Gaming
Game Director: Development Costs of AAA Titles Have Increased
There’s a bit of news I didn’t cover about this week, so I’ll be brief in regards to this. With the recent acquisition of a Patent related to microtransactions there has been some controversy among gamers. The theme of Microtransactions and Loot Boxes has acquired a lot of air as of late. Even though the ESRB doesn’t call this “Gambling”, many gamers and journalists think against it.
Some developers decided to talk to Gamesindustry about the subject as well. Deciding to talk about some of the reasons why this practice had to happen. An anonymous game director started with “Development costs of AAA titles are five to ten times the price they were in the ’90s. As technology moves forward, costs go up and teams get larger. Salaries also go up in that time both for starters and people employed for those periods of time.”
The CEO of The Outsiders, Ben Cousins agrees with this notion. “The number of full-priced games console gamers are buying a year is dropping and the cost of developing games is increasing, while the actual audience for console games remains static.” He said. “They need to find ways for full-priced games to continue to be profitable. Big publishers have been working on plans like this for over a decade.”
This is something we talked about in previous articles, but to summarize the point. The obvious rebuttal is asking why is there a need for these rises of costs when everything should’ve ended at 1080p 60FPS? A lot of companies are struggling to make games 4K and 30FPS or have high production values when all we want is a fun game. This is one of the reasons why Cuphead will be more appealing to play than something like Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
Marketing ploys are often done to push micro transactions and Pre-order bonuses. While the collectibles gained by the pre-orders are cool looking, no gamer really needs them. This is a subject I’ll be talking about in another article as well. More on this set of news coming soon.
Sonic Frontier’s third and final free DLC update, The Final Horizon, is frustrating some players with its difficulty. Some say it’s Sonic’s hardest gameplay ever.
Many players complained about this unexpected difficulty spike in a 12-page GameFaqs forum post called “This DLC is way too hard” (thanks VGC). One of the main complaints about Sonic Frontiers was that it was too easy, and Team Sonic overcorrected, which makes it surprising.
Final Horizon, the last free update, let players play as Tails, Knuckles, and Amy and complete a variety of optional challenges, which is the challenge. Many are breaking down after a vertigo-inducing tower that requires pixel-perfect platforming without checkpoints, apparently inspired by viral Twitch hit Only Up!
Have you tried Sonic Frontiers Final Horizon DLC? Is it really that hard, or has Sonic always been the Dark Souls of mascot platformers?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s cinematic trailer appeared suddenly as the wait seemed endless. It shows us that together, we can overcome anything.
The scene is surprisingly sad, with flashbacks to each Spider-Man’s tragic past. As property damages mount, Peter and Miles have emotional internal monologues while fighting Venom.
Venom appears to be about to lose when he realizes they can be stronger together before the scene fades to black. We won’t know how this story ends until Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches exclusively on PS5 on October 20.
Do you think teamwork makes the dream work? Should you see more of Insomniac’s latest or are you sold?
A new trailer featuring Aleks Le’s fearless protagonist S.E.E.S makes Persona 3 Reload more real. Atlus promises weekly character tributes, so get excited. Our stoic protagonist, who will be playable on PS5 and PS4 when this remade RPG releases on February 2, is introduced well.
We’ve accepted playing without our favorite character and are starting to like Reload. The setting, story, and cast have always been great, and the more we learn about the proposed changes, the more we want to return to Tartarus.
With Persona 3 Reload, where are you? Did you play the game before or is this your first time?
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