those photo-realistic graphics. But basically, if you want innovation, very few studios not run by the big corps can afford to push the boundaries while doing it. And the big corps, well, they're the ones who will go for what appears to be the biggest piece of the pie, the ones most likely to trend follow.

[@misfit1422]

I actually watch Sakurai’s channel because I’m going to get into making a fighter for Rivals of Aether

[@michaelmacorso4479]

One thing you have to give nintendo they respect their creators n give them freedom for passion projects

[@TheNeoVid]

"When the goal is eliminating all risks, your creation loses its soul." ...Wish I could remember the source for that.

[@randomxgen6167]

Surely the tried and true Triple A methodology of making shit up, only to blame fans when failure inevitably ensues would result in infinite money. Especially if it's done with unlimited live service products that pay no attention to the fact that people don't have infinite time and infinite money to purchase infinite live services infinitely. Every AAA game company should close down.

[@drewtheunspoken3988]

That's a good idea. It would eliminate the need for high-end PCs and consoles.

[@dayvonlouis5187]

The video is something that every company should examine, but it’s not a hard riddle to figure out what sells and what does not, and chasing trends will do nothing but bite you in the ass in the long run

[@meikaishi]

This really is the message the whole industry needs to hear right now, as game development gets longer and more expensive, more afraid the industry is of diverging from the safe path, but as we saw time and time again with the live service trend, the "safe path" ends up not being that safe when this fear of making a bad move leads to a oversaturation of the market

[@notYisan]

the problem is most AAA studios makes game for the shareholders, they have tremendous disconnect with their customers, filled to the brim with political activist, and trying to be the next big thing but didn't actually bring anything new to the table. in this context i think AAA game studios (or at least the western side of it) failed to do targeting and market research. they want to hit all segments of market but in the end they appeal to no one. they also dont learn the mistakes from other games.

[@LG555]

Which makes you wonder, how Nintendo can get around their Shareholders. Maybe, the higher ups at Nintendo have the balls to go up against their Shareholders, or maybe Nintendo's business decisions are not that popular with the most greedist of shareholders.

[@OniGanon]

Pfft I wish they made games for the shareholders. No, they make games for the investors. The audience doesn't matter to them.

[@LG555]

@@OniGanon you know, that shareholders also are investors, right?

[@OniGanon]

@@LG555 I'm not talking about people who own stock in the company. I'm talking about giant investment groups that throw large sums of money at companies that pander to their ESG requirements.

[@aerostrafe1075]

Is it odd that I learned chasing trends/fads was bad from Ed, Edd, n Eddy of all places? That one episode where all the kids are doing one trend after another but the Eds are always one step behind because the next trend has already started? I just see modern game devs as the Eds trying to cash in on a trend but its too late by the time their game comes out.

[@s-clone8964]

Yeah... The industry loves to completely ignore the whole 'instead of learning from each others mistakes. Live services are trash yet Sony thought competing with itself by releasing 2 in the same year was a good idea lol.

[@chrisdrake512]

The problem is that one of these two gaas, unfortunately, is working!

[@s-clone8964]

@@chrisdrake512It *was* working until Sony's mandate prioritized PSN profiles over game sales killing it's momentum and any goodwill the game had with those county delistings. I shouldn't have to tell you a PS+ subscription for PC is dumb but apparently selling player user data is worth alot.

[@paledrake]

@@chrisdrake512It worked until they mandated PSN profiles and blacklisted the game over half the world. Imagine removing your product from store shelves from over half the world. A digital product too, like what are they actually smoking?

[@Juniverse0]

What I really like about Sakurai‘s channel, is that it really is a non-profit passion project. None of the videos are monetised, from what I know. And considering the artists, editors and composers have to be paid, he’s even spending money out of his own pocket for it.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

Market research is very important. The problem is that a lot of companies are no longer making use of that data. Social media for example only cares about total interactions rather than how many are positive and how many are negative nowadays. Square Enix nowadays has completely ignored the fact that their core audience is 35+ and is aiming for a 20 demographic.

[@katelyn980]

The problem is all these old school marketing heads follow the 4 P's of marketing with product price place and promotion. What they should be doing is following the service marketing 7 P's instead,and actually factor in people, process and physical evidence. Would honestly make some of these companies a lot smarter in their approach

[@cjaquino28]

Yeah, the thing is that the corporate mindset abhors risks. Being creative is good, but it is also risky. Ideas can have the right concept, but could also have a bad timing (The creation of the touch tablet is a good example). You won't get many investors if your product is risky, but you also won't innovate and catch a new market if it isn't. Quite the paradox.

[@krispykrim3532]

You'd think the internet would be a perfect remedy for this conundrum, on demand access to everyone's thoughts and opinions on any given topic, how can any excuse be made after that? It isn't impossible to get someone to go through social media and filter out the good and bad criticism. Hello Games changed their image from scammers to gigachads because they did just that for No Man's Sky. Not to mention crowdfunding is a perfectly viable option nowadays. Where is the fear of risks coming from when you have so many tools to let people tell you what they want?

[@PhysicsGamer]

As the repeated live service failures have shown, you don't need innovation to have risk.

[@lycanwarrior2137]

@@krispykrim3532 Crowdfunding only really works for very small indie games.

[@Centrioless]

Yea if only these ppl knw how much money liveservice game makes in a year. Fortnite makes 3 times more money in a single year than zelda botw in its lifetime.

[@Axterix13]

@@Centrioless Yup. People talk about innovation and such, and once and done games, but money does talk. Something like Genshin mades a ton more money than BG3 and Elden Ring combined in the year those were released... and it is still making a ton of money. That said, markets do have their limits, and this means clones have issues. The base version already exists, and people are invested in it. So you either need to get all those little things right that made that game a hit in the first place plus more, wait for them to piss off their audience and exploit that weakness, or innovate on the formula, so you aim for a piece of the pie, rather than all of it. And while a non-live service game might not make all the money, it can still make plenty. So a big studio can have a few live service games, to even out their revenue streams, but still have those non-live service games as well. A diverse portfolio.

[@kinmingwong6866]

WB Games be like: "Nahh, f-ck that. We gonna do our own thing"

[@jameslazaridis4180]

*load up rifle*

[@eherden2169]

Many AAA companies now make sure that the cash shop is top notch before making a good unique game.

[@goodboiDEOGIE]

Being an artist and working for the illustration industry I see a lot of similarities with the gaming industry, even because the illustration is connected with videogames sometimes. And I saw time and time again new artists and illustrators making the same thing and mistakes, targeting audiences and chasing trends hoping that they will be known and get popular, get new job offers and get bif in their socials, I saw a lot of effort being wasted in this chase in exchange of their fresh creativity, many changed their unique art styles or unique art process just to "fit" what is trending. Sakurai is right, sometimes you have to trust your intuition and fellings and not just look at numbers and analysis, do what you really want to see done, make your own path and make your ideas come to life because it's fun, not because a "market" wants it.

[@henzukaya9802]

It doesn't even seem like a matter of market research at this point anymore. AAA execs just have their head in the sand, only reading what already reinforces their single minded thought. If they actually looked at recent market research, they would notice a long trail of graves listing dozens of live service games that came into this would to an uninterested audience and left this world with a quiet whimper. But they keep insisting that this is the best way to make the most money, because the live service industry had at one point made obscene amounts of money for them before. It's not even quite "beating a dead horse" as it is "using a bicycle pump on a rotting skeleton of a horse".

[@kyle1732]

Humans always end up thriving when they are themselves and dont try to fit in. That goes the same with the art we create. The most unique ideas open up the floodgates and find an audience. Trying to fit in can only be successful for so long but when authenticity enters the equation things become more clear. You have a higher chance of thriving because you are doing something new. Because you are yourself

[@RebornGalaxy]

The messaging system in DeS was actually Japan Studio who created it for online purpose of PS3, fromsoftware did not change that much when Hidetaka Miyazaki entered the development of DeS.

[@benpielstick]

One of the biggest challenges with AAA is risk aversion. The bets are huge. Hundreds of millions of dollars, years of development for hundreds of developers. Blue sky designs don't tend to get approved because there is no way to predict how something completely different will perform in the market. Conversely 'proven' concepts that have ample comparables provide a predictable ROI and therefor tend to be the focus.

[@erika3174]

As a dev I really appreciate this video Yong!

[@ReinMixTape]

Sony and MS would have fired Masahiro Sakurai years ago the moment one of his games didn't bring in Call of Duty billion+ $ profit. That's a diff between MS+Sony Vs. Nintendo: Nintendo hold onto their devs and value them more than they do shareholders. While MS and Sony only care about the shareholders.

[@asnierkishcowboy]

When I was 14 one of my class mates, whose dad spend about 363 days a year working as a management consultant and made insane money, told me his favorite music was from a black dude named DMX. He was blasting Ruff Riders anthem through his speakers. This was back in about 1999 or 2000 I think. Can you imagine DMX in the studio thinking."Dis shyt s gonna be cherished by white german yuppie kids." ? Its hard to predict who exactly will like your stuff.

[@GusMix79]

Absolutely right. These marketing experts are so blindly racist and ignorant they can’t fathom that white dudes would ever listen to hip hop or that black people would ever like to play a game with a white main character. But they’re telling us that we’re the absolute most racist and sexiest scum on the planet. These people think that if you’re fat you’d never like to play as a sexy top fit Tomb Raider character. If you’re ugly you’re only allowed to play as an ugly guy. And to not offend anyone else playing as a non ugly character is now not allowed anymore because we say so.

[@AcidDotDrop]

The biggest issue of market research in a field that is dominated by trends, like entertainment, is time. If you start developing a game now when the data of its potential market success is available, your game will release 3-6 years too late. Great example is the current spike in DEI productions. The data, as skewed as it may have been from the beginning, is already outdated and even the Corpo and Journalist narrative of shaming people into compliance has lost its leverage. So, ironically, the "modern audience" that is chased is already gone once the product hits the market.

[@sdgamer1860]

This is should just be common Knowledge to. AAA companies have completely forgotten who their audiences are which with their greed and trend chasing on top of that........ yeah, here we are EDIT: Speaking of the Cute stuff, while How to Train your Dragon was meant for a younger audience, my grandmother and a few Aunts thought the movie of adorable and funny (my uncle thought the moment where Hiccup flips through the Dragon Manual was pretty fun)

[@Saint_Wolf_]

Market research is important… you just gotta read it and accept it's true.

[@HajimeAru]

The uncarved block can shape into anything. The unused clay pot can fill with anything. The empty house can be purposed for any use. Start with ideas: You will expand them. Start with nothing: You will create something. And so we get Animal Well... Rain World... Minecraft & Terraria.

[@MovielikeCinema]

Kojima makes AAA budget indie games and I love it.

[@mr.vanillamilkshake3]

Of course, Nintendo DID do a live-service game once. Its name was Dragalia Lost, and while it DID shut down, it's STILL a gold standard on how to innovate in the Live Service Space. Seriously, what other game manages an Action-RPG version of The Legend of Dragoon, AND pulls off an amazing soundtrack, cool villains, AND spectacular boss fights at the same time?! Though hopefully, now that Cygames (the dev team) are finished with Granblue Fantasy Relink, we could have an offline version sometime? They certainly had the practice!

[@1980alexsee]

IMHO, this happens because the project leaders had focused on maximising the profits margin by replicating the success formula of a previous business model without realising that true gems are rough and needs time to age properly. If you lost track of your own uniqueness, you will be a bland shell of yourself i.e. FF13. Stop listening to the MBAs and listen to your target audience. Do not lose your customer base while chasing potential markets. Be the better product you want to sell.

[@HydragonDX]

It wouldn't be surprising if EA, Activision Blizzard, and Ubisoft refused to watch this video. However, Sakurai is one of those developers you can trust and is usually right.

[@wb2860]

The problem isn't market research. The problem is the people doing the research. These days they are more interested in proving their own bias then getting to the truth.

[@TruFalco]

Shocked you didn't bring it up. GTAV! Game was made and rated for adults, but the average age range is around 14-16, it seems like, sometimes younger.

[@user-pn4py6vr4n]

I haven't played a GTA game as an adult. Played San Andreas heaps as a kid though.

[@stinyg]

Every live service game needs to have something that hooks its playerbase. First Descendant was written off by game journalists but it'd absolutely trashing all the games that 8's and 9's this season. Despite all the complaints. It has great characters and solid gunplay.

[@ckwi2245]

Been following Sakurai's channel since it started. Great info for learning the game development from an overhead perspective. Not so nitty gritty that it only applies to specialists, but not too abstract that any general viewer can't grasp the concepts and ideas.

[@SimpCity2000]

It comes down to this. Have enough respect for your player base to make games they want to play, instead of making games that you want to sell.

[@von4297]

Thanks for sharing this. I completely agree. I feel this is why Nintendo still does really well despite the Switch being so underpowered compared to even the PS4 and Xbox one. They have unique games. As an older gamer who has been playing since the Atari 2600 days, the 3ds is still one of my favorite consoles. There are games that can only be experienced on it due to how that system works. Not just the 3d element, but also the dual screens, touch screen, and mic. I forget the game, but one made you blow into the mic to clear fingerprint dust. Some games required the ds/3ds be held sideways like a book (hotel dusk). Shmups on the Switch do this too. Or call out “objection” in phoenix wright. Though the Switch had a touch screen, it’s severely underutilized. Even Nintendo devs need to think outside the box more. The Vita came close, but greedy Sony dropped so fast when it didn’t make all the money. And the Kinect was close (skyrim and shouting out Fus Ro Da!), wasn’t supported for long either. In my opinion, with computers as powerful and accessible as they now are compared to the 90s, consoles should be a space to do things only they can do well. Motion controls, touch screen, local co-op couch gaming, portability, etc. That kind of unique content will move systems like hotcakes. As has been Nintendo’s innovation for decades now. The NES and SNES defined console faming. The N64 brought 4 player gaming and controller haptics into the fold. The Wii introduced motion controls (I guess technically the NES did with the zapper and power glove…). The Wii U experimented with tablet integration as a second screen. And of course the Switch, with portability and the joycons as convertible controllers (two for full size, or split them for more players). Though, again, I feel the new tech is very underutilized in games. And that’s not even including Game Boy being the first true hand held console (tiger electronics don’t count lol, they played one game), eventually spawning fairly competent competition like the Game Gear and Lynx. But, as much as I also loved the PSP and Vita, no handheld has ever come close to truly competing with Nintendo. A big selling point, for Nintendo consoles and games recently has been innovation and affordability. Sony and Microsoft have quit innovating in favor of just being a living room PC, and haven’t learned lessons of the past. The PSVR2 is a solid headset, but Sony dropped 1st party support already?! It’s the Vita all over again. Great hardware, but it didn’t make a gazillion dollars immediately. So they gave up on them.

[@CRVSE]

One thing that we need to keep in mind is that this applies a lot more to "live services"/play forever titles with the oversaturation problems. Why? Because games that have an end (most of the time, called "single player"), people will eventually stop playing and will be available to play another game like that. Unlike live services that require your time to play and dont ever stop requiring it. Oversaturation plays a lot less on single player games. The moment companies started to mass produce games non stop, is when they screwed themselves for single player titles especifically. Bigger, longer, anual releases, etc. Good vid. You should always be open to make something new.

[@gnoclaude7945]

Its why i like the off beat games like the new capcom joint, hifi rush, starfield, nier, xenoblade, weird wonderful games that did what they wanted. Not that focus tested games cant be good, everything sony releases is focus tested to death, the originality beat out of it to focus on similar worlds, perks, and gameplay systems. Its the comflrt food or mcdonalds of the industry.

[@LordJaroh]

The issue with trend chasing and following market research is that the companies are trying to "be safe" and "do what sells", and the only way they can actually sell well like the original games that set the trend is to do something that makes you stand out. There is nothing wrong with making a game in the same vein as other popular titles. The trick is to make your game stand out for some reason, do something better or different than others in that genre. But games made by AAA companies will for the most part, not do this, as they are too afraid to "lose".

[@clvr51]

Sakurai is a blessing to humanity

[@YaraUwU]

The first thing i would ask someone who is proposing a hero shooter or battle royal would be "ok but what will make it better then what people already play?"

[@carleffique2687]

And that's why i give a standing ovation to Capcom. I think they're the most visible developers actually implementing ideas into actual games and not fearing any risks. Exoprimal is flopping but Path of the goddess has potential. They can dive and make a game in any genre they want.

[@chrisdrake512]

Capcom is in a weird case ultimately. You can tell that they're actually putting a lot of effort but there are some unfortunate circumstances lately Dragon's Dogma 2 kinda missed the target, Exoprimal will probably get closed in a year or so and then there's this Path of the Goddess... It seems an interesting game, and it has good reviews, but due to it's genre and being available on Game Pass it seems that won't sell well...

[@ClydeJHatbird]

I commented on someone else's video about an idea I had, while discussing concord. It was 3rd person hero shooter where you play as archetypes of cartoon characters. All of their attacks, the stages, the sound design, it would replicate that mickey mouse - looney toons era of slapstick comedy. It took me less than 5 minutes to come up with something that I guarantee would draw in a bigger audience than concord. Current day game development has been taken over by people with either bad ideas, ideas that will only hit an extremely niche audience, or both.

[@Kira-Namida]

If people only ever made games based on games that are already popular, we'd all still be playing pong.

[@xxnike0629xx]

Although ideally every AAA game studio should go by these guidelines, the thing is that these companies have been hyper focused on trendy games to the point where we get a lot of failed games that don't last long term. Many developers are focused on making a quick buck and trying to make a bunch of money short term to make investors and executives happy. We're often seeing too many live service games (for example) that are pretty much the same only for most of them to fail within a year. We're seeing more quantity releases and not quality releases.

[@YaraUwU]

Nintendos legal team are monsters. The rest of Nintendo is generally good to amazing.

[@riotangel4701]

This is just old school game design, really. Develop interesting and fun games people want to play.

[@Lagbeard]

When you do no market research, you get big hits like Suicide Squad kills the profit margin, Or forspoken, or concord.

[@HellsFallenAngel1]

The Data Analyst course by Google on Coursera states "you should over-sample under-represented groups". Over-sampling any group inherently biases data and is being used to mislead decision makers to self-destructive outcomes. If a map-maker fabricates information on the map and presents it to the captain, the entire crew ends up being misled.

[@Behrking]

its like when bloodsained ritual of the night came out, that 'path' had been abandoned and left to be overgrown, but the last proper castlevania game released in 2008. they tried to pull a metroid and go 3D, it was met with mixed review and konami said 'welp, off to the trash heap with you'. iga said lets go back to the 2D non linear roots, konami said thats not what fans want(current flavor of the month) iga said 'you're wrong and im going to prove it.' and he did. personally, i think its a good time for a new rts game(the last 'big' one i heard of was the starship troopers one, but not sure how good it is)

[@JabelldiMarco]

Even the 'beginners' and 'experts' aren't so much better than 'children' and 'adults': there are adult players who won't play BG3 because of the gory graphics, there are players with decades of experience in tactical RPGs that won't play BG3 now, because they don't have time for it's long combat; there are minors loving Sims and Eldenring, and experienced players failing Eldenring or Souls games for physical reasons.

[@jjsponge1202]

Market research is stifling creativity. I understand now.

[@whysoserious4274]

I see it as lazy recycling.

[@jamesadd4566]

Absolutely right, I think value proposition is a vital part of marketing research to find out who their audiences are. Japan games are okay but the western made video games are vague. What is modern audience?? I don't think this term is suitable to describe the current players at all. I miss the day I play video without any contested facts.

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

Miyazaki has spoken about his philosophy, some listen, some don't. Even tho i didn't like Lords of the Fallen, i respect it because the devs listened.

[@shanobian]

I just realised Yong is the only KZbin channel I consistently watch now. Having grown up around KZbin from its creation to now all channels I have given up on.

[@rikkiwatson3927]

Sakurai isn't a nintendo developer, he's freelance

[@pixels_per_minute]

When ~80% of the US keeps buying into micro-transaction, there's little need for change in the AAA space. People just keep wasting their money, and then wonder why things are the way they are.

[@rekkazan]

Sakurai is not a part of Nintendo, he has his own company Sora Ltd which he founded in 2005

[@gaarakabuto1]

I think the hate towards Nintendo is blown out of proportion because Nintendo has made clear that they won't take fans opinion for face value. I am not saying that criticism over Nintendo isn't fair, but Nintendo is a Japanese company with very Japanese issues (since most of the criticism that matters against Nintendo is their handling of copyrights and distributing), meanwhile sony and microsoft are just next to nonexistent and have promoted much worse trends that nintendo ever did. The hate is not unreasonable, but it is definitely a lot more than deserved.

[@kapalaransagisun9416]

it's not that some video game companies don't know. they don't care. remember that the next time you get EA Battlefront 2'd or diablo immortal'd

[@hafirenggayuda]

Yeah, lots of people still buying/paying for live services. The problem is, those publishers thought they can sway those people to buy theirs

[@paledrake]

Battlefront 2 actually got fixed and was turned into a great game though. Sadly the timing was too late...

[@Hatory-o6n]

Here's the thing. All developpers in AAA companies actually do agree with this and are desperate to make the company they work with understand. But the executive just won't listen

[@RangerXXT]

these guys have degrees in marketing.....they just want infinite profit

[@hammo4168]

I think Sakurai is spot on with that analysis. We have seen MANY examples of where a trend gets stale fast: Battle Royale games like PUBG and Fortnite started; FPS shooters like COD, RPGs in the early Nintendo days, Souls-like games etc. Combine that will shareholders, who have no concept of what players want, just focus on the highest profit while only spending the least amount of budgets.. that makes for a stale, repetitive and depressing gaming environment. Then you have franchises like Super Smash Bros, God of War, Metal Gear, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, newer ones like Spiderman, Uncharted etc. All wildly successful and not a following any of the BIG mainstream trends. I hope publishers and developers take notes.

[@Riles_-bn4jr]

sakurai is such a freaking giga chad dude

[@StorytellerDan]

So glad someone at that level has finally come out & said this.

[@Frank_Costanzas_Laywer]

I was really hoping the entire video would be Yong occasionally chiming in with "uh-huh", "yeah", and "that's right".

[@FL3TcH_A_SkETcH]

Uh huh.

[@krazyd0nut404]

That’s right

[@BausWasHere]

Yeah

[@LewisJones-sj1lm]

Watch the original video if you don’t want his input.

[@clarencealger8380]

I can never tell when a Sakurai video is new or old. Bro never age a day!