Nightmare Mode's Adam Harshberger outlines some of the reasons games could benefit from more honesty in their storytelling.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds
With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?
Not clicking on your article otherwise.
There's never really been "honesty" in video games. At least not when cutscenes started to be introduced.
In square titles especially characters are often 10 times as powerful and even smarter in a cutscene than they ever are in an actual game. The Mass Effect series is just as guilty.
Did he really say FFVII and then start talking about Squall?
Someone needs to review their Roman numerals.
That cutscene is sooo badass. My first FF game and that intro made me jizz from the awesomness.
So, why are Wrpgs so popular then? All you do is "do shit". The stories are hardly imaginative and the characters personality and attachment to the player is none existent. The game focus is literally on exploration and doing meaningless tasks that hold no true impact to the main plot line.
Yet right now they all seem to sell pretty well, though I have no freaking idea why.
Honesty is not needed, using 8 as an example doesn't help your point. Gameplay takes back seats over story telling.
I would Prefere a well written story even if it causes some anomlies within gameplay such as surviving mega attacks and summons but getting unconscious by Edeas ice attack.