Game News 2.0

RedXIV

It's going to be interesting to see how this affects the next wave of games under development. We've seen so many get cut from games companies, they can usually slot easily into more enterprise software for more money, I can forsee a massive gap in talent next time there is a hiring buzz. Hope the staff remember and force higher pay as a result

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121823621#Comment_121823621

Taking some sort of boycott measure to try and make future games sell worse and force another round of layoffs isn't going to help anyone.

It's almost every single studio in the industry, and they're not doing it for fun. I know there's the argument that Microsoft / Sony / Epic etc are big enough to take the hit, and they are, but they're not charities and they can't fund teams that aren't making a profit forever. Layoff packages there are usually at least pretty decent, unlike the fate of many developers at smaller studios like Die Gute Fabrik who just close down.

There's just not enough money to go round right now. Investment funds are no longer putting money into the industry so you can't really start developing a game without deep pockets of your own, while ever bigger games cost too much to make and are too cheap to buy. Microtransactions and live services have tried to fill the gap but there's been a justified backlash against those.

I think there's an inevitable realignment coming towards more "double A" style games because the industry is just not sustainable as is. For every early access breakout indie success there are thousands of failures and for every AAA success there is a gamble of hundreds of millions behind it that would lead to absolute disaster if it didn't achieve mega numbers.

sniper_samurai

And Sony continue to scrap GaaS titles. Tbh I think Twisted Metal would have worked with this model for a couple of years.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1762503092593999913?t=1a-HIMZAzKKfXCe5yAsrHQ&s=19

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824390#Comment_121824390

The curious irony of course being that they’ve just had an exceptionally rare GaaS hit with Helldivers 2. All these cancelled games from big franchises, and ultimately the hit they were looking for came with little fanfare and pure AA sheen.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824323#Comment_121824323

Only way to get higher pay is get an new job. Either use that as leverage or leave. Corporations will do the bare minimum to keep you on and their bare minimum at the moment is a annual wage increase well below inflation so 'thanks for all the hard work, how about you work harder this year and we don't cut your wages as much next year?'.

I feel a lot of these developers are young, took me long enough to realise big corporations have no loyalty so don't deserve any from you, but they sure as hell will make it feel like they deserve it.

Retr0gamer

I'd be feeling furious if I was working there.

https://twitter.com/nathan_brown/status/1762466931070619950?t=tkYIQgacoPtBhzGt8ij_Zg&s=19

Retr0gamer

All this talk about lay offs in the industry is awful and all but thankfully we have Geoff Keighley to let us know that our consumerism will not be interrupted:

https://twitter.com/SeanSeansonYT/status/1762519440007008720?t=FA7RJhZ1MoVCMC9wYcUneA&s=19

I love how AI is thrown into the product title like it's the corporate version of the Super in a Super nintendo title.

The reality is people cannot afford all these games and all these digital subscription services. When you're cutting back video games has got to be the easiest chop to make. You can still play your library and can pick up cheaper games with just a bit of patience (and when you're getting a better quality game through patches its a no brainer). And evidently, free games and cheaper AA games are scratching the itch for a lot of people.

My experience with AI after repeated wrong answers:

Yes you are right, I made that up. Im so sorry for all the wrong answers and I understand your frustration. Here is the correct way - proceeds to give me the first wrong answer in the sequence.

How anyone thinks this technology is going to replace jobs anytime soon is beyond me. Of course it will get better, but I think the more likely outcome is that standards will be lowered and consumers will be expected to accept flawed, inaccurate and poor quality products and services while either paying the same price or more likely be expected to pay more because of the "cost of AI".

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824701#Comment_121824701

I read human excretion as a DLC first and though who the hell wants that. 😆

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824872#Comment_121824872

It's not AI, it's machine learning and all you can train it to do is give an expected response at least. There's no creativity or thinking outside the box.

On the other hand AI is going to be a buzzword attached to everything like crypto was, but in this case I can't even see how AI/machine learning would even work. It's just a simple I/O interface to control it, AI/machine learning is totally redundant or at best just complicates a very simple task.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824905#Comment_121824905

The big con in this is that they released it into the public domain so that we could be used to train it. You can see that in the answers it gives you and when you guide it by saying, no 2+2=4 not 5 it says, I'm sorry you are right, 2+2 does equal 4. Then it sticks this information in its database.

We are all helping trillion dollar companies refine their algorithms and populate their databases for free.

It's like the recaptcha sign in validation. Pick all the pictures with a bus. People don't realise we're just training the AI to better recognise buses.

In older times it was all text based for training OCR engines (software that scans documents and converts to word docs etc) when digitising paper documents was big money.

From their point of view. AI in games is the perfect way to train their software by gamifying what are extremely tedious tasks that they can't hire people to do.

Mr.Saturn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824878#Comment_121824878

I suspect the same people that'd be gameball for the sweet, sweet smell of human exertion. "Yeah, it's a good game, but d'you not think it'd be improved with the bang of sweat?" is not a question that's ever been posed to me.

I always wonder what if anything will ever make me fall out of love for gaming. Am I really going to be gaming in my retirement (physical well being permitting) because that idea fcuking rocks and makes me look forward to being old.

But I think AI in gaming is going to be that thing that makes me say, nah not loving this anymore.

Hold onto your old consoles and physical disks lads and ladies. We're going to need them. Old games before AI ruined everything are going to be how we play in the future.

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824658#Comment_121824658

Not even the guts to tell them then in person.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824982#Comment_121824982

I keep saying that myself but honestly gaming has never been better and with small developers now having little barrier to entry when it comes to publishing it looks like it will stay that way. I had a bit of a wobble during the PS360 era but Demon's Souls came out and I realised I wasn't growing out of games just all the big name games were garbage.

Potential-Monke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824849#Comment_121824849

I'd argue it's the opposite. Subscriptions have made me spend way less money than I used to. I always had to buy a game, now I pay the price of 3 games a year and play hundreds (if I wanted to). Playing just 3 AAA games that come to it justifies the yearly sub, and stops me from buying games I would have previously as I'm now waiting for them to come to a sub service. These are games I would have originally waited for a ~€30 discount before buying, now those games/devs are getting nothing from me but instead a sliver of Sonys pie. It's why I still think MS shot themselves in the foot with Day 1 AAA releases on Gamepass. Can't be sustainable.

But I can't see sub services going anywere. They're basically part and parcel now. And it's grand, it's basically a digital version of the times in Ireland during the SNES era where we rented games, but better. PS+ is what, €14 a month. I used to rent a game every weekend, at £5 a time (for the newer games) IIRC. That's about €11 now, 4 times a month, so €44/month. PS+ is great value to my older eyes and gives waaaaaaay more choice. But I still never want a fully digital marketplace. I'll spend even less if that comes about, because I'm not dropping €70+ on something I can't trade in if I don't like it. Made that mistake with Destiny...

CatInABox

Twas only a matter of time before Nintendo decided to do more Nintendo things. They're going after one of the emulators, looking for compensation too, not just a straight shut down. I'd guess that if they succeed on this one, it'll kill off the rest too, and even if they don't succeed, they enough money to bury them in legal fees.

https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1762576284817768457

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121825842#Comment_121825842

It really is hard to justify emulators of consoles still in production. You can get games before they've been released and they play better than on the console with 1440p/60fps and evenc4k/60fps of your cpu can handle it.

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121825842#Comment_121825842

I do think that anyone that looks to make money off an emulator is looking for trouble to be fair. Especially on a currently selling console. Its the passion projects that I always hate seeing attacked. Especially the ones working hard to keep older games that haven't been ported to modern systems available to newer generations.

I've no problem admitting that I'm interested in this area, but just don't have the time/skill to really dig into it, but I know enough and was able to get things like the n64 dev kit software which was fascinating to pour over.

I think Nintendo have to do this really when monetization is happening, but to be fair, this could be much more widespread, there are tons of other, free emulators out there that are mostly left alone.

Zero-Cool

No Deck Nine, not like this 😩

https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/1762602395245097057?t=0qA_xZGPd4ngViJD1DCR2w&s=19

J. Marston

That's hella trash.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121825842#Comment_121825842

Nintendo totally in the wrong here as the Yuzu emulator doesn't use any Nintendo copyrighted code or encryption keys as far as I'm aware. If this goes to a verdict they will lose so it will be a case of if they can bleed the Yuzu team dry so a settlement can be made. I can see this bring them in the ass as I bet a legal fund will be crowd sourced to fight Nintendo.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121826157#Comment_121826157

Hard to justify sure but also not illegal. Also if you build a console on well documented off the shelf low powered parts you are opening yourself up to this and I'm pretty sure nintendo risk assessed that possibility.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121826169#Comment_121826169

Again there's nothing wrong with making money from emulators and honestly the massive increase in the output of fan translations and homebrew projects like this is due to crowd sourcing and people being able to make it their full time job, Yuzu is no different. I'm guessing Nintendo aren't happy with totk leaking and ending up on PC and it's also very worrying if the switch 2 is just a juiced up version of the switch hardware, it would make it highly vulnerable to emulation and hacking. I kind of feel they are pissing against the wind on this one. I really cant see any judge ruling in Nintendo's favour especially with legal precedence already established and a lot of companies use emulation based on that legal precedence.

Cordell

The thing with these types of legal actions and litigations is that even when you win them you still lose, especially when you aren't the money loaded powerful corporation who can afford to pay millions in legal fees. And I don't think anyone wants to be the next Gary Bowser.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827298#Comment_121827298

True but it think Nintendo may not have bargained for a crowd funded legal Defense which is out money on happening.

SuperBowserWorld

I don't get it. Of course Nintendo will fight emulation. People use it to get all their games for free.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121827524#Comment_121827524

But emulation is not illegal. In fact it's protected by law. You are legally allowed to reverse engineer any product including software and that's what emulation is. As long as the code is totally original then its perfectly legal. Most emulators will ask the user to provide their own. Copies of stuff like a software bios and ROMs which would be illegal to distribute.

Nintendo is basically going after the syringe manufacturers and not the heroine dealers.

RedXIV

Let us not forget this juicy nugget as well when thinking of Nintendo and emulators:

https://www.cracked.com/article_33595_nintendo-exposed-for-using-fanmade-emulators-on-the-switch.html

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121828039#Comment_121828039

They've also lost the source code to a lot of their earliest games and released ROMs they clearly got from rom sites on various virtual consoles.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121828039#Comment_121828039

In other industries corporations will actually leverage such projects, contribute or even hire its authors.

The issue is not with emulation, it's with sharing ROMs on torrent sites etc. But it's easy for them to go for the jugguler, these ROMs will be no use without an emulator. The only way to use them without an emulator is to have an early edition switch with an early firmware, which can also be shutdown pretty easily by requiring a specific firmware for a game to work.

Retr0gamer

Frank cifaldi covered the legality years ago. Same thing again:

https://twitter.com/frankcifaldi/status/1762631000574886185?t=1nlAbeAl4QvaIKhTDGHlyw&s=19

SuperBowserWorld

Devices + Emulators + ROMs are normalised now.

Amazon ship a load of these. I'm not sure how they get away with that. But they also sell stuff that does not have EU or UK safety standards on them. Too big to give a crap.

I'd be quite happy to pay Nintendo for an emulator + ROMs. E.g. a few quid for a SNES game. But I can't stand the subscription l model they currently have. Sick of subscription services.

I can buy and own other games emulated on Switch from Capcom etc etc but not Nintendo games ...

Also, I can't be arsed hunting down ROMs etc. I've enough legal games and not enough time to play them.

Remedy have bought full rights to the Control universe. I wonder what codename Condor is?

https://investors.remedygames.com/announcements/remedy-entertainment-plc-inside-information-remedy-acquires-full-rights-to-the-control-franchise-from-505-games/

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121829047#Comment_121829047

It's rumoured to be a multiplayer Control spin-off.

SuperBowserWorld

Control was a good game. I imagine the MP will be people throwing furniture and stuff at each other. I think it'll be very successful.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/GIBiz/status/1762948663490269532?t=wyoKNd-zSsQY-RSQbf-h4g&s=19

___

johnny_ultimate

Just an endless bloodbath at the moment. At the point when we’re losing games from interesting developers too as part of the ruthless corporate cost cutting.

https://twitter.com/andy_vgc/status/1762963728197144752?s=46&t=nwvJe3fJtU0siJ7wj5mjTA

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121830584#Comment_121830584

https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/1762966232997781974?t=cDOYaJ9-hmmhOpgbW72HbA&s=19

https://twitter.com/insomniacgames/status/1762935403663786473?t=48_2KGPdKnf_95sTqoROjQ&s=19

____

SuperBowserWorld

EA

It's in the game stock price.

johnny_ultimate

Also: the next Mass Effect is only in pre-production still? Going to be lucky to see that game in the 2020s at this rate.

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121830615#Comment_121830615

Yeah definitely a next gen game but the easy things are going, there won't be any more devs to make games and the only thing you'll be able to play is an AI generated fortnite clone.

Mr Crispy

Gutted about the Respawn SW shooter. But man, these lay offs are horrific.

CatInABox

I think the question on everyone's lips is, has the Days Gone developer suffered any cuts?

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831136#Comment_121831136

Sony knows who butters their bread 😉

OptimusTractor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121830871#Comment_121830871

Always thought that game was dead in the water long ago.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831136#Comment_121831136

They're working on that legend of dragoon remake.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121831751#Comment_121831751

They were still looking for new staff for the project up until fairly recently.

In light of yesterday's announcement, the timing of the leak last week is curious... I wonder did Respawn release it themselves hoping it would drum up enough interest from the public to give it a stay of execution from the EA hierarchy. EA's statement also contained some mixed messaging regarding future titles. On the one hand they explained this cancellation saying they needed to concentrate on their own IPs, and pivot away from licensed content whilst simultaneously promising that Jedi 3, and their Marvel projects would be unaffected. 🤷‍♂️

Google announces Genie, an AI that can create 2D video games from text and image prompts

https://unusualwhales.com/news/google-googl-has-unveiled-its-genie-ai-which-can-create-video-games-from-text-and-image-prompts

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121832092#Comment_121832092

And we thought steam was bad for being flooded with asset flips. At least you needed a modicum of talent to put them together.

Maybe this will give the armchair 'idea' guys something to play around with and stop harassing actual developers.