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Video Game Industry Thread: done for September, use the next thread

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Posts

  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    So it could be nothing, then.

    And yeah, I'd be surprised if Sony didn't still sell PS2 kits.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    There are a couple of western DS titles around a million but basically the most successful handheld western developed games of all time are the two GTA games on the PSP.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Who makes the Professor Layton games? Are those western? I played some of the first game once, and it was pretty awesome.

    Skull2185 on
    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Skull2185 wrote: »
    Who makes the Professor Layton games? Are those western? I played some of the first game once, and it was pretty awesome.

    Nope, Level 5 is Japanese.

    cloudeagle on
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  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Cade wrote: »
    How to increase brand value, easy, if your Sega you de list all the bad Sonic games.
    SEGA has removed Sonic games with average Metacritic scores from shop shelves to combat franchise fatigue.

    Sega has always been at war with Eastasia.

    Sega is also apparently removing all Sonic games since Sonic and Knuckles from stores.

    Couscous on
  • InkSplatInkSplat 100%ed Bad Rats. Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    InkSplat wrote: »
    Man, I really hope Western Devs get over themselves for the 3DS. That is my biggest complaint about portables--no Western titles. For whatever reason, most Japanese titles rarely do it for me, with a few exceptions.

    Hell, I even scavenged the depths and play Sonic Chronicles! And was hoping for a sequel!

    Please, Western Devs, give me a story + gameplay experience on my handheld that I can be proud of.

    Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll port over KotR to the 3DS... That would keep me busy for a while.

    ..Yeah right.

    Western developers ARE supporting the 3DS, just like they supported the PSP and DS. They just really suck at it. There are a handful of western developers that actually understand handelds well but the vast majority of them just try to make a console game and shove it onto the system. Just watch all the third parties try to make shooters for the 3DS and fuck it up because oh shit, there isn't a second analog stick.

    Also, why would Metal Gear change anything? It's not a western game. And if the absurd number of Metal Gear's on the PSP didn't change much, why would a MGS3 port suddenly be revolutionary?

    I realize MGS3 isn't a western game, however, it has much more of the cinematic feel that I'm looking for, and so it might at least open the door for other developers to try the same sort of thing on the system.

    And I don't count sucking at something actually accomplishing it. Just because Western Devs make bad games doesn't mean I shouldn't want good games.

    As for the PSP, the PSP doesn't have nearly the showing of the DS in the states. So games on the PSP aren't exactly going to pull in the Western Devs no matter what.

    InkSplat on
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  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Cade wrote: »
    How to increase brand value, easy, if your Sega you de list all the bad Sonic games.
    SEGA has removed Sonic games with average Metacritic scores from shop shelves to combat franchise fatigue.

    "Any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed," SEGA's SVP of EMEA Jurgen Post told MCV.

    "We have to do this and increase the value of the brand. This will be very important when more big Sonic releases arrive in the future."

    SEGA's set to release three Sonic games in the coming months: downloadable title Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (the iPhone version's out now), Nintendo platforms exclusive Sonic Colours and Kinect racing game Sonic Free Riders.

    Post continued: "We could make a lot of money on back-catalogue Sonic titles, but let's keep the number of Sonic games available under control. Otherwise you can have cannibalisation. If there are ten Sonic games on the shelves, with people seeing Sonic Rush DS or Sonic Rush Adventure, this may not help our overall strategy."

    In August Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka told Eurogamer making both old and new fans happy with a single game is virtually impossible.

    Episode 1 is intended to rekindle the classic 2D gameplay fans fondly remember from the blue hedgehog's glory years on the Mega Drive. And Sonic Colours, which plays like the daytime stages from 2008's panned Sonic Unleashed, is designed for fans of Sonic's 3D outings.

    SEGA's 3D Sonic games have come in for stinging criticism from veteran Sonic fans in recent years. Sonic Unleashed disappointed many upon its 2008 release. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions managed a paltry 4/10 in Eurogamer's review. The Wii version was better, though.

    The 3D woe continued last year with Wii-exclusive Sonic and the Black Knight, which suffered the same fate as Unleashed.

    The bolded above are literally the two highest rated Sonic games this generation on Metacritic. Not the two I'd think about delisting.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    The bolded above are literally the two highest rated Sonic games this generation on Metacritic. Not the two I'd think about delisted.
    OK, just looking through metacritic, these games are being pulled (current gen only):
    Sonic the Hedgehog 2006
    Sonic Unleashed
    Sonic and the Black Knight
    Sonic Classic Collection DS
    Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
    Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
    Sonic and the Secret Rings
    Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
    Sonic Rivals
    Sonic Rivals 2

    and these are staying:
    Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
    Sonic Rush
    Sonic Rush Adventure
    Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection
    Like they are pulling Mario and Sonic ever.

    http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/finalfantasy14/review.html
    OK. FFXIV might do badly.

    Couscous on
  • HtownHtown Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Well you knew that when they tried to make reviewers not review it for a month.

    Htown on
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  • SigtyrSigtyr Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    It's tragic really.

    A majority of the things on that list, could have probably been remedied in a month.

    Sigtyr on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    You go to market with the MMO you have, not the MMO you might have after patches. And WoW is the USA that will rape you if you don't go to market with the MMO you should have.

    Couscous on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=268568?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS
    Ex-3D Realms head George Broussard lost "20 to 30 million dollars" of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has estimated.

    Speaking to press in London this morning, Pitchford recalled the sad events leading up to Gearbox's acquisition of the elusive FPS - and the heavy personal hit Broussard that took.

    "There was the bad news in May 2009," Pitchford recalled. "You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down, Duke was dead. That sucked. It was tough being in Dallas, many of my friends lost their jobs.

    "I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life' but you could hear in his voice there was more. This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time."

    He continued: "George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever - I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money. He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead.

    "He decided he would rather have it burn that have a bad version of the game come out."
    Jesus Christ.

    Couscous on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Couscous wrote: »
    http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=268568?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS
    Ex-3D Realms head George Broussard lost "20 to 30 million dollars" of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has estimated.

    Speaking to press in London this morning, Pitchford recalled the sad events leading up to Gearbox's acquisition of the elusive FPS - and the heavy personal hit Broussard that took.

    "There was the bad news in May 2009," Pitchford recalled. "You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down, Duke was dead. That sucked. It was tough being in Dallas, many of my friends lost their jobs.

    "I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life' but you could hear in his voice there was more. This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time."

    He continued: "George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever - I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money. He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead.

    "He decided he would rather have it burn that have a bad version of the game come out."
    Jesus Christ.

    You got to imagine that was a horrible day for him.

    Cade on
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Couscous wrote: »
    http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=268568?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS
    Ex-3D Realms head George Broussard lost "20 to 30 million dollars" of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has estimated.

    Speaking to press in London this morning, Pitchford recalled the sad events leading up to Gearbox's acquisition of the elusive FPS - and the heavy personal hit Broussard that took.

    "There was the bad news in May 2009," Pitchford recalled. "You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down, Duke was dead. That sucked. It was tough being in Dallas, many of my friends lost their jobs.

    "I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life' but you could hear in his voice there was more. This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made 15 games in that time."

    He continued: "George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever - I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money. He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead.

    "He decided he would rather have it burn that have a bad version of the game come out."
    Jesus Christ.

    I'm not shocked that he lost a lot of money since it was widely reported that the profits from other Duke games funded Forever, but still, 20-30 million is much, MUCH more than "a lot."

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I realize it isn't what I'm supposed to get from that story but I like Randy Pitchford. In a world where damn near every studio head is either a raging douche or a gigantic egomaniac, it's nice to have a levelheaded duder in charge of a good company.

    But that still sucks about Broussard though. I can't imagine how much money you'd have to have banked to not be a poor man after losing 20-30million. It probably wasn't all his own money though.

    The Dude With Herpes on
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  • cooljammer00cooljammer00 Hey Small Christmas-Man!Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I think it was, hence his ability to dick around for over a decade.

    cooljammer00 on
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  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Different mindsets I guess. I'm more inclined to get off my ass when it's my own money involved. Someone else is footing the bill? Meh. I'll get to it when I'm ready. :lol:

    The Dude With Herpes on
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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for him for losing that money. If his stake in things was so high, maybe he should've pushed to actually get the product released, rather than allow it to go over so many overhauls / restarts.

    Henroid on
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    If it's not all his money, it's certainly most of his money.

    I'm not surprised its 20 to 30 mil. 20 mil is about what you need to develop a current gen game. Last gen maybe 8 to 12 mil, and the gen before that probably a few million. Since the dev and redevelopment of this game has spanned three generations, it makes sense that it's about 30 million.

    slash000 on
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    And I'm pretty sure Take Two started funding it the last couple of years.

    Yeah, his passion for the game was a double-edged sword... it caused him to pour in his own money, but it also caused him to keep trying to shoehorn in more awesome things that delayed it again and again and again.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • SirUltimosSirUltimos Don't talk, Rusty. Just paint. Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    It's tragic, really. All the guy wanted to do was make a good game. He just went about it in the wrong way.

    SirUltimos on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    The amount doesn't matter. If they competently developed the game and pushed it out years ago this wouldn't have been an issue and they could've been working on DNF2. I just don't feel bad for him and I don't understand why other people feel bad for him - it's not like the situation was out of his hands regarding his money.

    Henroid on
  • NotYouNotYou Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    The amount doesn't matter. If they competently developed the game and pushed it out years ago this wouldn't have been an issue and they could've been working on DNF2. I just don't feel bad for him and I don't understand why other people feel bad for him - it's not like the situation was out of his hands regarding his money.

    You don't feel bad for a guy who tried really hard to achieve his dream and failed? Because he failed?

    NotYou on
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    SirUltimos wrote: »
    It's tragic, really. All the guy wanted to do was make a good game. He just went about it in the wrong way.

    His problem supposedly was that every time he saw someone come out with a new game that had a better engine or some new features he had to have something like that as well and so instead of putting limits on the game he kept adding more and more stuff they had to do as time went onwards and nothing truly got done because of it.

    There is a huge ass article about the whole thing, it's a crazy read.

    Cade on
  • Muddy WaterMuddy Water Quiet Batperson Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Yeah, nobody's saying it wasn't his fault, but that doesn't mean you can't feel bad for the guy.

    Muddy Water on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    NotYou wrote: »
    Henroid wrote: »
    The amount doesn't matter. If they competently developed the game and pushed it out years ago this wouldn't have been an issue and they could've been working on DNF2. I just don't feel bad for him and I don't understand why other people feel bad for him - it's not like the situation was out of his hands regarding his money.

    You don't feel bad for a guy who tried really hard to achieve his dream and failed? Because he failed?

    It's not a dream when you keep changing the parameters of that dream, and let's not be dramatic here by calling it a 'dream' in the first place.

    He wanted to make a good game. That's great, everyone wants to do that.

    The company kept tossing current iterations when something new would emerge in the video game world and they wanted a piece of it in the game. That's terrible.

    He lost money via bad business decisions. Sucks to lose so much money, but as someone who has never made more than 30k a year, I'm not about to go "well shucks" on his behalf. He'll live.

    Henroid on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Eh, I think he just loved it too much. He was surrounded by people afraid to tell him no, and he just wanted to make it better and better to the point of ruin. Having terrible, terrible business sense and lack of self control doesn't make his dream any less real :P

    Warlock82 on
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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Wait are we talking about George Lucas?

    Henroid on
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    Wait are we talking about George Lucas?

    He does the opposite thing. We're begging him to STOP re-releasing his baby over and over and over.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    Wait are we talking about George Lucas?

    That's another topic that would need at least a year to be finished discussing.

    Cade on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    Wait are we talking about George Lucas?

    Broussard was living under an obsolete development method (i.e. you could maybe get away with this crap when development didn't take years and years on a well-managed project).

    Lucas on the other hand *used* to have some good sense to him, but now he wants to do everything himself. For Empire and Jedi he had the good sense to pass the movies off to more competent writers and directors (whereas he just provided the creative vision). And yet he wrote and directed all the prequels himself. And they sucked.

    Warlock82 on
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  • InkSplatInkSplat 100%ed Bad Rats. Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I can't wait for the Star Trek-esque reboot of Star Wars sometime within our lifetime. It will be glorious.

    InkSplat on
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  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I was aiming for a joke about nobody telling him 'no.'

    Henroid on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    I was aiming for a joke about nobody telling him 'no.'

    To be fair, I'm sure Lucas made way more money than Broussard, and despite the prequels being terrible, I'm sure he *still* made a ridiculous amount on them. I don't think, from a business standpoint, it would have necessarily mattered if anyone told him "no" :P

    Warlock82 on
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  • CadeCade Eppur si muove.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    Henroid wrote: »
    Wait are we talking about George Lucas?

    Broussard was living under an obsolete development method (i.e. you could maybe get away with this crap when development didn't take years and years on a well-managed project).

    Lucas on the other hand *used* to have some good sense to him, but now he wants to do everything himself. For Empire and Jedi he had the good sense to pass the movies off to more competent writers and directors (whereas he just provided the creative vision). And yet he wrote and directed all the prequels himself. And they sucked.

    Actually Lucas never had that much good sense about him, he always found it hard to connect to people, it was the people though he did interact with that helped Star Wars become what it is today, back when he first made it he got the opinions of others, showed them what he was doing, listened to them and their feedback and probably most importantly he had his first wife who really helped Star Wars to become what it was until she got tired of him keep going that she left him for another man. Needless to say Lucas didn't like that and has done everything to remove her from Star Wars completely except for the rare picture with her and the crew. You can read about all this in depth here at The secret history of Star Wars

    Cade on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I didn't know Lucas' wife had such a big impact on things! I'll give that a read.

    Anyway. Video games.

    Henroid on
  • Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Henroid wrote: »
    NotYou wrote: »
    Henroid wrote: »
    The amount doesn't matter. If they competently developed the game and pushed it out years ago this wouldn't have been an issue and they could've been working on DNF2. I just don't feel bad for him and I don't understand why other people feel bad for him - it's not like the situation was out of his hands regarding his money.

    You don't feel bad for a guy who tried really hard to achieve his dream and failed? Because he failed?

    It's not a dream when you keep changing the parameters of that dream, and let's not be dramatic here by calling it a 'dream' in the first place.

    He wanted to make a good game. That's great, everyone wants to do that.

    The company kept tossing current iterations when something new would emerge in the video game world and they wanted a piece of it in the game. That's terrible.

    He lost money via bad business decisions. Sucks to lose so much money, but as someone who has never made more than 30k a year, I'm not about to go "well shucks" on his behalf. He'll live.

    Just as a result of my own personal dealing with people in the business world, I really don't have any sympathy for the guy either. It's one thing when somebody fails because of a string of unavoidable circumstances; it's something else entirely when someone fails because they just kept making the same awful choices over and over again despite them obviously being awful. I really cannot be bothered to feel bad for somebody who literally threw away tens of millions of dollars of his own personal wealth but was completely incapable of administering it wisely.

    I'd lay odds that a lot of the people on this board could probably get a not-half-bad game developed within a couple of years, a competent development team, and over twenty million dollars to spend. Probably because most people here would have better sense than to throw out multiple iterations of the game simply because some new, shiny thing comes out. Cripes, it's not like Duke Nukem is exactly a sophisticated series; awesome guns, nasty monsters, hot chicks, and lots of one-liners.

    If anything, I'm just pleased that an enjoyable franchise hasn't been lost to the nebulous chaos gods of incompetent leadership and legal tangles. And I'm glad Broussard is no longer in control of the thing so he can't make sure something like that happens.

    Ninja Snarl P on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I don't really feel bad for him, he *was* an idiot. But at least it's not like he wasn't trying or was slacking off or something. His heart was in the right place. Just that he was stupid and surrounded himself with likewise stupid people who couldn't call him out on his stupidity.

    Edit: Either way, consequences are good. Losing $30 million is the only way he'll learn :P

    I still hope DNF is awesome despite my incredible skepticism...

    Warlock82 on
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  • Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    A guy with tens of millions of dollars to blow and stupid enough to nearly wreck the Duke Nukem franchise? Yeah, I've got zero sympathy for that. Hard work, wealth, and stupidity just means something becomes an incredible failure instead of just a failed business venture.

    Not to mention the costs involved for the people on the project who can't afford to lose several million dollars and be okay. From now on, their resume has to include the massive failure which was Broussard's DNF and they'll have to explain why they spent over a decade working on one single game which they never actually finished.

    Ninja Snarl P on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    Edit: Either way, consequences are good. Losing $30 million is the only way he'll learn :P

    I see your optimism and raise you a "Ha!"

    Henroid on
This discussion has been closed.