Long story short if you don't want to watch the video, Jim Sterling makes an argument that jock-style games (basically FIFA) end up with the lion's share of a publisher's money over other games such as Anthem. He referenced The Faculty (Great movie, btw. If you haven't seen it, check it out) with a scene that showed the principal cutting money for music class while still giving the football team all the gear they wanted, because they lived in a football town. That's a pretty good way to look at the ecology of the AAA industry. The games that will be guaranteed to net the publisher more revenue will get more money for development. That's just basic business sense.
With that said, however, that doesn't make it right to alienate other studios within your company. The fact that Anthem got little support with the Frostbite engine was one of the many factors that doomed the game at launch. EA should have recognized that Anthem had the potential to be a huge title made from a company with an impressive track record (well, not so much recently) and offered more support. But again, it's very easy for EA to only put bets down on surefire winners.
I love how Jim Sterling calls EA "Unicron Arts" because of how they treat developers. They stick their tentacles into them, sap them of resources, and then leave their withered husks in the graveyard. There list of studios EA has killed is long, and it instantly puts the thought to the forefront our brains whenever EA acquires a new studio that they're next on the chopping block. Everyone's now concerned about Respawn. Apex Legends is doing great for now, but what happens when the next live service games comes out and leeches Apex players? Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order isn't even being given a chance by some, not even knowing anything about the game, all because of EA's involvement. It could very well be the best Star Wars game ever made, but people's bias against EA would help nail their coffin shut. I get why people feel that way, too.
I love how Jim Sterling calls EA "Unicron Arts" because of how they treat developers. They stick their tentacles into them, sap them of resources, and then leave their withered husks in the graveyard. There list of studios EA has killed is long, and it instantly puts the thought to the forefront our brains whenever EA acquires a new studio that they're next on the chopping block. Everyone's now concerned about Respawn. Apex Legends is doing great for now, but what happens when the next live service games comes out and leeches Apex players? Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order isn't even being given a chance by some, not even knowing anything about the game, all because of EA's involvement. It could very well be the best Star Wars game ever made, but people's bias against EA would help nail their coffin shut. I get why people feel that way, too.
What's to say that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order isn't EA trying to put their foot in the door with a potential new live service? Sure, they say they won't be adding multiplayer and microtransactions to the game, but let's say everyone lets their guard down and buys the game. It does extremely well. Now, we start seeing multiplayer modes and skin packs and all these things being attached to the game. Or, EA keeps their promise and doesn't add anything extra, but does so to the sequel. Now, Fallen Order is yet other microtransaction riddled mess. Honestly, though, I want to give EA the benefit of the doubt. I hope that the single player game is fantastic and it sells well, so EA knows they won't have to turn it into a live service to make money. I'm willing to bet, though, that if this game underperforms, EA will take steps to rectify it in the future. Best case scenario, they'll turn Fallen Order into a live service. Worst case scenario, they'll close Respawn. After all, the football team needs their jerseys this year.
Racist PSN User Suspended From Accessing His Digital Games
Ok, now this one's a bit more controversial than I'd like to address, but I'll give a shot to see how I feel about it. So, a user was suspended on PSN for some rather nasty hate speech , which I fully agree with, but as a result he lost access to his digital games, which I don't agree with. I don't care if he's a full-blown Nazi. If he paid for a game, he should maintain access to his game, provided it's not a live service game where he can continue to interact with other people. Therein lies the crux of the problem. He doesn't FULLY own a digital game.
If you know me, you know that I'm a huge proponent of ownership via physical media. One reason is what was just stated in the paragraph above. Because this guy decided to buy digital games, he's subject to Sony's policies that blocks access to them based on his conduct. Again, it really doesn't matter what he says. He shouldn't have lost access to games that he bought, but because they were digital, they were tied to Sony's policies regarding their network. Now, his behavior's consequences has extended past online services and affected his actual library. Yes, the guy's a shithead, but he should still have access to his single player content.
If you know me, you know that I'm a huge proponent of ownership via physical media. One reason is what was just stated in the paragraph above. Because this guy decided to buy digital games, he's subject to Sony's policies that blocks access to them based on his conduct. Again, it really doesn't matter what he says. He shouldn't have lost access to games that he bought, but because they were digital, they were tied to Sony's policies regarding their network. Now, his behavior's consequences has extended past online services and affected his actual library. Yes, the guy's a shithead, but he should still have access to his single player content.
People who are lauding Sony's decision to lock him out of his games and saying, "Just don't be a jerk online" aren't understanding the possible repercussions of moves like this. The article I linked cited a couple of instances of users with names that were misinterpreted as racist or politically incorrect, and they were suspended and lost access to their games as a result. Sure, they eventually got unsuspended, but they were greatly inconvenienced because of a misunderstanding. These precedents means it could happen to everyone. You may have a perfectly acceptable username and act like a saint but your IP could be confused with the actual offender and suddenly, you can't play the games you paid for because they're tied to Sony's services. This shouldn't happen. You should always have access to what you pay for. Ownership rights are very important because they affect ALL of us, racist or not.
R.I.P PSP Battery
So since I got all my Switch games beaten, I needed a new game to play on the go. I decided to bust out my old PSP because one of the games in my backlog was Puzzle Quest. When I opened the back of the PSP, I noticed that the battery cover slightly popped off. I was trying to get it to close again when I pulled out the battery and examined it. It swelled.
Off to Amazon I went. Turns out, Sony stopped making PSP battery packs a long ago, and not many third-party manufacturers have very high ratings regarding their products. I went with the only one that had four stars, and even then there were a few one star ratings saying the battery lasted only a few charges or didn't fit. One battery I was looking at even had a review that said the battery caused his PSP to explode! Yikes! Ah well, the battery pack set me back 15 dollars... Such is the price of retro gaming.
Mortal Konvoluted XI
No New Switch Models This Year
An Epic Grind Causing Workers to Lose Steam
Sorry for the stretch in the title. Sometimes you just have to try. Anywho, seems like we have to talk about crunch in games development yet again. This time, it's Epic and Fortnite. There are reports of work weeks varying anywhere from 70 to 100 hours. 100 hours! There was a report of one such worker working 12 hour days seven days a week for months! That isn't healthy. Sure, they're being paid overtime, but is that really worth your body inducing that much stress? And let's not kid ourselves here. Sure, the overtime is "voluntary", but when the company expects it of you, there's a good chance that if you aren't working the overtime, they'll let you go in favor of someone who will. But well, how else do you keep one of the world's most popular games going that has 250 million registered users? Simple. Hire more people. Epic has the money, obviously. Speaking of which...
Epic says they'll stop with the store exclusives if Steam pays devs more money. Heh... you have all this money to throw at devs for timed exclusives on your store, yet you can't seem to get your store's functions up to snuff with other stores. You certainly can't seem to spend all that money you're throwing around on, I don't know, more staff so the staffers you have now can actually spend time with their families? You're wringing human turnips dry, yet you want Steam to pay devs more... Ok. See, this is one of the reasons why I'm not a PC gamer. This whole Epic Store versus Steam debacle is only affecting customers who just want to buy a damn game without all the BS. It's just so funny to me to see a greedy company calling another company out ... for being greedy.
Mortal Konvoluted XI
I haven't played a Mortal Kombat game since... 4? Anyway, I was trying to get myself to get back into Mortal Kombat. I wanted to pick X up but never got around to it and was eyeing XI. After watching Boogie's video, though... XI doesn't sound all that appealing. I know, I know... microtransactions are optional... but if you listen to Boogie describe the game's single player content, it sounds very much designed to encourage microtransactions because of how incredible the grind is. I don't get why companies think gamers are made of time and money... I don't care how fun a game is. If the grind is horrendous, I'm not going to do it.
There's also reports that say it'll take about 6 THOUSAND dollars if you wanted to buy everything without actually playing, but some are saying that number's incorrect because of a few skins you can't buy with real money. Still, though.. you shouldn't even have to pay 100 dollars in order to buy things for your game. I just don't get why people spend so much more money after the initial cost of entry...
And while we're still on the subject of Mortal Kombat 11, guess who's guilty of crunch? You got it! NetheRealm!
So not only is NetheRealm exploiting their playerbase with a grindy single player game, they're also exploiting their workers with work weeks up to 100 hours! Oh, and apparently the bosses take off in the evenings leaving the drones working well into the night. Hearing more and more of these stories should be concerning to us, but sadly, most don't care. Again, it's all because of consumerism. There's just far too much of it in gaming culture, and I wish gamers and companies would slow down. It's not worth breaking people.
Days Gone
Days Gone for the PS4 is now out and it's been received with mixed reviews. Currently, it's sitting at 72 at Metacritic. Can't say that I'm surprised, but I will say that I'm disappointed. Sony has been having a pretty impressive track record so far with games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War and Spider-Man. Sony was putting Days Gone in the spotlight the past couple of E3s, so you'd think it had a fair shot of being included in the upper echelon of Sony exclusives, but as it turns out, it's basically just a good game, nothing special.
To be honest, I wasn't very impressed from what I saw of it. Like I said, it just looked like a good game, nothing special. I do love zombie games, but I don't need every one of them. I certainly haven't enjoyed every one of them I played, the last being Dead Rising 4. I'm sure Days Gone will start dropping in price, but I'm not sure if I'll ever end up getting it. Considering I'm in a phase in my life where I'm only allowing myself one game a month, it'll have to be a pretty slow month and I'll have to be pretty desperate to play a zombie game. By the time I'm ready for it, The Last of Us II will be just around the corner.
No New Switch Models This Year
Again, can't say that I'm surprised, however, I'm not disappointed. I wasn't looking forward to any revised Switch models, because I'd rather not upgrade another console like I did with my PS4 and Xbox One. I'd rather Nintendo focus on the Switch as it is now. A Pro version probably would be appreciated more so than a Mini because I can't really see the point of a Mini. The Joy-Cons are already too small as it is, and I can't imagine playing with a smaller screen. Nintendo says they won't be announcing anything this E3, but you never know. Nintendo hasn't always been good at keeping their word.
Gaming Update
I finally got around to starting Titanfall 2 on the PS4 last weekend and finished it a couple days ago. I only played the single player campaign, since I'm not a multiplayer gamer, and the campaign was fantastic! I loved the mobility of running and jumping off the walls. It reminded me a lot of Mirror's Edge. The mech battles were pretty fun, too. Some were actually pretty challenging requiring me to adapt my play style on the fly. There was a really cool level as well that involved time travel to get past certain obstacles, which I loved. My only complaint was that I wished the campaign was longer. Speaking of Titanfall, though, it looks like we're going to have wait even longer for the next installment as Respawn wants to focus on Apex Legends and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It's ok, though. I can wait.
Since I'm currently playing through my backlog, one game that I wasn't crazy about returning to was Motorstorm: Pacific Rift on the PS3. This would actually be my third attempt at trying to finish it. The last time I played it a year or two ago, I got stuck on a race and couldn't figure out how to win. All I remember was the truck I was given had very horrible controls and I just couldn't steer my way through a part of the track. When I returned to the game, I didn't remember seeing any unfinished events, so I just did other events and actually won several when I discovered that my point total ended in 50. Every time you place first in an event, you earn an even 100 points, so I must have only placed third in one of the events.
I went back through the past events and found it pretty quickly. Once I started racing it, I remembered this was the event. I think I placed 6th or 7th the first time and I couldn't remember why I was having so much trouble with it the last time. It didn't seem all that hard, so I just kept at it. In less than an hour of trying, I finally got first. Now I was making headway! Won a few more events last night as well. I think the mistake I made last time was not taking a break, just playing it hours upon hours at a time. I probably got so frustrated with it, I just stopped playing it entirely. That's what I'm going to do from now on, just play it for an hour or two at a time and play something else.
Now that my replacement PSP battery has arrived, I decided it was time to start Puzzle Quest. I remember people saying it was a lot of fun, but man.. I wish I played this back in the day when I could have appreciated it better. For starters, I forgot how small the PSP actually was. Having played on the Vita and Switch (even 3DS) for so long, I got spoiled and it's a bit hard to go back to the PSP's screen. The game itself is fun, but it's also ridiculously cheap at times because it seems like the computer always gets the better luck after I take my turns. I'm going to stick with it, though.
That's it for Volume 4 of the Loot Box. As always, thanks for reading and look forward to Volume 5!
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