Sean Halliday of Pixel Gate writes:
''here are a number of things that a lot of modern ‘horror’ titles get wrong. For example, the player isn’t treated like a victim; they are the one in control of the situation. This is often a result of arming the player to the teeth and throwing waves of enemies at them. There’s nothing scary about out-gunning everything that comes after you.
The elements of horror have become too tightly entwined with the staples of the action/shooter genre. Players are often put in a position in which they are exposed to the enemy regularly. The enemy itself is often one of many, further detracting from any sense of horror they may carry. The player is often equipped with various firearms that are more than capable of killing anything in sight, and the resulting experience is more ‘intense action’ than ‘heart-pounding horror’. But this just seems to be the modern day method–’action horror’ rather than just ‘horror’''
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" -
INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series , will debut never-before-seen games & content updates across more than 100 titles on May 25th.
Action horror just sucks...
Just go back to its roots...
Too many zombies
You must of missed the horror genre's resurgence on PC over the last few years.
This article was spot on in the sense is true indie game developers are the ones that bring horror games the major studios not anymore unless "the evil within" turns out to be a huge success. I am looking forward to play Outlast, among the sleep, Constantine, Asylum, Dread Out, etc so many indie horror games so little time.
AAA horror sucks nowadays. The indie scene are the only places that offer a horror feel but even then most of them just offer scares and lack storytelling and good character development. The golden age of horror will always be PS1-PS2 era.