[AndrewPGameDev]

I think the larger problem is that there is a lack of attention to things that don't immediately make sales, and a terminal short-termism due to higher levels of external investment.

Consider Redfall, the recent flop developed by Arkane Studios. It is completely obvious to me that the developers of Prey, Dishonored 1/2, and Deathloop know how to make great games that play well. The problem(IMO) is that Microsoft bought Arkane, and then kept Arkane on short leash. The publisher gets to go "hey can you add gear scores, the marketing department says that sells" "Hey can you add co-op multiplayer, we have no idea how the engine works but please do it anyway" and then gets to demand when they launch.

No Mans Sky fell into exactly this trap. They got a big publisher deal, the devs were terrified to deflate the hype because they didn't want to undo the work of their publisher (who is paying their rent/mortgages/food). They couldn't tell the truth about the # of features that were going to be there at launch because that might mean upsetting the publisher and taking massive financial hits.

Skippable tutorials don't make sales, they're not a marketable feature even if it's incredibly important for replay value. Because by the time you're replaying the game, you've already bought it and gone past the refund window.

Now-a-days, I just want a very good first time experience. If I can buy the game on the launch day and not experience gamebreaking bugs while the game more or less fulfills its promises I'll be happy (looking at you, Cyberpunk).

[bragr]

I don't think that's an accurate characterization of the No Man's Sky situation. Sean Murray has been quite public about his own role in building up the hype they couldn't live up to, initially at least. They did eventually ship basically all the promised features in the end though.

[djtango]

In hindsight I guess No Man's Sky panned out like a super protracted crowdfunded game with a large scale prolonged beta-phase.

Which I guess is true for a lot of other games too.

Props to Final Fantasy XVI for shipping a finished product. I think they got enough flak for trying it on with XV that they realised they couldn't afford to burn anymore bad will.

[nar001]

That's not accurate, there were reports of Microsoft actually not being hands on enough with Arkane, of devs even hoping MS cancels Redfall, but MS being so afraid of doing what they did with 343 and others companies they just let them do whatever basically.

[AndrewPGameDev]

My bad, you're absolutely right on that.

I do want to defend that I'm right in spirit however - Arkane was receiving pressure from Zenimax (it's parent company) from even before the buyout. Microsoft didn't reverse that decision, and I think it was likely Arkane was still pressured to make/release a game they never would have made otherwise. I think the same idea of external pressure and short-termism still apply, and that's indicative of where the industry as a whole is.

[s-lambert]

I think you're being too charitable about No Man's Sky, some of the stuff they said was just absurd. Multiplayer was the most notorious after it was released but then there was stuff like this [0]:

> The team programmed some of the physics for aesthetic reasons. For instance, Duncan insisted on permitting moons to orbit closer to their planets than Newtonian physics would allow. When he desired the possibility of green skies, the team had to redesign the periodic table to create atmospheric particles that would diffract light at just the right wavelength.

I don't see how this could be chalked up to publisher pressure, a lot of the hype before it came out was just absurd bullshit that Sean Murray fed into.

[0] - https://archive.md/8KJIL

[kjkjadksj]

I don’t get why they do this. You are allowed to release an alpha or beta build and call it so. One of the best selling games of all time is Minecraft and it worked just like this, dripping out features over a decade now from what started as such a basic game from where it ended up.

[tstrimple]

"Early access" games are a huge trend right now. Release the game when it's in a playable state, and iterate based on feedback from the community moving forward. Some games seem to handle this very well with frequent updates and some games kind of fizzle out and disappear. This has also led to a lot of games with about 6 hours of content and then you've done basically everything in the game.