The ironic thing about high fidelity games now is that they inevitably age out. It would be nice to see more games that chosen a less graphic intensive art style in lieu of more player agency, deeper systems, and better narrative experiences. For 2021 and 2022, my most played game was Risk of Rain 2, and that has an 8-bit pixel art style. It's just fun from a gameplay loop and mechanical standpoint, and the graphics aren't at risk of ageing out because they aren't attempting to do anything fancy. They didn't need to, and it arguably would have hurt the game if they did. There's really a lot of AA and indie games that pull off solid gameplay loops that I wish the AAA folks would take more inspiration from in terms of just making games legitimately fun, rather than fighting the fidelity wars.
The pushback against asset reusal feels so wrong, especially from a development standpoint. It's somewhat akin to the complaints about bethesda reusing the "Same engine". When you're a dev, one of the first lessons learned is to not redo stuff unless absolutely necessary (hey, most of the modern banking world runs on code made in the late 80s or earlier). At the same time, as a player, i kinda get not wanting to drop 70, 80, 90 dollars or more on game that is not brand spanking new in everything. But when a game that reuses a lot of assets comes out, and it's very very good, like say Elden Ring (Same animations since Dark Souls BABY !!!) people tend to ignore the reused assets. I guess the whole point is, people are incredibly loud about wanting somenthing, when in reality, they probably don't know what they want.
Yes it's kind of wrong, but I wouldn't just blame customers/gamers for that. They have been nickel and dimed for everything for years and years and years now, often games release day 1 with content that's not in the regular game but locked behind dlc/passes/macrotransactions, incredible price increase (in a decade fresh release of major AAA games on PC went from 40€ for a physical box to 70€ for a digital starter pack without all the cut content put in gold edition, Bestbuy exclusive bonuses, macrotransaction, etc.), not to mention the technical state of new releases... Basically the industry turned a significant amount of gamers into fatigued, worn down, and paranoid potential customers who look at the gotchas first and will assume the worst... because they've been trained to do so through adversarial relationships, lies and fraud that nobody bother to prosecute. So some will always assume the worst, especially from AAA. And honestly, I can't really blame them....
When the TES6 "trailer" was shown in 2018 I got the feeling that the only reason they did it to get a sort of "we know, it exists, you can stop asking now" message out there, lol. I even vaguely remember todd howard saying that it wasn't going to go into production until after Starfield, and at that point the only thing we even knew about Starfield was the logo.
It can also be a hiring tool. We quite clearly seen Ubisoft do that those past years, to combat their hiring issues and years of brain drain, for example.
The recently revealed Expedition 33 is exactly what I want to see more of in this industry: reasonable graphics quality, great art direction, and a twist on a known formula that makes the whole project scalable on a bigger scope than "indie" One of the few new IPs coming next year that I'm very excited for
Yes Please! Expedition 33 looks awesome. Also, while I haven't played stellar blade yet, I intend to, because that game looks awesome. Looks on par with Nier imo.
@@johnm9893 They could certainly have their scope get out of their hands. I hope they take their time and release something polished. Most studios coming out of nowhere like this only one shot at this...
Bottom line seems to be we need a happy medium between the less than 2 years release for the likes of DA:2/ME:3 (which hurt their scope/writing), and the several years for Veilguard/Andromeda, both which took much longer, on top of being conceptually re-booted internally multiple times.
It makes me wonder how sustainable is triple AAA game industry nowadays. If you do not release your game for 6-7 years, that means no revenue for that time (except for revenue for your old games, not sure to what extent does it cover your costs) and if your new title does not sell that well, which I am assuming many AAA studios struggle with , then again you would be facing again with another 6-7 years of net loss, hoping your new project will be somewhat more profitable.
immortals of aveum is a clear example of why it may end. 150 million and years to make, peak players hit 700 on release. It's a huge risk for fickle picky consumers.
If you look at the frequency in which games and their sequels came out during the 7th generation, we were spoiled, literally 2-3 years is all it took to pump out a beloved sequel to a beloved game in a beloved franchise. It's honestly shocking. 3 Mass Effect games in 5 years. COD4 (just one of the biggest fps games of all time) was made in 2 years by a team of 100 developers. The list goes on. We got entire series from start to finish in a single generation. I'm sure there was plenty of crunch (which still seems to be a thing now), but I don't know if the tech advancement is worth it if it means 5 years becomes the bare minimum for games.
Bethesda are a good example of this: Morrowind 2002, Oblivion 2006, Fallout 3 2008, Skyrim 2011, Fallout 4 2015 (plus they published Fallout: New Vegas in 2010, but didn't make it), all with fairly extensive DLC as well.
Remember when Rockstar released multiple titles each year in the 6th gen -> minimized/focussed it down to one title per year on the 7th gen -> to now releasing one title each generation 😵💫
I remember you speaking on the idea that games should be finished faster and one way to do that is to reuse assests for the sequels. Tools to graphics. And I think there is some great stuff to be made with that mindset. BG2 is in many ways better than BG1 because they are basically the same. I would have loved to see that trend continue forward. Iterating and building on what the original did. It would be cool. I hope to see more games using that method in the future.
I'm a fan of jrpgs and the reusing of assets is something Falcom does to great effect. The quality of their writing may be all over the place (sometimes exceptional and sometimes not) but it has a dedicated fanbase and the reuse of assets for multiple games allows them to get games out quicker while iterating on some mechanics for each entry while also working on the next big change in appearance slowly over time. They release a new game pretty much each year and a re-release via a remaster, remake, or releasing on a new platform that same year. This seems to work for them. I would love nothing more for games to reuse assets if it meant getting games out quicker.
I doubt it i feel like gamers have become hyper critical and a lot of gamers would attack devs for reuing assets if they notice it. Thinking the devs are being lazy. There was debate whether or not Shadows of Mordor reused assets like the sword animations from AC2. No one could prove it. Then you got devs who don't care the Yakuza/ Like a Dragon franchise reuses a ton of assets and that franchise went from a cult classic to slowly becoming a internet icon. I think devs should reuse as much assets as you can its not going to get worst with time it will only improve and it'll make the game better.
3:03 so you're saying that the reason why DA4 was announced the month before Anthem shipped was so EA couldn't do anything bad to the studio without breaking a promise made to the Dragon Age community? ^^
Over the past month I played through DAO and DA2 for the first time and am currently working my way through DAI and can't wait to see what Bioware have cooked up with DAVe. As someone working in QA I've loved hearing your stories from the development of the games and just your thoughts on the industry as a whole, its all super insightful so thank you!
I think the length of the "ideation and vision" process is part of the problem tbh. You have games like the new Perfect Dark that languished for years because leadership had *no idea* what they wanted to do until Crystal D stepped in and basically took over development. Or even something like Bishock Infinite, which suffered under the whims of an self styled "auteur" until a talented producer in was hired to actually ship a finished game. We've all heard of perpetual crunch, but "perpetual pre-production" can be just as debilitating to a studio, in my opinion.
Really insightful video, super interesting to hear about AAA from the dev perspective. The game I've waited the longest for is Veilguard, which I'm very excited about, but I would have been willing to let it go if I didn't think it would be good! It's a testament to the gameplay reveal and the info we've been getting from the dev team that I'm as hyped as I am.
I get that it's the nature of the beast, but what an incredibly difficult (and, I'd guess stressful) industry. If it takes longer for a game to come out, but the teams are not smashed upside the head with crunch, then I'm all for it. FWIW: It doesn't phase me that it's been 10 years since DAI. I'm a day-1 purchaser for The Veilguard.
It's a pretty good breakdown on why games are taking so long now a days compared to even just 10 years ago. I think live-service and fidelity have their place but not every type of game needs to have live-service in them or cutting -edge graphics. As a player I also don't mind re-using assets or systems from previous games provided the systems are improved. As far as the games I've been waiting for the longest are The Elder Scrolls VI and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. With the former I've been waiting since playing Skyrim during 2011 and the DLCs during 2012. So it's crazy to think I've been waiting for a new game for 12 years. And Dragon Age I've been waiting for a new game in the franchise since playing through the games the first time back in 2015, and in spite of that a new Dragon Age happens before a mainline The Elder Scrolls game. I'd love to play Veilguard at launch but I will be unable to do so until I can afford a new PC. And who knows maybe at that point The Elder Scrolls VI will have started development😅
Covid lockdowns have also played a huge role in causing shortage of AAA titles. It's been only 2 year since Covid lockdowns started being widely lifted, so game development pipeline still hasn't recovered. Bunch of game projects have been cancelled, so that might help speed things back to reasonable game development( around 3 years, depends), however mass lay-offs don't exactly help as it hurts morale and short staffs still developed projects.
Yeah. Honestly, I find myself gravitating towards older games with less fidelity but a unique style and more focus on narrative or gameplay. They hold up so much better over time.
Wow, excellent video. Pretty much covered all the bases I could think of and have heard of from game developers. In terms of games I'm looking forward this year: Veilguard (of course), Avowed, VTMB2 (yeah..), and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Been quite the wait for all of these, heh.
@@deadlock_problemI know I sure am :P. Some people enjoy things you don’t and that is ok. I hope you enjoy the things you’re looking toward to playing in the future!
@@deadlock_problem I know it's hard feeling unhappy about things and it makes you feel better to think everyone agrees with you, but it's really best to speak for yourself as you turn a true statement "I'm not waiting for this game" into a factually incorrect statement "Nobody is waiting for this game."
I'm looking forward to the "we must make every little last pore realistic" fidelity stuff to end or at least not be expected. I hate the discourse surrounding games that don't have it and are criticized for it. I don't mind my games looking game-y. Though, I can't complain that BW has upped its hair game for DA4. Seriously, I'm so happy about that. I don't mind asset reuse. I didn't even care overmuch about it in DA2. If asked to choose, I would've preferred a more divergent Act 3 based on mage/templar choices than having different looking caves. IRT live services, they're not all terrible, but I generally don't like playing with random people because they tend to be terrible and make my enjoyment less. However, there are definitely games I super love playing with my friends. I enjoyed DAIMP a lot and BG3 and Solasta. However, I do like the pushback against all games need a live service component. I also am looking forward to more games going away from open world and needing to have so many hours of gaming. I think there's a place for shorter games. They can be really rewarding even if they don't have a hundred or more potential gameplay hours. I'm waiting for Dragon Age, of course. The game I've waited the longest for is a Knights of the Old Republic 3. I know folks say "SWTOR" a lot, and I do play it, but it's not the same, imo. I'd wait for the game forever. lmao. (Also, the KOTOR remake)
I have definitely been waiting patiently for Dragon Age: the Veilguard. I was for sure worried especially after reading all the Kotaku articles about ME: Andromeda's and Anthem's "failure", but I've never given up hope. I'll admit I was relieved when I found out you were brought back as a "special consultant" because that meant they were willing to spend more money to make sure the game gets that extra polish before it's release, even if that means more iteration :D
I hope so too because i felt like there was good ideas with Andromeda it was just a project needed to iron out the inconsistent writing and the bugs. It made Andromeda one of my favorite Bioware games being a so bad its good game and average game with good ideas that occasionally shines. Anthem was just bad decent Iron Man sim for 2 hours then its grinding with a so bad its good story. I think DA 4 will be good Bioware wants to show gamers we won't be making so bad its good games we're going to make games players will replay for generations to come.
Still crazy to think, i guess, how much stress you guys at Bioware had between 2007-2012 releasing soooo many games at such short period of time. But it was truly the best time to be a Bioware fan, with so much content coming out every year =). Although in a perfect world Dragon Age 2 and some other projects would have additional time for development, because it was really too fast and almost impossible to make them so fast in reality.
Another reason for very early announcements I've heard talked about (beyond messaging shareholders) is recruitment drive. Do you think it's a plausible reason? Take the Splinter Cell remake annoucement for exemple. They themselves said they were at a very early concept stage while announcing it. It was an annoucement by astudio that had not released a Splinter Cell game in more than ten years and part of a company that had had difficulties keeping talents in (this was such a issue in the early '20s they called it "the great exodus" in house). It seems like they could have annnouced it in part to garner the attention of people having experience with, or interested in working on, a stealth game (not the most common type of game to start with).
For me a large part of the experience is the art style, so not adhering to an ultra realistic presentation is an advantage. As far as crunch it can be OK, as long as it is done right. As I approach the end of a project I want to push that baby out, so even on my personal projects I will crunch. The issue comes in when crunch becomes the norm, I always found my productivity dropping so there was no more work getting done anyway. There are times when it is appropriate to kick back and enjoy. Of course I'm waiting for DAVe, it looks like it might be fun. There is always a chance that we might get a DA with fun combat, and the visual style looks interesting, I want to see where they take it. As for a series that I've given up on Elder Scrolls. My tastes have moved on, the series peaked plot wise with Morrowind, and to be honest they made me wait too long.
@@MarkDarrah Prior planning and all that. I recall one instance where we had an unforeseen problem. It was the responsibility of a single team, and the goal was well defined. I looked at what they had to do, decided the team needed more breadth, and jumped in with them. In less than 10 days it was clear, and the rest of the organization was no longer held up. I consider that a good crunch, almost every other crunch I did not so much.
Yes it's dragon age. I just want it, i might be surprised but since of the stuff but i don't think I'll be disappointed. I've waited to long to be disappointed, as long as it exists.
Actively waiting for a game it's definitely DAVe, started with Origins and played each game since. I might be waiting for GTA too, but that game doesn't occupy any headspace while I'm waiting. In off-time from DA I've been consuming lore and always looking for news
Do you see AI being used in development of these forever games. The big Publishers aren't there to make art or provide a fun and unique experience, they're there to make money so cheaper and quicker development time would be appealing. I hope it doesn't become widespread (people losing jobs is never a good thing) but if it does the indie/AA space is going to great a great influx of talented people, although funding will probably be an issue.
Of course my final opinion will be after i hit end credits but from what i've seen so far Veilguard seems to enter my ( and no Yves Guillemot yapping ) AAAA quadrupleA games list. So far only the finished version of Cyberpunk is on that list. Maybe Gta6 will enter. I have high hopes for Veilguard
Longest time I've waited for -Released games: Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord -Unreleased titles: Dragon Age The Veilguard, and Elder Scrolls VI. I remember watching an interview with Tim Lang (Might and Magic 6-9 designer) and he said the 3D tech stormed the industry, hence "fidelity" is what make games take so long. And how games like Quake releasing the same year as Might and Magic 6 and it made MM6 looks like a garbage, and the advantage with games like Quake and Thief were the small sized world, leading to the downfall of the classic rpgs in early 2000s.
Of course I've been waiting a long time for Dragon Age, but even longer for Beyond Good & Evil 2 (16 years and counting since the first announcement). The 20th anniversary edition of the original game just released today, so that's something at least.
What's a game I waiting for this year? Of course it's Dragon Age! :) So glad you're here sharing your thoughts on these topics too. You've made the wait interesting, and even hopeful.
It is very sad that each company wants a forever game like warframe. I remember the cult games like vampire the masquerade. It was completely overshadowed by half life 2. Vampire the masquerade was flawed and full of bugs, though it was great. I think it was trokia made it. I had a real love for that game and games like it that were never the best-selling games.
Frustrating state of affairs. Reminds me of some of the things I've heard of modern day baseball with the chase for homeruns, their value relative to striking out and what it's done to the sport. Generally, games as a service just feel like such fertile ground for grubby, manipulative practices to rationalise and ensure the continued engagement/purchases and I'm not certain what the big prize we're getting in exchange is. More live service games? Games shouldn't have to make all the money all the time. Insane reality
I feel like Mighty Todd's heart reamained with Skyrim deep down he is still working on it and will never stop.. And i think Dragon Age would've been out a few years ago if the team worked on Dreadwolf from the beginning instead of all the other canceled visions of the project
Mostly a good video, thanks mark! Though as a game designer, I'd like to say "animation matches physics matches gameplay" isn't a fidelity death cult. I need the player to understand what they're doing visually, whether the attack takes longer or shorter, where it goes, why they hit or did not. If I can have that, I can tell the player why this attack worked in this scenario or why it didn't in a very obvious way, and I can make that sort of gameplay deeper than I could if the player had to look up a long piece of text to try and understand what just happened. I see it as a straight improvement on the older style of game development that caused poor player feedback for systems, that's visuals with a direct gameplay purpose beyond making players ooh and ahh at the art itself.
You are right. I'm conflating 2 things: Increased fidelity leading to stronger mechanics and more interconnected systems AND Fidelity for fidelity's sake
I feel like Helldivers 2 may be the current model victim of the fidelity trap, the devs have built fairly byzantine, largely physics- and models-interaction-based damage systems that are difficult to manage, test and balance; the issues of improperly integrating things made by different departments are starkly visible, even to a layperson, when sometimes a small change is made and it appears as if an unrelated part of code has been reverted to an earlier iteration because certain bugs from the past reappear; it seems exceedingly difficult for the devs to implement any new features and it has already happened multiple times that the thing they introduced was not working as intended, was not working at all or was severely broken and bugged in many different ways. On top of that, the game's performance has been steadily worsening both on console (to which it is exclusive, so ideally should work perfectly) and PC since release with no sign of improvement. It's one of my favorite games out at the moment, but I really fear for its future with how things stand.
I'm currently waiting for Dragon Age Veilguard, Elder Scrolls VI, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, RIVEN Remake and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake. The longest I've waited for a release is ... Duke Nukem Forever 😅
What the hell? I just commented on this video talking about my love of the original vampire, the masquerade. Then I came across your comment. I was surprised to see someone else excited for the sequel. I am hoping it gets the same great feeling as the original.
@@hughcurran6817 I was excited for VTM as well, and then they showed it being first person and I got to nope out of that. I get pukey in first person. :(
A big Problem in my eyes is running after trends. Your game need 3 years, after your game is finish their is a new trend. Why not settle for something the team is good at, with little new creative ideas? To change a game every time one of the dev. play a game and like this system, the game will never release.
It's still crazy how much difference there is from studio to studio or publisher to publisher. Like we just received a sequel-sized expansion for Elden Ring from From Software, who last year put out Armored Core 6, and the year before the base game. Or the Yakuza Like A Dragon games that are essentially faster than annual releases. I guess that must be having multiple teams combined with embracing reused assets?
@@MarkDarrah The devs behind Yakuza/ Like a Dragon after making there first PS3 game for that franchise did a panel. How to make a HD game in less than 10 months. Only 2 games in that franchise took more than 1 year to make 5 and Infinite. Due to them being the biggest and in 5's case being big and updating the engine and refreshing the core gameplay.
@@ygny1116 Yet they have a great story using its environment and dark mood and hard difficulty to back up the apocalyptic feel. Also the games do have cutscenes to back it up like any smart game studio would do.
A good example that many don't know about is DAO first started in 2002 ... we have spoken before Mark if you can remember a couple of years ago a couple of times
Hey, I'm not sure if you can answer this, but I'm wondering whether the decision to focus so much on Solas in Trespasser was predicated on the assumption that the next Dragon Age game would be out relatively soon (say, within 3-5 years). If you'd known at the time how long it would be before DA4, would that DLC have played out differently?
The longest I can thin of that I have been waiting for a game is between the Trespasser DLC for DA:Inquisition and DA:The Veilguard. Before that it was from Mass Effect 3 to Mass Effect Andromeda. Though that is probably more the I gave up on waiting for the sequel to Baldur's Gate 2. I am looking forward to getting my hands on Veilguard and seeing if I enjoy the game as much as I did the previous games in the series and end up spending the thousands of hours I have in Origins and Inquisition, or the hundreds that I did in DA2.
@@MarkDarrah Really looking forward to finding out if this is the game that finally gets me to take a break from Baldur's Gate 3. I never finished the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty expansion because of BG3 (though possibly partly also due to Mass Effect Legendary Edition). I barely played Starfield for an hour because of BG3. The last game that absorbed so much of my time was DA: Inquisition (cyberpunk 2077 came close, which I never thought a first person game would as I much prefer the third person over the shoulder view).
I've been highly into Dragon Age when it was still in production in 2008 just after the release of Mass Effect 1 in 2007 ... and would really love to be on the Beta testing team for Dragon Age Veilguard as I'm from Melbourne Australia
@@MarkDarrah I saw that you replied and i was watching your lessons in game dev series at work. Made cleaning the place easier. I have tomorrow off and i decided i should give Anthem another chance its been a while since i played it. All i remember is the combat is good essentially Mass Effect Andromeda's but improved and it was fun flying around. The story was generic and kinda funny bad. Love your vids.
Quick review Anthem aged better than i thought at least in terms of gameplay and level design. I'm curious as to why the camera is in first person during the fort and why you rarely see the your characters face. Time limit or immersion?
Just finished the ME trilogy recently and I'm honestly kind of confused about why EA even bothered switching to open world. In ME3 alone I have 50 hours from just one playthrough and I know I want to play it again at some point, and that's more than I can say about quite a few open world games. Open world is great when done well, but ME's original structure feels like it still has a lot of untapped potential to grow and evolve.
It's very interesting that one of the reasons you list for delays is repeated iteration on systems and ideas when their lack of refinement is one of the most common complaints of newly released games. I wonder if this is because of changing standards, too much iteration to the point the systems lose their original purpose, or something else.
Good example of production are 2 Capcom's franchises - Resident Evil and Devil May Cry. From 2017 we got 5 RE titles and only 1 DMC title(not counting mobile Peak of Combat) and there is no even rumors about DMC6. It might look strange if we don't closely who made these games. Devil May Cry games except from 2013 reboot were made by one team, leaded by Hideaki Itsuno. DMC 5, released in 2019 has officially confirmed 4-year development cycle (the largest among japanese saga), which makes sense reminding that DMC4 Special Edition (re-release of DMC on PS4 and XBO, with adding new playable characters) released in 2015. Actually 4-year development cycle is Capcom's standard from PS4 generation. DMC5 Special Edition released in 2020, then same Itsuno made Dragon's Dogma 2 ( he also made first, just to mention). That is why we won't see DMC 6 until 2028 (20th anniversary of DMC4😂). In RE franchise things are different. RE7, RE2 Remake and RE3 Remake were made by 3 different teams, team that made RE7 after that made RE Village, and team, that made RE2 Remake, made RE4 Remake(and again RE7 in 2017, RE Village in 2021 - 4 years; RE2 RE in 2019, RE4 RE in 2023 - 4 years). This works similar to how CoD games are made - there are also 3 main studios that makes games just increase frequency of releases new titles of franchise.
@@MarkDarrah Mark, off topic question, who is Corinne Busche - director of Veilguard? I mean has she worked on previous DA titles, if she did - as who? I'm asking because I can't find her at Mobygames site (site which records game credits, and allows you to check on what games did this person worked), what is strange, because Veilguard has another director(?) John Epler, he is followed by Dragon Age in X, his profile description mentions that he is creative director of Veilguard, there are also interviews with him. His or even your credits of I write name to search I can find easily on Mobygames, but if I write (by ctrlC+ctrlV from PC gamer article, or her X account) Busche name it shows no results, what is strange.
I think it's because of features creep? It's like studios and gamers expect single player video games should take 10 million years to complete and the size of actual city. I prefer shorter adventure, less burden to developer, refined features and comes in every 2-3 years.
Yes the "research" says that session days (number of days a player plays) is the direct cause of final sales. So therefore, everyone wants the forever game that will sell 20+ million
can you make a video about proper preproduction, because frankly I think its underutilized, and studios tend to fix everything the last year of the project by just dumping tons of people on the problem.
9:41 This is an excellent point, im just wondering does reusing assets lower development time by a lot? because this is something that i really miss, back then many sequels reused assets and as a result we got quality sequels, i personally wouldnt mind a game like cyberpunk to reuse its open world if there was more focus on fleshing out the world and making it more interactive and dynamic.
We must add the new branch of video games on the list. We have indie games ,double A, AAA games aaaaaaaaand Corporate Games. The new souless type of games that are doomed to fail on release even though the budget and developers numbers and time for it were huge and plenty
@@MarkDarrah You would think that but no.. and i agree that games that want to appeal to everyone.. like Assassin Creed Valhalla can sell big numbers. What i identify as Corporate Games are games dictated by higher ups to please shareholders not gamers. Games where they don't give creative and choice freedom to the developers, and they demand the game to be online multiplayer in it to over monetize it. Games that the developers hate working on. Example: Redfall. A game where the developers wished xbox would scrap the project after bethesda aquisition. A game with no direction, souless, bland that had to check a lot of boxes, in terms of narrative too, full of microtransactions and the promise of more microtransactions in the future that ultomately led to the studio's demise.
Great video, but now I have a question: that phase you're talking about when a studio announces a game but have only 10-12 people working on it, is it what is known as "pre-production" ? Or is it something different ? Also, the game I am waiting for the most in 2024 (outside of DA) is WH40k: Space Marines 2 And the one in 2025 is "Expedition 33"
I always wondered if the reason AAA games take so long is that development of a different game is thrown out in favor for what came out later. With respect to long term games like World of Warcraft, I actually weirdly feel that World of Warcraft's is hitting its end soon. Blizzard announced 3 expansions upcoming. But since Microsoft has officially taken over, it feels like Microsoft may be seeing how this next expansion does whether they wish to continue the game. Also, you mentioned that teams change projects. Do you feel that this is a good idea to bring new ideas to game systems? Or could be more beneficial for an entire team to make a sequel so that they could improve what didn't work before rather than maybe starting over from square one in the learning process of the issues in this particular game series?
Great video. Really interesting to hear your perspective on this. Dragon Age Veilguard is a game I've followed and waited for and will be there day one. Vampire the masquerade bloodlines 2 is a game I've given up on. I was intrigued by a sequel as the original is one of my favourite games but the change in dev teams and general strange handling of the vampire property and game has killed my interest. Not a game but the wait for Winds of Winter also gradually killed my interest in that series and story, though at least GRRM is producing TV shows now, so that's a bonus.
Great insight, thank you! But it's driving me nuts, what's the little yellow thing taped to the shelf behind you on your left that's on a toothpick taped to your shelf?
Do companies that deploy multiple teams for the same franchise (think call of duty or monster hunter) have a different cycle because of how they're only focused on one franchise?
Can you explain why they changed the combat in DAV to be so "Batman Arkham" styled and not like DAI. I think DAI had the best combat of all the games, I'm so upset they went the fully action route. Thanks if you can answer Mark! :)
At least for DAV, I bet it is the change of gameplay, live service, no live service, open world, no open world. Rpg with action elements then Action game. Seems then leadership change is more interesting than the game itself.
I gotta think the length cross gen has gone on for with this console cycle hasn't helped. Trying to be creative and innovate with new systems that just can't work on both specs, yet still being forced to find a way.
@@MarkDarrah The wait gave me time for 2 more playthroughs and a rereading of Tevinter nights so I'm happy I got to wait this long. Just accumulating hype at this point.
@@MarkDarrah I know, but at least remaster would be nice and it can be a filler while we are waiting 3-5 years of development for next Dragon Age / Mass Effect.
Game takes too long and too much money to make -> Game is forced to sell to the biggest audience imaginable to make up for it -> Game is sold for everyone making it unappealing for most people -> Game ''underperforms'' That's all I keep seeing. Even if only 3 years of those 10 are the ''real dev time'' the cost of making the game has been getting higher and higher wich is the relevant part anyway. Make a smaller game for a more concrete audience. Tha's what I felt BioWare was since 1998 until EA aquired it, sure you can evolve the genre, tweak systems and whatnot (BG->NVW->Jade,KOTOR-> DA:O), but forgo everything to chase trends it's not the way imo. I may never know what you really think about BioWare's trajectory or if I'll eventually see BioWare's ''soul'' if you will, again on a new game under EA and with the new blood but I'll always be grateful for all the work you're done through the years. I want to keep loving DA but I barely recognize it, it's way too far from DA:O on every way from tone to gameplay and everything in between. It might even be a cool new game but it feels more like a new IP to me and I honestly think the marketing is just making it worse, I'm sure there will be more info in time but the mediums and the focus is way off imo. I don't think 3h of story spoilers on an article or 30 minutes of lvl 1 gameplay with more spoilers is where the focus should go. The game has clearly been simplified in MANY ways, show some of the remaining complexity, show high level fulfilling combat, show CC, show weapon loadouts in action. It really feels like you (royal) just want to ''speak about it'' rather than ''showing'' what you've cooked as if you're not really proud of it and just want to minimize disappointment and/or sell smoke.
Why does AAA fail to craft a solud main stary or even sidestories. Take Skyrim the main story of the Dragonborn is so shallow with no impact nor the sidestorries with the theivesguild College of Magi or the companions. The same with besthade Fallout 4 an ending with the institute and minutet men should have been a good ending and a progessive ending with an tecnology advanced city state of Boston wit the institute technology and the minutmens ideas manpower and settlements.
Bethesda games are built around randomly accessing story beats for the most part. As a result, the central story is allowed to fade into the background
Could it be okay with your boss if you made a AA games instead? I would rather see frequent installments like Call of Duty than something massive like RDR2. Afterall, your games are really about a story. They are not about achieving trophies.
🙏 I pray dragon age is good 🙈 seriously please lol I've been playing since origin I want to know where the story goes 🤔 honestly if I could have a few little wishs I want my desire demons back lol 😏 my questionable red light district taverns lol 😂🤔 I liked the little city hubs (even if it's not an open world game makes it feel a little more open world-ish )🤔 I liked the original darkspawn design 🤷 but things change that's fine and Honestly 😭 mod support for PlayStation 🤔 idk if Xbox does 🤔 ( so them too) I'm not a console warrior but I do like playing my console
Usually I agree and I do with some of your points in the video. Anyway it shouldn't take 10 or more years to release a new game, and as for GTA its not about graphics. As Rockstar is milking part five and raking in the cash from the online version. As for the next ES game Starfield delayed it, and as for BioWare who the hell knows why it took almost 11 years.
Okay, let's say a team took the combat and animations from their previous game to make it easier to develop the game. Let's say they've reused a couple of other mechanics too. As a player, I'm okay with that, as long as they show us what they have been saving forces for all that time. When I'm looking at a gameplay reveal I expect it to demonstrate the full palette of opportunities that makes me want to buy the game. If I see the same product as X years ago with minor improvements such as textures it makes me angry and frustrated. I just don't see all of the cool stuff they were working on, and it seems sloppy/lazy, even if it's not. The first impression matters! I hope they know that and we're going to see some more exciting footage before the release. Thank you very much for the video and your time!
Honestly DA:O with Awakening was wonderful, but i haven't felt the want to play anything after 2. I tend to play games a few years behind due to the limited time i have to play games, so there isn't anything i am aware of that I'd play on release
I don't really care how long it takes if it's good, but I am sure we will see games be released much faster as all sorts of generative tools become mainstream. Btw, Idk if this would make a good topic for a video, but it'd be cool to hear your thoughts on generative tools in video games etc. insights on video game tech in general.
To be fair, it takes a very long time to make the exact same game as the those of the last two decades, but fill it with more invasive, privacy-violating data capture algorithms.
The point is they aren't the exact same. They are full of more intricate system (yes sometimes to hook MTX into) and more intricate visuals that involve a lot more moving parts
As a game developer, your job is NOT making a mediocre game in lightening speed. Instead, you should thrive for making the best most enjoyable game you possibly can, even if it takes longer to do so. The level of details and intricacies matter. Stellar Blade is a perfect example.
it's all fun and games until your publishers says you need to release it early because they need to look good to their shareholders, then your job goes from "making an enjoyable game" to "release it in whatever state necessary to be classified as a playable game".
@@MarkDarrahintricacy doesn’t necessarily always equal to enjoyment, but adding the level of nuanced details to the right gaming mechanism is what makes a good game great. As mentioned, Stellar Blade is a great example where the level of details makes doing the most mundane side quests fun (you can literally feel the raindrops).
@@MarkDarrah good to hear a lot of DEI consultants seem to put inclusion above telling a great story, all bioware games I played so far did a good job of balancing both, but a lot of modern games sadly don't reach their full potential because of that a good story/good gameplay should always be the main focus, but a lot of inclusion feels forced in modern games, and it hurts the storytelling in a lot of modern games don't get me wrong include whoever you want if it is reasonable and if you have a plan and a good story for the characters in question
"sticking to AAA games because that is what you are interested in" lol, lmao even. Also greedy investors and a stupid audience make a beautiful combo in leading to the result of the absolute garbage AAA games we've had for over a decade.
Everything you mentioned told me ME5 won't be truly worked on until DA: TV is 'done' which makes me not want any DLC for Veilguard. While I like the DA stories, I love ME because there were consequences for my decisions that molded the story and there was continuity with the same protagonist. You mention 'delays because of culture', I can't help feeling that all of the companions were modeled/done and then Corinne Buche happened. I think of EA forcing BioWare to use the Frostbite engine nobody wanted and how many years it took them to turn it into a useable 'FrostWare' engine. Now all of the Dragon Age resources are stuck with that and all of the devs moving over to ME5 will have to spend years learning UE5+. Shoot me if I'm wrong. I'm old at 67. My 'new' PC is now old. I have played BG 1-2, Jade Empire, every Neverwinter Nights game that came out, DA 1-2 and ME 1-3. I have loved BioWare for a very long time. At the end of the day, BioWare has given me a lot of joy from their storytelling and I hope to live long enough to play ME5. Please hurry.
@@OccultEclipse I'll try to be based, without any research then. Hypothetically speaking, if 5% of the population is Gay, Bi, or Transgendered, 35% are Christian, and 60% are Meh, it doesn't make sense to me business-wise to cater towards the 5%.
@@quintyss1290 I genuinely have no idea what you’re babbling about, but BioWare has always been pro lgbt and aside from some minor whining from homophobes it’s never caused a problem. It almost seems like you’re trying to claim that just because she’s trans and was hired that somehow she disrupted the company culture by making everything gay, which is a really weird and flat out wrong presumption.
laziness devs only want money half of then does't even no how to make stuff and games are complete broke even after 10 years and not to mention DEI like sweet baby inc those creepy are complete ruining AAA games
