Current Events > MS representative says they need smaller game developer teams

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1788356295667466320

i feel sorry for this guy and his memory loss issues

Tbf Hi-Fi Rush took like 5 years to make and most likely wasn't very cheap. Despite its sale price it probably isn't the type of "small game" he's referring to.

That being said, the only award winning, cheap and small games are coming from small indie studios, not the studios that MS or Sony are in the market of purchasing and dismantling. So their game plan from the jump doesn't make sense. If they wanted small, award winning cheap games they should have bought Playdead Studios instead of Bethesda or Activision lol

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

R_Jackal posted...

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

seriously im not against cinamatic games but when the entire industry is pumping them out in every genre

there is a problem

smaller teams = longer development times

GuerrillaSoldier posted...

smaller teams = longer development times

depends on the game

there are plenty of games where more bodies would not speed things up at all

At least we know why he's Mr. Booty.

cost of these AAA games got crazy after all, and the marketing is crazy too.

R_Jackal posted...

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

That's actually a bit of the issue. Some indy developer can shit out some half finished palworld and gets legit praise. What they did with their budget and ressources is pretty big after all, yet we forget the 1000 misses the other small teams too.

But if MS does some similar low budget project, you can assume that everyone will call it half assed bs, and how can they dare to demand money for such low effort product with last gen graphics.

R_Jackal posted...

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

This. Younger audiences don't give a shit about it looking real. My son and his cousin play the UFC game on XBox and the characters they make to play as look like nightmares that came out of the Necronomicon.

Microsoft wants flash games of old be made today

Smashingpmkns posted...

Tbf Hi-Fi Rush took like 5 years to make and most likely wasn't very cheap. Despite its sale price it probably isn't the type of "small game" he's referring to.

That being said, the only award winning, cheap and small games are coming from small indie studios, not the studios that MS or Sony are in the market of purchasing and dismantling. So their game plan from the jump doesn't make sense. If they wanted small, award winning cheap games they should have bought Playdead Studios instead of Bethesda or Activision lol

Yeah tbh I was very surprised how much content Hi-Fi Rush had for a game sold at a budget price

AceMos posted...

seriously im not against cinamatic games but when the entire industry is pumping them out in every genre

there is a problem

Except thats not even happening.

MS fucked up by not acquiring or partnering with a shit ton of indie studios during the XBLA days. That service put so many indies on the map back then. They could have funded some great projects and built up these small studios that would have paid off across multiple gens.

I miss the XBLA days so much that was peak indie gaming.

I mean Id like to imagine that he wasnt the one responsible for gutting their games studios.

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Except thats not even happening.

Most AAA game devs are pushing realism in pretty much every genre they're in of late, especially with UE5. Even Dragon Quest XII is supposedly aiming to be a more "adult" game, but we can only speculate how that will look.

Karovorak posted...

cost of these AAA games got crazy after all, and the marketing is crazy too.

That's actually a bit of the issue. Some indy developer can shit out some half finished palworld and gets legit praise. What they did with their budget and ressources is pretty big after all, yet we forget the 1000 misses the other small teams too.

But if MS does some similar low budget project, you can assume that everyone will call it half assed bs, and how can they dare to demand money for such low effort product with last gen graphics.

Yeah, there's basically problems at every level. It's because since gaming is mainstream now they really wanted to "Hollywood"-ify things, but they can't keep up with the costs they've imposed on themselves by doing that. Ballooning fan expectations, ever increasing marketing budgets(which started being a problem in the PS3 era but they never bothered to address it), and ever increasing tech and dev budgets while... Outside of Mobile, there really hasn't been any explosive growth. Mobile and Steam is about it.

The PS5 and XSX both got crippled by COVID and shortages(they benefitted too, so maybe it balances out?)

Dunno, it feels like as long as number go up they never wanted to question anything. Then when everyone was trapped in their house, they moonshot it and can't keep up as they collapse under their own weight, because apparently economists live in a dream world and common sense doesn't exist.

R_Jackal posted...

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

Agreed.

Nintendo has stayed true to making video games not poorly written over budget cinematic games with 7 year development times.

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1788728698184540355

can some one translate what this woman said into a human language

Didnt they shut down smaller dev teams?

AceMos posted...

can some one translate what this woman said into a human language

Sure thing.

"I don't have a satisfactory answer to your question so I'm just going to ramble for a minute about unrelated shit."

Nintendo proves you can have giant teams create games that are intimate and thoughtful.

A big team is no excuse for soullessness.

R_Jackal posted...

Blame the eternal pursuit of photorealism in games for the insanely ballooning costs, while consumers eat shit like PalWorld up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What AAA devs need to remember is they're making games. If they want to award chase, Hollywood is probably more affordable in the current climate.

Dear God this!

Tomb Raider does not need real hair physics that blow in the wind.

AceMos posted...

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1788728698184540355

can some one translate what this woman said into a human language

"We really like that game devs want to be all creative, but at the end of the day the shareholders are the only thing that matters so we'll continue axing for short term profit."

Starting an interview response to a question about why you fired a successful team under you with a sigh and going "you know..." sounds like something that belongs in a youtuber apology video.

Not even talking about the absolute regurgitated drivel that followed.

R_Jackal posted...

Most AAA game devs are pushing realism in pretty much every genre they're in of late, especially with UE5. Even Dragon Quest XII is supposedly aiming to be a more "adult" game, but we can only speculate how that will look.

Most AAA game devs =\= The entire industry as AceMos said.

PeteyParker posted...

Younger audiences don't give a shit about it looking real. My son and his cousin play the UFC game on XBox and the characters they make to play as look like nightmares that came out of the Necronomicon.

It's been a minute since I've played FIFA (so much so that it's not even FIFA anymore lol) but that was about 70% of the create a player ones. Just horrid monstrosities. It was great. Wish they leaned into it a bit more.