Devolver and TinyBuild's difficult year is partially down to smaller deals coming from Sony and Microsoft
Parcae’s Fate Studio-developed open-world action game Unending Dawn has joined Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s China Hero Project incubation program, the companies announce. As previously announced, it will be available PlayStation 5, iOS, and Android.
CangMo Game Entertainment-developed action RPG Project: Jinyiwei has joined Sony Interactive Entertainment‘s China Hero Project incubation program, the companies announced. It will be available for PlayStation 5.
ChillyRoom has announced Loulan, a single-player action adventure game coming as part of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s China Hero Project incubation program. It will be available for PlayStation 5.
That's no shock. And as sub-services start to grow, those deals will get even smaller. Partially because the incentive for companies to make said deals will be lessened when they reach their saturation points.
What is sad though is this analyst is saying they're depending on Sony or Microsoft to give them handouts to make ends meet rather than depend on a portfolio of quality games.
Who could have foreseen this?
I said this over and over in the threads. Those good deals would start shrinking. And when gamers got used to their games in a service and not buying their products, they'd be stuck getting less money from publishers as more games hit the services. Then, those publishers would be screwed unless they really have a hit game. And when they try to go back to trying to sell their games, no one's buying because gamers are waiting for Plus or Game Pass to play them.
Too many of us could see this a long time ago. "But but but VALUE." Yeah. It can be until developers get screwed. Then the industry is screwed from losing developers as they close or get bought out from not making money. There's a cost that'll come back and bite many of them because they went for that upfront check instead of selling their games.