210°

Geoff Keighley on acquisitions, Game Pass, and future of indie games

Headlines in recent weeks have been taken up by subscription services and big name acquisitions, but despite the cannibalisation Geoff Keighley remains positive

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theloadout.com
aaronaton1056d ago

He talks about 'Indies having a great future' but which each new generation they are seeing spiraling costs to keep up.
Back in the good old PS2 days, devs like Free Radical 'Timesplitters' could make a top selling game with just 15+ staff.
Games cost far less to make to due the graphically fidelity not being demanding enough.
All i can see is indies getting sucked into UE5 just to keep costs down, whilst gamers suffer with graphical clones and uninspiring design/concepts.

Where are all the shmups? Surely this is a perfect cost friendly genre that does not require graphical fidelity.

sourOG1056d ago

It’s the pricing structure. Smaller teams need to make smaller games.

When they get too ambitious it turns into biomutant. It’s okay to dream big but the game suffered from cluttered mechanics and needless scale. It’s okay to have shorter, tighter, well paced experiences. Let the pricing reflect that. AA indie game, 10-20 hours 20-30 bucks. Who’s mad about the scale if they are buying at a reasonable standard?

porkChop1056d ago

Costs have actually decreased quite a bit in some areas. Many engines are available to use for free or cheap. Many engines offer a sort of grace period where they take no royalties until you sell a certain amount. Any Xbox console can be used as a dev kit rather than buying a super expensive dev kit like in the past. Developing isn't free but it's significantly easier and cheaper to get into now.

Bobertt1056d ago

If Bethesda and Activision can get away with just patching the same old engine for multiple gens i don't see why an Indie developer can't do the same instead of them all jumping to UE5 to compete graphically.

neutralgamer19921056d ago

Acquisitions will be fast and furious this generation it seems

60°

HITMAN Signature Edition hits Switch 2 June 5 with Mario & Luigi–inspired outfits and full trilogy

HITMAN Signature Edition lands June 5 on Switch 2 with 100+ hours of content and Mario & Luigi–inspired pre-order bonuses.

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clouddosage.com
Neonridr3d ago

sucks that it's one of those game cards though. 61GB download required.

ZeekQuattro2d ago

Oh God, I can already see the Luigi Hitman memes returning.

190°

OG Destiny artist recalls Bungie’s “disgruntled” reaction to Halo 4’s art style change

Original Destiny artist Darren Bacon recalls how Bungie reacted to the art style change of Halo 4 by 343 Industries.

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videogamer.com
Tacoboto6d ago

Bungie at that time became the most wonderful bunch of hypocrites in the gaming industry. Knowing this now, gosh the entitlement they felt was out of this world.

Nothing like buying yourself from Microsoft because you don't want to be the Halo Studio anymore, and the FIRST THING you do is sign your next IP over to Activision, for a DECADE, while they are in the middle of ousting the heads of Infinity Ward so they can exert even more control over COD while screwing out the devs at IW...

Should've come as no surprise then that Activision gutted the content of Destiny 1 before launch and was a horrible partner through Destiny 2, until history repeated itself and Bungie had to split from Activision only to wind up in the arms of another major conglomerate that also doesn't know how to handle these unmanageable devs.

Profchaos6d ago

Tti their credit they praised the technical abilities of 343 and I remember at the time thinking halo 4 was a huge graphical leap above reach everything else was rubbish when I actually got to play it but there was no doubt it looked good for the 360 and is probably the best looking game on the system.

But ultimately I think bungie has always had a leadership problem and going independent ultimately proved this it's only getting worse with studio heads being outed by Sony for abuse allegations seems like all bungies past success has been in spite of management not because of it.

But really I think the bungie we have today is not the same one we had in that Xbox era of Bungie

PhillyDonJawn6d ago

I liked the artstyle change. For the most part. Something looked worse but most of everything else looked better. Weapons and vehicles for sure. The wraith come to my mind instantly.
And how can they get mad when the bungie changed it with Halo Reach?

Sciurus_vulgaris5d ago

I know a lot of people dislike Halo 4’s arts style, but there’s thing about it I like and dislike. Personally, the Halo 4 design of Master Chief’s armour is my favourite depiction of the character’s armour.

80°

Dying Light: The Beast – interview with Tymon Smektala (‘Dying Light’ Franchise Director)

An interview with Tymon Smektala (Franchise Director, Dying Light) where I get to ask him as to how Techland was impacted by its DLC story leaks, how the studio has changed after being acquired by Tencent, where he sees the Dying Light franchise going in future, and how he's been able to maintain enthusiasm for the Dying Light franchise since he joined Techland 10-odd years ago. Enjoy!

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prankster101.com