Gaming's Triple-A-pocalypse Has Arrived! - Razör Rants

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[@mariokarter13]

"If we make every game propaganda, no one will be able to escape!" "Hey where'd everybody go?"

[@cousinzeke4888]

Back in time to the loving arms of emulation.

[@mrscruffles801]

Playing something made with a creative vision

[@HalIOfFamer]

Poe 2.

[@Mirthful_Midori]

They know people switched to Japanese media. Hence, they are now going after Japan with a vengeance.

[@somethingsomething8511]

"God damnit they're just playing all the old games without all the propaganda, darn it!"

[@DouglasIII368]

Don't overspend. Don't anatagonize. You will sell. That is all.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

It's baffles me that they kept trying to fix and put a bad spin on something that has been working for as long as human first trading goods with each other

[@RaifSeverence]

They'll continue to overspend so long as activists fill dev spots that would be better filled by those who are passionate about gaming Those who are passionate tend to be those who will crunch during development, which in turn results in smaller development time frames, since you'll have devs spending 18 plus hours a day coding and deving, rather than posting online about how inclusive their game is. Kinda funny that when AAA was good, crunch was a thing that you heard a lot about, but now that games have 6 to 10 year deve cycles, you don't hear about crunch, but you do hear about billion dollar budgets. Wonder if there's a connection

[@silverblade357]

Seriously. SE would have made all the money if they remade FF7 with FF13 graphics and voice acting. They didn't need to reinvent the wheel or pad the story with bloated anime garbage.

[@DeadpoolX9]

@@RaifSeverencebecause the passionate people don’t have the connections/resources to pursue jobs/networking in the AAA suitifed space. That’s why they’re all in the indie fields

[@LordOfNihil]

also try making games that dont suck.

[@littlembali]

We've gone from "Learn to code" to "Learn to weld"

[@mr.dr.frankenkeys]

Very quickly

[@littlembali]

@@mr.dr.frankenkeys Thank you for finishing my thought process Doc xD

[@adrianocs4]

I actually convinced a friend of mine to stop pursuiting a developer carrear and start welding at a factory. It works.

[@BaconMinion]

Learn to HVAC.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

They can always learn 2 mine coal.

[@Jekyll_Jackal]

Wow, Harvey Smith really did take Anita's Sarkeesian advice to Arkane's grave

[@GabrielBoorom]

Anyone who takes her advice is not long from entering the grave. 🪦

[@DoomRulz]

What's this now? Is he the game's lead designer?

[@GreyhawkTheAngry]

@@DoomRulz he was for Dishonored One and Two (and I think a third game), the second game is the one that he took Snarkeesians advice on.

[@Ranger_Brutus]

Last time I was this early, Angry Joe still had one chin

[@coltonwilkie241]

Last time I was this early Angry Alvarez could still see below the waist.

[@MOE-db8oc]

Last time I was this early Ol Joe was lucid. He never really had a brain though.

[@XxKABOOM50xX]

So did you

[@ghostprojekt]

Last time I was this early Enraged Ernesto wasn't a shill.

[@annatardlordofderps9181]

Bloviating Babieca hasn't had one chin in a dragons age. Welcome back.

[@DeadlyPlatypus]

"Spell my name correctly when you steal that joke." - Styxhexxenhammer

[@robknight9406]

One X styxhexenhammer666

[@SicFromTheKush]

If he wants them to include the umlaut, he's asking a lot

[@directrulefromgamerchair3947]

good old stiz haxenhormr

[@juliantheapostate8295]

@@SicFromTheKush At least it's not a scharfes 's' at the start.....

[@grindingtheaxe3027]

SicSemperTyrannisFist

[@ExamplePrime]

Someone needs to find out the actual budget of Skull & Bones because Ubisoft have been hiding how large a failure it is

[@Dr.Clemens1275]

Let's say $500 million.

[@elgerifico]

I imagine it's in the ballpark of the national budget of a small, third-world country.

[@malicekerendu3574]

Paid for by the Malaysian gov. over the course of 10 years. The devs probably just spent most of the time and money sightseeing. Imagine that. A 10 year vacay for a last minute rush job. Somehow more professional than those 'day in the life of a tech girl' tiktoks.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

large part of it was paid by subsidies from the government

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@elgerifico small third world countries have budgets in the single digit millions or less, this game is more in the 100s of millions range

[@Xiuhtec]

$1.2 billion budgets but they can't afford one good writer.

[@GabrielBoorom]

Not to worry, they can afford about half a dozen terrible ones.

[@diggman88]

Most of the writers these days are "professional writers". They only went to college and haven't lived a day in their lives.

[@AceGold-hp8jv]

That’s because actual talent is priceless.

[@ChaptermasterPedroKantor-kv5yw]

There have been writers who worked on Breaking Bad but who turned in sh1te when working elsewhere. It does not matter how good you are, if your showrunner, or game developer dismisses all your ideas and wants you to deliver sh1te, or else, you will turn in sh1te if you want to keep your job.

[@goukeban6197]

Nah, Bethany with the sociology degree will do just fine.

[@mrscruffles801]

Time for gaming to finally be unburdened by what has been

[@childofthemist6174]

The budgets of these games are so overblown it’s insane.

[@Grubnar]

Meanwhile, we have a game like Valheim, that was made by like 3 Swedish guys in a garage ... selling millions of copies!

[@childofthemist6174]

@ Yep I’m thinking these so called consultants are fleecing game devs in the name of DEI…

[@cousinzeke4888]

You don't understand, we HAVE to mocap everything and we'd never get by without 600 pencil pushers taking up space. Throw in some licensed music and a celebrity actor or two and bam, 200 million gone.

[@HenshinFanatic]

who wants to bet at least half is for the CEO?

[@barnbwt]

"I'm telling you, boss, you gotta give my department a BILLION dollars if you want to make money in this business." --Project managers begging for ever more resources to mismanage. It's not just a problem in gaming industry, but it's a perennial problem in any poorly run corporation whose leadership has no idea what it's doing.

[@morenthus]

KZbin immediately deleted my comment. To summarize, the days of Daggerfall and KOTOR are over. Let new studios rise from the ashes of the old.

[@davidgusquiloor2665]

Same, they have deleted mine twice

[@lorddiethorn]

@@davidgusquiloor2665hi bro I can’t reply to your one comment. Mind also get deleted all the time. To be fair I get in trouble with my language

[@stringfellow401]

Same here, noticed it quite a bit over the last year. It seems like the algorithm puts some commenters on a naughty list, likely for using certain keywords, speaking certain truth's etc. In my experience it happens more often with channels YT is probably already de-ranking.

[@roberttrisca8210]

be thankful u re not getting banned . recently i kept getting banned for " hate speech "

[@Ozzystrayroo]

They have the list. And the al-ghoulrythm go paranoid android on any comment made by those on that list. That is why some harmless inoffensive comment got yeeted on your main account while if you test it on a new sock account, that comment stays.

[@mattmartin6493]

Studios with over 1000 employees is outrageous. I have little doubt that many of those people do nothing but cost money and enforce HR culture.

[@Praxics0815]

Mihoyo grew from 2019 with around 500 employees to around 5000 employees in 2023, just within 2020 to 2021 they tripled their employees. Their revenue was 550 million in 2020 and in 2023 it was 1,7 billion. From 2020 to 2024 Mihoyo has made a revenue of about 6,2 billion. They currently plan to build a new office space in Shanghai for 6000 to 8000 employees worth about 137 million, that comes after they just finished their new HQ in Shanghai in 2022. Mihoyo is currently operating 9 locations. The budget of Genshin Impact, their most successful game, reached over 900 million in 2024. The games initial budget is thought to be about 100 million and since its release in 2020 it is estimated to cost roughly 200 million a year to continue the development and maintain it. These numbers were derived from a lawsuit against leakers in Canada in 2024. Mihoyo is currently actively maintaining 5 games and as of now and has no announced new project in development. Grand Theft Auto V was developed by a core team of about 1000 employees and up to 6000 people worked on it and GTA Online in total. The game had an estimated budget of 265 million. In 2019 GTA online made about 5 million in revenue a day and GTA 5 made 800 million in revenue on its launch day alone. From its release in 2013 to today GTA 5 and GTA Online made 8,6 billion in revenue. RockStar Games has about 2000 employees at 11 locations and currently the only new game in development known is GTA 6.

[@mattmartin6493]

@Praxics0815 ok now name all the studios that size that have released tons of flops. The exception doesn't change the rule.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Praxics0815 Mihoyo are maintaining 5 online games so they do need the manpower and they are chinese so manpower is cheap and there is no DEI. Quite frankly I would just auto-assume that OP's statement are valid only for the west or west-like asian countries like japan. China is a different beast so all metrics change. Rockstar instead has all its eggs in one basket, it's in the USA so there is DEI and expensive manpower, and when a GTA fails they are going to join Ubilol, Bioware and friends on the struggle bus

[@JohnDoe-pt7ru]

​@Praxics0815 Mihoyo basically prints money. They also are simultaneously running several active live games. A truly terrible example to make your "point".

[@ivanbluecool]

Gamers want to play a game not be bogged down by nonsense? Who would have thought?

[@phoenixrising4995]

We need to go back to a time when plumbers hit boxes with their heads and got mushrooms.

[@Conejoazul2018]

Slop games, and now they are bogging down gamer's brains.

[@aredjayc2858]

Oh hey Ivan, funny seeing you here. I'm used to seeing you in Green's comments

[@ivanbluecool]

@aredjayc2858 just passing along here. Only making a post when I got something to say so I kept it short.

[@chillhour6155]

Metroid prime 4 is releasing next month​@@phoenixrising4995

[@Procket12]

The Prey "Reboot" wasn't a reboot. It was just a System Shock knock off that had Prey's name slapped on it. We were gonna have a proper Prey 2 until the moron publishers canceled it.

[@dorn0531]

I enjoyed the first half of Prey. Bioshock in space? Cool. Got incredibly bored around 60-70% in & moved on. Sad…

[@mechagunt7031]

It was such a mid game.

[@mariodrv]

It's not a knock off, it's one of the best games ever made.

[@Garrus1995]

Feel like people would have liked the game significantly more if they had just called it something else. While the original Prey wasn’t a mega hit, it was a good enough game and had its fair share of fans who weren’t thrilled that the franchise was canned to replace it with what was essentially a rehash of System Shock when that’s not what the original game was at all. Taken on its own merits, the Prey reboot isn’t a terrible game, but it’s not what people expected of the franchise.

[@nathansteinfromarkham7109]

More like they murdered it.

[@etrangray-mane8610]

Are you kidding me? I *wish* I had found your channel a decade ago! Edit: Just wanna clarify, I started watching Razor in about 2019 or 2020. First video I remember watching was the Michael Jackson rebuttal. I did not *just* find him recently.

[@queuedjar4578]

I've been watching since elder scrolls retrospective! Was interested in Skyrim and wanted info on the rest of the elder scrolls series. It's crazy how he nailed the retrospective format way back then before retrospective became 10 hour long videos of people reading the plot of games off wikipedia pages.

[@queensofthedthrone8267]

He has a full decade of content. His political takes are top notch, and his music/metal mythos are a hell of a binge when you're at work

[@PODsyndrome]

Good luck chasing the feeling of your first time watching a Razerfist video.

[@JuanTrujillo-yp7ho]

I used to be a Democrat when I discovered Razor. Boy was I wrong about everything then lol

[@BFG_10G]

Get some lemonade, you'll love it here. 😊

[@maxfieldnelson]

Quite the money laundering racket the AAA game studios have.

[@krisridge1985]

it must be a racket at this point

[@AceGold-hp8jv]

And not even a particularly good one.

[@natehoustman]

Rippa and the Silverback made this point: If Elon can cut 80% of Twitter and it still works, what's making AAA budgets so diabetes-prone?

[@NuchiAsaki]

Because investors who have no experience with game development think they can make games faster if they have more people working on it. They are also wasting their marketing budget on advertising Call of Duty to 80 year old women.

[@jackall-trades6149]

@@NuchiAsaki That, and they get "brilliant" ideas after the game is half finished. Computer programming is very cumulative. You can't pivot easily after making the commitment to a certain design choice.

[@retroman3252]

​@@NuchiAsakiLook up who these institutional investors are, I mean as a person. It's usually boomers way past their prime larping as gurus, with a penchant the job being a retirement toy. Math is a language, equations are a story.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@jackall-trades6149 any form of R&D is cumulative, you can't pivot easily in any industry but for some reason the galaxy brains think that for entertainment it's easy to just do 180 turns at the drop of a hat

[@NuchiAsaki]

@@retroman3252 I know, boomers who have no idea how game development works.

[@krymera666x7]

Gaming has nose dived to the point of it all becoming unwanted sequels, reboots of the wrong games and chasing trends instead of risking original games anymore. Always love a great Razor rant!!!

[@kalamander8563]

So it looked at Hollywood's history this decade and said 'Let's do that!'?

[@jtjames79]

There's a Star Wars Total conversion mod for the open source Morrowind engine. It's pretty good. There's even mod packs now.

[@williamsova9313]

@@kalamander8563 more like the people who have ruined Hollywood decided to move onto greener pastures and latched onto the game industry when it was struggling after the 2008 financial crisis

[@AceGold-hp8jv]

Honestly that’s entertainment in a nutshell.

[@decwow]

There's really only one sequel I want to see, and that's Episode 3.

[@frankcasamento74]

You know he said a decade but i started watching razor mid 2016 when the political high of the year started so at least 7 and a half years. How time flies watching the goat

[@Gigamyt3]

The AAA gaming implosion is what happens when you don't have a sustainable middle market to balance out financial fiduciaries. That, and another gaming crash accelerated faster by ESG/DEI/BRIDGE meddling in major studios- bye Ubisoft!

[@davidgusquiloor2665]

Serves them right, so many companies have neglected the middle market for AAA movie games and it's finally bitting them in the ass.

[@mrscruffles801]

@@davidgusquiloor2665 I miss when games were still actual games

[@arafat2924]

I'd wait for AssCred'n'da Hood to come out (if it comes out) to write Ubisoft's epitaph but if that isn't a huge hit (which would surprise me) yeah, it's bye Ubisoft

[@fatnin13]

I still blame EA for bying Criterion games and ruining the AA gaming. Death of Renderware hurts to this day so bad not even UE can numb it.

[@Gigamyt3]

​@@fatnin13 EA buying Origin and Westwood only to run them into the ground by mismanagement was such a crime! That felt a little too personal on how EA killed those companies. Pioneers of the gaming industry- only to be put out in the back and put down ol' yellow style...

[@StupidJLee]

"The leading cause of death is dying." -Me

[@StupidJLee]

I got a heart from Razorfist? Damn, I'm honored.

[@tlrlml]

"The leading cause of death is living." -Me Far more accurate, and existentially horrifying...

[@KopperNeoman]

The one and only cause of Final Death is rejection of Christ.

[@Box_of_Cox]

People die when they are killed!

[@HingleMcCringleberry983]

I don't think dude was serious but you two waxing philosophical is cringe.

[@HallowedBeThyGame]

"Deader than the democrats platform." God I'm happy to be here to see it.

[@retromeister3709]

*"When you replace escapism with realism, it's no longer fantasy"* - Me

[@undeadwill5912]

Exactly

[@peitrodominic1011]

....there ain't a shred of realism going on with flag and its running things. That's sort of the point with their need to shove it everywhere it don't belong.

[@SvendleBerries]

Reminds me of the fad of playing a game where youre just going to work. I mean, longhaul trucking, being a convenience store manager...wheres the game?

[@istherenooneleft]

It’s selective realism

[@mariokarter13]

Quoting yourself is almost as pretentious as the games themselves.

[@goukeban6197]

Remember when Warhorse Studios did a crowdfunding for a "meager" 1million dollars and still pumped out one of the best games of the past decade? I sure wish the industry would remember.

[@SB-129]

Pepperidge Farm remembers...

[@PlaySirFootball]

550 million in marketing? I haven't seen money go to waste this fast since Hunter binged coke and Xanax.

[@MOE-db8oc]

Wait till you see the final tally on Camela’s presidential run.

[@vjbd2757]

Apparently you missed Kamala's 1 billion dollar election spending.

[@barnbwt]

Or since Disney made...well, almost anything, lately.

[@tlrlml]

That's barely one 'gift' to a certain war torn country...

[@Mathmachine]

That title brings me the second most joy of any title I've seen in 2024, just behind "Donald Trump elected President".

[@mrscruffles801]

I still recall the joy of waking up at 2 am on nov 6th and seeing "trump victory" titles on yt.

[@bluecoin3771]

Razorfist, can we please have a Top 5 Turds of 2024 please? We're long overdue for one.

[@GELTONZ]

JUST FIVE?! I'm actually trying to make a list of all the recent failures this year and I am actually losing count: *As you know, Hyenas. Skull & Bones Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Star Wars: Outlaws *Assassin's Creed Shadows Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Concord Dustborn Dragon Age: The Veilguard Avowed MK1 Multiversus Zau Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn South of Midnight Unknown 9: Awakening *=Not exactly released this year

[@barnbwt]

@@GELTONZ Add the Indiana Jones game to the pile. If Razor hated Teef, he'll really hate that game, too. Jesus, I think your list totals at least three billion dollars in losses, easily.

[@Garrus1995]

Whole damn year has been a turd. Seriously, almost every game I’ve bought this year wasn’t actually released this year, and of the ones that were only a couple were actually decent.

[@Dragonking1984]

@@GELTONZ What started as a woke bonfire has turned into a entertainment funeral pyre. One bigger & more destructive then the wildfires in Commiefornia.

[@Dragonking1984]

@@Garrus1995 Agreed i can count on two hands the number of AAA games i bought or plan on buying from this year. Past few years most of my gaming money has gone on classics, AA's & indies.

[@sigurdrr1015]

I see no crisis in video games. I see good games selling. And bad games not selling.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

the crisis is only for AAA games, which are bad, and are not selling

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

You sure? Even mediocrity and slop is still sold under millions, or shady companies still getting it.

[@Volper1]

"First things first, my apologies." HAAAAAH! And that is why we love you Razor.

[@rockytheblackdragon]

Their days of ruining gaming will be numbered. The countdown to his inauguration, Begins now.

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

Didn't Trump give a talk against gaming... those Christian fundamentalists will also help ruin gaming.

[@nkw1985]

@@MorMacFey-v2g - It would be a welcome change at this point. At least men and women will go back to traditional roles.

[@MorMacFey-v2g]

@@nkw1985 Nothing will change, crazy will still be crazy. A President doesn't change what and how people actually are.

[@mrscruffles801]

@@MorMacFey-v2g What Christian fundamentalists? Can you lefties ever be specific with what you're saying?

[@wabbit234]

I miss being excited about new games so much.

[@Kal_g]

Last time I was this early, Kamala thought she had a shot...! Yes, I used that line before. No, I don't care.

[@Gillymonster18]

‘Tis a good line.

[@drunkmonkgar4436]

The first attempt or the second?

[@xX_Pokeman_Xx]

Last time you were this early, you hadn't used that line yet :P

[@Outrack]

Made no sense the first time.

[@TheAetherOne]

All I play is 20 year old games now so it doesn't affect me much, but it is fun to watch the collapse.

[@Broken_Savior]

Likewise. I'm desperate to upgrade my hardware, so that I... Can play shit from 1990s and other titles which many would consider "old" by now.

[@Rebellions]

It wont affect you so long as you save them to your harddrive. Triple A is doing shit demasters specifically to try and erase the past.

[@chaosgyro]

There are good options in the AA and indie space. People like Larian, Digital Extremes, and Grinding Gear still care about making games their customers will like.

[@WeeG-bwc77]

Past is a gold mine, and makes you use your imagination.

[@stanleystriker7065]

Been playing UO Outlands....and even spent a few hours recently playing web version of Civ 2. Thinking of digging thru the garage for a pager and my old converse....

[@annatardlordofderps9181]

The most astounding thing in all of this is that a game company will spend nearly $600 million on the *development* of a game and it ends up just playing like something I could get off of the Steam marketplace for $35 made in some nerdy guy's basement.

[@barnbwt]

Almost like the point of the exercise was really to make nearly $600 million just...disappear!

[@tlrlml]

But... playing those cheap indi games you miss all the flavor... bugs, crashes, and the message ;)

[@MrSphandor]

The indie game will have better story, heart and gameplay and less bugs.

[@barnbwt]

The 600 million dollars is just a symptom of an industry in a death spiral, and has nothing to do with the product. It just indicates all levels of management have lost faith in the project and are looting the investors before the music stops. Veilguard stole 200 million from Ubisoft for years before turning in their rushed homework at the last minute. Clearly Ubisoft's executives see no path forward, since they put that con artist in charge of Mass Effect 5 and therefore clearly intend to loot another giant pile of cash before delivering feces in time for bankruptcy.

[@SP_TOOP]

It’s almost as if when you release garbage and then attack people for not liking your garbage, you will lose sales.

[@NotSponsoredByEA]

2+2=5 for these people, they don't live in reality.

[@mylifeisacomplexpastiche7901]

“Spell my name correctly when you steal that joke.” Just for that, I’m spelling your name as Razõr.

[@Chibi1986]

Not just Sarkessian, but Ubisoft too. Come to find out, thanks to MasteroftheTDS, many of the Sweet Baby Inc people were former Ubisoft employees. Now if only someone could get Musk to watch this and broadcast the true source of ESG to where it matters.

[@gimmeyourrights8292]

That makes a lot of sense, I mean did you ever find that disclaimer that pops up for every Assassin's Creed game weird? You know the one that mentions how diverse the team working on the game is?

[@combativeThinker]

That would require Musk to Name Them.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

@@combativeThinker Wang, Wong, Huang and Huong?

[@combativeThinker]

@@worldcomicsreview354 No. "Sarkeesian" is a hint.

[@Chad_Thundercock]

​@@combativeThinker That hint is to 'on the nose'.

[@mariokarter13]

Gamers just need to follow two simple rules: 1. Be Cheap 2. Have Taste

[@jimreaper1337]

1) Be a good game with a good story/content 2) be fun to play Those are literally the only two things a gamer needs, price is subjective, same as taste as every individual has individual tastes

[@batboy555]

Tetris for example

[@ruthlessedgeboy8591]

@@batboy555 Mega Man X, Donkey Kong Country and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are as great today as they were in the 90s.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

​@jimreaper1337 I disagree on price. Not to mention even if ya make a good game, ya still a shady company pulling bs, you don't get future purchases by me.

[@jimreaper1337]

@darkzeroprojects4245 again, price is subjective, as you've just proven... Also, if you make a good game, I'll buy DLC, etc It's all subjective, but games by their very definition should be good and fun to play, simple

[@gomez605]

LOL at that last joke. But seriously though... My tomboy of a mother always loved to play videogames with her sons, (my two brothers and I), and every time she commented that to other mothers they will look at her like some kind of lunatic. Female gamers are like unicorns, and even she knew that. Gaming was, is, and always will be a male hobby.

[@gimmeyourrights8292]

The problem with the current day market is that they are too busy chasing unicorns, instead of gold.

[@mrscruffles801]

No, it's a male dominated hobby but not a male hobby. My girl always bring her switch over to show me her games.

[@gomez605]

@@mrscruffles801 You are correct, I was wrong in my wording.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

If you're my sort of age it was probably as strange for an adult to be playing games full stop. I watched an amusing Simpsons video where, in early series, Homer going to the arcade was "funny" because "gaming is for kids!". In a later series Homer pulled not a not-SNES going "This is what we had when I was growing up!"

[@SabreXT]

These games with 8-10 year development cycles got their start at the peak of "wokeness" when the ESG money was flowing and game journos were claiming that the "modern audience" had replaced gamers. That's why so many of them feel like relics of Tumblr and Twitter, and why the same GamerGate era names keep coming up.

[@Iamhungey]

Last time I was this early, stopping a criminal doesn't get you charged with hate crime.

[@ericrhodes5174]

He's been acquitted

[@pieceofschmidtgamer]

Let's be honest, even without DEI or ESG, the AAA games industry was going to go under sooner or later. When your industry is regularly pinching out games that cost a half a billion dollars to produce and "needs microtransactions" to remain profitable that's not a sign of long term sustainability.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Yes, DEI and ESG allowed them to make another generation or two of games that flopped but that money is drying up too (in the sense of the investors noticing this is not a good investment and bailing). That's why they pivoted so hard, to get investment because their sources were drying up after they made bad games for a decade already

[@Conejoazul2018]

Slop games is worse than woke games, because they turn you unto a consoomer.....

[@crashzone6600]

We know that if they are anything like Twitter 80% of their employee costs are unnecessary.

[@Phryj]

I wonder who much of the exorbitant cost of western game development is caused by salaries for the commissars infesting HR, PR/Marketing/social media, project managers, etc. who essentially get paid 6-figure incomes to enforce ideological conformity at all stages of every project and don't even care about making good games. Also, how much protection money are they paying to DEI consultants? These companies could probably save vast amounts of money by firing all these parasites, and the games would be most certainly be better for it.

[@rungunninja1289]

Honestly the fact is the dei employees you hear about on twitter fall into two categories. The idiots you think care they are hated and terrible writers and you be correct about. The you get the ones who are literally just cashing paychecks and laughing at how ridiculous they were paid to do nothing but wine about none issues.

[@Hndshks]

I'm sure it doesn't help, but a few bloated salaries are just a drop in the bucket. I think Concord's credits take over a full hour to finish rolling. You can't pay a thousand people even a crappy salary for the 4-8 years it takes to make a game and not end up spending 500 million dollars. It's just terrible mismanagement and business-sense. The scary part is this isn't just a video games industry problem. America's entire corporate managerial elite, across the board, are some of the dumbest and least impressive people of all time. They make the most short sighted decisions possible, buttf**ing their employees and bankrupting whatever businesses they are supposed to be leading in the process, then pull a golden parachute and glide into the next CEO position to do it all over again. Many such cases.

[@blackcat7k]

The thing that's annoying is that Japan is going to start their own version of this BS *_SOON™_*

[@Goobywoobygoo]

Triple A games haven’t been good for 10 years.

[@shred1894]

I'd argue closer to 15 but yeah.

[@cavalieroutdoors6036]

@@shred1894 Nah, there were still some good AAA games between 2009 and 2014. But 2014 marked the last time I bought a triple A title.

[@chronix7946]

I want to say around the time of the Xbox One/PS4 release is when the slowdown on actually good AAA games started to nosedive

[@NathanCassidy721]

As a guy who plays AAA games and grew up past his NES/Genesis/Game Boy/ Retro Consoles, AAA game devs are capable of creating good games. It’s just publishers are insanely risk averse to their own determent.

[@barnbwt]

AAA Games haven't been good since they were AA studios.

[@andrews4717]

I was just thinking two minutes ago “I wonder what Razors up to?”

[@kenshin5491]

I was thinking that he's late for his Arcade stream. Then I checked his X.

[@queuedjar4578]

he streams weekly if you don't catch those.

[@kenshin5491]

@@queuedjar4578 Oh, I absolutely do. He didn't this week. Said yesterday he would today. Then maybe Terran was late, or something, and he posted this great video instead.

[@RogueFox2185]

As the industry collapses under it’s own bloated weight, let’s hope that in time people will have fun games again that they can be immersed instead of constantly having to be on guard in case “THE MESSAGE!” Shows up.

[@joesomebody3365]

Great video as always Razor.

[@neonreagan6023]

Old Yamauchi must be laughing it up in the afterlife, watching all his enemies all fall apart and all his predictions coming to pass. He made sure Nintendo would never destroy itself with some of the problems afflicting the industry now.

[@williamsova9313]

Oh, I'm curious, do pray yell?

[@Gillymonster18]

No kidding. Aside from the occasional rough patch, as a company Nintendo is leagues more stable than modern Microsoft and Sony.

[@mrconroy4672]

Here’s hoping the next gen performs just as well as current gen.

[@neonreagan6023]

@@williamsova9313 Yamauchi: "Up until now games have had nothing to do with movies, like I've kept on saying all this time, but now people are going on about how every game will be like a movie from now on. We've come all this way and somewhere along the line, we've forgotten that we're supposed to be making games, and not movies. Now, as a result of that, game development is turning into a circus, costs are skyrocketing, users get bored faster than ever before, and the development of truly new games -- new ways of having fun -- has all but stopped. And now, because of all that, it's getting difficult to make a profit producing video games. If we don't change the way game development is carried out, I can't see the industry or the marketplace rejuvenating itself anytime soon." Yamauchi: "They give money to people that really should be unemployed, and they in turn round up some friends, start a company and begin creating software. But is this really the best way to go about this right now? The more amazing graphics and sound you put into a game, the longer it takes to finish. Not just a year, but now, more like a year and a half or two years. So then your development costs balloon, and when you finally put it out you have zero guarantee of it selling. That's what the game industry is today." And an extra quote about Microsoft because I find it funny after the ABK deal. Yamauchi: "There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to do engulf software houses with money, but I don't believe that will go well"

[@ChillstoneBlakeBlast]

But Yamauchi is the reason RPGs sucked since the N64 era and only Recently, after buying Monolith Soft, did Nintendo like RPGs again...

[@brendo7363]

Put Indiana Jones and the great circle down for another $200mil flop QUOTE ME

[@GELTONZ]

That one is gonna be a weird one because everyone I know who has played it, as in friends and not blind shills, are calling it incredible. Like, not just good but game of the DECADE good. So...maybe we shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch on that one.

[@NathanCassidy721]

I don’t know, it’s got good word of mouth so far. Worst I’ve heard is it’s mid, which is frankly good enough to sell.

[@mrscruffles801]

@@GELTONZ I'm rather confused by that one.

[@AnonymousNoNayme]

@@GELTONZ Yeah but ppl hate Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel/Pixar now so they will boycott it. Won't be good enough word of mouth to get enough ppl to stop their boycott and buy it. They killed the IP with Crystal Skull and The Dial of Destiny was the final nail in the coffin. Now Marvel or Star Wars might make money if they actually made something good (as there is enough semi-recent/decent IP what with the EU/TCW/some games/the pre-Endgame MCU etc.) but Indy is too old and niche (there is only 3 decent movies and they're all from the 80's smh) with no watchable newer iterations without a geriatric POS grumpy scotch-drunk a-hole for a lead to pull anyone from more recent generations.

[@Chad6o]

@@AnonymousNoNayme Yeah, you'd have to point a 45 at my head to get me to purchase any Disney product, and I couldn't give a FF what it's review scores are.

[@GregsKitchen]

As a non gamer, I didn't understand a word of what you said, but I still loved the rant 👍

[@qwertyman321]

Greg my man when the next review?

[@GregsKitchen]

@qwertyman321 1 hour

[@worldcomicsreview354]

I quit gaming cold turkey around 2009*, when Vice City Stories showed itself to be half-finished, bug-ridden disaster. It was around that time that some game had "DLC" on the disk, and the "downloading" was simply paying to unlock the data already in your tray (and people DEFENDED this) Now I check in with the industry now and then to point and laugh. *-Except Doom, of course. But, as we all know, Doom is not a game that is black disk something eggs on pictures.

[@FrostbiteDigital]

​@@GregsKitchen Wow okay I was NOT expecting you to be in a Razorfist video of all places. 2024 is getting weirder and weirder 😂😂

[@GregsKitchen]

@FrostbiteDigital I love razor, been a sub for decade's !

[@Peter_Morris]

Man I haven’t seen it this bad since 1983, when Sears suddenly put all their gaming merchandise on super duper clearance. My parents bought so many 2600 games I thought we’d won the lottery.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Those were a couple really good Xmas and bdays. I still have that bushel basket full of the 2600 games, most grabbed on sale those years. Edit: Commodore also lowered the price on the C64 in ‘83 to like $250.

[@NERV_Mars]

Was one of those games ET? 😂

[@c1ph3rpunk]

@ have you played it recently? I have, we were unfair to it. It’s worse than we said. But yes, that’s one of them.

[@tlrlml]

Yes, but, the difference is those games were not unfinished crash test dummies, made to look and play like every other game in the stack... and designed to tell you in detail exactly how wrong you are in every way.

[@Bad_Llama]

Razorfist rants should be mandatory viewing for anyone in the gaming industry. It would prevent more garbage from entering the system. Also, Razorfist has a way of turning a phrase akin to the late great Terry Pratchett. Read Discworld and you’ll understand.

[@pawarl.o.s.881]

I saw a few PS5s at Walmart for 330 each, almost bought one cause it can play newer games far better than my PC can, then I realized there aren't enough new games I want to play to justify it.

[@lorddiethorn]

Kcd2 might be good monster Hunter might be good

[@mariokarter13]

It's the PS4 Pro Deluxe.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

​​@@lorddiethornhe had to wait next year by then and he can also play those on pc. I thought the main purpose of console is to play the exclusive title, what changes?

[@lorddiethorn]

@@Ozzystrayroo what are you talking about bro. I am saying there are some good games coming to ps5. His pc is trash compare to the ps5. Which means it’s probably ten years old and getting a new pc for gaming will probably set him back like 1000 dollars. So the ps5 at 350 plus something like ps plus means he will have games to play for months

[@cousinzeke4888]

@@lorddiethorn A new PC will set you back 1000 dollars only if you steal 80 percent of the parts. A graphics card alone is more than that.

[@dr.kinderman5290]

AAA gaming releases this year was like watching a fleet of Hindenburgs launching only to explode and go down in flames

[@Bready_Player_Bun]

*"At least it got to go out on a high note"* That note being a blood curdling scream.

[@HoChiMints2007]

I love how internet lefties, journos and David Jaffe blamed gamers for Concord and Dragon Age Veilguard's failure. "The devs worked so hard! And now they are jobless and it's your fault, GAMERS" Well if you liked it why not buy 2-3 more copies, I'm not playing those

[@DiversityDragons]

Putting AAA on blast plus Nick Fuentes and Pee Wee Hermann jokes? I'm here for it. Razorfist is the best KZbinr going today. You have no idea how easy he makes this all look . And it's not easy at all to do this.

[@DarkKnightCuron]

Cheers!

[@sparkyfister]

In 50 years, I'm still gonna be laughing at Movie Bob and Jim Sterling jokes.

[@claytonmorrow845]

Watching an extinction level event of the Entertainment industry in realtime while playing games and watching movies 5-30 years old makes me feel like Noah on the Ark. And it's a good feeling.

[@CJ-jo6do]

When video games turned from "What's fun and engaging to play?" To "how many things can we copy from other games, and extract money from players." Now they are shipping $70 games, unfinished, buggy, requiring updates post release to work correctly. And still wanting to milk another $20-$50 on content that should have been included with the game from the start.

[@chrisbingley]

Gaming needs to go back to it's roots. A bunch of nerds and geeks making the games that they want to play.

[@saturn580]

I've never seen such a profitable industry work so hard and consistently to fail.

[@gunpuncher3817]

It's been about 8 years, but the apology is appreciated lol. I have to say this feels a lot more like an actual crash than the one you said happened in 2008, considering the only real casualty of that contraction was THQ and a bunch of acquisitions. Still massive, but not Ubisoft buyout massive. This feels like the real deal. The only question is, what is this crash's version of Atari going to be? My gut tells me it might be Microsoft, because the Xbox division has been precarious for a long time. We'll have to see, but good god things are happening fast.

[@Harley_Mitchelly]

I think 2007 is masked because 2007 was the peak it was. We're seeing the cliff into the San Andreas faultline. Then, it was the cliff off Mt. Everest. Still a cliff, but one is definitely lower than the other.

[@Gillymonster18]

Since the coof, I’ve reacquired some basic gaming equipment. And nearly all my library is close to a decade old *at least* if not older. Modern gaming mostly sucks.

[@WeeG-bwc77]

PC = Emulator means you can basically have everything from

[@Harmonica-9944]

That synth Phantasm music at the end is beyond bitchin. Speaking of, would you ever do Rageaholic Cinema on Phantasm 1 and 2?

[@IamElChapo]

"This game wasn't made for you." "Don't like it, don't buy it." How's that workin' out for ya?

[@GabrielBoorom]

Will you: A.Blame Covid? B.Blame Trump? C.Blame the Male audience who make up the bulk of your sales?👈 ARE YOU SURE?

[@IamElChapo]

@GabrielBoorom >Tells male audience not to buy the game. >Male audience complies. >Surprised Pikachu face when sales tank.

[@BestWayKilla]

This video was accompanied by a AAA ad, hilariously enough.

[@FoulballProductions]

YES. Everyday I wake up in hopes of new rants! Lets goooo

[@spacelion4763]

I was in a gaming rut. I decided to go back and play Skyrim again to get the platinum and it's crazy to me that a game released in 2011 had that much to explore around a huge map, with a ton of good side quests. Say what you want about the combat but Skyrim feels like it came from a different time these days. The contrast is stark. I miss when games showed real passion.

[@RavenShinyThings]

Behavioural ai that works, destructable environments and a wide physics engine all put aside for graphics that have taa or post sharpening curse.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

but muh RTX and frame generation man

[@alida4790]

GFX hasn't even advanced that much since 2015...

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@alida4790 it actually did, if you see the techdemos from the gaming engines and the fact that even AA games nowadays can do 2020 AAA game graphics with less than a hundred developers. It's the AAA industry that has imploded and they lost the developers that can pull off what the game engines are able to do

[@RavenShinyThings]

@@alida4790 check out 2016 homefront the revolution and really shows this to the exstreme using an out of date cry engine game.

[@RavenShinyThings]

@@alida4790 they have but alot of what is being used on these newer engines ruins the new stuff. AA and out of date upscaling and sharpening all play a huge role in this. Over saturated use of ray tracing makes those games better but then the optimised game program strikes even harder than it ever did.

[@PoolKid75]

It's been obvious to me since the PS3 era that the video game industry has been declining. The oversaturation of FPS games and little else, the overemphasis and overprioritization of graphics over gameplay, and the severe lack of innovation in terms of new genres and new ways to play. As a result, my consoles sat idle and collected dust for years until the Switch came out. But aside from Nintendo, the rest of the industry is headed for a collapse, and I for one look forward to it. It's time for the industry to reset.

[@Zetact_]

Don't forget that if there IS an innovation in any capacity that developers leap on it and just throw it into their own game without considering whether it's a good mechanic in their game, or what made the mechanic effective in the game that popularized it, or even really if their game NEEDS it. I play a lot of 3D action games and they are a very obvious example. Ever since the PS3 era, most have been all "just Soulslop" or "just Arkhamslop" because those are the ones popular with game journos due to... Not actually having nuanced or deep combat. Going digging for some good action games playable on current hardware is an ordeal, a lot of it is limited to indie stuff on Steam.

[@MmntechCa]

Yep, most of the problems of today go back to the 7th gen. Make no mistake, Nintendo is a bully and a very anti-consumer company. Their secret sauce though is they have a diversified portfolio. They have their flagship franchises that sell a lot of copies, but they also support their niche ones. Games like Metroid, Xenoblade, and Pikmin don't sell a lot of copies, but they have rabidly loyal fanbases. They never became fixated on a small handful of safe, big budget "cinematic" franchises like the other two did. I think their use of "withered" hardware also keeps dev costs down. BOTW and TOTK were very expensive games for them to make for them, but still cost a fraction of what most modern AAA does. And unlike other Japanese studios, Nintendo tempers their Western divisions. The woke brainrot does still occasionally leak though via localization, but they have to be a lot more subtle about it.

[@spacelion4763]

The biggest issues as I can tell, all stem from greed. Almost every game gets made with an inflated budget and instead of gearing a game toward a particular segment, they feel they need to make the game accessible to as wide an audience as possible so everything feels watered down as a result. Every game is an everygame now. It's horrible.

[@GELTONZ]

@@spacelion4763 YUP. They need to target the largest possible demographic and the largest demographic takes up...maybe 25% of the gaming demographic? And EVERYONE is targetting that same group? Meanwhile the other 75% of gamers feel starved, backstabbed, and betrayed.

[@majob]

Sony is looking at a record profit year and Microsoft reported their gaming business is more healthy. People don't understand that game sales aren't the only way these companies make money

[@The_Assassin_of_The_Gray]

Last time I was this early, Nick Fuentes was still a hetero white boy who was "America First!"

[@artair70]

*Hispanic

[@drunkmonkgar4436]

So never?

[@SamBrockmann]

It's almost like, if you make garbage, people don't want it.

[@dantespicysausage9615]

Nothing like saying buy my game quite like dumping all your vitriol on the people who you want to purchase it

[@GabrielBoorom]

I thought that was Democrat Party Strategy 101.🤔

[@jackdaone6469]

"And overrated reboot of Prey." I'm still annoyed that the original Prey 2 concept got scrapped and was replaced with that.

[@jessebell1930]

It is indeed a good day seeing you upload😁 Love from Australia mate👊

[@eltreum1]

I have to say though out of the games you listed Star Citizen still ironically turned a profit this year against operating costs even down vs the coof boost era everyone got. Deadpool did really well but I may have to consider him controlled opposition. He's supposedly a speaker at some weekend seminar series with Obama and progressives about how to detoxify men and get them to vote democrat. The beauty of market capitalism is most failing industries can't survive forever because the money stops flowing in eventually. Movies and games are not essentials for survival or floating a govt budget. All the people have to do is pull a Gandhi and just sit down and do nothing and watch them collapse under the weight of their own egos.

[@EMO_alpha]

1:08 And the quality doesn't match. Its not as if every game is Red Dead Redemption 2 but they are still failing. They are expensive due to incompetence not grandiosity lol Also is there a chance alot of this is sabotage?

[@hansjuker8296]

Red Dead Redemption 2 was over rated b.s. Here's the storyline: "What are we doing Boss?" "I'm thinking Arthur...I need more time." Western game set in Ohio. Great.

[@AnonymousNoNayme]

It most definitely is sabotage now for sure. Same thing is happening at Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel/Pixar too. Many of the workers are gamers/fans of various IPs and hate to see their ppl and beloved franchises get shit on so they do the least work for the most money possible. I know i would half-ass everything i could get away with as a form of malicious compliance/silent protest. Only stands to reason others are doing the same.

[@tlrlml]

Sabotage is pretty strong accusation... more like arson.

[@jackall-trades6149]

Eh...half conscious sabotage. Like a fat guy who refuses to blame his weight on a steady diet of Arby's and beer. It'll sustain you, but the long term prospects are horrendous.

[@EMO_alpha]

@@hansjuker8296 My point was Its not as if these games are magnificent undertaking like GTA or something.

[@Osarogie112258]

Flowers to you, I remember you warned us of this.

[@TheBlackLink]

It took awhile for us to get here, but we're finally witnessing the apocalyptic end to the AAA slopfest. My oh my, and what a dazzling sight it is!

[@_Devil]

I hope Trumps victory will force these dolts to clean themselves up. They now know they are in the minority, as if that wasn't already clear enough, and that they are not welcome in this hobby.

[@jackall-trades6149]

Look at who's running it, and who's funding it. If anything, they'll try and brand this as the "virtuous rebellion against orange tyrant." They might lose relevance like MSNBC or CNN, but they still have enough residuals to survive a good while.

[@AceGold-hp8jv]

I hate to be that guy, but trump’s victory isn’t going to do anything to improve gaming. Trump’s still a boomer at the end of the day and like the typical boomer he’s probably just going to blame video games for the tragedy of the week.

[@WeeG-bwc77]

The commies are still in charge in academia, the Bankers still print the fiat currency away by the trillions, and the AIPAC babysitters are still in Congress. Trump is changing Nothing but a "perception". Maybe that "perception" will make some people more ballsy, but that's all it will change.

[@eliel14ful]

Oh boy i thought that Hollywood budgets were a scam... until i heard 500 mil for a flop. We needed our own gaiming McCarthy, the guy was a visionary

[@Zac_Frost]

Don't overspend. Don't antagonize your audience. Don't fill your game with modernity that no one really wants. You'll make money. And lots of it. Turns out, one plus one does in fact equal two.

[@wizardscrollstudio]

Politics aside, they keep dumping hundreds of millions of dollars in sub-par games. Overpriced, low quality gameplay, bad storytelling, rarely deliver on their promises, 500 GB updates, 16x the bugs, expensive in game stores, if you have any valid criticism excuse after excuse, game critics weaponized/bought out for good reviews..... Nah man! They forget I choose what to spend my money on and is full indie games for me.

[@karlthorsten9118]

Welcome to the AAApocAAAlypse!

[@mylifeisacomplexpastiche7901]

I’m reading those A’s as the Serious Sam suicide bomber scream.

[@davidgusquiloor2665]

One can only hope

[@AshleysBallistics]

Some if the greatest games ever made were made by 20 people with less memory than a Texas institute calculator & are STILL better than this modern day Sony Slop 😵

[@JoshWise1010]

No apology needed. Been watching since Screw Attack.

[@TheRageaholic]

@@JoshWise1010 Should you be up this late, Grandpa?

[@nicolasportela5513]

These budgets are out of control, same with the movie industry. When did it become norm for most AAA games to cost several hundreds of millions of dollars for crappy products??

[@alida4790]

I guess the same time their download size ballooned from tens of GB to hundreds of GB

[@mylifeisacomplexpastiche7901]

Isn’t “MovieBob’s mini fridge” just a regular fridge?

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

At this point the only reason I care what happens to the vidya industry is because I don't want the PRC taking over a multibillion dollar computer-oriented Western market sector. If every single major game company went under but were divided up among Western vulture capitalist firms, I could not give less of a crap. I can count on one finger the amount of games I've bought for over $20 in the past 10 years because ever since the last few years of Gen 7 the industry has been absolute trash.

[@pilouuuu]

They can make propaganda, but they can't make us buy it. Games are supposed to be fun, not lectures.

[@wonkawilly5573]

I was hoping you would be chosen for press secretary.. But that would be raising the bar.

[@nagesutemcbob]

"dining on dodo and Gehenna" easily makes my top 10 internet lines that hit hard, and I've been around for 25+ years.

[@AzurFenix]

you damn near killed my ass, I was eating ramen when you dropped the femboi period jokes and nearly choked to death on my noodles from laughing.

[@dee-taylor]

The invasion of normies into gaming has ruined everything. Now it's graphics over substance, and micro transactions everywhere on everything. Truly an abomination.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Despite it all, people still bought those games with these crap practices, to fill some zeightgeist, or being a fan. I abandoned my fave franchises to make my own or find other games to fill the void. Used to love metroid, but I rather move on than put up with Nintendos nonsense. I rather miss out than out up with the slop lore writting and 2d era nostalgia pandering of the netherealm studios mortal kombat games.

[@lukemehalick370]

Helldivers 2 has stepped in every pit fall a live service can step in OTHER than woke propaganda one, & its "overwhelmingly positive " on steam. A game you couldn't log into and play at launch. Positive reviews. No wokeness. Crazy? Sanity? There is been no easier time to grift and make money but also a legacy.

[@Genethagenius]

Hey! I liked Arkane’s “Prey”! And while “Dishonored 2” wasn’t quite as good as the original, I didn’t mind Emily as a protagonist. It makes sense after the first game. Her mother is murdered by an assassin, and she was raised by an assassin. So I could see her becoming one or at least training with Corvo. The game was good, even though the story wasn’t as good as the first game. But the gameplay was friggin killer!

[@ScottJackson117]

I still have my PS2 next to me. I can turn it on, not worry about a multi-GB system update, put in Oni/Persona 4 (not worry about a patch or update) and start playing and having fun. I'm not even motivated to plug in my Xbox One because I know if I do, there is a ton of system and game updates I have to go through. By the time it's done, I'm not in the mood.

[@THEDonnyB]

I haven't bought a brand new game in almost 3 years. I've been buying games for my ps1, sega Genesis, original xbox, 360, and Xbox One. I buy used games, polish the discs, and enjoy playing single player games with no micro transactions.