A Frustrated Post-Mortem Of Lawbreakers, Radical Heights, And The Culling (The Jimquisition)

[@MrFutago87]

Idea for making a successful game: Look at what people want and are currently NOT getting. Then make that.

[@Tali2161Zorah]

MOTHERFUCKING COUCH CO-OP!

[@MrFutago87]

People were hungry for a turn based Fantasy JRPG on home console and then Octopath Traveler happened.

[@Humble197]

Mr. Futago that does not mean people will buy it.

[@Re-tf8qf]

Idea for making shitloads of money off of a game: Look at everything free-to-play games do, then do that, and charge for the game as well.

[@AndragonLea]

No, but it's a damn sight more of a chance than looking at what everyone is already making and then jumping into the mosh-pit of corporate suits in a lame attempt to do what they do and somehow be successful.

[@danielschroedinger2090]

To quote another angry Brit: "If you are going to knock something off, maybe pick something that isn't really good and made by more competent people than you."

[@PlanesAndHoes]

Which Brit is this

[@danielschroedinger2090]

@@PlanesAndHoes Yahtzee Crowshaw. The guy who makes Zero punctuation. The quote should be from his "Close to the Sun" - review.

[@executioner_ecgbert884]

Old comment but is that the hunt down the Freeman review?

[@Pineappolis]

To further quote the same angry Brit (in the form of a ludicrously catchy jingle): "Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee."

[@CarsSimplified]

Content oversaturation is just going to get worse, and companies attempting these rush-ins will only fail more spectacularly in the future.

[@Re-tf8qf]

Cars Simplified me and my popcorn are ready for it

[@weirdeurasianboy8091]

Cars Simplified I just hope the entire genre crashes and burns.

[@NatrajChaturvedi]

Conversely, maybe the saturation in the market is also one of the reasons why devs find it tempting to go for these rush-jobs. As Jim said, its difficult for even well made games to do well in todays environment, so as a dev you say to yourself that even if your half assed game fails, its not going to hurt (both emotionally and financially) as much as if a game they worked hard on failed...

[@indieviewgaming5842]

I'm curious how Jim feels about Hi-Rez, a company who has made their fortune with copycat games. They abandoned their critically successful shooter Tribes Ascend for their copycat MOBA (Smite) which made them tons of money. They've since made a Hearthstone game (Smite Tactics) and a battle royale (Realm Royale). I love their games but they're a good example of a "me too" developer that thrives on the coattails of other developers.

[@burningflurber]

I can't imagine making a crappy game would be particularly profitable, especially if it nets you bad faith. That was the movie tie-in model of game development for a while until people grew wise to it and they had a pre-existing brand to go off.

[@cvetomirgeorgiev9106]

Its called the culling 2 because that is how many players will be in your game

[@TyrBarghest]

Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee.

[@marksmithwas12]

Nice reference 😆

[@homeslicehomeslice]

You mean the people that still give them money and never learn anything.

[@AidanCooperSolomon]

@@homeslicehomeslice You forgot the tee hee hee

[@wadespencer3623]

@@homeslicehomeslice I mean this is about multiple games that people DIDN'T give money.

[@TheBros2theend]

Jesus Christ loves you God bless and save you amen.

[@ragzaugustus]

Here's an idea for a battle royale, Nakatomi Plaza. Just a giant skyscraper, almost entirely horizontal combat, have a fire or something consumer the building from the top or bottom. Force people through office corridors, ventilation systems, elevator shafts and what have you not. Nice and claustrophobic. There, that wasn't even hard. If you do have to go with the hype of the week, try to be at least a little original.

[@vocalcalibration8033]

Here's another idea. An entirely melee combat focussed game. Combos, weapon types, other action game stuff but in a BR setting.

[@snakefriesia6808]

AAhhhh... puhlease no diehard .. they tried that before.. it did not do well

[@scytheseven9173]

I know, right? I'd prefer it to be a separate map for Fortnite or PUBG, but it might also be good as it's own game.

[@comyuse9103]

thats actually a really good idea

[@bombyxtau]

look up Egress. you're in a city that is flooding, and not only that but its more melee based combat - looks very *inspired by* souls or bloodborne, there seems to be magic and more utility-based guns, even has a victorian/(self-proclaimed)lovecraft-ish theme. not huge into BR myself but saw your comment & heard someone mention it the other day which reminded me of it, so yeah. your idea is a very interesting base as well.

[@fugana5073]

Hentai Battle Royal its a thing yes and its real, its on steam.

[@RarefoilB]

See, now THAT'S how you differentiate your game from the others!

[@Hinokassaudifan1]

I commend them for trying to do something different

[@uedarizaru]

😏😏😏

[@sukuruchan]

yeah and one kurator in steam already says it's a Asset flip of "UnitZ Battlegrounds" xD

[@Here_is_Waldo]

But is it as good as it sounds?

[@WindyCornerTV]

Seeing companies chasing these trends and failing again and again is the equivalent of watching someone putting their hand on a hot stove, complaining it's hot and proceeds to put their hand on the stove again.

[@MasterJazz09]

WindyCornerTV go run and own a game company you will see how hard it is

[@kamulecPL12]

MasterJazz09 there is a difference between owning a game company making good, well thought-out and polished games and owning a company that shits out poisonous turds to hastily cash in on current trends. Guess which type of company this video is focusing on, hmm?

[@glurganergc4856]

That's capitalism for you

[@kennymartin5976]

MasterJazz09 "running a company is hard guys!" Is quite literally one of the worst defenses you sycophants offer. No one is saying making video games is easy, but chooseing to fallow a trend is always a risk and it should be avoided at all cost because it never pays off. The difficulty of running a game studio should never be used as an excuse for mindlessly bad business decisions.

[@zamirewilson7424]

That's a pretty good metaphor for this.

[@HardlegGaming]

While I agree with you whole heartedly Jim, it is worth noting that Fortnite didn't start as a battle royale game. It was a PvE focused game that rushed out it's battle royale mode in two month after seeing the succeed of PUBG. In their rare case, following the leader lead to massive success, which perhaps explains why these other developers feel so emboldened by the concept, even though most of the time it doesn't work.

[@julesfumery7515]

Fortnite is a bit of an exeption. They already had everything they needed to make a battle royale game with the original game. Making the battle royale spin-off didn't take that much efforts.

[@sebastiankrant2738]

Look closely - Jim tends to explain his point rather throughout. And he stated that it IS possible to chase a trend sucessfully - if you ad something unique to it. Of course, while not said directly, it is probably implied (and just basic logic) that its not pointless trendchasing if there is just 1 game present in the current trend. Each trend can have a few prime titels, if you come second you are still not really chasing a bandwagon there. Both applies to Fortnite. Of course in their case they were helped by the fact that the genre (re-)founder PUBG did not have much staying power and so relativly few changes allowed them to garner their own respective audience.

[@greywolfjames07]

And Pubg is really generic, and generic looking, making fortnite more unique and interesting. Doesn't help that after fortnite battle royale came out, causing the pubguys had a panic attack, and start trying to sue people.

[@AirAquila]

Fortnite honestly just patched the leaking hull

[@AchedSphinx]

the difference of course is that fortnite has been in development for some time before it released it's battle royale mode. PUBG was rushed to market and while it did really well, the quality wasn't quite there. therefore it left an opening in the market that someone could fill which fortnite did. it's actually rare that an unpolished game like PUBG becomes so big, but then again Twilight did the same thing and we got a reverse fortnite outta that one.

[@michaelramon2411]

Hey, guys? Do you know what is basically the only non-CoD/Battlefield modern military shooter to come out of the MMS boom a few years ago that some people actually still talk about sometimes? Spec Ops: The Line. And that's because it didn't try to match the biggies in multiplayer craziness or singleplayer spectacle. Instead, they focused entirely on level design and narrative, using MMS cliches to their advantage, and told a story that no other shooter of that sort had told (and arguably still haven't told). In other words, they did something DIFFERENT, turning their weaknesses into strengths.

[@sebastiankrant2738]

I would say in general in one sub-genre you could probably have two to three "Titans", the big names with annual sequels. Than about 3 to 4 games each year who all have their own gimick that make them worthwhile but wont be annual sequels and be good for while they last (Crysis for example). And than one or two parodies or deconstructions. Like Spec Ops. But here I think is the biggest whole in the market. Sure, Spec Ops didnt sell billions, but I think good deconstructions could tap into huge markets, especially since they are driven by unique points so a "Spec ops clone" would still be different from Spec ops. Of course I think we can all agree that games like that are much more unpredictable and hard to get right.

[@DuckRotation]

Arma?

[@loadedexcrement]

Everything you said about Spec Ops is kind of undermined by the fact that they DID tack on a totally unnecessary multiplayer pvp mode tho.

[@AmazinglyAwkward]

And they made a game that made Yahtzee's Top 5. Shame it didn't sell :(

[@LotsaJunk]

The main devs behind the game despised the idea of making a multiplayer, so they just outsourced it to another studio.

[@jacobleibowitz4423]

Is it just me, or is the life cycle of these fads accelerating exponentially? The WWII lasted around a decade, the modern warfare and MMO fad lasted a little less than that, near futuristic shooters lasted about half a decade, the hero shooter bubble busted after only 4 games and the battle royal genre already looks like its running its course almost as soon it took over the mainstream. Am i seeing a pattern where there isn't? If not, can this pattern sustain itself?

[@MrPiccoloku]

Getting shorter and worse at the same time, with more new copycats each day.

[@Khazar321]

Lots of available engines, lots of manpower(much much more than in the past), more experienced manpower, early access more accepted... And much more All of those things make it easy to hop on bandwagons and the risks have become lower thanks to those reasons too. Can you imagine a studio surviving the culling 1 and culling 2 mess in the last decade?

[@luketfer]

With World War 2 there are plenty of stories to tell. You've got your classic set pieces like the Storming of the beaches in Normandy, the Battle of Stalingard, Iwo Jima and so on. However you've also got other, much less covered stories you could tell. One that isn't seen in games but the story of the Night Witches, female russian pilots that got so little respect they were given world war 1 biplanes to fly on night bombing raids over the German lines, who flew so low to the ground that they were sometimes inches away from just crashing in order to take the enemy by surprise. They proceeded to scare the complete piss out of the Germans because they never saw them coming until it was too late. Kind of surprised, actually, that in this day and age of female empowerment being at the forefront of selling games that nobody has even use them as a single level in any WW2 game. Compare and contrast the stories you can tell in a Battle Royale...you can't, apart from that time you got a totally sweet win over someone that was really tense...there's not much there, they've not got any staying power, they don't stick with you once you've gotten bored of them.

[@Nuvendil]

@@luketfer Exactly. A lot of these fads are multiplayer only. This presents two problems. 1) people have limited time, the whole market can't play all the multiplayer games made. So invariably a few find success, the rest get trampled. 2) carving your own identity out in the multiplayer only market is harder than in story driven or structured single player games. Those you can differentiate it with the cast, the themes, the tone, the plot. Plus a lot of stories resonate on a near universal level that makes people eager for more. WWII has a lot of obvious angles to approach it from that people find compelling. When you are multiplayer focused or multiplayer *only*, you find yourself struggling to give yourself an identity without taking the huge risk of massively shaking up the aesthetic tone, the setting, or the mechanics.

[@collinmclaren6608]

That's just how the modern connected world is. The same thing applies with memes.

[@thatoneguy2271]

Jim's lack of smugness is one of the major reasons I watch his channel

[@zake64]

Scott S Jim’s EXCESS of smugness is one of the major reasons I watch his channel

[@zedek_]

This didn't happen for just MMOs and military shooters, *but also for MOBAs* ! This shit just keep happening!

[@LopsidedMoz]

I'm suprised COD clones haven't been mentioned yet

[@Mernom]

Isn't that what the military shooters part refers to?

[@DeadNoob451]

Ah i still remember playing that one dead island moba.

[@craigwilde2162]

And each new 'fad' seems to inflate and implode faster then the last.

[@icewolf6062]

Who remembers the DC moba?

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

I think what we got here is another poisonous carryover from the film industry that many game makers are buying into. In the film industry, when a movie comes out that does something different and is successful, everybody makes copies. But the movie industry can sustain something like that for a short while because the market works differently. Movies take up approximately two hours of your day, so there's no significant investment time. And also, a trip to the movies is gonna cost you about $20. A game is expected to have a time investment of at least 30 hours over several weeks and costs $60. People can't spring for games on a whim like they can for movies, so they're not going to just jump on a game that looks like something they have and already like because they already have it and they can't afford to spend all that time and money again just to get the same experience they can get by sticking with what they've currently got.

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

Really nice assessment there. Now add to that the ludicrously tribalistic and childish behaviour of rivaling fanbases that is so prevalent in gaming which makes all this even worse, you don't really have that in Film. Imagine Halloween and Friday 13th having people viciously hating each other for liking the other one of the two, and people who watched and liked one outright refusing to watch the other one because there can only be one Slasher movie and all others can only be watched by losers. I guess this also goes back to the time investment. You can watch multiple competing movies without really any problem, owning a DVD of each and maybe choosing one per weekend, so you might prefer Godzilla over King Kong, but you're not gonna watch Godzilla every bloody week, so even if you like it and want to watch it from time to time, you don't therefore miss out on King Kong. Because you watch even your favourite film maybe once a year. If you spend 20 hours per week on LoL or Overwatch, and you have a job and other responsibilities, you will miss out on Paladins or DotA, so you might deal with the frustration of not getting to experience the competition by making it out to be utter shite in your mind, justifying the decision you made, but since others enjoying the competition disturbs that, you get mad at others and try to defend your stance that everything other than what you play is obviously horseshit. Thus, people will actively try to dissuade people from your new game because they want to believe that your game is shit (so they can stick to what they have without missing anything) and push that onto others.

[@eywhatswrong]

I spoke with BossKeys developer few years back at GamesCom and I asked them what were they thinking (literally). The dev told me they had already begun game development when Overwatch was announced. Everyone was surprised and they couldn't just stop while they were an year into dev cycle. This is the real tragedy, when you see your game will fail and you have to finish it. They apparently believed it wouldn't fail.

[@HAZARDOUS88]

I just LOVE how without them knowing, DigiHom's greatest contribution was to create that amazing catchphrase emblazoned on those shirts.

[@Elyseon]

Given their love of frivolous litigation, I'm surprised they didn't try to claim copyright on that.

[@HAZARDOUS88]

Elyseon If they had the money they surely would have copyrighted it.

[@MGlBlaze]

In I'm pretty sure your words from years ago; "Nobody wants your Call of Duty ripoff. They already have Call of Duty; it's called Call of Duty." If they do want to get in to a popular genre, they need to do it BETTER than what is already out there, and that's something they almost never do because they're rushing it out to try and jump on the bandwagon.

[@NotAFakeName1]

MGlBlaze they don't even necessarily need to be better, just different.

[@GGamersUnited]

yes, take the base formula, but do something with it! Games can succeed if they're a well made hybrid of other games. A dev/publisher rushing after a trend will never think of it though. A creative person will take its time and will be inspired by the leader game, not just try to copy it in hopes of quick cash.

[@davidmoore1253]

People even got tired of Call of Duty ripping off Call of Duty.

[@RedTailedSmeargle]

Ohai Blaze Don't forget the Sauces.

[@MGlBlaze]

RedTailedSmeargle - Oh right, I forgot about that! "There is no perfect sauce; only perfect sauces. There is no perfect game; only perfect games."

[@FANTAVISION]

Did... did we just watch Jim reach climax?

[@treyblack3751]

I choose to see it that way.

[@g0tm04]

I hope so. #nohomo but Uncle Jim could do anything with my body *ANYTHING*. Smug smarmy self indulgence all over my face!

[@mcprol2467]

Trey Black Didn't expect you to be here man.

[@Lightbunny]

see kzbin.info/www/bejne/noOchoCdhKuYgtk

[@alexandra1058]

FANTAVISION wouldn't be the first time won't be the last

[@ShenDoodles]

Lawbreakers had original ideas. It was aiming to be the fastest FPS on the market, something which it did quite well. It was entirely the marketing which killed it.

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

Well and then Quake Champions came around, and, well. Maybe being the fastest skill oriented shooter on the market isn't something you should do if you want massive player counts. Despite name recognition, Quake struggles from a small playerbase with much too large a skillgap. The game feels really good, nice shooting, fun maps, great game, but some don't like active abilities (which are limited though, not a focus) and Hero shooter elements in their fast skill oriented Arena shooter, which I doubt would have been different for Lawbreakers, and the little amount of new players are utterly getting rekt and thus discouraged. If you want to sell a fast, high skill ceiling Arena shooter nowadays, this will always be a problem to deal with. This only appeals to a small niche.

[@mattimpey9175]

09:15 "Something to convince those already playing Fortnite or Warcraft or COD, that they might need to pause what they're playing and check you out" - The line so good we needed to hear it twice!

[@JackgarPrime]

The only time I can recall there actually being a decent number of successful games that played "follow the leader" and trying to ride on the coattails of the largest game of its day was in the mid-to-late 90's, when Street Fighter 2 took over the world and roughly a billion fighting games came out. It helps that, because of the way arcades worked, you'd have to go with whatever a place had available, so if there was a big line at all the SF2 cabs, you could go find a Neo Geo and boot up KoF or any number of other quality fighting games, or go play MK2, or even later 3D fighters became a thing and you could find yourself a Virtua Fighter or Tekken machine. Its unique situation allowed for many competitors that could be profitable. A situation that does not exist anymore.

[@Yal_Rathol]

that situation does exist, but interestingly, it's still only for fighting games, because a fighting game is something you play either to master or casually, those that master it will play others because they like the genre and those who play casually want the options. the problem with fighting games is that as games have diversified, their audience has been cut into over time. they're not dead or dying by any means, but good luck having your company survive off of just fighting games.

[@JackgarPrime]

I think we've been seeing a re-integration of fighting game playerbases recently, though. You see more and more players competing in multiple games at a higher level nowadays than you did since the heyday of the arcades. Weirdly enough, I think Dragon Ball FighterZ has been a big part of that. It combines two normally separate fighting game sub-genres (tag/"hyper fighting" with the "anime"/air-dasher) into one with a franchise a lot of people love. So you see all sorts of people in there. You've got Marvel players, Netherrealm players, guilty gear players, and so on. Of course, the biggest reason of all is because, as streaming has become more and more popular, people will watch whole tournaments that have 4 or 5 games and sit through each one. This makes them more familiar with games they might not otherwise play. But yes, fighting games are indeed a pretty unique specimen. The mid-90's RPG scene was kind of similar, but enough games stood out as unique in terms of systems from one another that you often didn't even really think about them as clones.

[@franciscothedisco1416]

I think it’s due to the fact that a lot of those games were actually really good and sometimes very unique on heir own. Of course there’s the shitty games that control horribly but for the most part, they were all pretty good

[@zamirewilson7424]

Oh, thatthat's quite interesting and quite true.

[@Maaaarz]

What if the Culling 2 was an elaborate marketing stunt to cause drama and uproar and to draw attention to new and upgraded Culling (one)?

[@Red_Bl4ze]

Marz Should’ve made the culling 2 free, if that was the reason.

[@Maaaarz]

The Red Blur nah, it would have been too sensible. This way you have double down on the "what were they thinking!?" aspect.

[@TililioChaosLord]

Ingenious clown gaming did a full video about that theory, and it's actually quite likely considering the timing and the lack of quality of the game.

[@RockingStar1011]

I would say that worked. Never heard much about The Culling, & now I'm interested, especially after hearing it's going F2P (I'm broke :P )

[@Maaaarz]

Also the fact that they were joking about their game not doing well on twitter...

[@liljo3y]

Surprising watching this to find out EA did indeed release a battle royale with one of their studios, but it actually was successful, and improved on the formula, and the studio are still standing, and the game is enjoying huge success

[@esr1412]

The Cassandra of Gaming. Years later and the videos are still relevant.

[@MidEastBeast99]

I want a TRIPLE A GAMES sterling shirt. With the sleeves as dlc

[@D00dlebugInc]

If you subscribe to my Season Pass now, I'll give you the collar now and the rest of the shirt will be with you by next year

[@noahgray543]

@@D00dlebugInc the color of your shirt is determined by rng. You have to buy loot boxes to get the design you want. There is an equal chance to get each design, but 95% of all shirts are plain and slightly different shades of white. And each loot box also has a chance to contain thread, which, when you gather enough, you can use to craft the shirt yourself.

[@Kairos_Akuma]

Available only in White. For any other Color 5 Bucks please. 10 for Black .

[@MazeMaker4Life]

Just ask him to make a Tshirt that looks like a singlet with jaggered edges saying 'cut content for DLC'

[@StorytellerOfTheDead]

It starts as a crop top and the various other pieces come in different combinations in a confusing mix of special editions that you need a flowchart to navigate. And none of them gives you the full shirt.

[@dasninjastix]

I come to The Jimquisition for the meekness and humility honestly. It's the closest thing I have to church though Jim has never been in my rectory.

[@wokeupinapanic]

Get yourself a 3D printer and he could be ;)

[@Ralph-yn3gr]

In my opinion indie devs really shouldn't bet the farm on a multiplayer centric game, especially a trend chasing one. Those rely on a large player base to to even work, let alone be fun, and unless you get lucky you won't get that. A bad player base will mean no fun, and no one will play something that's no fun, further hurting the player base, which will then turn off new buyers who won't want to buy a dead game, preventing the base from recovering. Besides, I don't trust an indie game to have the sales to sustain multiplayer for long, something which isn't an issue with single player games where my fun isn't based on other people also playing at the same time, meaning I'm less likely to buy a multiplayer indie game and thus won't contribute to the player base. Buying multiplayer games are a double gamble where you first bet the game is good and then bet enough people will buy it to make it fun, and even good indie multiplayer games can hit a catch 22 situation with that second bet where there's not enough people playing to make the game fun because not enough people buy the game because no one trusts the game to sell enough copies to make it fun. This is especially true for trend chasing ones. Why should I gamble on a new, probably deserted indie battle royale when I could play Fortnite with it's massive community for free?

[@lifeisfiber4027]

im tired but intriged by your commen, lamens terms please? thanks! :)

[@vocalcalibration8033]

LifeIsFiber Why spend time and money on something that's likely to be deserted when you can play something else in the same genre that already has a massive player base thus ensuring you'll at least experience what the game has to offer that way it was intended.

[@dr.badguyreviews6785]

Everyone remembers Sonic who followed after Mario, and made some form of acclaim. What however they conveniently forget is it added some form of originality to the formula... and there were at least 50 no name shit heads that have been lost to history because they copied the Mario formula and were shit.

[@Jamie-kg8ig]

And then you've got the REAL stinkers that people only remember because they were crap, like all the Bubsy games.

[@UltimatePerfection]

Jamthis SNES/Genesis Bubsy was pretty good. It's 3D that killed it. Now if you'd mention Awesome Possum, I'd completely agree - it was a piece of shit.

[@timshields3245]

Aero the Acro-Bat, anyone?

[@UnmotivatedSlacker]

QVear Nah Bubsy has always been shit. A one hit wonder that runs like the ground is covered in ice ain't great. Having hazards and enemies that aren't clearly marked didn't help either.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Y'know, it's funny because Sonic tried a lot of styles of racing games over the years. A Rad Racer-style handheld game that was just okay, Sonic R on foot which is *wildly* mixed, Sonic Riders which is difficult as hell to learn but can be pretty good when mastered...and when Sonic just gave up and said "let's just make Mario Kart with a bunch of other Sega characters" it was universally received the best.

[@alexlindstrom9971]

That video of the dev 'apologizing' is painful. Honestly, he looks worn out. The game industry sounds like it is just a nightmare.

[@valletas]

Well at least ist not as bad as the animation industry

[@jeffreyvauxhall3260]

@@valletas oh shit

[@Sonichero151]

@@valletas How much of the entertainment industry is High strung and on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

[@michaelbreen7865]

O expect him to do the same thing once The Culling: Origins fails.

[@jeyphr]

@@Sonichero151 yes

[@TheNightshotBR]

Here we are in 2020 and the delusional devs from The Culling are trying to charge people per MATCH played.

[@tychoazrephet3794]

To lift a quote from Rose of Sharon Cassidy, which in turn was lifted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "The video game industry is going full speed ahead, while having its head crammed firmly up its own ass."

[@chrishexx3360]

Triple AYYYYYY T-shirts please

[@cornflakeshumunculus8373]

Cornflakes humunculus approves of this 👍🏻

[@KaiserAfini]

Chris Hexx Shhh ! Its supposed to be a secret. Lets buy all the boglin sized merch first, THEN we can release the dossier.

[@bernardoheusi6146]

Best way to clean the ass

[@broseph5218]

Yes, please.

[@DrMoxmoReadings]

Chris Hexx Or a LIEVVVVVVVV SEERRRRRRRVIICEEESSSSSSSSSS

[@LuxasVTUBER]

*I'm sorry, but I'm only interested in a Sterdust onesie*

[@zachb8012]

I wasn't until you mentioned it. Now all I can think about is wearing a purple lycra jumpsuit to work and throwing glitter in anybody's face that asks me to do something difficult.

[@zimmerman1031]

Okay now I think we have something. It sounds more like a superhero outfit. You get a onesie, a cape, and a special pouch on a utility belt that you hold all your glitter in. Bonus points for a glitterbomb device.

[@valcliffb8558]

The....the parachute had The Culling 2, on there. Why. Why. Why do you need to do that? Do you really have so little confidence in the impact your game leaves, that you don't even expect players to fucking REMEMBER which battle royale game they're playing, without jizzing it in their faces at the start of each new map?

[@thearousedeunuch]

I agree. Did all parachutes have their logo on it or was it an in-game item you could equip?

[@russellbrown6888]

@@thearousedeunuch It's the default parachute that you start with, which only makes it seem more pathetic.

[@thearousedeunuch]

@@russellbrown6888 To be fair, it makes you want to get a new one as quickly as possible.

[@ChloeCinema]

Nobody is going to play a worse version of a game that already exists.

[@AlexTenThousand]

I have been BANNED from a Discord server just for pointing out that there's already at least 14 battle royale games on the market, with more to come in the near future, and that the inevitable collapse of the genre is approching faster and faster.

[@AlexTenThousand]

I'm sorry, what?

[@uedarizaru]

AlexTenThousand theres 3 BR by chinese company NetEase, which is RoS, KO, and Survivor Royale. it is very oversaturated market

[@SodaPopBarbecue]

Which one did you get banned from?

[@AlexTenThousand]

It was a minor one, a fanbase of a streamer, which I won't name because I want to avoid rasing a shitstorm

[@runawayspodiac2945]

AlexTenThousand I wouldn’t call it a shitstorm if it’s something as minor as that, by that same token, if whoever was in that server watches jim and sees you’re comment, they’ll be pissed off at you for making it, regardless of whether or not you name the server

[@OldYoutubeUser]

I dont recommend buying/spending money on multiplayer only games that dont have community servers/offline singleplayer mode/Bots. Most of them end up dying the servers shut down and become unplayable forever.

[@desmondbrown5508]

I would add to that that more people should demand real offline LAN not attached to a server authentication as well. This would completely future proof games with multiplayer in addition to the aforementioned bots

[@Spezifischable]

Ramen, Brother. Especially to the bot thing. I dare to say, if lawbreakers had bots it would have sold better.

[@nobody8612]

I don't recommend buying magic beans from a guy in a car park.

[@thearousedeunuch]

I agree with you, Toxic. I only spent really small amounts of money in two multiplayer games (one of them's Black Squad) to thank the devs for making a fun game. However, both of those games were free to begin with. I wouldn't pay for a multiplayer game unless I was rich or if it was the best game ever.

[@OnDavidsBrain]

We don't even need to go back to the MMO craze to see this as a bad business practice. Remember the 90's with the mascot Platformer craze? That's how we wound up with Bubsy. Remember that one game that was rushed out the door and almost killed the Video Game industry all together due to its poor quality and over saturation of the market, the straw that nearly broke the camels back? ET for the Atari 2600, Jesus, Lana read a history book!

[@bladeworksmaster]

1TrulyMad Now now, it’s not fair to blame the Video Game Crash of ‘83 on ET entirely. Everyone else was doing far worse and it was the perfect little scapegoat.

[@ais4185]

In the USA, yes. And the bajillion consoles at the time were a big part of the problem.

[@Ascyltos]

Correct. Pacman on the 2600 was also responsible.

[@jesuszamora6949]

bladeworksmaster ET was just the last straw. A mountain of clones and rushed shit had tired people's patience. ET, a massively hyped shitshow, was just the time people decided to stop patronizing video games. We're getting closer to that breaking point again.

[@justinreich2023]

I genuinely enjoyed Lawbreakers, I was disappointed at how quickly it died. On the surface it was an Overwatch clone, but the actual mechanics and incredible mobility of every character made it stand out.

[@zzcolby27]

Had they released a LAN client, people could still play it

[@danc6167]

Can someone please forward this video to HiRez studios? That's literally all they've done for the last 4 games.

[@Nersius]

Haven't Smite and Paladins been mildly successful? They're pretty much the exception to the rule.

[@TheNotshauna]

It's pretty much completely wrong, many of the most successful game series of all time exist because someone else did something had a good amount of success and someone tried to create their own version. The fact that HiRez basically does this professionally should make it clear this oversaturation problem is only an issue in a market where you can't compete with the titans. Radical Heights and The Culling II failed because they were incomplete games rushed out without really any care or thought behind them, not because they are Battle Royale games, they would of failed the same if they were any other genre.

[@AzureKite]

HiRez actually puts in work into their games. HiRez actually does enough to set their games apart from the competition to stand out. HiRez didn't release Smite after 5 months of development.

[@DeugarTheOne]

I dunno man, I would consider Tribes: Ascend to be a pretty unique shooter. But maybe that wasn't a big enough success financially, so they had to go chasing trends.

[@MrOrdosan]

ya. SMite did start off as a LoL copy in 3rd person (all the items were BASICALLY idinticle in what they do. from the armor aoe magic dot aura. to the magic resist aoe MR shred. and even a health,magic item that made all spells slow. but as smite grew on (it was unique enough being 3rd person. and wasnt convaluted and confusing as all hell as some other 3rd person moba ive played.) they changed up alot of things to make the game more unique to itself. now paladins...it IS poor mans overwatch. and lets face it. its easier to get a free game in the market than it is to force someone to pay money for a worst version of itsself.

[@Hinokassaudifan1]

"billion dollar franchise"

[@kamurotetsu4860]

"It's the Dark Souls of Overwatch"

[@fugana5073]

Cracks me every god damn time :D

[@LopsidedMoz]

29.99, none of that $60 bs

[@SkyrimSoldier]

Kamuro Tetsu Please tell me Cliff didn't actually say that.

[@andrewkappler5503]

Those xbox fan boys are salty

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Maybe it's singleplayer time...

[@theresastarmanwaitinginthe5149]

Lawbreakers? More like... uh... There I was completely wasted, out of work and down All inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die So I might as well begin to put some action in my life

[@bricktop.]

There's a starman waiting in the sky TUUUUNNNNEEEE!!!!!!! First song I ever learnt on the guitar that is.

[@asujeto-7179]

I think it's also a reference to fucking kars that's in space

[@AzureRath97]

Hah same

[@xUDONTUx]

Breaking the law, breaking the law \m/ Priest rules \m/

[@killmyweakness9820]

You're in the comment section for 90% of my youtube subs LOL

[@megasean3000]

Most video game companies don’t want to think of how to get customers. They don’t want to put their heart and soul in a video game, nor look to see what’s unique and would be an amazing video game trope. They just want to find a trend that is attracting lots of customers and try to jump on the bandwagon. If people really think trying to cash in on games that have already succeeded, then they are sorely mistaken. That’s the problem with trends in video games: the one who either thought of the idea or the one who brings something new to the table are the ones who will be majorly successful. Those who try to make a copy and paste are doomed to fall by the wayside.

[@KdogPrime]

All of these games calling themselves "hero shooters", and "Battle Royale" is just window dressing around the central premise; the online multiplayer shooter. The concept is more than 20 years old at this point. People have been playing online multiplayer shooters since the late 90's, and frankly, its been done to death. I don't get excited about the announcement of the latest multiplayer shooter anymore, because I know it'll all be the same thing, over and over again.

[@kin-3877]

You're tired of an entire genre of video games. There's nothing anyone can do. It's like saying you're tired of action movies because they've been around forever.

[@KdogPrime]

@@kin-3877 I don't watch most action movies either because I've seen it all before. Frankly, most old action movies are superior to current ones because they didn't rely so heavily on CGI.

[@kin-3877]

@@KdogPrime I'm saying that one of the core genres of a medium can't be "done to death". There will always be a doom eternal/John wick to spice things up. In reality the only FPS games that get popular are the generic ones. There are plenty of first person games that aren't mainly shooters of you're tired of the boring "shoot the brown guys" of every cod.

[@KdogPrime]

@@kin-3877 See, now you're conflating all FPS with online multiplayer shooters. And BTW, Doom Eternal's multiplayer community is very, very small. People are not playing that game for the multiplayer.

[@kin-3877]

@@KdogPrime oh you specifically meant online. Sorry I didn't read properly. So you're just tired of the entire section of online shooter? That must be tough

[@Keyfur91]

Jim Sterling has one of the best intros to any KZbin video on this site, am I right folks?

[@lg8048]

This⬆

[@AlmarAZL9S]

It's nice but I love Rich of ReviewTechUSA's intro.

[@Anakinch0]

I disagree. In my opinion his intro is the worst thing about an otherwise great channel.

[@cornflakeshumunculus8373]

Cornflakes humunculus shirt. It wants to die. Great nutritious flavour.

[@Ievendis]

My number one Boglin boy!

[@100billionsubscriberswithn4]

What's the competition?

[@AbbreviatedReviews]

I think there's this sort of "gold rush" mentality that happens any time a successor usurps or at least does exceptionally well against a similar game in the same genre. Devs looked at Fornite climbing well over PUBG just like they looked at Dota 2 showing up after LoL and doing well and in both cases pumped out games of varying quality to try to do the same. I actually enjoyed some of those lesser-known MOBAs and Radical Heights as a finished product might have also had some success, but it seems like the line between "there's room for more" and "you've got no chance" is one that is crossed these days well before devs can adjust. But if someone today decides to kick off a Battle Royale game from scratch without it being significantly different, then they're completely blind given the multiple failures we've seen. Even with unique ideas, even puttin the words "Battle Royale" in your description will drive people away.

[@Aircool212]

...and I don't even like MOBA's and Battle Royale games. In my experience, every now and then a game (online obviously) comes along that does something new, or at least re-hashes and old idea that never quite caught on. Then, along comes a similar game that's usually more popular. From then on, players either stick with the original game, or stick with the newer game. That's it. You're unlikely to tear those players away from the one's that are incredibly popular.

[@aspie182]

The same thing pretty much killed video arcades in the 1990s. Street Fighter II was raking in money hand over fist, so next thing you know, you could count the numbers of games that were not SFII clones in arcades on your fingers. I know there are other factors, but once the arcades basically made like they did not want the money of people who found one-on-one fighting games to be a rip-off, it was only a matter of time. What I am getting at is basically, this is a pattern of behaviour that the industry has failed to break away from many, many times in the past. I have tried to play Fortnite's Battle Royale mode before, and I just wish that the videogame industry today was as sensitive to sudden drops in income as it was in the 1990s. If Mickeysoft disappeared tomorrow because it was too dependent on chasing trends like Battle Royale or MMOs, multiple industries including videogames would be all the better for that.

[@ottermeat7654]

"HALF MAN, HALF CEREAL" shirts when?

[@roflBeck]

Yes.

[@maxord11]

Meanwhile Realm Royale tried to do something different with the genre, but got overshadowed by its own original idea of mixing two genres it was chasing after. Now it is just Fortnite with a mediocre gimmick instead of a Overwatch and Fortnite hybrid that most people wanted.

[@kosmosfan01]

Those chasing trends for a quick cash grab deserve to fail. Creativity should be rewarded.

[@mechatyrants6218]

I felt a little bad when Lawbreakers flopped because it was genuinely an interesting game that could have been successful in an different time and place. However, I could never feel bad for such soulless cash-grabs as Radical Heights or The Culling 2, but that's not to say that those three games are in entirely different categories. Lawbreakers may have had a lot more effort put into it, but it was effort that could have been spent on an actual game instead of another live service online-only team shooter monetization racket.

[@RobsRemixes]

Well The Culling really turned it around, super popular now, SUPER popular.

[@mammon_is_god]

So good of you to FINALLY make a down to Earth, nonchalant, honest, earnest video.

[@awesomearsam1890]

I read the title "Mortem of Lawbringer". I play too much For Honor

[@tealmamba6150]

NO SUPERSTES

[@saltruist8751]

INIMICUS

[@mrpositronia]

How about some more meaty single player, story driven games? That would be nice. Let's make a bandwagon for those.

[@TheHillDragon]

I think what devs are missing here is that they need to find *_SOMETHING_*_ to convince those already playing Fortnite, or Warcraft, or CoD that they might need to pause what they are playing to check you out._

[@TheHillDragon]

_just _*_SOMETHING_*_ to convince those already playing Fortnite, or Warcraft, or CoD that they might need to pause what they are playing to check you out._

[@Bartoc1988]

You mean like a TV that looks like an apple?

[@TheMusicalGameroriginal]

Thank God somebody pointed it out

[@TheHillDragon]

It's an important point to be made.

[@OntyVeracitea]

This is probably my favorite opening of any of the Jimquisitions I have seen in the last 3 years

[@AoyagiAichou]

Lawbreakers did have something unique, interesting, and very well made. But because the average bell end sees a "hero shooter", the only thing that matters is how much of an Overwatch the game is, even though it's almost a different genre altogether. In that sense, it's just like Rage and Borderlands.

[@double2helix]

It really is a shame Law Breakers failed so miserably. It had quite a unique thing going on, oh well nobody is going to remember it in a few years anyways.

[@Exidel]

11:30 Once again, Jim "Nostradamus" Sterling predicts the future

[@hlary8320]

Company’s need to find their place in the sun, even when said sun is a total eclipse

[@SketchBookShortFilms]

Shame what happened to Lawbreakers cuz I really liked that game when I played the open beta. Some of the game modes were pretty fun, a number of the characters were entertaining, and the zero gravity mechanic was interesting. If it were F2P I would have been playing day 1 but since it asked for 60 bucks I decided to wait. Glad I did.

[@Gizmomaster]

Smugness is absolutely the last thing I would ever attribute to the British attitude.

[@tommyg8564]

Another settlement needs your help, I'll mark it on your map

[@tommyg8564]

Jim Spaulding Preston liked that

[@atre5763]

"Billion dollar franchise!!!"

[@Babbleplay]

Radical Heights had promise, but, IMHO, the biggest and most blatant failure was an inability to integrate theme. It just did not feel 'game show-y', even with the announcer. The few concessions to being a game show, like the prize wheel and loot rooms kind of felt slapped on. Nothing about running around the streets of Generic City, USA felt like I was in a televised deathsport.

[@CamsEyeView]

I still return to this video, because it is so baffling to see how someone with as much experience these two twits had, and yet, still made the same mistakes many first time developers did. Like, how does Cliffy B think any of this would have worked? I get the Culling dev being stupid, but Cliffy B? What? How?

[@aesen161]

“Half as good as the slaughtering grounds” That was to far Jim. You should apologize

[@nakenmil]

This video should've ended with a clip of Jim announcing a Fortnite Livestream.

[@celestialmonkey]

Good video, Jim. I have to disagree with you somewhat about Lawbreakers though. The idea that it was a mere OW clone is a common misconception. It was also a hero shooter but it was very different from Overwatch in that the hero roles weren't strictly defined. This means all the heroes were relatively balanced in 1v1 encounters lending to a more fast-paced, CoD-esque style of gameplay, rather than Overwatch's team-based fare. This was actually a massive difference in gameplay that, in theory, should have enabled Lawbreakers to stand on its own in the market. I think one of the biggest reasons for its downfall was its failure to communicate this difference.

[@Seraphyx]

The chance at getting that sweet sweet money is too much for them to pass up on, greed is too powerful.

[@Mernom]

The problem is that they don't see that the chance is an illusion. They don't see the corpses that litter the sides of the road.

[@renegade1298]

its ya boi... uh jim fucking sterling.

[@babyvaso3855]

Amazed this discussion was needed in 2018. Look no further than the MMOs of the last decade trying to topple Maple Story, Shot Online and World of Warcraft. It will never happen.

[@vrtrooper3801]

Battle Royale is hot, Asymmetric horror is hotting up....Why hasn't anyone merged mass survival with asymetric horror? I'd love to see a walking dead style survival game with hundreds of players. A gigantic game of Infected in a ruined city... work with other squads to survive...or kill each other to steal supplies...meanwhile...if you're killed by a zombie...you become a zombie....zombies would have multiple lives or respawns...the aim of the game is survive...or to wipe out the survivors... You could choose your hostility level before entering the game... friendly, moderate or unfriendly... friendly squads can't hurt each other... moderate squads can hurt anyone but have reduced damage output...until they choose a side...making them difficult to read Hostile squads are only out for themselves... the world could be full of trading, alliance building...temporary cures scattered about... If they did something kind of unique like this for Black Ops 4, I could be interested...

[@Leo-pw3kf]

Creppi That is a fantastic concept. One thing I hate about Battle Royales is the enormous down time most games have. Before any shooting happens, everyone spends half an hour just running around looking for trash like dumb cockroaches. Then, if you end up dying you either wait for an hour until the game is over, or you uncerimouniously quit to the lobby. The zombie Battle Royale would give players something to do before the shootouts happen--namely, killing zombies--but also motivation to stay in the room until the end, even after death. You, or anyone else, should really do something with this idea.

[@gwim4430]

Well said Jim. The next company that wants to cash in on a video game trend can instead deposit that clearly invaluable money (to them) into my bank account. Saving them the embarrassment of looking like a bunch of dull tools.

[@yokorose]

With lawbreakers you go from showing us it and saying its free to a couple of months before the beta saying it has a price tag.. so you lost all the people who wanted to play it before hand because you put a price tag on something that was mean to be free

[@SharKing319]

Years later, and The Culling II still holds the release-to-death speedrun world record. Yes, even after Concord.

[@darklilligant2636]

Can we get Jim Sterling as a fighter for Smash Ult. His final smash could be him turning into the Steam cleaner and just kicking all the other fighters off the stage for instant KO's regardless of their damage.

[@DammitSinged]

_LIGMA Battleroyale Battlegrounds._

[@brixitz9722]

0utta S1TE ligma balls

[@xeagaort]

It’s a shit meme

[@yoghurt_monitoring9542]

Eh, I’m more of a fan of BOFA Battle Royale.

[@desemberku6908]

0utta S1TE Cause of death

[@DrTheRich]

yoghurt_monitoring Battle of Fat Asses?

[@tingaroy]

waiting for the "Thank God For Me" Tshirt print

[@EarthwormShandy]

Only Jim gets to have that one

[@darthraider450]

Hey Jim, can you please expose the Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee Pokeball Plus accessory and how it forces players to purchase this vastly overpriced accessory to be able to obtain a full Pokedex and Mew. Then go on to the Amiibo DLC debacle (for example locking the hardest mode of Metroid Samus Returns behind the Metroid Amiibo that only comes in an Amiibo 2-pack, or Amiibo exclusive items littered in Breath of the Wild such as a pet wolf behind a vastly overpriced and ‘scalpered’ Wolf Link Amiibo etc) and artificial scarcity/scalpers. And finally Nintendo going after ROM sites whilst selling those same ROMs in a vastly overpriced NES/SNES Mini with a painted plastic shell and cheap ports/controllers.

[@evillecaston]

Sounds like an average day at Nippletendo...I'm sure they'll make plenty of money yet again, which somehow makes it okay!

[@lpnp9477]

Nippletendo lmao wtf

[@EarthwormShandy]

That's a bit forced

[@Dragoderian]

I mean, I just bought every exclusive amiibo for BotW for twenty bucks. Because people have already figured out how to game that system. Just look at amiibo cards. Not excusing it, of course. It's still shite.

[@FakeHeroFang]

Pokemon still having split versions with very minor differences after 20 years is a shite money grab, then there's gaystop/target events instead of using the built-in mystery gift mechanic. I don't know who, but someone at gamefreak/memetendo are real dipshits.

[@shardinhand1243]

14:44 jim stops to imagine himself dancing on a beach surrounded by boglin's cheering his name, sun setting on the horizon.

[@KizaruB]

Did The Culling 2 seriously have lootboxes? They just wanted their game to die.

[@Blazikenpwnsyou]

Cliffy B wished he should have just stayed at Epic Games after he failed with those two games.

[@exLightningg]

It's kinda sad how people downplay Lawbreakers as a cash grab or rip off of Overwatch. It was a fully fleshed out game with a beautiful skill curve, I'm pretty sure anyone that played it or atleast the Beta can tell they put effort into the game and that it's not really anything like Overwatch. It just didn't work out, I honestly don't think its the game or developers fault how it turned out on release. Although I do think making it free to play would have salvaged it and if I were to blame the developers for anything it would be that.

[@Dragoderian]

It was perceived as being like Overwatch, and that killed it. Mostly that was a marketing issue, but that's what happened.

[@skiddy193]

The marketing of it was bad. Plus Cliff couldn't stop talking about overwatch in those interviews and such.

[@TrioCon]

It's funny rewatching this video 8 months after. Apex Legends being out, and being a lucky non-rushed addition to the Battle Royale genre, and EA putting BR into Battlefield now. You called it, thank god for you!

[@M00SHTY]

Can these post mortem episodes have their own playlist? They are awesome

[@WANNABESSJ4]

At least the MMOs during that craze had two things going for them; 1) Many of them used established franchises with dedicated fan bases. That can always draw some people through the door (just look at the rush of current Warhammer games) 2) Most of them was actually pretty good. SWTOR had its thing with story focus, Rifts had its thing with rifts, Warhammer had its PvP focus etc.. And if those couldn't knock the market leader off the shelf, then poorly made rip offs with no discernible branding certainly can't. I thought Radical Heights was a map for Saints Row or something!

[@magio4352]

11:38 Yeah... Well you were right. Apex is a thing now

[@metfan4l]

4:05 Ha, just when I was starting to think this sounds very much like George Lucas and Star Wars you mentioned him :D

[@Jason0binladen]

It's an insult to battle born because BB was at least a good game that was over shadowed by a better game, not something pushed out early, I mean the culling 2 was overshadowed by better games but that happens inherently when you push an unfinished game out early, BB was just too generic

[@magnatcleo2043]

The fact that they didn't advertise or announce the release of the Culling 2 didn't help either.

[@jayr7965]

Yeah Battleborn was great! Maybe if they had made the game cheaper they might have competed. Some of the game modes I actually found more enjoyable than Overwatch. The progression though felt like a free to play game and left a bad taste in my mouth.

[@vsm1456]

BB wasn't generic if you looked closely. I don't know a single game that exists today that can be compared with BB. you can name a few similar games if you take one feature or another into concideration, but if you look at the whole game - there's nothing like that p.s. "a better game", on the other hand, is a TF2 with different styling. it's pretty generic, just very thoroughly made. also, waifus

[@Wardog01Actual]

"It's the developer equivalent of watching Justin Timberlake leave N'Sync to join an N'Sync tribute act." Dethklok says: "It worked for us."

[@yukaiyami]

Was honestly expecting Jim to say “I told you so” at the end, That said, Jim Fucking Sterling Son shirts sound amazing. Wish I wasn’t broke.

[@cryolocker0224]

“Ea announces that upcoming battlefield 5 will have a last man standing battle royale mode” We have failed....

[@TaddiestMason]

One can never be too smarmy.

[@Psychol-Snooper]

EA

[@leinadlink]

I want the market to be regulated... I thought shovelware was bad, but now... So much crap in the industry, I want a minimum of quality in games. Screw paid early access, if you want people to test your broken game at least make it free! People are willingly paying companies to work for them! What the hell?!

[@nothing-wp9ti]

NOOOOOOOOO REGULATIONS

[@NotSoMelancholy]

I really think lawbreakers shift to that photo realistic look from their stylized look probably was the final nail in its coffin.

[@lucaspoole79]

Love your sense of humour, :) keep up the good work.