4 top tier single player games developers tasked to build live service games.
Naughty Dog hasn’t released anything new, both sequels then silence. Suicide Squad kills the game studio. At least Arkane and Bioware are given chances to carry on with the next game.
We could have had the next big WB superhero game or Wolverine. Prey 2? There’s a higher chance of Amy Henning working on a Soul Reaver game than ND coming out with an original IP
idk what you mean by ‘done in’?
Did some of their games flop due to publishers pushing games as a service garbage? For at least some of them I’d say that’s a solid chunk of at least one recent flop.
Last I heard- which was very recent- Naughty Dog’s next game won’t be TLOU 3. And they’re done- afaik- with Uncharted. So unless we’re getting Jak 4(look I can fucking hope ok) then it’ll probably be a new IP. Their multiplayer title got cancelled but it’s not like they’re ceased existing. Hell, it getting cancelled is certainly better for their image than releasing a terrible title.
I think Bioware’s issues probably have the least to do with live service garbage. They’ve been trending downward, imo, since Inquisition. Anthem was an absolute dumpster fire. That game was in such rough shape I don’t think it’s even fair to blame the live service parts.
idk how much of Suicide Squad’s shittiness can be blamed on the live service aspects either. Certainly some, but I don’t see how the plot being ass is a live service issue. It was just badly written.
Redfall was less of a live-service thing and more just that they fucked up and we got an absolute stinker of a game. From my understanding, that game had significant issues from the very beginning. I’m willing to give Arkane another shot, at least- I love basically every other game they’ve made so I’ll give them a chance and won’t pre-judge their future stuff based on Redfall. Hopefully Microsoft lets them go directly back into their niche.
So basically, I think my take is that usually shit games are just shit games, and even good devs deliver them once in awhile. The fact that they’re live service titles is maybe a part of the issue, but certainly not the whole issue.
In this case I think it’s more that live service titles are what large publishers currently like to demand from developers, so a company with a long track record of great single player games suddenly pivoting to live service multiplayer bullshit is usually a sign of direct publisher interference in an otherwise successful studio.
When these companies were left to their own devices, they made great games. But once the goose lays a few golden eggs, the owners get greedy (or new owners move in) and start trying to turn their products into an endless cash engine.
The passionate, creative people quit rather than be forced to build games someone else’s way, the soul of the company dies, and the product turns to shit (in many cases, the “soul” was “devs working ridiculous hours to produce a great game in spite of terrible leadership decisions”, so we shouldn’t lionise it too much, but the results are what they are).
Dude don’t get my hopes up about jak