Are creative games taking a breather or are big franchises hogging the spotlight with the same old game? And why?
Announced in 2020, Playground Games' open-world action RPG has seen sporadic updates and departures but still no release date.
I expect it to release by the time the next Xbox releases. Can that be 2026? Sure
You could say the same for any number of games that were stupidly announced during pre-production. Elder Scrolls 6 & Perfect Dark are current examples, Blade is another recent one and in the past Mass Effect Andromeda and Cyberpunk 2077 come to mind.
I don't think this game is in any trouble. For a start, Playground Games are one of the few under MS Studios that actually have a track record of delivering on time and with quality. We got a trailer last year and I'd fully expect there to be something more substantial at the next showcase in the summer.
No dramas here - just another victim of Microsoft's incompetence. They simply had to announce several games way too early because they had nothing else to talk about.
how are they a victim when they are clearly being given enough time? They haven't set any release date, haven't had to show any trailers, how is that being a victim? You even say yourself that you think it's not in trouble.
TESVI was mostly announced to stop people from asking. Like how they gave us a roadmap of first Starfield, then TES then Fallout. So people keep asking whether they'll do another one or not.
But Fable and Perfect Dark was defineately too early.
The same thing that happens to any project when you announce it far too early. Perfect Dark, Fable, The Elder Scrolls 6, Star Wars KOTOR Remake...you actually have to, I don't know, make the game?
I'm fairly confident this game will see the light of day, as Playground have released 5 Forza games of quality and on schedule. Think it was just revealed too early.
The only issue I see is that, as you mentioned, they have only done Forza games. An RPG is completely different requiring completely different facets.
Whole new different open world....not just tracks. Character designs and animations, dialogue, combat systems, quest systems, equipment and inventory managment....the list is very long and none of it falls under their previous experience.
Even with assistance from other studios I believe they are still far off from delivering a complete version of this game.
Yuji Naka was fined $1.2 million and given a suspended jail sentence for the crime.
I find his comments around how Balan turned out to be very insightful as to why the game is trash. He basically apologises for its existence
can you please give some of us who don't know anything about this, a summary of what happened?
Balan was knowingly rushed out by S-E, it had an extremely short dev cycle and was fairly low budget.
Naka was the game's director until near the end when he was fired or perhaps he quit, I forgot.
@Chocoburger Yeah they did fire and replace him which caused him to unload a bunch of rants about the company. The project only existed because of Naka in the first place, he convinced Square to give him one shot at making a platformer. They gave him an opportunity but pulled the rug out before he was done for reasons not explained.
The top producer of Square Enix flagship Dragon Quest franchise is stepping down from the role, following delays in developing the next installment of the popular series.
Please o please don't turn dragon quest into final fantasy square enix we dont wont that. Dragon quest works well just as it I. Plus you'll piss off Japanese fans to.
Hopefully they don’t. From this it doesn’t sound like that is the case and development is just taking too long.
"big franchises hogging the spotlight with the same old game"
This, cause most of the news stories come out of America who are obsessed with First Person Shooters.
Yes. Many developers are afraid to be creative or try anything new in fear of mass rejection. So best thing to do is touch up he game engine, adjust the graphics, give the game a polish, add in a few things and make 3-5 months of DLC. And volia. Generic game number 8. And for generic game number 9 add in one new mode and a new weapon.
Creativity is having a hard time with big budget games, just like big budget movies. The second the budget starts to soar - the less changes developers are willing to take, and rightly so. We've seen a lot of good games this gen with big budgets that tried something new and were punished for it. That's why we're seeing creativity in smaller, downloadable games. When less money is at stake, your more inclined to take more risks, the publishers, investors, managers are less involved trying to steer the project into what they believe to be profitable territory.
That's what scares me about next gen. As the hardware power increases, the costs to develop on that hardware increase - the less risks developers are likely to take. The less likely they'll be to stray from the formula.
In the meantime though, there are some great companies putting out a lot of creative works as DLC. Those are the guys to watch.
Not at all, look at the indie scene.
Creativity is still in gaming I would just say less than last generation. Developers in this recession are scared to take a risk so they go with generic ideas or make a small twist to lure in the crowd. I miss creative game ideas to be honest some of my favorite games are those creative ideas, even then a creative game should not be milked like a cow unless it can continue to deliver something new each experience. Like first hearing of bioshock 2 I was skeptical and actually skipped it to wait for bioshock infinite to be in another unique area. Keep gameplay fresh and inventive and you will always have fans