Friday letters continues the debate about rising game costs and development time. One reader shares his Jeff-Minter memories.
Please Note: We’re currently preparing our content for over Christmas and the New Year, which will include several Reader’s Features. If you have an article idea on any gaming-related topic, now is a great time.
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Hopes vs. expectations
So by the time you read this The Game Awards should be over (I think, they still don’t seem to have said how long it is) and we’ll all know whether it was filled with amazing revelations… or just lots and lots of CGI trailers.
I’m not expecting Half-Life 3 or GTA 6 but I hope we get some nice surprises. Metroid Prime 4 & Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom are my favorites, along with the new Mass Effect 12 and Mortal Kombat 12. Problem is, I don’t really expect any of these. Zelda maybe, but that’s only because we have an appointment. I think the rest of it is too far away.
We still need to catch up with the delays the pandemic created and so until the games we already know about, but haven’t really seen, are out I don’t think we’re going to see an awful lot that’s brand new. I’m still hoping for a new Sony reveal but I fear it’s just going to be that The Last Of Us multiplayer and we’ll just be back here next year hoping for the same games.
Was The Game Awards worthwhile? I don’t know yet but the trick is always to expect nothing and not be disappointed.
Roberto
Moving on
Wow! Days Gone developerHe is truly unhinged. Between those comments and the fact that he’s working on a NFT game I think we can get the measure of the guy. I know some people like the game, and I wouldn’t say it’s terrible, but I’m glad Sony didn’t do a sequel.
As other readers have said, there are plenty of great games that I wish didn’t have sequels just so the developer could work on something different. Naughty Dog, Insomniac, they’re all stuck making the same game forever, basically. Imagine Bend Studio being in the exact same position, but having to make endless Days Gone Games!
Days Gone contained some good stuff. The team should learn from it and make something better, not be tied to characters nobody cares about or the 20th zombie game. The team should view not having to do a sequel not as an insult, but a blessing.
Kobold
Economic crisis
It seems like the economics of videogames, both in terms of time and consumer costs, are coming to an end with the cost-of-living crisis. I kind of think the opposite to a lot of commenters on it, in that I think we’ve been under paying for gaming for quite a while, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
I’m baffled by the idea off half length, half price that’s been floated recently. It doesn’t cost half as much to make a game half the length… it still costs largely the same for the artists, music composers, technological R&D, designers, and everything else. Video games are extremely versatile, so the base costs, regardless of how long they are, probably make up the majority of the budget.
Games are now just so expensive to make… even when being subsidised by subscriptions, battle passes, DLC, ads, microtransactions, cost savings on QA leading to bugs, and everything else; while all the time gamers are driving for the latest and greatest technology. People moan that the new generation of consoles aren’t providing an upgrade, yet also moaning that games themselves are too expensive.
Developers have to spend a lot of money to get the generational upgrade. To justify increasing costs to consumers, games have become so complicated and time-consuming. More content (even recycled filler) really is the only way to justify higher prices.
Nintendo made the smart choice here by realising that the technology arms race wasn’t sustainable after the GameCube failure and reorganizing their business accordingly. Now we’ve hit a rough patch they are arguably the only ones with a sustainable model.
Marc
GC: Although it wouldn’t make games half as expensive to make, halving their length would make them more affordable.
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Reduce the stream
I am unhappy to report that after a while with the streaming portion of my PSN account, I probably won’t renew that aspect in the future. Not because I don’t like any of the games on offer, I really do, but for me, it just doesn’t seem practical.
Am I right in believing that the PlayStation 4’s online functionality – downloading content and streaming – is notoriously poor? Maybe if I had the house all to myself, the games would behave. As it is, I share the bandwidth with others and I even I can’t be that big a jerk and tell them to stay off YouTube or Netflix for the next half dozen hours while I grind away in Disgaea 3. Yes, DIsgaea III! It has been regularly kicking my out of my game!
And if it can’t handle Disgaea 3 (which is a standard definition game, lest we forget) then it probably can’t handle much else, can it? It’s a real shame, too. It would be nice if Sony offered the option to download it correctly.
DMR
Minter collection
It’s great to meet you Interview with Jeff Minter. I met him at Arcade Club Bury in 2019 and we had an enjoyable chat about his arcade machines. He currently owns Tempest and a JAMMA cab. In the past, he also owned a M.A.C.H 3 LaserDisc and an Atari Star Wars cockpit.
When he moved to America to work for Atari, he ended up giving away Star Wars for free! He was a very nice man and a talented programmer.
Tim Keeling
Worst of the Best
A few weeks ago, I finally bought a PlayStation 5 along with a copy Elden Ring. The console is amazing. The loading times alone make it a worthwhile upgrade, especially as I got £185 for my PlayStation 4. Elden Ring is what really interests me. I think I’m about three quarters of the way through (over a 100 hours of play!) and in so many ways it’s magnificent! From’s art design is stunning as always and the sheer craft that has gone into the game is mind blowing.
I can fully understand why it’d be lots of people’s game of the year. The problem for me is that I think it’s the worst of the From games I’ve played, for two simple, interlinked reasons: the extremely unbalanced difficulty and the overly vast open world.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still an exceptional game but I just much prefer the more linear Soulsborne predecessors. The Lands Between’s vast world is overwhelming, especially in terms the difficulty. From could determine your level at any given time with Bloodborne and Darks Souls and target the difficulty accordingly.
Elden Ring is a different story. I can be fighting Radahn the demigod (in hindsight it was too late to fight), and then I can be fighting with a set run-of the-mill soldiers.
There were six or seven bosses in succession that were super easy, because I was so powerful. This sapped all the fun out. This is a problem in all open world games, but Elden Ring’s combat-focused game makes it even more acute.
It’s quite telling that my favorite parts of Elden Ring are its legacy dungeons. Stormveil Castle is a beautiful design, allowing for greater scope and yet maintaining the same level of detail as previous titles. The enormous size of The Lands Between was impressive, especially in the beginning, when everything was new. However, I find that things are repeating more and more as I progress through the game.
The first dragon I faced was incredible, the second not so much. I’m particularly fed up of Godskin Nobles and Apostles. I’ve not even got to the dreaded duo yet! I’m starting to suffer slightly from boss fatigue too, as there’s just so many, the last genuinely good boss fight I had was Elemer of the Briar.
I believe that reducing half of Elden Ring’s content, especially repeated battles, would result in a tighter game. Sometimes, bigger is not always better.
Ryan O’D
PS: Just for the record my From games order would be Bloodborne > Dark Souls 3 > Darks Souls 1 > Elden Ring. I’ve still got Sekiro and Demon’s Souls to play.
Value for money
Well, I completed The Callisto Protocol yesterday and have sold it for £36 to CeX so the game only cost me £10. I really enjoyed it and, yes, there’s a few issues but it looks great, I enjoyed the story and beating the hell out of necromorphs.
What I don’t understand is why they are talking about releasing a season pass? What! Do they want to add more stories? Or is it cosmetics only? I can’t fathom it and doubt it will add anything significant.
TommyFatFingers
GC: Although it is unlikely, there are some exciting new stories.
The only limit
So all this talk of £70 games and whether they offer value for money, are in line with inflation, etc. It got me thinking back a bit.
My Spectrum Spectrum was my first gaming console. At that point a full price game was about £10, but you could pick up a Codemasters budget game for between 2-3 quid.
Anyway, I then got my Amiga in 1990 and the price of games jumped significantly to £25 or something like that. Although the graphics upgrade was quite expensive, I could understand why.
If I recall PC games of the 90s (so for example Half-Life, X-Wing) were also around the £25 mark and – I know this is going to sound weird as it was nearly 30 years ago – this is still my benchmark for the max I will spend on a game. I don’t usually buy games at release (Project CARS 2 was my last purchase, but even then I was able to get a little discount) and I will always wait for a sale. I did spend £35 on the Automobilista 2 season pass – but that was still half price and I had previously picked up the base game (along with loads of others) in a Humble Bundle for a tenner!
Epic giveaways and the like made it possible to play so many games that I never got around to playing.
This is partly due to me being tight, but there is another reason: patches. Let’s be honest even after the day one patch games still aren’t right. It can take months, sometimes even years to get the epic open-world games I enjoy sorted. So it makes sense to wait until you have the best version.
Mind you, I totally understand why modern games cost £70 on release. Back in the day a £3 game would literally be the Darling Brothers coding in their bedroom, a £10 game would still be a very small team.
There are hundreds of coders, actors and writers, as well as quality controllers and directors. You will need to put together a movie budget! The games are usually only £70 for six months anyway, and price per hours entertainment compared to a trip to the cinema is, in my mind, a bargain.
So I think £70 is here to stay, reasonable if you simply must play day one and also if it’s a deal breaker for you, just wait like me!
Microtransactions? That’s another matter. Damn Oblivion horse armor!
The Dude Abides
Inbox also-rans
I love the idea for a war between Sonic the Hedgehog fans and Genshin Impairment fans. Is there mutually-assured destruction in fan wars, or is that possible?
Moby
I love how publishers can’t help but instinctively release their games at the same time, even when they don’t know the release date. It’s like a superpower always being able to pick the worst date possible.
Hicks
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Cranston and asks what is your favourite and least favourite entry in a long running franchise?
There are many video games that have been in existence for over 25 years. Some of them have dozens of sequels. Which one do you think the best? You can pick any game of any era and format, but you should limit your suggestions to mainline sequels.
Is it necessary for a sequel to succeed? How much can it differ from its predecessor before it loses its identity? What advice would you give for the next sequel in whatever franchise you’ve picked?
Send your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
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LEARN MORE Games Inbox: Watching The Games Awards live, PSVR2 pre-sale window, and Parasite Eve remake
LEARN MORE Games Inbox: Video games are too expensive, Elden Ring DLC theories, and Dead Space 3 remake
LEARN MORE Games Inbox: The Callisto Protocol reader review, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor hopes, and NieR 3
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