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Gaming News Roundup
Square Enix stocks tumble on news that FF16 and especially FF7 Rebirth have not met sales targets. Which would normally be concerning… if not for the fact that these games are still Sony exclusives. Which, as a strategy, appears to be changing going forward.
In response to the tumbling profits, Square Enix announced what it calls “Square Enix Reboots, and Awakens”, a three-year plan for rebooting for long-term growth. This involves a rethink across all parts of the business, but the highlight is a “shift to a multiplatform strategy.” Square Enix said it will “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs.” […]
As part of this multiplatform push, Square Enix said it will “build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles in regards to major franchises and AAA titles including catalog titles.” The suggestion in all this is mainline Final Fantasy games will ditch PlayStation exclusivity going forward, although Square Enix has yet to announce specifics beyond Final Fantasy 16’s upcoming launch on PC.
It really boggles the mind sometimes, how stuck in the past these game executives can be. Helldivers 2 has been a breakout smash hit, with a large portion (possibly majority?) of the playerbase being on PC; it was significant enough for the Steam review-bomb campaign to work in any case. PC receiving ports in general has improved over the years for sure, but the fact that it takes ages is moronic. It’s been over fours years and PC still doesn’t have The Last of Us 2. Horizon: Forbidden West just came out on PC like two months ago. FF7 Remake took almost two years. Ghost of Tsushima took four years. God of War: Ragnarok probably won’t be out till 2025.
Speaking of ports, Ghost of Tsushima has beaten out God of War for the top spot on the Steam concurrent user spot for Playstation single-player games, at 77k and some change. Helldivers 2 sits at 457k, by the way. I’ve heard some chatter on Reddit about how this demonstrates that Sony’s “strategy” works, e.g. only releasing games on PC after a long-ass time. I mean… I guess? Unless there is some presumption that people bought PS5s just for this game, or that PS5 owners will buy it again on PC, I think this simply demonstrates Sony delayed a solid boost of revenue for 4 years for no reason.
Fallout: London is a fan-made Fallout 4 mod that is essentially an entirely new Fallout game. You may have heard some stories about how its original April release was delayed due to the “surprise” next-gen updates to Fallout 4 that Bethesda released a few weeks back. Well, it appears that the mod is back on track to be released… sometime. Soon™! The real news though, is how the modders somehow convinced GOG to host the 30-40GB files. This was needed, as Nexus Mods has an upper size limit. These fan projects usually get killed by the suits right before release, so the fact that not only will this thing (presumably) come out, but the fact that GOG is hosting the files is extraordinary.
Valve is working on what appears to be 6v6 MOBA-like Overwatch game called Deadlock. Now, I understand that Valve has a unique sort of “structure” over there, wherein developers basically just stew in a petri dish until games extrude through the biofilm… but, really? This is whatever actual game developers still left over there have chosen to spend their time on? Christ. I guess it’s at least something, as opposed to whatever George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are doing. Finish your fucking stories!
Microsoft (All But) Acquires Activision-Blizzard
The FTC has lost its injunction case against the Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard merger. Minutes later, the remaining regulatory holdout in the UK appears to be in back-room discussions with Microsoft. Although the FTC can still technically appeal the decision, in all likelihood things will be buttoned up by the time this post goes live.
I have not been following the court case itself too closely. The armchair legal experts on Reddit though suggest that the FTC’s arguments were weak, but don’t really go into convincing detail as what alternative arguments would have been stronger. On the face of it, everything seemed to hinge on Sony – who currently owns 45% of the entire console market – being negatively impacted by the merger. Considering Xbox is just 27.3%, one might surmise that the merger would actually increase competition in the console space. At least the UK’s argument was about cloud gaming… something that basically doesn’t exist, with even Google and Amazon unable to get it to work.
I am sympathetic to the argument that buying publishers and game companies is detrimental generally. There are no doubt millions of PS5 owners who probably wanted to play Starfield on their console of choice. Sort of like how I would have liked to play Ghosts of Tsushima on PC, which isn’t even considered a console by Sony/courts, but nevermind.
Perhaps it’s a bit myopic, but I’m obviously in Team Game Pass. I don’t care about Call of Duty and I doubt WoW will change, but potentially seeing Diablo 4 show up without having to spend $70 on it is a welcome surprise. No doubt the good times will come to an end at some point, especially considering the recent subscription price hikes, but it’s still worlds better (and cheaper) than the alternatives.
Will everyone come to regret this outcome 10 years from now? I kinda hope so. Because that means things are normal enough in 2033 that we can still give a shit about video games and not play Fallout 5 by walking outside our front doors.
Beach and the PS4
So, I have been and will continue to be on vacation at the beach with family until the end of the week. The internet service down here is absolutely abysmal – we’re talking 5 Mbps shared across 40 rooms – which is why I have not been on top of the comments and general news. I suppose that might sound bad, caring about frivolous internet things while at the beach. But honestly, if I knew it was going to be vacation back to 1994, I might have passed. Also, the ocean seems saltier this year and there was a fly in my soup.
That said, how ’bout that PS4 news?
If you have not been keeping abreast of the latest developments, Sony basically “won” the show. You can read Liore’s coverage of the event or even similar things in this CNN article. Bottom line?
- No new restrictions on used game sales.
- No internet connection required.
- $399 vs Xbox One’s $499
It wasn’t all good news – a Playstation Plus membership is required for all multiplayer, just like Xbox Live today – but it was a fantastic PR coup for Sony to have been quiet all this time before launching into these consumer-friendly revelations.
A couple Apologists skeptics from around the web have tried to paint Sony with the Xbox One brush over the used games quote though:
“The DRM decision is going to have to be in the hands of the third parties. That’s not something that we’re going to dictate or mandate or control or implement.”
“Aha!” the Apologists cried. “Same thing as Xbox!”
Not really. In fact, not at all. The key point here is that Sony’s strategy is unchanged from the current generation. Remember Online Passes? Those were 3rd party attempts at mitigating secondary game sales, all of which happened in this generation. If EA suddenly changes their mind vis-a-vis reintroducing Online Passes, Sony isn’t going to stop them, but at least it isn’t turned on by default as it is in the Xbox One scenario. As Destructoid put it:
The major difference between PS4 and Xbox One, of course, is that Sony hasn’t made it easier for corporations to control the behavior of their customers, because the PS4 doesn’t tie your copies to your accounts, or initiate checks to scrub traded game data off your system. Basically, Microsoft designed the Xbox One to make it as easy as flipping a switch to eradicate any possibility of sharing your games, while Sony is maintaining its policy of this current generation.
Or you can go with the Game Front article for even further clarification:
“The Online Pass program for PlayStation first-party games will not continue on PlayStation 4. Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”
This is good news for gamers, indeed. In a nutshell, you can buy a used single-player game for the PS4 and play it all you want. If you want to go online with it, you may have to deal with some sort of publisher-determined DRM, be it an Online Pass or whatever.
Basically: #PS4Life
Not that I’m going to buy one anytime soon – I just bought a PS3 last Christmas. But it’s nice to know that whenever I do hop aboard the next console generation, I will have the opportunity to catch up on all the games I’ve missed by hitting up Amazon or some local place and not be paying full MSRP out the ass for 2+ year old games.
In An Age 
Priced In
Mar 30
Posted by Azuriel
If you haven’t heard the news, Sony announced that they are raising the prices of the PlayStation 5. Again. The disc-less version is now $600, and the Pro costs $900 MSRP. Nine hundred dollars. This comes on top of price increases of last year. As a reminder, the disc-less version launched in 2020 for $4001. Sony isn’t alone with price increases, of course, with Microsoft hiking the price of their lagging console several times in addition to Game Pass Ultimate. It seems inevitable that Nintendo will eventually follow suit with the Switch 2, despite trying to raise peripheral prices to compensate.
Meanwhile, game studios have been shedding workers at breakneck speeds. Just this past week, Epic Games laid off over a thousand people (with $500 million in additional cuts) amidst lower Fortnite engagement. Overall, the industry lost 45,000 jobs in the last four years. Some of this is attributed to a post-COVID correction, when apparently every studio hired anyone they could and greenlit even the dumbest of live-service games (Concord, Highguard, etc), ironically chasing (fewer) Fortnite dollars.
The other part of it is simple economics. If the average budget for a AAA game is $300 million, even with no storefront cuts and a price of $80, it would still require 3.75 million copies to be sold to break even. A more realistic figure would be 70% of a $70 game, putting it at 6.2 million sales. Again, just to get back to $0, let alone show any profit. GTA 5 sold 225 million copies worldwide, so yeah, it’s still possible to make bank on certain bets. I’m also guessing that GTA 6 will make back its $1 billion budget.
On the other hand, if people have to buy a $900 console just to play it… I dunno.
This very well may be the tipping point beyond which AAA no longer becomes economical viable. Think about the PlayStation 6, which is assumed to be coming out in late 2027 or 2028. Do you believe the base model will be coming out for less than $700? And if you’re willing to drop that amount of money for the next-gen system, will you be satisfied with games that do not require the level of graphical fidelity it would provide? At the same time, it’s going to be difficult for game developers to hit those break-even sales figures if the userbase is balking at the price of the console.
One thing that I think about is whether this whole trajectory is already “priced in,” so to speak. Game development cycles are 5-6 years long, so it makes sense how all these live-service games, started in the most irrational of COVID exuberances, are simultaneously returning to Earth at terminal velocity. Concord et tal failing is one thing though; Fortnite eating its own tail is quite another. Remember when everyone started releasing MMOs trying to chase that World of Warcraft subscription money? After that development cycle of failure – during which WoW declined all on its own – we did not see a renewed interest in full-priced subscription MMOs. The industry moved on to F2P and live-service.
Well, the tides are shifting again. But where is the next sandbar? Are there any left? And if there is, can anyone afford to build on it again?
I suppose we’ll find out around, uh *checks calendar*, 2031. Just in time for Fallout 5.
1 Inflation puts $400 in 2020 as being $750 today. Which… holy shit. Nevertheless, that isn’t how it normally works.
Posted in Commentary
2 Comments
Tags: Armchair Game Development, Epic Game Store, Price Hike, Priced In, Sony, State of the Industry