Why The AAA Industry is Making The SAME Games (But Worse)

The upcoming new hero shooters from Playstation Exclusive Concord, NetEase Games Marvel Rivals and Valve new game Deadlock show a worrying trend in the AAA Industry of no longer moving forward and simply copying other succesful formats that are low risk, and arguably low reward.
PC Gamer Concord Article: www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/its...
Marvel Rivals Footage: • Doctor Strange Gamepla...
• Doctor Strange Gamepla...
• Marvel Rivals - Doctor...
/ mugthief
Chapters:
00:00 Why are they making Copy Paste Hero Shooters?
03:45 Concord is worrying.
09:40 Marvel Rivals is boring, but is that bad?
16:51 Deadlock might be good, maybe?

[@Mugthief]

I'm sorry for the Deadlock section not having footage, but I've heard mixed things on Valve striking/taking down videos showing stuff from the game. Gameplay is easy to find here on youtube by just searching for it though! Hope you enjoy some terrible TF2 gameplay and Outrun 2006 footage instead. And as always, thanks for watching!

[@diamondhamster4320]

Deadlock is just Valve reviving Battleborn, tbh but on a bigger and more complex scale.

[@SteveBrandon]

I have no interest whatsoever in hero shooters but I would totally play Deadlock if it was just OutRun 2.

[@shiningdragon8737]

You mind sharing the games where you got the soundtracks from? The music was great.

[@tumultoustortellini]

Marathon, the game that's supposed to be like cyberpunk, got a new director who's trying to turn that into a hero shooter as well. I think, the death of heroshooters is going to arrive way sooner than they're willing to anticipate. I think plenty of these might just be doa.

[@Tng-lw3wi]

I have access to deadlock closed alpha and I’ll just say it’s very refreshing and a good take on MOBA’s in general I think the confusion or hate is coming from people seeing the leaks and auto assuming it’s another team hero shooter. It’s made by the same person who made Dota 2 65% of the items transferred over from Dota and renamed and it still works.

[@Dtgray12]

I miss unlocking cosmetics rather than buying them.

[@baytownoutlaw9992]

I agree. Hopefully indie will bring it back

[@Demsky83]

Have you a real reason to grind and stay with the game.

[@alface935]

​@@Demsky83 True I like how the Unlocking System worked in Resident Evil 5

[@XxRedRocket15xX]

Go play Ready Or Not

[@alface935]

@@XxRedRocket15xX My PC can't even run Source Film Maker let alone Ready Or Not :(

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

The most obvious sign of the creative bankruptcy is having that atrocious Marvel humour in every new AAA game. It worked in the first GotG because it did organically fit the narrative. But since then it has polluted every digital media that is aimed at the mainstream market. It is not funny, it is pure cringe, and eats away the game's atmosphere faster than that scarlet rot destroys my health bar.

[@FelisImpurrator]

What does that even mean? Every time I hear this no one seems to be able to define it beyond having developed some vague vibes-based sense of "cringe" because popular culture has decided said vibes are out of style now.

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

@@FelisImpurrator which word exactly did you fail to understand? Play KTJL (and try not to vomit) or watch the Marvels (and try not to vomit) and see for yourself. The "safe-edgy" dialogues are so stupid and cringy they inflict psychic damage.

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@TwoHandedChargedBonk This is called an appeal to intuition, in which you just don't quantify or explain anything and just vaguely gesture at "well, YOU KNOW, the bad thing that's bad because it's bad." But I don't have this downright histrionic disgust response you seem to have to videogame writing, of all things. And I still don't know what the answer is to "why is it bad", because you haven't given one.

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

@@FelisImpurrator you are one of those people that demand to cite a peer reviewed research when someone tells them that a turd does not taste too nice? Well, come on, take a bite for yourself, then come back and share your opinion.

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

@@FelisImpurrator and while on it, you are also welcome to taste Forspoken, Redfall and Skull and Bones to get the full pallet of dog poo. As a fine connoisseur of the modern writing you surely will appreciate the aftertaste, the texture and the aroma.

[@DeenanTheKemon1]

-Creatively Bankrupt- *Unsustainable Greed*

[@HeliosFive]

Problem isn't greed. Indies want money too. Problem is extremely short term profits and no goal of building sustainable businesses. So they burn reputation and future profit for immediate gains. Todays businesses operate like people addicted to buying stuff and paying off with quickloans.

[@ito2789]

@@HeliosFivegreed is still the issue here. Greed kills creativity.

[@DeenanTheKemon1]

@@HeliosFive You literally just explained that it's greed.. 🤣

[@HeliosFive]

Different kinds of greed. Greed itself can coexist with art and at times even motivate but very short term profits tend to kill art that requires long term investment such as games which take years to develop. So long term greed it is. Passion only goes so far, at times you do need a profit incentive when you run into boring parts of a project. Every artist has loads of abandoned passion projects. But entirely without passion you end up with the current AAA. Source : Artist

[@ninochaosdrache3189]

@@HeliosFive You just described greed.

[@QATest4fun]

Stop buying their shit...they WILL improve.

[@YaaSalty...0_o]

Or they'll get shut down either way it's positive

[@user-zx3eo9qr9x]

You say that but i bet you buy v bucks

[@GodOfOrphans]

That's the hope but a lot of their funding is by the investor caste and pretty much every single anti-consumer and just plain bone headed decision every gaming corporation has made for the past decade has been due to those same investors. Due to a really corrupt deal the big investment firms worked out with the government to basically prop up social security during the great recession a lot of the money used to influence these businesses into these bad decisions actually come from tax dollars too and you can't boycott the taxman. Should still abstain but it's not the silver bullet some still think it is it's going to take more to fix.

[@ninochaosdrache3189]

@@pointvector1951 And then they sell their souls to the big corporations and the cycle begins anew

[@tumultoustortellini]

They won't. The reason they operate along these lines in the first place is because of stockholders and the board of directors demanding a constant upward curve of monetary and financial growth, as obligated by law. Starving them just makes them greedy and starving, that will only make them worse. Starving companies like these is a good thing, but not because they'll get better. It's because someone else will be able to take their place once their gone.

[@pir8prod]

The problems with the gaming industry is they chase trends. Games take so long to make, the trend is over by the time the game is released.

[@StronSlinger]

That's actually why I support Deadlock out of these 3 games he talked about. Valve was cooking these ideas up to 6 years ago by what sources say, meaning this wasn't a trend they were chasing, they were just doing weird Valve shit

[@sturmherooflance]

I think the problem is high fidelity graphics. More budget goes to graphics than making sure gameplay is fun, and fixing bugs.

[@jackstraw4222]

games have no need to look better than ps4 era graphics..what point does it serve if they are higher detail than ps4 era ,answer is none..

[@razorback9999able]

So, games aren't becoming easier to make over time, but harder? If the latter is true, then its going to be unsustainable for the industry.

[@mattsen4297]

​​@@StronSlingerunbelievable how some of y'all give shitty generic gamesa pass just because le wholesome chungus developer made it. Deadlock is a dime a dozen steaming pile of shit just like the rest

[@cloudycolacorp]

I can barely tell these games apart, I hate that everything is just moving towards a korean MMO singularity.

[@ED-gw9rg]

I don't know why, but it feels like "Korean" is the new "Chinese" of the gaming industry. Maybe it's over-saturation?

[@CantoniaCustoms]

Chinese would be mobile gacha games on top of it lol.

[@shaicat]

Remember when devs used to try making a name for themselves _setting_ trends rather than _chasing_ them? Yeah, those were good times.

[@alus992]

The same thing happened to music. Just look at rap - being creative and different was crucial up until mid 2010s. Then everyone started copying each other. Gaming is the same now. It's a copy of a copy or remake/remaster of the hit

[@OneRandomVictory]

Nobody is gonna be spending 100 mil+ and probably 5+ years to try and do something untested these days because the risk is just too high. So many studios are being shut down after 1-2 commercial flops.

[@shaicat]

@@OneRandomVictory Nah they just spend 200 mil+ and 5+ years to try and do something tested that flops anyway because people are sick to death of it by time it releases

[@lunasakara7306]

​@@shaicat Correct; risk aversion has hit it's inevitable endpoint of diminishing returns. It's now a much higher cost for a much lower gain to "just do what works" because there's an oversaturation of games that "just do what works"

[@sh0ckwave5]

Under rated comment

[@ito2789]

Keep preordering exploitative anti-consumer greedy bullsh*t from these companies and they’ll keep making them. Y’all are the reason why we are in the current state of gaming.

[@jackstraw4222]

yea idiots that buy special edition $120 with some stupid poster and cards and a pen and absolute worthless accessories that you could buy anytime..

[@sterlingarcher4343]

Bg3? Elden Ring? Starfield? The current state is not that bad

[@hermes932]

Mf is fighting ghosts

[@TheScepticalThinker1]

@@sterlingarcher4343 You´re taking Starfield as an good example? Wow !

[@TheScepticalThinker1]

People know that, but they´re still buying in because of their personal bias.

[@joaolima9622]

I feel bad for the people who work at these games, but for the good of the industry and its creative aspect it's important that every single one of these games flops miserably.

[@ED-gw9rg]

Maybe a story game about one of these well-meaning workers who just doesn't have much sway escaping the industry would be a neat social commentary on things.

[@kraosdadafusfus8034]

They are. Even Helldivers 2, which seemed an exception to the norm, ended up falling off due to Sony's mistakes.

[@mtoffo2275]

I really don't feel bad for them, there's lots of trash even at the lower levels

[@FelisImpurrator]

Vote with your wallet? Ah, but most of the potential player base has been disenfranchised.

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Fyi Concord was a European supersonic jet plane ..that crashed and burned, and was scrapped :)

[@maroXUprising]

Oh gee….the irony, you can almost smell it. XD

[@RamblePak64]

I think part of the problem with Valve is that their reputation for Half-Life, Portal, TF2, and more became so great throughout their silence that there is no measuring up to expectations. If they had managed to continue releasing games steadily, they'd have had a more fair mix to set expectations. However, because they have admitted to canceling so many games they aren't "satisfied" with and release so little, expectations build and build because the audience expects anything to really wow or floor them. In 2024, that's quite rare to achieve. It'd honestly be better if they started just releasing games again on the regular, but they also don't need to. Steam keeps them afloat, after all.

[@KevinoftheCosmos]

I love how they say that updates are free but the game costs $40 and has microtransactions.

[@turtleanton6539]

Yeeh

[@StyleshStorm]

This topic has been goin' around lately. Along with the "Do Graphics matter anymore" debate. Yep. We've reached a new chapter in life. AA and Independent dev teams it is.

[@jasonkoroma4323]

Absolutely!

[@chelsthegameruiner8669]

I've come to learn that the more graphically enticing a game is, the more likely it is to suck. FFXIV recently got a graphical update and while the game does have noticeable differences, it's not so drastically changed that it destroys the overall identity of the game. I find it crazy that Metal Slug looks more appealing than most games nowadays, but that's likely because Metal Slug had heart and soul put into it

[@toasterenthusiast6188]

Honestly saying that it's okay to paywall cosmetics is like saying it's ok to paywall the soul of something and just cheapen it's value to something you get off the shelf of a store instead of something you earn.

[@randomusernameCallin]

I am fine with with paying for what I want rather than paying a large amount for all the worthless stuff like cosmetics.

[@randomusernameCallin]

@@N.U.M.B.E.R This stander in any other industry out there and minor compared to gamers' greed.

[@wimyjohn7159]

Cosmetics are not the "soul" of the game. hell, I would argue that cosmetics makes games soulless with how much damage they typically do to visual clarity.

[@panzershreck8077]

​​@@wimyjohn7159 You're right, and wrong. Cosmetics and apparel can absolutely heighten the experience and authenticity of a game's world if done right. One obvious and easy example is monster hunter world. Majority of the cosmetics/armour you acquire is through hunting down specific monsters and each armour type varies depending on the difficulty at which you kill that monster. Hell, look at COD black ops 1, and the way they let you customize your soldier to give more face paint or different camouflage for each soecific type of primary class you used like a sniper ghillie. Even mmo's like destiny 1 back then had armour pieces that were interteined with each type of activity and enemy you killed that dropped the most sick ass looking cosmetics. The problem is when companies throw away the authenticity of the in-game world and decide to overflow it with filler cosmetics just for quick cash. Modern day warzone/cod with fucking super heroes and nicki minaj.... Overwatch 2 and destiny 2 alongside countless other *mostly* free 2 play games that dilute the experience with an overabundance of goofy and out of ingame world relevant skins.

[@Mepper.]

I wonder how much they spent on that cinematic trailer for Concord. For people that aren't paying close attention it raises unrealistic expectations without showing any real gameplay. I figure 50% of the people who get it will give up on it within a month.

[@jackstraw4222]

yet alot of cgi trailers are hollywood standard ,huge waste of money for only a few minutes at most...

[@zhongliimpact6220]

honestly concorde look super cheap and the artistic direction is ugly and lazy af. Not even talking about the generic chara designs and the boring sarcastic humor... Meh

[@thesorrow7499]

And every one of these live-service games wants all of your free time and cash. You can't beat those games, but they'll eventually beat you.

[@haganame1240]

That's why I like HD2 despite some of its problems. It does not require endless grind and warbonds don't disappear and can be bought by currency I get passively and pretty quickly.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

I hate that we can't even give constructive criticism nowadays without being attacked by "Toxic Positivity" *I feel if you got to grow up in the 90's, It really did feel like the future of gaming was going to be awesome. It wasn't about graphics. It was physics effects, art styles, a range of gameplay modes, gameplay mechanics, damage effects, environmental interaction, engaging AI to play against in single player mode, CPU bots in offline modes, just good AI in games campaigns. Current video games focus on graphical nitpicking. It seems they forgot how much players enjoyed physics effects & other aspects that make games fun. Quirky graphics can work, if a creative art style is used. Add engaging CPU AI, gameplay modes, the list goes on.. idk what happened? Also: {We have seen that even if companies delay games, it isn't improving the quality of games being released. Which is a sign there is a MUCH DEEPER issue going on with modern games. No excuses, devs used to make great games with much less and they would have given anything to have certain capabilities to utilize that are available today. It just takes actual passion, focus & talent to make great games. Sidenote: It's so crazy how many people are still supporting super mega rich companies putting out unacceptable products.. i don't understand certain people. I don't understand how certain companies can be messing up so badly. It's frustrating that other passionate people are not allowed to make a version of a type of game that we used to have but no longer get anymore.. Yet these huge companies get full control over if an unused game IP gets made & they do everything they can so no other versions of a game idea will ever come out. Even if there's a huge fan base around certain ideas and there's a ton of passionate devs out there dying to make a version of a certain video game idea.. that frustrates me beyond belief}

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Sometimes an industry goes into decline, and no one really understands why , but decline means talented people avoid that industry and things get Progressively worse , and more expensive to produce the product , as Competent management Ceases to exist.. another side effect , as talented people become less common , The mediocre people push out the talented people (remove a threat/difficult person), and Innovative ideas get crushed , Which further increases talent leaving.. aka deathspiral

[@S_raB]

The biggest issue lately is consolidation & monopolization. Microsoft owns how many million dollar gaming studios? And how many have been closed down in the past few years? And they are just one mega-corp.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

@@S_raB yes this is a Huge problem with gaming nowadays. I was thinking that I wish we could see a massive walk out by all game devs. In boycott of these companies and higher ups that are destroying gaming. The devs are the most valuable and important aspect to game development. So wouldn't it be nice if we could see gaming get back to just consisting of groups of passionate game devs, passionate nerds just living their best life. Making what they love and having fun making it as they work on sharing it for others to see if they will also enjoy it.. I miss that aspect to gaming

[@S_raB]

@@benmcreynolds8581 Would be nice and now going forward I believe it will improve a lot. US law now forbidding non-compete contracts is a huge step in the right direction. The idea of being unable to work in gaming for 6 months or more if you quit your job is as egregious as extortion & a big reason devs will stay put working on projects they do not believe in or care about. And obviously the suits making decisions, yet have zero passion about gaming as a whole, let alone a singular project built from their heart.

[@hershmergersh6733]

What is quite clear is that PC Gamer doesn't know what an arena shooter is.

[@bradcharleston]

Honestly I blame the consumers. When devs make something unique people bitch they have to learn new things and they just want to "have fun" which means they want something that is almost a <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="61">1:1</a> variant of a game they already know how to play.

[@Gharon]

I play a lot of games and about 90% of them are indies at this point. I've clocked in over 200 hours on V Rising in the month since its 1.0 release. It's just that good. With a few exceptions like FromSoft games, a few select first party Sony titles and my love for Monster Hunter, Zelda, Mario and Metroid i've pretty much lost interest in what traditional "Triple A" publishers churn out.

[@GNCD2099]

Instead of hero shooters, why don't they make a monsters vs monsters arena game? Just a random thought.

[@ED-gw9rg]

Probably because they're lazy. Heroes are a dime a dozen at this point, and so are their designs. ....But you do bring up a good idea: A monsters vs monsters game where everything's unique and exclusive monster abilities are flying everywhere? Having completely broken or absurd balancing because the roster is made of monsters from all walks of fantasy? That sounds like FUN!

[@user-cc3ef7qh1x]

Because monsters do not sell. Ask lol fans

[@OnionThyme]

Looking at the actual footage of Deadlock, it looks like it's going be a moba in the same way that Paragon was a moba.

[@user-ce6px3nj4r]

they say the customer is king but in this industry, the publisher is making all the rules. while we, lowly peasants, either suck it up or look elsewhere...

[@atb2674]

No the customer is still king we just aren’t choosing books and playing outside over piss-poor movies, shows & games. If everyone took a a year or two just doing something else instead of waiting for the next entertainment industry disappointment we all know we’d get, the industry would pivot within a couple fiscal periods(approx. half a year). If the games movies and shows suck ppl need to stop wishfully purchasing things as if their hope will make it better. Your indifference will make it better ironically, not the diehard patience we’ve been trying.

[@heretic0014]

More Saturday morning cartoon "shooters".......... Yay. Just a little more infantilization for the lowest common denominator.

[@cloudycolacorp]

I feel like I wished on a monkeys paw when I got so sick of gritty grey brown shooters with identical guy main characters in the late 2000s lol

[@Nazgul265]

Shadow of the Erdtree is all I need… don’t give a damn about any of these games or most AAA studios surviving (i just enjoy watching your vids lol)

[@baller6382]

A fourth hero shooter got shown off at the Xbox showcase. I’m losing it.

[@hypernoxious]

There's no point in buying games anymore. You don't actually own them, and we never will. OW almost died trying to keep the "pay for the box price and get free updates" model. Just make it F2P and make us buy a $10 battle pass for optional cosmetics, fuck it.

[@plannein]

It has gotten worse. The biggest change is development times. Most trend-chasing games are chasing trends from SEVERAL years ago. And it keeps getting worse and worse. I may not see Grand Theft Auto 7 in my lifetime. Console generations are being skipped as far as new iterations in franchises. There's not a lot of creativity as far as pushing the industry forward and doing things that are truly unique like there used to be. Of course so much has already been done but there's still plenty that hasn't been that the technology is capable of. And they're all doing the same live service bullshit that people don't want. I feel like the industry is going to collapse in on itself.

[@Ziko577]

It will sooner rather than later as economists warned years ago that these types of games aren't sustainable in the long run and we're seeing the effects with layoffs, lowering game sales, and out of control costs. Something's got to give at some point.

[@yslaar]

Hero shooters are really becoming the new MMO: In order to be successful and fun, they require an inordinate amount of money and resources thrown at them to keep content being pumped out at a ridiculous cadence. Despite everything, I still play OW2 almost every day. I would love to get into newer, better hero shooters, but there's always SOMETHING about the ones we have that never sit right with me. Either the character design is uninspired, the gameplay itself feels clunky, the game objectives aren't fun or engaging (or just not the genre I'm after), or there just isn't strong enough community support to keep them going. I'm ready to give Rivals and even Deadlock a shot, but I'm not holding to hope that they're going to be games that I stick around for the long haul. I hope I'm wrong, because I think the hero shooter genre-space needs to be shaken up pretty badly at this point, and I think Blizzard needs a reality check on their patch and release schedules, but we'll see what happens. Marvel is such a big IP that it might carry the game for a long while. Concord, on the other hand... well, I think they're gonna have a rude awakening with that $40 price tag and PSN requirement when you have games like Valorant, Apex, OW2, soon to be Rivals, R6 Siege, etc. all still operating in a much more affordable and accessible space. On top of that, they're shoving money at the wrong areas of Concord right from the start. It's a recipe for disaster. I'm curious about Deadlock, but I would hardly call it a hero shooter at this point. It seems more similar to Battleborn and Gigantic. Not a bad thing per se, but I get worried at how niche those games tend to be. The fact that it's Valve might give it more initial reach, though. Here's to hoping these games will at least give enough competition to the existing hero shooters, forcing them to evolve or do better. Not extremely likely, but we can hope.

[@Sekhatt]

No, I don't need a lot of money. What they need, is being open to the community to make and extend content. Map creating tools, proper mod support, community servers, etc. But no-one's done this in a "hero" shooter since Team Fortress 2.

[@2pizza847]

You could use less words after saying that you are a ow2 fan - you could've just say "i love eating shit"

[@solesurvivor111]

One of my biggest fears in regards to Gaming Studios going independent in the future is that once they start becoming successful, these big companies like Microsoft and Sony will actively start sabotaging their attempts at selling games by trying to coax politicians into passing laws that prevent them from developing or earning anything in any way they can. We know these big companies have government ties and they can easily dribble protection laws for their own benefits. We know big business actively do this shit with small ones in order to stake their claims.

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Im PC , and never before have I had ZERO inclination to buy a console, ive owed xbox 360, ps2 , ps4 , as well as pc ,...now no chance , AAA is for the easy to please now. Casuals into interactive movie games

[@Arunnejiro]

Switch

[@sarcasm-83]

Oh and Concord seems to have a beta, yes, but behind a pre-order. "Pre-ordering also grants 5 additional beta codes for friends" is a bonus, but I still can't stand betas being sold with pre-orders, because pre-orders are singlehandedly enabling the worsening of the industry. (After all, who'd need to make sure a game is all that good on launch if they already got paid?)

[@Mugthief]

Only for early access to the beta.

[@siyano]

I think its the same problem with food choice or clothing, only the "popular" thing are competed, cloned and fighting each other, how many orange juice brand do you see, why isnt there more grape juice or mango juice? its only because people are ingrained with the idea that orange is "better" the same way that team based pvp shooter or battle royale is the better now. Most dev dont want to take risk in a new genre, they just reiterate on what popular

[@randomchannel323]

Also everything is a soulslike or roguelike now

[@domomonstero3077]

Concord is going to be DOA if it requires a PSN account.

[@kosmologic6007]

No, because it's no f2p as it's major competition

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

No, I think, above all else, it's because literally no one wants this game.

[@ThisIsRusko]

Most hideous character roster ever will kill it before

[@ChimeraArchive]

The evidence that committees and boardrooms are now the people responsible for game direction is found in the constant following of trends. It's one thing to experiment and iterate on a concept, shooters have come a long way since DOOM and Wolfenstein, but now the ideal games to major AAA studios are just updates and reskins of established IPs and systems. While I wouldn't call games solely art, there is an element of freedom and creativity that needs to be allowed to succeed or fail without being artificially propped up by investment. All this to say, the people running the show need to actually give a damn about what they're making beyond success and ROI.

[@inferior-penguin8661]

I also remember a game that I beta tested where it was an StarCraft style game if you were in the "command" vehicle and you literally researched through the tree to build different things like barracks and stuff and it was a first person shooter for the rest of the teams players where you could choose different classes like TF2 and everyone communicated to capture points on the map for resources. It was called "Empires" and one side was the Northern Faction and the other side was called the Bernodia Empire or something. It was honestly the greatest game I ever played and it was a mod of Valve because I had to get a membership for Valve and it blew my mind.

[@HajimeAru]

AAA games these days seem to want to do everything - open world, cinematic set pieces, factions, side quests, crafting systems, complex skill trees, different currencies, microtransactions, 100s of hours of "entertainment" (most of it, busywork), etc. People get excited for the world on offer, and sold a huge, immersive experience, for a hefty price tag - play for a few hours, then get bored. I find I get more entertainment and enjoyment out of (20-30 dollar) indie/3rd party games that have 10-20 hours of content, yet all of it is (replayable) fun.

[@TennessseTimmy]

The cinematic trailer contrasted with the gameplay reveal, Felt like when trailers like that end up being 2d sidescrollers in 2024

[@DanaOtken]

When you're working with AAA budgets, the vast majority of the people you need to sell on your game are not potential customers. They don't want to hear what your creativity will do but what their money will. And they don't have experience with the act of trying to interpret a displayed trailer in terms of whether it is showing something that would be fun to play or that customers would want to buy, so they're going to be easiest to appeal to with a sell that goes "we're doing the same thing as this product whose monetization you can look at here, but we're spending more money in these areas so we're going to be better". Yes, this typically doesn't work, but there's a strange dichotomy to asking for money while admitting that it's essentially going to be used to buy a lottery ticket - even if this applies to most things people do with both money and their work hours.

[@jackstraw4222]

so when it flops they shouldn't be surprised,instead they make excuses ,when they knew what they were doing mostly..following videogame trends will result in the game flopping more than not...

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

Funny thing, early in its development Valve's Deadlock used to be a much more experimental title, at one point it even had roles for regular and VR players. The VR players would be something akin to the Natural Selection 2's commanders, one has to imagine. Seems like that part of the project shriveled up and died along with Valve's VR/AR aspirations. Used to be it had some sort of Half-Life connection, too. Valve kept shaping and re-shaping the thing, until the vague mass calcified into what we have now... Possibly through the sheer force of Regression Toward the Mean!

[@trisfaleel]

it's called playtesting, people don't want to play a game they're unfamilar with

[@maestromgx]

Unique experimental title is useless if people who plays it hated it. Being unique for the sake of it isnt wise.

[@koltendrews]

Wanna see how far developers like Ubisoft have fallen? Play anything from the early 2000s they made. Beyond Good and Evil vs any of the last 6 assassin creed games is a perfect example.

[@LothmorJ]

Honestly, none of these look great and will likely be monetized to chase whales, not to mention Concord being pay to play on top of it. With so man gamers having huge backlogs of actually good, single player or co-op games to play, and the multiplayer gamers having so many options, I don't expect these to do particularly well.

[@tfive24]

I want a remake of ultimate alliance.

[@alface935]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="62">1:02</a> Hold on... the NetEase that made: - Rules Of Survival - Minecraft China Edition - Creative Destruction - Identity V - Cyber Hunter - Diablo Immortal - Bloodstrike Huh I don't know if that is a bless or a curse

[@deltacity3292]

It seems that it is very important for gamers to understand that nobody is forced to buy certain games. Nobody is forced to pre-order and so on. There are so many games out there to fill multiple lifetimes and of course there are other freetime activities to follow. You don´t need to worry about the AAA-Industry, business strategies of corporations...just act as a customer und decide yourself

[@gwell66v2AnimeReviews]

That never works, the more gamers are left on their own to buy up objective garbage, the more we see predatory, awful tactics infiltrate every corner of gaming. It started w horse armor. Now, you're lucky if u get fun alternate costumes with the game, even though that was standard. Then it becomes entire game modes getting purposely gimped like with ea sports games. Can't enjoy single player bc they push you toward hut. Buy card packs! Lootboxes, gambling, it always gets worse if u just shrug. Even pre ordering led to countless games across every genre being released in an unfinished trash state. The purchases of gamers affects other gamers.

[@deltacity3292]

@@gwell66v2AnimeReviews And this even more shows that gamers need to act as customers and not as fanboys or helpless consumers. If you´re fed up with profit-maximizing strategies please quit bying or pre-ordering games. There is no other way to put emphasis on this topic to publishers because they don´t care if the numbers are good

[@TheGreatDanish]

​@@gwell66v2AnimeReviewsthe point of that statement isn't to say "change the industry by changing your habits" It's just saying change your habits. We hate new AAA games so let's not play em. There are other games to play. Better, cheaper, more numerous. Ignore serial consumers and just look for good games to play that fit what you want

[@vizthex]

i think having an up-front price can work, but it obviously won't attract as big of an audience as a free game - the problem is that they always do $40 or more, and that's just too high for a genre so saturated you can easily find a dozen games like this for free (hell, i've played at least 3 and i generally hate PvP lol). if it was like $10 or $20 it could work a bit, but i expect this to be another "paid -> free-to-play -> dead" entry in the AAA space.

[@Melggart]

I think the premium vs free to play fight was decided back with HoN vs LoL. The free to play simply will attract a bigger player base and win in the end. The problem is that any public traded company must chase the greater ROI, so they can't make some money, they need all the money. Valve seems to be a little different for now. Long may Gabe live.

[@jonathanj.3695]

Want to know why Netease went with a hero shooter using the Marvel IP? 1. Marvel's heroes and villains are by far some of the most iconic and instantly recognizable characters around the world. Using characters that millions of people recognize will garner interest in the game. 2. Overwatch 2 has become an absolute mess and overall a huge disappointment to its fans and playerbase. Marvel Rivals is a game that looks like it's trying to be a good alternative for the disappointed Overwatch playerbase. (Like what League of Legends did for DotA, Marvel Rivals is wanting to do for Overwatch). 3. Everyone else is trying to jump on the hero shooter drought bandwagon, but don't have any interesting substance or quality to warrant people wanting to actually play their games. Marvel Rivals has both substance (the Marvel characters themselves) and surprisingly good quality (they actually put effort into polishing up the graphics, gameplay and art style).

[@randomchannel323]

They forgot Overwatch was pay to play until they made 2

[@slayer2450]

Games went mainstream and now shareholders require quick profits and DEI is its own problem

[@Aries73]

You had a point until you decided to go full racist.

[@MinusThePrevail]

@@Aries73As a black man going through the stereotypical struggle and simply want to play good video games on my days off, I say let bruh cook.

[@gwell66v2AnimeReviews]

​@@Aries73what? How is that full on racist? That's insane how quickly you flew to that

[@darianstarfrog]

​​@Aries73 how do you get racist from that!? 😂

[@Aries73]

@@darianstarfrog If you’re ranting against diversity, what conclusion should anyone who isn’t a MAGA POS reach?

[@DarTame]

The only new gameplay innovation is the monetization

[@StateBlaze1989]

These games immediately lost me when "hero shooter" came in.

[@silviobrolusconi2890]

I don’t even think I could tell you what hero shooter is exactly, but when I see any game having that description, I immediately want to vomit

[@MasterMemo]

Why's that?

[@Watermelon_Man]

@@silviobrolusconi2890 It’s a shooter (I would hope you know what this means) that uses preset characters with preset weapons and special abilities, rather than giving the player the freedom to customize their own loadouts. I’m not sure what was supposed to be hard to explain in there.

[@silviobrolusconi2890]

@@Watermelon_Man I see, makes sense. Don’t think I’ve ever played a hero shooter and they never peaked my interest enough to look into. I’m old school, mostly play single player games, and all these hero shooters seem to have a similar Gen Z vibe and a cartoony mobile game art style that I just don’t jive with. Thanks for explaining tho

[@Inersight]

The issue is all company's use Unreal Engine instead of creating their own engine for games. You can't have something new when everything is fundamentally the same. They look the same, play the same.

[@EejayB7]

That’s because they aren’t using it to its potential. Unreal is a very flexible engine. It helped create DBZ Sparking Zero, the Gears of War franchise, and the original Arkham Games. They need better Game Design.

[@pieth68]

The most ignorant comment ive ever read

[@ravenweikel5974]

You fundamentally misunderstand the concept of a game engine. A game engine is not a blueprint that games follow, but instead the paper that the blueprint is drawn on top of. The issue isn’t the engine, it’s entirely the fault of companies being so confident in a formula that they refuse to innovate out of fear of losing their (currently incredibly unenthused and rapidly declining) playerbase.

[@thegrouchization]

Counterpoint: Genshin Impact, Among us, Cities: Skylines and Hearthstone were all built on the same engine. I think we can agree than those games do not play at all similarly to one another. Everybody using Unreal isn't the problem, and it should be noted that building a proper engine these days is a monumental task that might delay a game's release for years. The issue comes from what they are choosing to make _using_ it.

[@flowerthencrranger3854]

And that’s not UE’s fault. Developers back in the day developed their engines not because of “passion projects” , but out of necessity, the moment any third party engines that could be licensed started to come around, developers would gladly use them (just take a look at RenderWare). Take a look at games like Deep Rock Galactic, System Shock Remake, Outer Worlds, the Batman Arkham games, Gears of War, Fortnite. All of these games were made on unreal, each one with their own art styles that ooze with personality.

[@TheAtlas_]

We’re approaching another crash. And from it, indie will rise

[@jemarshaw4986]

The last time I bought a $60 game was animal crossing new horizons in 2020 ever since then I’ve just been playing a lot of indie games

[@sarcasm-83]

Same seems to be happening regarding Genshin Impact-like games. Even Manjuu (Azur Lane dev) is making their own and it's basically Genshin + Palworld. Called Azur Promilia. Style of clothes, areas etc. all looks the same. Project Mugen (Genshin but spider-man), Duet Night Abyss (Genshin, but guns), Wuthering Waves, Zenless Zone Zero as Hoyos newest ofc. Feels like I hear of another one that's very similar once a month at this point. I mean I don't doubt there might be good games among em, but I just hope they had at least a little more of their own style, especially Azur Promilia that already had character and clothing styles ready to go and established from Azur Lane.

[@Simbabweman]

Pricing model example: Crash Team Rumble. A £35 game which actually was not in an oversaturated market as it felt very different from anything else gameplay wise, it was almost like a platforming moba. I bought it as did quite a lot of others but not enough to keep it afloat. Within a year they announced no more content updates as they moved their focus elsewhere. Sad cos if it was free or marketed better it might've been more popular and more updates would've kept it fresh for a while but it is what it is. I reckon concord might go down the same route. The price is going to keep a lot of people away. Having played the beta my thoughts are that it's well made and feels pretty good to play. The characters really should have ultimates. I don't think it's an arena shooter. It has health pickups that look kinda like arena shooters but overwatch has health pickups too. I want it to succeed but it's come at a tricky time and difficult to sell business model.

[@ThisIsRusko]

Concord has the most hideous character roster ever. Generic and ugly

[@gogomonstertruck]

Ultimately it’s the CEOs/corporate/publisher structure that’s stifling creatives. I mean, it happens in every industry and of course there are always going to be outliers (I look at how companies like Nintendo, Capcom, and Insomniac have consistently put out great stuff these past few years), but it’s really just out of touch CEOs who see one thing doing really well so they HAVE to have their own version of it despite not realizing the whole reason why people like something is that it’s either really new and fresh or a passionate team made it with a lot of heart and it shows or a new standard of the type of game it is. Just look at what happened with Hero shooters after Overwatch came out, BRs after the success of PUBG/Fortnite (arguably Fortnite did this and got really lucky at an advantageous time), farming games after Stardew, list goes on. Then because games take literal YEARS to make even with 100s of people on a team, the game isn’t so novel or new and crunch and delays and feature creep by dumbass corporate people who don’t understand what it takes to make a feature work let alone a game work have destroyed whatever enthusiasm the devs had originally and the marketplace has maybe even moved on from whatever type/genre of game it even is anymore. Which ultimately results in low sales, which then drives CEOs to fire/layoff/close down studios, which then makes them feel the need to chase after something new since they were “burned” so they go for another studio to make something trendy now which then just begins the cycle again. I’m not a finance guy (and will never be) but it’s crazy how so many of these higher ups straight up do not see this pattern constantly happening.

[@Adromelk]

Netease went into the hero shooter genre because they already had the formula from OW when they worked with Blizzard, NE is notorious for ripping off other IP's and publishing their "games" in China, only this time they're going world wide with it. also, Hero shooters are seen as an easy cash grab

[@Mim-id5um]

While Deadlock may appear to stand out in the crowded hero shooter genre, it should be that pointed out that Valve was known to pioneering trends in gaming, not follow them. If you look to Valve's titles, people describe those games as their own thing rather than a fusion of two other games. The fact that Valve's newest game seems to have been created to follow a dying thread instead working on supporting their other titles is very disappointing. There is no demand for a game like Deadlock, instead we want Valve to bring something new to the table or/and support their older titles. I believe that Deadlock might have received a more positive reception had it been developed by a different studio.

[@trisfaleel]

right but they don't make games because the innovations that failed are just scrapped by valve so people complain that they don't make games, and then when they make a game they say omg ur not innovating anymore, i think valve doesn't know what the community wants so they try to make games while still trying to innovate and the innovations don't make it past playtesting while the tried and true games make it past their playtesting

[@maestromgx]

What people missed that TF2 dev were dota addicts back in the day and the one who actually invited IceFrog to work on DOTA2. Guys who make TF2 + One of lead designer of Overwatch + 2 guys responsible of DOTA ends up making Deadlock, color me surprised

[@Mad-Cat_Dan]

All I can see is three Overwatch Clones down to the artstyle.

[@FlampyPants]

I got into the next playtest for Project Loki a few days ago. Super excited to give it a go.

[@soundrogue4472]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="17">0:17</a> the issue isn't that they're hero shooters but that THERE ISN'T ANYTHING UNIQUE ABOUT THESE HERO SHOOTERS!!! WHY ARE SO MANY HERO SHOOTERS 5V5? WTF!

[@Smokez4Dayz]

Your opinion is valid and it is your own, I’d like to take the wait and see approach. A few of these, without favoring a title, look really good. Consumers will decide, not KZbin.

[@theKonfusion]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1493">24:53</a>, that character looks exactly like "StarChild" from Concord haha.

[@TheKotor2309]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="596">9:56</a> why? It’s fairly obvious; they have a grudge to bear against ActiBlizz.

[@nanaaddae4790]

What’s the name of that jazz track that plays at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="603">10:03</a>!

[@SourRobo8364]

I don't understand why any of these have a true campaign mode. Concord especially since it costs money.

[@user-cc3ef7qh1x]

I remember back in the day there were a million street fighter releases and everyone was happy to play. Now kids cry over having to choose a game to play

[@McVerdict]

As if concord being a premium game means anything in this dogshit industry. Overwatch was a premium game that went out of nowhere became f2p and shoves microtransactions down your throat at every minute. I do not care if a game is charging you full price it should not have an in game store.

[@cjgparas3]

Invest, take an inflated loss, declare the loss, pay reduce tax. Pocket the change.

[@sleepfgc]

Loving the new delsta track at the beginning!

[@silvialuzmia]

You know what, is it fair to compare left 4 dead with hell diver? Both feel like equally fun with a price tag and would be still alive until the end of time

[@erroneousfax9351]

Even though I still believe deadlock has the most potential, I genuinely don’t see a world where it survives more than a couple years at most. Valve itself is what brings down Deadlock. I was super fucking hyped for Deadlock… right up until FixTF2 started trending and it hit me; why would/should I get excited for this new IP when it’s no doubt going to have a small player base and inevitably fall victim to the same negligence as TF2 just because it’s not/no longer a smash hit? It’s the same feeling I had with Spellbreak. I loved it in the moment, then it hit me that no one was really playing, the game was inevitably going to die, and all my enjoyment was sucked out of it so I dipped early. If it were literally any other studio without a history of letting their games fall into disrepair, I’d still be amped, but with Valve I’m wary at best. It’s one big cycle: It’s a hero shooter in an over saturated market so it’s not going to have a big base -> Because it doesn’t have a big base it’s going to die soon -> Because it’s going to die soon, people don’t join and more people leave ->Because more people leave it’s going to die sooner-> Because it’s dying quicker more people leave (repeat ad nauseam until there’s no one left)

[@dirtiestharry6551]

Deadlock is really good tbh. It's not for casuals either. Not that difficulty makes any competitive game suddenly good, but it doesn't feel like devs are treating players like babies. This game has Deny like dota(well partial deny), the movement system alone can create huge skill gap(each character usually have 3 stamina bars they can consume to perform:double jump, dash, areial dash, dash jump) etc

[@elliott20]

I don't know, I've been gaming since the 80s and the trend chasing has always been a thing. It's just that now a days, there is a lot more money for people to make bad bets with.

[@RyanBeTheName]

Deadlock sounds kind of like battle borne, which is fine cause I wouldn't mind a game like that

[@MichaelBurkhalter]

Maybe I don’t understand the term “creative bankruptcy” but I don’t think there’s any shortage of creativity, it’s CEOs who want to go with the “safe bet”. It’s ironically risk aversion that’s causing actual bankruptcy.

[@Fluffychoupikkos]

You are awesome bro! I agree with every sense, every word, every letter you said! ❤️ Please make a Doom retrospective.

[@Mugthief]

Lets wait for them to announce the new Doom game later today, might consider it!

[@Fluffychoupikkos]

@@Mugthief Yeah sure, maybe it needs to become a bit more relevant first. Once the trailers drop people will go crazy. I hope it will not be a live service, though I think it could be.

[@Fluffychoupikkos]

@@Mugthief Btw thank you so much for considering the idea. It excited me that doom is a game that interests you ❤️

[@trinstonmichaels7062]

This industry really needs new people that actually play video games.

[@PijanTheDrunk]

"deadlock is new" brother it's just Smite

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Remember when the AAA industry was healthy enough that you had even large companies like EA fund entirely new IPs, Activision would make a game built entirely around a peripheral controller ala Guitar Hero and it sold gang busters? Or how entirely niche genres could not only be made, but be successful and not just be from some indie developer team no one has heard of? Remember when the industry as a whole was actually good that you could get over a dozen amazing games all come out in the same year, instead of at best maybe 2 every 2 to 3 years? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[@neotricksterzero143]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="141">2:21</a> I misread that as "escort Spider-Zero to Budokai" 😂😂😅

[@Grimoire_Heart1113]

The reason people are willing to try new hero shooters is, A lot of them are burnt out on the current ones we have, So people are excited to see new ones. They are tired of Overwatch, Paladins etc

[@512TheWolf512]

you know what? i'll just say it. there is a REASON mihoyo can get away with making the same game at the same time 3-4 times. the western big budget games segment lacks SEX APPEAL. quite literally. and even the gameplay, considering their obsession with monetization, can't pull it out of the gutter. overwatch really wasn't an anomaly, and didn't succeed because of blizzard's name. but because it actually had initial visual appeal, for both men and women to enjoy. everyone had a hook to motivate them to look more into the game and try it out.

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

The sex appeal thing will only last for so long though. Think about all of the Genshin-alikes, And not just the ones made by Mihoyo. All vaguely fantasy/sci-fi, All with the same vaguely anime-esque waifus with exactly one personality trait, All with the same ingame shop UI and "Wish" gatcha system. Eventually, there will be so many games like Genshin that they'll become old hat.

[@512TheWolf512]

@@BlitzkriegOmega that will take significantly more time than it took all the ugly western games to die.

[@GordonHammer]

​@@BlitzkriegOmega I can see where you're coming from; I don't play gacha games for a reason. I don't play gamblers. But for a lot of gamers, myself included, sex appeal, or Christ, even just baseline appealing aesthetics, matters. I'm going back through Days Gone _again_ and that has very little sex appeal. But it has a female love interest who doesn't look like she was designed in a lab specifically to turn men gay for fear that she might accidentally touch the player character at some point. I will _not_ play the Fable remake if the trailer character is the unchangeable MC. Western games can not survive if they continue with this trend of intentionally creating golems and attempting to pass them off as women.

[@512TheWolf512]

@@GordonHammer the men they make are also ugly. that's a lose-lose for everyone.

[@JorguinTorpedo-ff5vk]

Anime porn just make everything sell(It's not the fact that the Company is Chinese)

[@taxman3749]

Yeah Concorde DEI Adventures.... It's not free to play.... Yet. Give it 2 weeks.

[@emory5533]

I love helldivers. I bought a PC to play it because I had FOMO and it's been good for my mental health to play with my friends

[@aoihitori]

Playing safe, No creativity, Devs who gatekeep themselves, Hiring people who hates games, and Overusing Nostalgia to market games.

[@snonyabeeswax]

at least good games are still being made i think all the companies that need to be reminded to not be cheap and cut corners will be the ones in trouble

[@hungryhedgehog4201]

love how they basically praise a game for things they assume. They dont even know the price, this could be 80$ for all we know.

[@AzureRoxe]

You forgot to mention the OTHER reason many don't like Concord already: The fact it's already clear it's full to the brim with DEI.

[@Golden_Ghoul]

Needs more chicks that are lame and gay ❤

[@b.o.4492]

Modern audience games like Concord… and it’s not free to play. No way it’ll be just $30-40 dollars.

[@JorguinTorpedo-ff5vk]

For me this has always been the big reason why AAA Games have gone bad, they have become just formulas that companies think everyone likes, and then bowl them down to a worse version of said formula. In the past, there was no defined formula on how to make a good FPS or TPS, so companies were more experimental and each game served to improve the formula or bring something new, but in the last 20 years, the only thing now that companies evolve is the way of monetization and social aspects to make games "good" enough to force someone to spend(Example: Ghost Recon which is a mediocre open world TPS with extremely simple and easy gunplay but which has so much customization that everyone excuses it by saying "just change x settings", or Diablo 4 which has a lot of talent and potential to be ultra fun but it settles for "being fun enough" for the average player to spend hours or pay for something from the store.)

[@zerrboy3]

Has anyone noticed that in the marvel style overwatch game there are literally stolen things from overwatch itself?

[@michaelvelez902]

Vote with your wallet has a big flaw. If you do indeed buy the good honest game, and it gets very successful, competing companies will try to imitate. Investors, often not understanding games, will pour money into the competition and demand returns, hence the shitty forced clones.

[@rishiisnotmypm]

Sadly their advertising is too strong for the NPCs to resist 😅