Games Industry Discussion

[Jason]

Take-Two have only one person making their games? The hell are you on about? They've got multiple studios other than Rockstar and it's not like Rockstar's stuff is the product of one individual, the top brass at the studio have always acknowledged it's a team effort.

 

The only "one man" studio these days is probably Kojima's studio. Not that his games aren't a team effort either, but the games his studios make are very much his games, his vision, etc.

[BLOOD]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Take-Two have only one person making their games? The hell are you on about? They've got multiple studios other than Rockstar and it's not like Rockstar's stuff is the product of one individual, the top brass at the studio have always acknowledged it's a team effort.

 

The only "one man" studio these days is probably Kojima's studio. Not that his games aren't a team effort either, but the games his studios make are very much his games, his vision, etc.

I forgot to add a disclaimer saying jokes or maybe it is not?

Edited February 13, 2019 by BLOOD

[BLOOD]

Interesting picks from the Transcripts (in my own words):

 

1. Activision Blizzard will not "delete" Blizzard" from it holding name (oops my prediction ).

2. Every money is going into gaming and things like film and TV and Consumer Products will be on back burner, and focus on core owned franchises.

3. Going the "One EA" route? YES! (look at Ubisoft which have similar structure albeit more creative freedom) and bigger release slate like that company.

4. Presidents no more CEOs at their three main divisions- Activision, Blizzard, and King.

5. Massive Library of Content is King! (Crash sold 10M copies!; TTWO needs to bulk up in terms of amount of IPs and Studios ).

6. Record Year in their History.

Edited February 13, 2019 by BLOOD

[Tchuck]

Activion cuts hundreds of jobs despite record earnings.

 

f*cking disgraceful is what it is. It's always the workers who pay for the incompetence of the top brass. 

 

Quote

While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential. 

Bloody disgusting.

[BLOOD]

Breaking News: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-02-13-rockstars-vp-of-product-development-jeronimo-barrera-departs-after-20-years

 

interesting points from that:

1. "We are in a new dawn of the industry" (see Apex Legends and Fortnite for 100% prove of the statement)

2. Rockstar had grown to over 2,000 employees across nine international offices. (larger headcount now able to give capabilities in developing multiple games as well even though its on par with EA Vancouver and Ubisoft Montreal)

3. "If I had stayed at Rockstar it would have been more GTAs, more RDRs and less of this other stuff going on out there right now." (as someone will became totally allergic to action adventure/open world games this is a GREAT NEWS!)

 

Breaking News: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-02-13-thq-nordic-acquires-warhorse-studios-in-a-33-2m-cash-deal

 

Holy Sh*t...Loving THQ Nordics acquisitions!

 

https://ie.ign.com/videos/2019/02/12/apex-legends-staggering-success-is-more-than-just-hype-unlocked-381

 

Battle Royale and Free-To-Play dominating the future and big wins for Electronic Arts (EA) with Apex Legends.

Edited February 13, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

You've completely misunderstood what he's talking about with those quotes lol.

 

He's on about VR, AR and other sorts of new tech, that's the "new dawn" he means and that's why he left, to get involved in that.

[BLOOD]

@Jason I forgot to add those lol but yeah i agree on VR and AR as well. Thanks

 

Good to see the stock market in green with all gaming stocks up; ATVI could retake the #1 spot from EA (which retook the spot on Monday)? and TTWO slowly rebounding. Nice!

 

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by BLOOD

[Zello]

https://www.operationsports.com/nba-live-19-all-star-edition-available-now-for-6-content-is-free-for-current-nba-live-19-owners/

 

EA selling NBA live 19 digitally for $6. I wonder what this means for the future of the series. They're literally giving it away.

[BLOOD]

44 minutes ago, Zello said:

https://www.operationsports.com/nba-live-19-all-star-edition-available-now-for-6-content-is-free-for-current-nba-live-19-owners/

 

EA selling NBA live 19 digitally for $6. I wonder what this means for the future of the series. They're literally giving it away.

They could be trying to redeem themselves

[BLOOD]

Breaking News: Tencent in talks to publish Electronic Arts (EA)'s Apex Legends in China making it the third ever Battle Royale and/or F-T-P game release there after massively successful Fortnite and PUBG. EA up 3% pre-markets open.

 

More updates to be added...

[BLOOD]

Breaking News: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-02-15-apex-legends-beats-fortnite-record-for-single-day-twitch-viewing

 

Apex Legends have yet to have it first season pass which is not until next month and it already breaking all records 12 days after release. wow!

 

Breaking News: https://www.pocketgamer.biz/feature/60621/soft-launch/entry/15/

 

Word Life could be a big hit. greatness!

 

Companies/Tickers: Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO)

 

(New Format going forward).

Edited February 16, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Well Apex might have been a huge hit but Anthem is sounding like a stinker. Some bizarre decisions in the game that BioWare are gonna get hammered for on social media and in the gaming press when the game launches.

[BLOOD]

22 hours ago, Jason said:

Well Apex might have been a huge hit but Anthem is sounding like a stinker. Some bizarre decisions in the game that BioWare are gonna get hammered for on social media and in the gaming press when the game launches.

It is way too early to call a G-a-a-S like Anthem a flop look at Destiny, The Division, and Warface. I am getting the game but will not spend alot on its microtransactions. And here is my comment from another part of the web (quoted)

 

"I think after the game flop (i will likely get it btw) EA should rename BioWare Austin to EA Austin Studio or something similar and let them continue updating Star Wars, while refocusing BioWare in it original location in Edmonton focusing on making excellent RPGs like they used to do and developing sequels to ME and DA; EA should also make Vince Zampella the chief of EA Worldwide Studios (formerly EA Games). Just my two cents. Anyway it a G-a-a-S IP so it could improve in the long-term."

 

Apex Legends and Anthem are just part of a 2019-2020 slate that includes a new Titanfall, Need for Speed, Plants vs Zombies, Star Wars, Dragon Age, a new IP from Motive Studios, new mobile IP from EA Capital Games, and EA Sports FIFA, Madden, NHL, and NBA. The biggest slate in the games industry.

Edited February 18, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Thing is, while you're right that GaaS can't be always written off day 1 and yea, neither Division or Destiny were great day 1, both games problems were mainly lack of content, they didn't really suffer from technical problems and weren't loaded with some bizarre and/or stupid decisions like Anthem is (see my posts in the Anthem thread). Lets not forget that The Division 2 is also out next month and Ubisoft are going into that game with all the lessons they've learned from the first game. Also, I assume you mean Warframe but seeing as that's a F2P game you could hand-wave the early issues away, but even in 2013/2014 the game didn't have even half the problems Anthem has day 1, which is incredible considering Warframe was developed on a shoestring budget in the early days.

 

All the problems, competition from Apex and The Division 2... I feel pretty confident in saying that Anthem will fail. Maybe it'll sell okay day 1 (EA are expecting 6 mil sales if I remember right?) but it has no long term future. BioWare are playing in a genre they clearly haven't got a clue about and they're competing with games and developers that have years of experience in this genre. It'd be worth being patient with and waiting for the fixes and updates to come if it was the only game of it's type in town but it's not lacking for competition on any platform these days - and all that competition does what Anthem does a hundred times better.

 

EA's slate might be big compared to Take-Two and Acti Blizzard but there's potential stinkers galore on it. They haven't got a for sure best seller outside of Madden and Fifa and both those series at the moment are far from great.

[BLOOD]

@Jason I 100% agree with you brother.

 

Here is a Great Article from Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/15/18226310/anthem-metro-exodus-crackdown-3-far-cry-new-dawn-release-dates

 

(What a day before my birthday alot of games for a 25 year old )

Edited February 18, 2019 by BLOOD

[BLOOD]

So going back on a statement, ATVI and UBI will strive to be more centralized like EA, while TTWO strengthens its innovative two-decades old "label/principal subsidiary" structure which EA once praise and even implemented and also used until 2019 by ATVI after their 2008 merger with Vivendi Games, and now used by WB Games, ZeniMax, and Koei Tecmo. That makes TTWO look and feel like a Holding company which is Great. EA's "one brand" structure is also Great do not get me wrong seeing that UBI and ATVI and now using such structure. I think TTWO could still bounce back and end 2019-2020 at ~$20B, EA at ~$50B, ATVI at ~$50-$60B, and UBI at $15B. Interesting https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/19/call-of-duty-black-ops-4-launches-battle-royale-upgrade-new-maps-to-counter-apex-legends/

 

With that said, I cannot wait for Walt Disney (DIS) to complete it acquisition of 21st Century Fox becoming a $400B entertainment titan and winning the streaming war with AT&T (T) which should be worth ~$500B when 5G becomes big. Comcast (CMCSA) will be around and likely worth $300B and Netflix (NFLX) will have to buy a studio grow it dominance in streaming see them reaching a valuation of $350B.

 

Here is hoping the trade war is averted and there is no recession in the near future.

Edited February 19, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Amy Hennig's comments about the challenges of having to develop the now cancelled Star Wars game using EA's Frostbite is pretty damning. There's been speculation and rumour for a while now that Frostbite is far from all it's cracked up to be but it sounds like it's actively hampering development for all of EA's studios except for DICE. Be interesting if they do anything about that in future, but I dunno if EA would be willing to take the humbling and allow their devs to use something like Epic's Unreal Engine.

[BLOOD]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Amy Hennig's comments about the challenges of having to develop the now cancelled Star Wars game using EA's Frostbite is pretty damning. There's been speculation and rumour for a while now that Frostbite is far from all it's cracked up to be but it sounds like it's actively hampering development for all of EA's studios except for DICE. Be interesting if they do anything about that in future, but I dunno if EA would be willing to take the humbling and allow their devs to use something like Epic's Unreal Engine.

True that, or they go back to using multiple proprietary engine but now overseen by Frostbite Labs the studio formed to further develop Frostbite under EA's Technology Group division (at one point EA have ownership of Renderware, Ignite, Aurora until all of them were discontinued) and it will in no way destroy their "One EA" structure and strategy. Anyways, it looks like ATVI is keeping the #1 spot for now (again).

 

Note: Tbh, not all of their games are using are powered by Frostbite, and some of their studios still use third party engines like Respawn and their EA Mobile games.

Edited February 20, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Not all their devs use Frostbite no but the only reason Respawn use Source is because it's what they picked before EA acquired them. Mobile games aint gonna use Frostbite. Beyond that I think the only EA developed game that doesn't use Frostbite is The Sims. I won't be shocked if Respawn's next game is running on Frostbite because rumours suggest that Apex was put out before Source started showing signs of age.

 

That's multiple sports titles, racing titles, first and third person shooters of varying scales, open world games and RPG's all using the same engine, an engine that was built to be used for Battlefield. It's no surprise in hindsight that it's causing issues for EA studios that aren't DICE lol.

[Zello]

NBA live also doesn't use frostbite 

[Jason]

2 hours ago, Zello said:

NBA live also doesn't use frostbite 

Ah, didn't know that, I assume it'll be moved to Frostbite eventually like Fifa and Madden.

[BLOOD]

Frostbite is actually more powerful than RAGE and seeing DA:I i think future RPGs and non-FPS games powered by the engine will be technical masterpieces (Plants vs Zombies sub series Garden Warfare already use the engine). Anyway, I am getting Anthem regardless of the flaws and likely commercial dud. BioWare proper (Edmonton) will not die because of this game but will be shaked up which i think is needed taking its back to it unmated storied RPGs root while their Austin branch becomes EA-branded studio and continuing work on Star Wars The Old Republic. Apex Legends, one or two other non-sports titles should make them have a record 2019-2020. EA already retook the #1 spot until few days ago (and will again before end of the year) and they prove they are the premier gaming company.

Edited February 20, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Game engines don't work how you think lol.

 

Dunno how you got  the impression that all RPG's on Frostbite will be some technical masterpiece because of DA:I either, development for that game suffered because of Frostbite.

[BLOOD]

@Jason Looks great in terms of graphic but yeah i kind of agree with your previous comment plus SZ was also right on not relying on one game engine.

 

Anyway, I am putting a bet on TTWO buying 9 Story Media Group and through SZ's ZMC getting a 75% stake of the independent media company for themselves through Take-Two Interactive Canada subsidiary and becoming the first successful vertically integrated gaming and television programming company and becoming a big supplier to NFLX and AMZN created a new massive revenue stream. ATVI will follow their route, and EA and UBI will likely abadon their streaming plans and also copy TTWO. $300.00 ATH in future is very much possible. The Battle for both the living room and media and entertainment audiences is about to get CRAZY!

 

Note: Even though for the past two weeks the thread is moving to be more generalized which i like, I am still a total fan boy of TTWO and SZ

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by BLOOD

[BLOOD]

https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/21/18234998/fortnite-record-players-apex-legends

 

Fortnite remains the King of Free-To-Play and Battle Royale!

 

Note: Apex Legends might die out after few weeks/month(s). EA will definitely not allow that to happen or else (their stock price is f*cked)

Edited February 22, 2019 by BLOOD

[Jason]

Anthem is already in bargain bins.

 

On launch day.

 

y i k e s

[Zello]

3 hours ago, Jason said:

Anthem is already in bargain bins.

 

On launch day.

 

y i k e s

So like two flops back to back for Bioware. Mass Effect Andromeda and now Anthem.

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, Zello said:

So like two flops back to back for Bioware. Mass Effect Andromeda and now Anthem.

Funny that Andromeda was from BioWare's so called B-team yet it's lightyears ahead of Anthem in terms of quality.

 

They announced Dragon Age 4 with a teaser at TGA's and also they just revealed the roadmap for Anthem's next 3 months but yea... No one would be surprised if EA took Anthem out back in a few months lol. In seriousness, I don't think EA shutting the studio down is likely to happen but layoffs? That sounds pretty plausible to me.

 

If we're to exclude their sports titles and Apex I think every major EA release since Battlefield 1 has flopped. I'd put Apex's success down to some genius marketing from Respawn as well. If they announced that game a few months before it released, as a F2P EA title with lootboxes, then it honestly would've probably bombed too.

[Zello]

Reggie Fils Aime is retiring

[BLOOD]

Quarter of a Century old today and i am still feeling so young

 

Edited February 23, 2019 by BLOOD