WSHU writes: "Banjo-Kazooie, from Rare Studios, is one of the most fondly-remembered games from the golden age of Nintendo 64. Playtonic Games, created by some former members of Rare, got together to launch a Kickstarter for what they described as the "spiritual successor" to Banjo--Yooka-Laylee! The team includes BAFTA-nominated Grant Kirkhope, who composed the original music for Banjo, as well as the sequels. I caught up with him to talk about "putting the band back together" to create Yooka-Laylee."
Khayl Adam: "Former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Shawn Layden, began foretelling the current, apocalyptic state of the video game industry in 2020. A piece of conventional wisdom industry onlookers will often cite, Layden himself says it was no remarkable feat, gleaned by observing trend lines over decades. He even offered some suggestions for how developers can cut costs in the future and get their games out quicker."
A very fair assessment. I think it's fair to say Nintendo runs away from photorealism at a million miles an hour, and that's really the best approach there. Maybe once in a while if you have a great idea, but you should really have a massive financial buffer to offset potential losses from an unsuccessful project.
Procedural generation is a great idea, but I fail to see how it differs very much from AI—sure, AI requires there to be some precedent to pull from, but I think both have the "green cow" restriction, where something novel is constructed from something that exists (in this case, recognizing a cow and the color green).
To that end, with the talk of more time and less money vs less time and more money, it sounds like Layden believes fewer games being made but with procedural generation will occupy gamers longer...? The challenge there is those games don't really have an end. But he does have data on his side that most people don't actually finish their games. I do, and this lack of closure on an undertaking would drive me a bit mad. But that's just me.
His approach is certainly more sustainable and he's got a great point. Remember how hard games were back on SNES and Sega Genesis? How many of us saw the end of all of those games without cheats or emulation? Many of those games may as well have been procedurally generated because you're hoping to beat it, but in reality it's just about how far you got that day (most games didn't save, in case you're reading this and a bit younger).
I personally prefer to see an end, but I can't really dispute his point either.
you actually got it twisted, with AI you shouldn't have to have a set of presets or precedent to pull from, it should be able to come up with that itself, with procedural generation you need to have a "ruleset" in which you need to design a level/map. Think of something like how tilesets from hades/diablo work, there is some freedom but if you play a decent amount of time, you will see the same layouts over and over, with AI that shouldn't be the case. If you wanna see some pretty advanced AI in gaming, check out open AI, they did some really impressive stuff with Dota 2 and with at least 1 other game which I can't remember.
When i was younger, games were short and to the point because they were meant to keep taking your $ at the arcades. Then came home games, and people wanted more for their $$ so the games got longer. Now that im older, i prefer shorter games. i have a shit ton of games i have started but never finished due to limited time and patience. This includes a laundry list of big AAA titles and RPG's.
i just can't do it anymore, which is why i play more arcade style games. I always buy the new big game in the hopes i can get into it... but always return to the shorter and easier to pick up and play ones.
The series producer says the priority is making sure the originals remain playable…
That's a bs excuse wasteland 1 was put on console. He probably doesn't wanna be shown up by games they didnt make. Fallout 1 and 2 are a much better product then what bethesada has put out, and I like the new ones to.
The older ones would be amazing on console. Damn shame
Jerret West is leaving Xbox at the end of the month.
I see Xbox stuff everywhere. On cereal boxes, toasters and fridges.. Xbox just sucks.
Unfortunately, Xbox has not done great with marketing this generation. One thing I found odd is that he is leaving Xbox for Roblox. I'm not sure how big Roblox is in comparison to Xbox but I can't imagine him getting better compensation from there. Perhaps he was forced out?
@fr0sty Would you leave your place of employment to work somewhere else for less pay just because that business is profitable?
You would have to be a special person to be ok with that.
DivineHand125,
Not really. I don't know how much experience you have with working or how far along into your career you are, but profitability does offer an indication of how sustainable your job is. The company that is not profitable (or less profitable) is probably exploring options to cut costs, including axing jobs (we see Microsoft closing studios and really downsizing physical media operations. Valid concern in my opinion).
I doubt that's the only factor at play here and it could be any myriad of reasons why he's out: cut in compensation, not liking the direction of the company, toxic work culture, etc.
Either way, I can see a case for people leaving a job that pays better with less profitability. If you're in the marketing department and your brand isn't doing that great despite your best efforts, you probably want to coast for a while at a more profitable company.
Not saying that's reality, but I can totally see a case for that.
Xbox marketing has mostly been trash for a decade. Shake it up as much as you can.
Marketing is not the issue at XBOX. Production and its leadership have screwed up royally. XBOX studios, wth are you doing managing these developers?!
It is both and all... the best console with the most expensive invest in marketing and the "best" developers and the best online service with the best servers... but... well... also, the worst console with a bad invest in marketing and competition using Microsoft servers for their online services and... What is Xbox now, a console, a service, a platform, a brand, a dead project? This is a marketing problem, maybe.
The problem is not the marketing, but how you invest the money in marketing. If you invest far more than the competition and receive less... the problem is the one in charge, isn't it? Well... Phil Spencer was a marketing guy, will he be the next? Unity are hiring... :)
How do you know how much each company invest in marketing and what evidence do you have to indicate Sony spends less than Xbox?
Companies in the stock exchange have to publish their data. Make some research, it is for free.
