My Gaming Diary, Gamedate 78863.5
Recently, Reuters reported that Embracer is taking a more conservative approach towards its release cadence. I know. Bug guffaw, right? But stick with me here.
Many gamers….most if not all of the ones on social media…so-called journos, pundits, game-tubers….everyone has an opinion on what needs to be done to “fix” the industry. Most of the ideas are narratives and agendas built around brand-defense and repping. “Games need to be on every platform”, “Playing my games everywhere”, “Platform Y provides the best value”. None of these should be taken seriously and deemed of much of any real critical thought. Add that on top of this, alternate narratives, such as the disparaging of third-party games, even as exclusives, is typically all part of an effort to make an a-ha moment out of a brand’s first-party output.
The rest of it is largely driven by an ongoing class-battle that has erupted in the wake of the industry holding prices static for 15 years, when it has historically raised prices by +$10 every 8 – 10 years. The proletariat saber-rattling often comes close to preaching for socialism or goes so far as to seem like advocacy for the actual nationalization of the gaming industry in its cries for goals that could never be achieved without very heavy regulation.
Making games that could play on every platform and eradicating the notion of exclusives or giving software away for free or for prices that barely cover its costs (two political platforms that are actually in opposition to each other; many gamers do not seem to realize that)…neither is a silver bullet to righting the industry’s ship. Nor is simply “Just make more AA games”.
But Embracer might be on to something, as a programmatic approach to a philosophy of change to guide its production pipeline management. And that is fewer, higher quality releases. That concept is not revolutionary. It is not ground-breaking. But the industry is plagued by two colossal dynamics that are the tentpole roots of it woes: Spiraling upward production costs and that there are simply too many games. And not just games, but AAA games.
Usually when we talk about the “too many games dynamic”, it is a conversation about the 19,000 games published on Steam every year. Many of which are shovelware, or college student projects…or hentai softcore porn game. But the AAA space is also glutted in a way that exceeds demand.
If, as Matt Piscatella has discussed, 30% of gamers will not buy a game this year, and gamers on XBL and PSN will spend 40% of their monthly time-budget playing black-hole games / GAAS, then what need is there for a half-dozen AAA games per month? And is it any wonder that so many of them get ignored?
Now that number is not likely to change at industry-scale. But the approach Embracer is talking about…yes, I know it is not likely, credible, or realistic to think that Embracer will actually follow through with the philosophy…is to further space out their own, individual publisher, releases. And not for the typical marketing reason which is for a singular publisher not to have its own games competing against one another. But, for the sole sake of quality, to give them more room to breathe. But, more importantly and specifically, to spend that extra time from those delays for polish and bug-hunting.
The Tears of the Kingdom crew supposedly took a year for JUST polish and bug-hunting. Avowed supposedly also benefitted by using the market-bulge reason for their delay for these purposes. And here, again, note, hyper-specifically, this is not for the purpose of taking on additional scope, trying to add value-added content or to refine a gme mechanic outside of it being a defect. We’re talking about specifically taking time for defects, not enhancements.
Yes, I get it. Gamers do always talk about better quality. But that voice track is drowned out by the constant clamoring that characterizes the trend today for volume over quality. Game Pass provides “all these games”, while there is often a desire to avoid the topic of how many of these are marquis titles resplendent with polish and a quality-cut placing them in the above average tier or higher vs an all-you-can-eat service for channel surfers. PlayStation Studios are castigated for a low volume of output in this back half of the generation, while, in similar vein, there is an effort to avoid the discussion of the degree of polish their titles on the front-half of the generation delivered. As gamers, we always comment on “eating good”, but spend too little time on saying that the industry could deliver us less, and focus on having those deliveries more honed for excellence.
I dunno. It’s a concept anyway.
Rounding Off Infinity 