Pixels 113 – Post E3 thoughts

On this episode we discuss:

  • Thoughts on Game Pass and the E3 that was (Gears 4), Outer Wilds, Onrush…).
  • EA “surprise mechanics”, Bloodstained and Watch Dogs Legion.
  • Mobile games: Dr. Mario, Harry Potter, Autochess.
  • And more!

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Comments

  1. Interesting show…a few thoughts sub services & game design:

    1) AAA games that are designed to make their money day one full price, like The Last of Us, are already disappearing.

    why? Because addiction is super profitable, esp when you can target kids—the tobacco industry taught us that lesson. Big game companies are continually refining their products to maximise addiction and long term player monetisation, while skirting around legislators of course.. All of the most profitable games do this (to cite a few more examples: Fortnite, League of Legends, gta online, fifa, gta online, candy crush, pokemon go, etc etc.).

    2) However, we still get a few games like Red Dead 2 and The Last of Us 2. If the number of players decreases who are willing to buy these games day one, and reward these companies for non-addictive, non-long term monetisation because these former purchasers now expect them to be day and date on a sub service…Well , who is going to pay for 4+ years of AAA development for a project with a poor prospect for a return on investment because it is going to be on a $10/month, cancel anytime sub service?

    i see gamepass as another death nail in the coffin of old fashioned big budget single player, non-exploitative games that I can do nothing about, lol. It is a small nail though.

    On the other hand, with the huge increase in rates of suicide of the ‘always connected’ generation, maybe legislation regulating the exploitation of the minds of the youth by greedy tech companies will be written, including those corporations making addictive, heavily monetised games. I think i’ll write a letter!

    Ciao.

    • Hey man, and thanks for the message. But I would dispute your premise that there are no more AAA solo games. I keep hearing this, and I’ve heard it for years, and yet I keep seeing amazing AAA solo games coming out. Are there *also* a lot of very successful games as a service? Sure. Why wouldn’t there be. But let’s just look at last year: God of War, Spider-Man, Detroit, Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption 2… These games were all massive and amazing, as good or better than what we’ve ever seen. And I’m not even counting smaller productions (Subnautica, Astrobot, Into the Breach, Dead Cells, Celeste…). AND I think many of the past few years have been on the same level. So, how are solo games disappearing exactly? Honestly, I think that idea that solo games are disappearing is an idea that seems appealing to people who want to see all this as trending negatively, but there is no evidence to support it. Quite the opposite: the evidence shows there are as many or more amazing AAA solo games AND a ton of amazing games as a service as well.

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