Sulphur on 23/6/2020 at 09:43
Are you really using an anecdote about local physical sales to make a point about global sales figures?
In any event, pure immersive sims generally don't sell too well, so I wouldn't doubt that Bethesda might have issues with the financial success and overhead of Arkane's games along with their general approach to populist entertainment.
heywood on 23/6/2020 at 18:04
Dishonored 2 reportedly sold 2.5M copies. Not sure about Prey. That may be too small of a market to support a full-blown AAA title with latest/next gen graphics and an army of playtesters to make sure it's polished and bug-free. But it shows there's still significant demand for this type of game. The question is how to make them financially viable. Things that have been tried so far include tiered pricing (special editions etc.), DLC, spin-offs, loot boxes/upgrades, microtransactions. Those are all about how to squeeze more money out of players for the same game.
But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish? Another idea that's been discussed several times but never really tried is episodes. Eidos Montreal was going to try that with Deus Ex, but unfortunately made The Fall a mobile game, hoping it might reach a bigger audience, but the opposite happened. Personally, I'd be willing to pay $20-30 for 10-12 hours of new content every year in episode form, but I might be in the minority.
And now we have Deathloop, which I'm hoping is like a short imm sim, except designed to be replayed a lot. We'll see how it goes.
t850terminator on 24/6/2020 at 05:52
I know this is a pipe dream, but if Arkane slaps a map maker with this, I'd be in constant immersive sim ecstasy
Sulphur on 24/6/2020 at 05:58
Quote Posted by heywood
But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?
I've mooted that as an option in some of the many, many conversations we've had in GenGaming about the state of the ImSim. I don't think hyper-detailed current generation art is a must-have, and the most obvious solution is to pare back the art budget and allow for more creative systems instead if you need to make development costs more realistic.
The episodic model is interesting, but I don't think it'll quite overcome consumer antipathy, because one of the problems is the amount of time you wait between each episode. The Hitman games tried it, and I think they've managed to be successful with it, but only because there's a steady dripfeed of stuff at a regular clip, which I'm sure is hard to do as a developer. It also intersects unpleasantly with the GaaS way of doing things; not that there isn't a good way to do that, but the spectre of microtransaction-enabled nonsense is hard to shake off.
Jason Moyer on 24/6/2020 at 08:05
Quote Posted by heywood
But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?
I don't particularly want Arkane to go this route, but I wouldn't mind seeing a mid-sized studio attempt games like Neon Struct but with the mechanics/levels/audio fleshed out more.
Anarchic Fox on 30/6/2020 at 12:01
Incidentally, if things go very poorly for the studio in the coming decade, "Arkane's Death Loop" would be a great name for a Youtube documentary about its decline and demise.
...That joke may have been too dark.
Jason Moyer on 1/8/2020 at 06:17
[video=youtube;HXPyVL3JCMM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXPyVL3JCMM[/video]
ZylonBane on 1/8/2020 at 19:27
Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.
chk772 on 1/8/2020 at 21:04
Quote Posted by heywood
Dishonored 2 reportedly sold 2.5M copies.
Hmmm... that seems enough for me to keep doing what they do. But, what do I know.
Quote Posted by heywood
But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?
I'd absolutely do that. No-brainer. I'd even pay full price, if the content is right, just like it has been in Dishonored and Prey. Graphics are absolutely sceondary for me. What counts is atmosphere, gameplay, and games which don't bore me to death in terms of lore.
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.
It looks surprsingly like Dishonored actually... for a shooter. :cheeky:
It also looks like something I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole though...
Tough times if you like the kind of games Arkane did in the past.
Sulphur on 2/8/2020 at 05:11
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.
So what you're saying is that, even beyond its closure, they're still on track for replicating every step of LGS's output