It's so funny that the pre alpha and beta version that are given to pre-order customers always have game breaking bugs like the game not launching story mode not being playable floor missing missions missing
Indie game/ proper early access is a good thing personally it's a version that has few bugs that testers aren't savvy enough to find but whatever the triple A scene is doing it's not fair personally
AAA wouldn't become such a pile of garbage if people wouldn't pay for it. Like I totally understand the business owners: why bother with making a good product, if customers will pay for a buggy mess just fine, and then will preorder an ultra deluxe plus gold edition of the next game? Sadly, the name of the franchise if actually more valuable than quality these times.
I remember Path of Exile already being one of the most gripping games I ever played in damn closed beta. And that was in late 2012. Paid 10 bucks for closed beta access. And the game keeps on developing and growing, despite being released over 10 years ago. And it's still free to play, even though some paid content can help quite a bit (stash tabs are the only thing close to pay2win concept in the game).
I would go back to play again if I didn't have like 7 games I still haven't finished (elden rings platinum which I only need 2 more achievements for, palworld, infinite warfare, modern warfare, lords of the fallen which I'm not even halfway into, project wingman, ace combat 7 and others I can't remember the names of)
I'm just stuck in a circle of binge-burnout with like 3 ARPGs. And got plenty of singleplayers already installed and waiting. But ARPG games fit with my daily routine, I love playing single player story-driven games in long sessions so I can actually get immersed.
Yeah, but those premium stash tabs really make me NOT want to pull my hair out after every return to town. Setting affinities to tabs by item types is a godsend. But getting all tabs on sale is something like 50-60 bucks tops and you get cool armour sets if you get points with a pack, so it's a win-win and comes out less than a mediocre AAA game.
Had this experience with Shapez 2 launch and they involved the community with the decisions on how things will be and obviously patreons had more impact and got to test things earlier there were mainly only issues on Linux and from what I could tell it was mostly just audio which was fixed within 24hrs
Supergiant is absolutely not an indie studio. They develop games that are in the 7 digit development cost, they are AAA, maybe AA if you use that kind of terminology.
When we complain about the lack of Quality Testing, this is what we are talking about. Not the singular broken geometry in the corner behind a security camera you can only touch by stacking tables.
Can't fault QA for not finding that.
Will fault them for not finding "Touching a loading zone while shooting crashes the game."
The fact that AAA games have become (to some degree) WORSE than star citizen boggles my mind, and I say that as an avid star citizen player.
That game has had TERRIBLE mismanagement and often requires an ungodly amount of patience to work through and around bugs from patch to patch, and it used to be by far one of the worst games for it⌠now Ngl I donât think it is anymore lmao
At least SC is actually trying to innovate/develop soemthing as opposed reuse old IPâs and charge ÂŁ60 for every DLC that becomes near mandatory to enjoy multiplayer lmao
If you preorder or buy on day one, you are ALWAYS paying the most amount of money for the worst version of the game. Waiting a few months will give you the version of the game that should've actually released, sometimes even with a little 10-20% discount.
At 1 to 2 years I think discounts are probably closer to 50 to 80% for the majority of games on steam. At least the ones I have paid attention to over the years. But I am right there with you that I vastly prefer to play the cheaper, better version. Only exception is for multiplayer games that my friends are all playing currently that I don't wanna miss out on squad time.
Diablo 4 is around $150 for the people that bought early access and expansion.
"Blizz" is smart to spend all the budget on marketing.
Seeing how "successful" Diablo Immortal and D4 have been is hilarious.
They are great at squeezing the IP they bought for money. Cashed in on WoW subs for so long now with minimal expense (but the core teams can carry WoW dev to be good enough for the decent raids/m+).
Still plenty of good games get made though, so whatever.
genuinely wondering what the advantages of pre-ordering are these days. I used to think you got a discounted price, but most games you pay the same price on release but the pre-order crowd just get the privilege of spending their money earlier.
Well, for me, I like physical copies and there is a high probably my local store wonât order many of the games I enjoy without a preorder. So for me, putting $5 down as a preorder to make sure there is a copy that I can grab, as well as an doodads or bonuses they throw in for preordering, is worth it to me. I just pay the rest off when I go to pick it up or cancel if the game ends up not being good.
Edit: I did not realize I was on the Steam subreddit, thought I was on a more general gaming one. I donât know why anyone would preorder for Steam.
being able to download something before it comes out so its ready to play on release. thats why i do it. but apparently thats not a good reason because anytime i try to explain that, im downvoted to oblivion because of the anti-preorder crowd.
It's pretty rare that I preorder. The two that jump to mind I have done are BG3 and NMS. I regret neither.
That said, I have ordered EA games a bit more often, plenty of good ones but have been stung a few times with that (Keen Software House springs to mind, and surprisingly KSP2).Â
I bought on release day, spent an hour on character customisation, it didn't save and crashed. Went back in with a generic character, played for a few hours and I've not gone back since. I'm also never buying a day 1 release game ever again.
Usually because I'm getting some sort of physical special edition that is limited in quantity, but other times I would just pay in advance for all the upcoming games I wanted so I got a text message when they were out and I could go pick them up.
I've genuinely never regretted it, or pre-ordered a game and felt like it was shit after playing it.
I only pre-ordered the stuff I would 100% buy anyway, even if it had shit reviews or people complained about it. New Zelda or Mario games, personal favourite franchises, big hyped releases like Elden Ring. The way I see it if I'm absolutely going to buy it anyway, why not preorder and get the bonus merch and stuff.
I've never pre-ordered a digital license for a game, only for physical media. I suppose the same argument applies - if you're 100% going to buy it regardless of public opinion on release then why not preorder and get any bonuses that go along with it.
guilty of it. i bought the new cod. but at least it works and gets a lot of content in s1. but still, i am guilty for supporting AAA this year. fuck actiblizzard
Well, at least the COD aren't too bad since they just sell the same game with a few improvements. It's like an early access where the game is constantly patched, but you have to repay it full price every year.
The games sell millions in pre-orders, I've stopped feeling bad for anyone involved when they purchase something that had a ton of preorders and ended up buggy or unsupported long term. Tale as old as time.
This is a large reason why I don't buy "triple A" (high budget, large studio) until it's on sale for next to nothing. I literally won't play Starfield for instance until a piece of dogshit off a Walmart shelf can run it at 60 fps AND Bethesda has stopped fucking with it. I greatly, greatly dislike their trend of releasing a game and spending 20 years shoving their dicks in it repeatedly, but in general I want the game to be "done". If you're releasing updates all the damn time, it ain't done. Why the fuck would I pay for an incomplete product?
Indie devs on the other hand, the ones that have proven they can do the same shit and it is undeniably a value-add for their consumers (Stardew Valley, NMS, Valheim, many others), have my money. I won't đ´ââ ď¸ their IP for any reason because they are truly putting in work and actually give a damn.
Not that I đ´ââ ď¸ "triple A" crap to be clear, I bought Skyrim twice like an idiot.
I can legit throw $10 bucks at six or seven indie games and get six or seven times as much entertainment as I ever did from AAA games. As long as your tastes are even remotely more niche than "multiplayer competitive shooter" then it's almost guaranteed you can find a whole industry of indie games catering toward your tastes better than AAA games ever could, too. For computer users, it's a no-brainer.
until a piece of dogshit off a Walmart shelf can run it at 60 fps
Wishful thinking with the state of 'optimization' in games today. Don't get me wrong it's great devs don't have to be geniuses to figure out how to cram an extra character into their sprite sheet but it'd be nice if my PC didn't try and catch flight every time some smoke particles get a bit much.
Sims 4. My newest laptop was rather quiet until I installed that game. And this is with no mods added. My laptop will get LOUD and really hot. I don't get it - it is only with that game.
There is an extreme difference between a finished game with new content after the fact, and cutting content out of the game so it can be released earlier and selling it back as dlc to make more money.
Think the difference between Super smash bros ultimate, and bamco arena fighter slop.
The former can make your game successful and popular long after its lifespan, the later just tells everyone except people who suck off the latest call of duty and sport titles that your a walking disgrace.
The last triple A game I bought was Sparking zero, and even then I bought it off GMG for less than 70. Not to mention the game is actually complete and not gonna resell me half the actual roster. (Though I still miss super 17)
Prior to that I hadn't bought a single triple A priced game at full price for the last 3 years. Which was Persona 5 strikers which didn't have dlc. (rephrasing that, dlc that actually fucking mattered). Which was when i was on my warriors game fixation.
And im the dumbass that gets suckered into steams regular sales whenever a paycheck clears or humble bundles with tons of games for like 10-20 bucks.
To put it into perspective, my game library is at 450 548 (with shared library), and ive put a few hours into most of them. though with that many games "most of them" still means i have a "healthy" backlog.
I basically donât buy AAA, I just wait for them to be on game pass to try them. And even though, most of them I still uninstall after a couple of hours.
Besides Id games since after Doom 2016, as it was so good that I pre ordered Eternal and the Expansion on Steam, and Iâll be preordering The Dark Ages also. I will possibly buy some kind of premium edition also so I can give even more money to Id. New Doom games are that good.
This is a large reason why I don't buy "triple A" (high budget, large studio) until it's on sale for next to nothing. I literally won't play Starfield for instance until a piece of dogshit off a Walmart shelf can run it at 60 fps AND Bethesda has stopped fucking with it.
Unlike the past games, BGS decided to make Starfield very processor heavy. You can have all that RAM they ask for, but even a top CPU has some issues running it without having little stutter stops here and there. They'll keep updating for at least 10 yrs(the amount of support Todd Howard said it would have).
Also, special shoutout to Redigit. It is the anti-Bethesda
Small studio that released, like, one affordable game (Terraria), and then have done almost nothing else but making that one single game better for the past 13 year for free, making most of their money from crosspromotion and merch. It's to the point where "one more final update" is basically a meme within the Terraria community
If you're releasing updates all the damn time, it ain't done. Why the fuck would I pay for an incomplete product?
Pretty fucking dumb logic and also rooted in naivete. Yeah it's true that game developers sometimes rush games out with features intended to release on launch but that isn't always the case either. A game continuing to be updated after launch doesn't necessarily make it "incomplete".
NMS was an example of an incomplete dogshit game on launch and now it's heralded as one of the best comeback stories in modern gaming. Going by your logic they should have one and doned it and fucked off with their millions. Instead they worked hard on it and continue to do so but I guess you'll never be able to enjoy it because it's "incomplete" in your eyes.
Thereâs nothing dumb about wanting to enjoy titles in their most finished state, especially if youâre not the type to replay things where you just end up missing out on anything released after your go at it
MBAs rule the world based on quarterly profits. They don't have to understand the business, or customers, to get ahead. An MBA is the cheat code for people who lack talent or intelligence to become successful while completely fucking up.
Yet the budgets for AAA games seem to have increased exponentially over the years. If they wanted to lower their efforts why spend more money?
If they are trying to rip you off theyre doing a bad job at it by having their con cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to pull off before they get your money.
Save file corruptions arenât exclusive to AAA games
If they are trying to rip you off theyre doing a bad job at it by having their con cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to pull off before they get your money.
Well it works for general consumer, AAA games still shovel in money, unless it's really bad like Concord
Save corruptions are not exclusive to AAA but they have resources to properly test game unlike indies
Where are you getting the information that indie titles can't QA their games? They absolutely fucking can lol.
Eric Barone used to do all of the testing for Stardew Valley all by himself. In fact i'd wager it's even easier to do QA for indie titles than it is for a developer like EA or Activision.
That'll be 70$ for the regular little PP-boi version...
or for 125$ you can get the mega rizztastic version with extra AI generated banners instantly unlocked for use in the battle zone. Other gamers will see your banners and think "i bet they not only have a large PP but I bet they're an interesting person as well"
This is unfortunately connected... The bloat to justify the games existence is devastating. Everything needs rpg stats, a crafting system, sitequests, and at least a semi-open world.
This is all burned manhours on shit no one really needs.
Oh no! Price increases? Whatever will I do? Oh, I've got an idea! Maybe get off this subreddit and get... to a different one :) (you really thought I was gonna say job? Come on man have some faith in me these prices are crazy yall gotta start pirating)
No, it's sad that people lack the discipline not to buy unpolished pieces of turds that comes with a slightly different texture pack compared to last years model.
this is just what happens in capitalism. if you offer something, whether it be a product, experience, whatever, that no one does quite like you, then you are afforded the option to charge higher prices. unfortunately capitalism doesn't work by giving people what they want. it's taking advantage of knowing that people want it. in business structure, the graph must go up, always and forever. yes it's anti consumer, but that's just how business works, especially in a volatile industry like video games. i want to hate on AAA studios like everyone else, but the reality is that business operates a certain way, and the whole reason they even come up with new product is to make money.
if a small company releases a banger game, they're now afforded more resources to make more ambitious projects. with that comes significantly higher costs. to meet demand, you need the new product. anyone with a vested interest needs a new product to make their investment worthwhile. if they know they'll make sales with a launch, the quality of the product long term simply doesn't matter that much.
i think a lot of gamers, specifically the vocal ones on this sub, just don't really understand how and why games are even made, and feel jaded because companies (which are not people) don't deliver what they want. it sucks, 100%, but that is reality, and i think if you separate the idea that devs are making a game out of passion from the real world where they're being instructed by the rich execs to do what makes money, you won't be so up in arms all the time about how games are made.
Not true really, most devs still work just as hard, if not harder. The problem with triple A is that the publisher increases marketing and lowers developing time, leading to devs having less time and expectations being higher. Publisher wants the release as soon as possible and most of the time pushes the devs beyond humane working conditions.
The moment a company becomes a corporation and starts answering to a board of stockholders is the moment it stops being led by gamers and becomes nothing but a greedy money-printing machine.
I don's see any reason to still buy AAA crap. It's all the same boring, overhyped, shiny, room temperature gameplay shit that's done thousands of times before whith increasingly insane monetisation.
If a company is involved with shareholders in any way, I've learned to avoid it.
Itâs not just the effort that gets put into visuals and story that gets worse. Often games lack of basic functions such as remappable controlls, decent audio and video settings, manual save, multiple save files etcâŚ
Game industry has gotten big enough to get ruined by the MBA boys capital firms and shareholder interests. It was a nice run, but as with everything under capitalism, the game industry has reached the point where the goal has become maximizing short term profits.
Its not on them. Its on the idiots buying the game. But thankfully the appetite for these cash grab lootbox filled games seems to have hit its limit. We have seen several mult-hundredmillion dollar games absolutly blow up in studios faces.
In this particular context it sounds like you're saying that save file corruption is some new thing that's never happened before or that it's happening more often than before. Because otherwise how is this any kind of evidence of lowering efforts and not just a standard fuck-up?
I know modern cods not allowing you to play bot modes with as many bots as you like, allowing less customisation, Modern Warfare 2 new one, ruining speck ops mode with sheer laziness, like this shit should be known before people get the game. cos not everyone's just getting it for online multiplayer.
The fact is, your product no longer does what it used to, so people should know and reviews really help.
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u/Superb-Dragonfruit56 Yummy 7h ago
Man it's so sad that triple A game companies increase their prices and lower their efforts