HolyInferno
69599
1208
25
Sep 4, 2024 8:16 PM
HolyInferno
69599
1208
25
Someshithead241
Liz Truss lasted longer than this game. The woman who got beat by a lettuce.. beat this game in shelf life. That's how bad it was.
PixelSprite64
DdCno1
->
Atlas1990
The funniest thing about this whole situation is that I'd never heard of the game til this all started
LupusLilium
I've heard of Concord like three times before this post. Once was a gaming webcomic mentioning that it had been out for 24hrs, one was a headline that I didn't care to pay attention to because it was more of an advertisement rather than anything newsworthy, the third was an actual headline talking about Concord shutting down. It's been roughly 12 days since the webcomic was posted.
sircowdog
Good. Shitty games based on bad ideas cooked in some disconnected board room, based on "trends" that only serve less than 1% of players SHOULD die like this.
ShanyBoy
This just makes me miss Battleborn (a first person hero MOBA from Gearbox studios from years ago) even more. That game had a lot of the features that were promised (then pulled out of) Overwatch 2 that had people so hyped. But people just assumed it was a clone of Overwatch so, no one paid it any attention and it got shutdown due to a dead playerbase. It had a great artstyle and memorable cast of characters imo and I feel like it'd do great today if the market wasn't so oversaturated.
Turkleturts
BB was pretty good for what it was. I just think it was a bad time to release it. No one wanted a FPS-MOBA at the time, and OW overshadowed it massively, because Blizzards fanbase would buy a turd sandwich if they marketed it right. My issue with BB was that I wanted more PvE stuff, because it was Borderlands that made me buy it.
TheoryOfSteve
I never cheer for someone to fail. People worked on it. I feel bad for them.
TinaTheWonderBra
Maybe they’ll Fortnite it.
Or maybe it’s the new Anthem.
Although I feel like Anthem lasted longer. It also had some good ideas, but it should’ve been a single player BioWare RPG instead of a … what was it? Looter shooter?
Damn, I really wanted Anthem to be better than it was. I enjoyed flying around in a mechsuit fighting things with my wife. The rest of it just… meh.
Also can we get a 3rd Titanfall? I loved that multiplayer combat.
NoNameFred
Isn't Anthem still quietly limping along in the background somewhere? Initial videos, etc, looked pretty fun gameplay, but the whole "multiplayer" part put me off entirely; I want a game I can play at my own pace — leave aside when I'm busy, pick up when I have time off work, and not need to worry about FOMO events or discovering all the content is now scaled for twice my level and I've been left behind.
mward1984
Liz Truss's Premiereship lasted longer than this, and she couldn't outlast a head of lettuce.
CaptCrobar
Arrived to late into the market over budget and boring. Glad they canceled the turd. Sony learn from this mistake and make a game with a relistic budget.
TheWombatStrikesAgain
No learn! Only money!
duhitspollo
"Concord" was a dumb name, right? I cant be the only one who thought that.
Dondarian
Never even heard of this game. *Shrug*
pianostacatto
Another game that the world apparently kept secret for some time. But when it begins to fail, or is progressively and actively failing, that's when I first learn about it throughout the various social medias.
How the fuck does this happen? No wonder the game failed. A larger audience doesn't even know about it.
Admiral27
It released two weeks ago
MidnaDS
hotaru251
wanna know why so many big multi yr & godforsaken cost games fail so bad? Becasue they are all "service" games and they are competing in a market w/ free 2 play options that are insanely popular. Charging $ for same game that just looks different is never going to survive.
Astramancer
If you go one layer deeper it's the same reason why so many big companies fall flat on their face time and time again: The people who took tiny company to large company were invested in the product. The people who took large company to huge company were invested in the company. It's the finance bros killing everything.
Youhavinagiraffe
People tried to create the WOW-killer for years before realising that the people who like WOW are too busy playing WOW to pick up a new game that functions like a 2nd job that you pay for
blackguard89
Pretty much. Im tired of live service and the FOMO events and battle passes with even Overwatch 2 so kindly picked up. We have to thank Fortnite form that particular thing I feel, since they started doing their thing, now all online games seem to have battle passses of some sort
Endocrom
Not even any decent rule 34 either.
FarceMajeure
Seems like after Overwatch 2 landed with such a wet flop, a bunch of game companies rushed to fill the vacuum. But the flop had been such a gradual rollout that instead of being a vacuum, it was just an abandoned space.
EarthDragon2189
This game has been in development since Overwatch 1 dropped.
Thomocracy
There’s no way anyone at Concord thought this was a hit. This was a team of devs following orders but the people calling the shots don’t care about games.
delecti
They worked on the game for ~7 years as indies before being bought by Sony. Somehow I think they must have actually been invested in it.
echonite
Sounds kinda like Hello Games and No Mans Sky. Sony takeover seems to guarentee a shit launch for whatever reason.
CP3oh
I'm sure some did. For others, it's a paycheck, a chance to learn and gain experience, to network and just live the kinda life you get to live when you're gainfully employed. That being said, if I worked at Firewalk I would very much be capturing as much of my work (animation) as I can and reaching out to contacts. I'd try to avoid being there when the axe falls.
RuminatingYak
I don't believe that. Every aspect of the game is just uninspired. From the character design, which is bland and lifeless, to the boring levels and mediocre game modes, to the absurdly convoluted way you "build" your roster of heroes. If anyone was invested in this, then it was talentless hacks with severe Overwatch envy. The only aspect of the game that's good is the gunplay. But that doesn't do much when everything else sucks.
TalaayaCosplay
Do we know what it looked like before the takeover?
zeiji
doubt sony said slow down the game play and make the game play a bit more generic.
heroesblood
You'd be surprised. Project reorgs happen all the time last-minute.
onlyhalfghost
Command & Conquer Renegade (yes, the weird FPS) was a stealth game like MGS until 6 months before release.
apostlepk
Yes, I've seen some before and after pics on the characters. The concept art on the characters was much better than the overhauled result. Sorry I don't have a link, it was in one of the many vids I watched on youtube, no clue which one.
mward1984
The whole endevour was baffling from start to finish. The Hero-Shooter genre is old and showing it's live-spots. Unless you've got a hook, like say a Marvel license, like Net-Ease have, then you're not going to do well. Especially when all but one of your characters all fucking look the same.
Like, who even thinks releasing a game in this genre when Marvel Rivals is due out literally any time now is a good idea?
At least Mecha-Break are waiting until 25 to release.
bobislost
it was also $40 while the marvel and most others are f2p, utterly baffling management decisions
TalaayaCosplay
Suits who don't understand appeal and just look at numbers from what other things were successful.
smashpro1
And Mecha-Break has a cool hook going for it.
mward1984
Exactly! Plus it actually seems more finished than Concord does from what I've seen of the Beta. I honestly think they're waiting for Rivals to release first and then coming out after the hype has died down a bit.
Vemone
Tons of braindead woke stuff these days. I am happy that in the end, the market will always speak for itself. Time to face reality.
Allrighty
Ironically, complaining about "woke" is the most braindead thing you can possibly do.
Nautas
Was it just bad?
breakingbadlover
Yes it was, people say that it was bland and generic. True but the movement was awfull, none of the character kit felt impactfull and a bunch of small gameplay choices that didnt make sense, like the respawn points and the character seleection process.
FlyingGiantElk
$40 for 4-8yo gameplay, poor design, and it’s competing against games from 4-8yo with established fanbases and name recognition, and those games are FREE.
Why would you buy a $40 game when you can play the better alternative for free?
Jefftheonewiththenuke
I'd pay $40 if the game doesn't have micro transactions. It's also a bit of a barrier for cheaters. But this game didn't interest me. I also only heard about it last week.
mward1984
It also had Microtransactions.
thespaceneedle
Apparently not so much bad as completely uninspired and derivative
srsfaceI8C
No, the gameplay was legitimately very good. The market place was completely disinterested though. I no-lifed it until I got news they were pulling the plug, it's all I've played the last two weeks because it hooked me like no other shooter has in a long time.
I'm genuinely bummed people weren't willing to give it a shot because it was actually pretty great.
SoftKleenex
Generic in gameplay and designs that people don't care much for, not much in terms of redeeming qualities. I guess the cinematic trailer looked pretty good
qwerty1418
It was a competently built game from what I've heard, no major glitches or performance issues. And it sounded like the gameplay felt fine, just nothing really groundbreaking or interesting about it to make it stand out from the crowd.
IlluminaBlade
The character roster was just supernaturally unappealing and the marketing spending god knows how much on CGI instead of showing the videogame being played didn't help.
anglarite
...wait, there was ANY marketing?
TheBigBadBonerBiter
Imagine making a hero shooter and making all of the hero designs absolute garbage.
blackguard89
I personally didnt have issues with the body types. But fuck me the clothing was ugly.... and what's with the muted colors, it looks like space fallout
mecalise
ew
Alavar
Best comment I read for this is that they all look like background extras for a Guardians of the Galaxy movie lol
blackguard89
that's actually very well put. They don't look like there's any focus on them, they look like cheap costumed extras
Felberin
Did they actually pull the plug? I heard someone claim it's gonna get pulled for reworks. So maybe the dev teams pull out No Man Sky and turn the face inwards see the flaws for what they are and turn the biggest dissappointment into arguably impressive success story :P
somnif
Everyone I've seen assumes it will be tossed back out as a free to play with tons of MTXs when the Amazon episode airs in the near future
mektel
Their steam page has an update and they are giving full refunds and it's not for sale on steam any more:
SoftKleenex
If they can rework that and make it successful that'll be quite a monumental achievement
TypicallyVigo
Eh, I think it would need a drastic rework on art assets, not just gameplay and content. The characters range from boring to downright ugly designs. And not cool ugly, just ugly. Which at that point, it's basically a different game.
LittleRobot71
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/09/two-weeks-after-launch-sony-shooter-concord-goes-offline-and-offers-refunds/
Trankia12
NMS was a brand new original experience people wanted. Concord is just another throw away hero shooter, it’s not offering anything that we haven’t seen before. They’d have to start from scratch again to make something unique enough for people to care about.
deaththeunholy
Pulled from store and refunds issues after they closed the studio doors. IP will exist but probably won’t be revived until they deem it a good idea in 2050
lysani
At least they issued refunds and pulled it from the stores, unlike KSP2 which had its entire studio laid off and is still being sold without any of the advertised features that people were told it would have.
Navrodel
8 years of development hell to release mediocrity with almost no marketing - if I worked on that game, I wouldn't care if they gave us a second chance, I'd be done too.
Wolfshead009
First I heard about it was when it showed up to be put on the shelves at the Walmarts I merchandize. Each store got two whole copies.
SlyMrFox
I didn't know about Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon movies until I saw the unsold merchandise at Walmart.
delecti
The game is being shut down and refunded, but do you have a source for the studio being shut down as well? The official announcement doesn't imply anything about that, and in fact implies they're going to keep working on it.
yzark01
Its basically a certainty at this point. They spent 8 years developing a game that debuted with like 1000 players and was shut down within a few weeks. Not to mention no one even played it during the open beta either. Re-releasing as a f2p game isnt going to work.
Its basically the biggest gaming flop in recent history, and Sony has shut down better studios for much less.
delecti
So.. speculation? If Sony were going to shut down the studio, they would do so, and probably not give refunds.
DdCno1
Studios have been killed for far, far less.
KallePaulsen
Overwatch? Isn't it that the game predominantly known for adult entertainment?
kyro
Porn of their most recent character landed before the character did.
Affray
What a time to be alive. I'm older than the internet and I can barely comprehend how easy it is to access porn today.
HolyInferno
You misspelled 'internet research'
srsfaceI8C
So as one of the people who actually bought it, ask me questions. Would love to have a dialog with people if they're actually wanting a good faith discussion.
My experience is the game was actually quite good. I totally get it flopped due to bad marketing and lack of consumer interest in the genre, but I'm more than willing to die on the hill the actual gameplay was extremely good. It's a travesty how this all played out.
EarthDragon2189
How many live/hero shooters have you played over the last decade? Because everything I saw looked like it was cribbing Destiny and Overwatch gameplay without adding anything new to the genre.
srsfaceI8C
Quite a few of them, including both of those games.
Gun play and movement were both very similar to Destiny, which I feel is a good thing. For all the faults of Destiny, shooting always felt satisfying and the movement was good.
It has literally nothing in common with the gameplay of Overwatch. Would be like comparing DOOM to Call of Duty. Sure it's the same genre but the game feel is extremely different and there's plenty of nuances that differentiate the two. (1)
srsfaceI8C
The character abilities were not the core focus of the characters for the most part. Yes you had to use them but the game rewarded you mostly for smart positioning and good aim. There were no characters unable to do a lot of damage, which I liked. I hate ultimates. Every round of a game that had stuff like that felt like you wait for 5 minutes doing nothing to charge your ultimate and then push your I Win Button and it was over. Concord was not like that. (2)
srsfaceI8C
The key thing it did that was new is rewarded you for building a roster, rather than "maining" a character. You got a bonus upon respawn based on the role of the character you played in a previous life, which I really liked. It was a very rewarding system once you got used to it, especially because it rewarded you for being generally good at everything rather than hyper focusing on one character. Unfortunately it's hard to explain this system easily, which is a fault of the game no question. (3)
srsfaceI8C
So it did do something new, and most importantly it felt really good and satisfying to play. The loops to recharge your character abilities were also quite fun depending on the character. I was constantly having to think and improvise in a way I don't feel like you have to do in Overwatch or CoD or any other shooter, really.
It's difficult to convey the depth to people without play time in the game, and that's ultimately why I think people believed it "didn't do anything new." (End)
blackguard89
Goddamn this whole thing pissed me off. Genius sony sends out overwatch clone, that also costs money, acts surprised it doesnt sell, then geniuses come out of the woodwork with IT FAILED BECAUSE WOKE. Sure Jimbo. Because it's woke...no other reason. Because heroes like you voted with your precious wallet and opinion. To be honest, I dont get the art direction. And no, not plus size chars. Just...colors look muted, outfits seem senseless in design....
EarthDragon2189
Typical conservative culture war idiocy: If something had woke stuff in it and it failed, it failed BECAUSE it was woke and no other reason. If something was successful and didn't try too hard to be woke, it succeeded BECAUSE it was "anti woke" and no other reason. Of course, stuff that succeeds "despite" being woke is ignored because it doesn't fit that narrative (like how BG3, the biggest smash hit of the past couple years, is one of the wokest games in existence).
Dxoh
What was supposed to be woke about it? I watched the trailer, and it was so bland that I'm not sure what is offending right wingers.
qwerty1418
The idiots are mad the characters got pronouns and the women aren't all supermodel body shapes.
Because it's definitely that and not a saturated market, bad art direction and overall character design, and poor marketing that made people not interested.
Skywatcher16
you imply they need anything to be offended at. that was your first mistake lol. but truth be told, its not woke. they just want to convince
Skywatcher16
people it is so they can add it to the pile of examples of "go woke go broke" cause they are starting to notice that most people realise
Skywatcher16
their evidence for that claim is pretty small compared to the whole, and a lot of it dosnt even hold water to boot.
PrincessLeliana
A;ways downvote shadman
PandarenThiccness
Scrolled down to see if anyone else noticed
HandsomePenguin
Its two panels that are heavily edited, it might have been a shad piece, but its not anymore.
xxGreenShirTxx
The game looked fun from the beta streams I saw…was looking forward to trying it. Anyone got the actual reasons the player count was so low?
srsfaceI8C
Marketplace was completely disinterested because they did a terrible job marketing it. I actually bought the game after playing the Beta and liking it. Easily my favorite shooter in the last 20 years, not even kidding.
xxGreenShirTxx
Yeh I saw little marketing. First I had heard of it was scrolling through Twitch. Character designs seemed a bit flat but the abilities and gameplay looked fun. No idea why all I see on Twitter is complaints about “woke devs” and DEI…other than that’s just Twitter
srsfaceI8C
I rarely stream, like, maybe once ever 4 months just as something to do. My 1 stream of the game got flooded, most viewers I've ever had, and it was just racist trolls. The like two people I was friends with watched to get a sense for the actual game, both bought it after actually seeing the gameplay and hearing my explanations of the game's systems.
IMO it needed several beta periods just so people could have tried it first to figure it out. There was a lot of depth that was hard to explain.
Skywatcher16
sinking ship syndrome. the chuds need evidence to back their BS narratives, so anything that is going to obviously fail for any reason is
Skywatcher16
now glommed onto by said chuds so that they can insist that the woke is what sank the ship, evidence/logic be damned
srsfaceI8C
I unironically had people telling me I shouldn't play Concord because "it's woke" then they'd unironically suggest Overwatch or Apex Legends instead.
mistaopportunity
Don't lie to yourself. Playstation wouldn't shed a tear.
MeeepMorp
LupusLilium
A comforting death with the application of sedatives? Nah PS would pull the pillow from under the game and then smother them.
EverNotRelevant
Crying because they're trying so hard to hold in a laugh
HolyInferno
They would to the tune of 200 million
redundancy
sony like
lvncr
*disappointment in japanese*
aspensmonster
The frown is a nice touch.
mistermiggs
Shed a tear? This failure was likely a gigantic tax write off, if anything their accounting department and C suite is celebrating
SpotlightStealer
As it turns out, 200 million, 8 years of Dev time, and literally shuttering your Japan studio to pay for it is not a tax write off.
mistermiggs
I'm agreeing with you BTW
mward1984
My brother in christ they invested a quarter of a BILLION into this game.
somnif
Admittedly they're just gonna pump it back out as a free to play mtx hell when the Amazon episode releases
Jarjarthejedi
That's not a cause for tears, it's a cause for firing a bunch of peons (and raising the CEO's salary, of course). :/
HolyInferno
And 8 years of development(that we know of)
mward1984
The story I heard was 2 years, the thing had already been 6 years in devlopment by the time they saw it and decided... for some reason...to invest in it.
Like... it HAS to be a Tax Dodge. Sony NEVER gives refunds. Okay, sure in this instance it's probably only about 30 grand, which would be less than it costs to run Firewalks offices for one of those years, but still. They got hacked an all out financial data got doxed and we never got a refund or anything for that.
It HAS to be a tax thing.
HellenicTaxCollector2
8 years lost in 8 days !
kadaeux
And apparently they forgot to use some of it for marketing.
Trankia12
I don’t think better marketing would have saved this game. This game suffers the same fate as any other hero shooter that comes out after overwatch, it’s not overwatch.
kadaeux
Oh it wouldn’t have saved it, the Hero shooter genre is dying anyway. But the fact so many of us (including me) hadn’t heard anything about it until it failed is an utterly damning indictment of their marketing teams
mward1984
The only hero-shooter I think that stands a real chance of beating overwatch (instead of merely trying to coexist with it) is Marvel Rivals. The license is strong, it's got good buzz and marketing, and it's made by Netease who generally know what they're doing.
Trankia12
These days, I think the Marvel brand is more of a hindrance than a benefit for the games success. People expect flawlessness from Marvel, If it’s not the absolute best game ever then it will fail unfortunately. And it’s not the game or the devs fault, it’s the fault of people having way too high expectations for Marvel.
Dagordae
That’s not really fair, there’s plenty of hero shooters from both before and after Overwatch.
Which is kind of the problem: Those tend to be free and it’s a glutted market. There’s only X number of players for the genre with each game fighting to claim them. Except TF2, which appears to be immortal. Any new game has to give the players a damn good reason to start over elsewhere. Overwatch gave Blizzard’s name(Back when that meant something) and was very pretty with a massive marketing push.
Dagordae
Others manage through word of mouth, being very good games or targeting an unserved niche like Valorant. Others target a trending subgenre and hit it hard, like Apex Legends. Deadlock seems to be relying on the Valve reputation, for now. Most are free because paying money is a barrier to new players.
Concord? It has nothing. It fails at even the core of the genre: A design that stands out and gets interest. Its art direction is incredibly dull and safe. Also looks like mid range cosplayers.
mward1984
I mean, Overwatch was from the tail end of "Good Blizzard" but yeah. Those days are largely gone now... and we'll have to see what the Microsoft buyout means for the direction of the company.
immunity
Guess the modern audience didn't show, eh Sony? Fairgame$ is next on the chopping block. Hopefully these big publishers will start to realize that we want to play games for enjoyment rather than messaging. The entire industry has been such a huge mess for the past half decade or so.
Skywatcher16
messaging wasnt the issue. failing to add anything that set it apart in an already oversaturated genera and oversaturated market was dipshit
EarthDragon2189
So is "modern audience" a new conservative shithead dogwhistle? I keep seeing conservative shitheads using that term as synonymous with "people who appreciate representation in their media" and sneering as if that were a main or even major reason this game failed.
Zedrapazia
It is, unfortunately. Which causes a big mixup with people like me that just want a good game being thrown into the same pot as these twatwaffles and their fossilized ideas.
I don't even have a problem if a game wants to have a "modern" message, for as long as it's well woven into the story and feels organic - and not smacked in my face like a moral booklet every 5 minutes.
BG3 is an awesome game, creative, alive, and no two people seem alike.
Dustborn on the other hand ... Ew, no.
Allrighty
So, would you have been interested in the game if it had had less black pe- er, "messaging" in it? Just trying to figure out if the problem is that you're letting representation stand in the way of your own enjoyment, or if you think the game was bad for other reasons and you still choose to complain about this.
ChelVanin
Can the gaming industry go back to making decent single player adventure games, please?
Nai1s
Only if you are willing to pay 90-100$ a game.
Zedrapazia
I'd rather pay more if I also get more than pay less and just get an unfinished game where I eventually still pay that much because it gets like 10 DLCs.
LurkingAtTheOffice
No, cause in a live service they can sell a skin that takes a week to make for $20 a pop where as single player games that take millions and years to develop sell for $70.
Youhavinagiraffe
There are millions of decent single player games being released all the time]
cosonfused
decent, non always-online games.
TalaayaCosplay
I miss 3d platformers.
Varenvel
that ship never going to go back , once they tasted the gold rush they not going to go back , they will dip toes into relesing maybe 1 normal or SP game every long while , but ofc with tons of special editions , pay to win pay to skip microtransactions , recource selling xp boost , skillpoints for money things. old times not going to ever be back , thats why i mostly play indie games. not AAA as you can get decent classic games there , AAA is weasteland.
Fritoe3
When micro transactions stop making more than the games themselves.
autocorrectfailures
For a single player game to make money, it has to be good. Good games don't get made fast enough for the quarterly earnings statements of investors and share holders.
NoodleDragonSoup
Might be a weird take but also can we not make them open world? Kind of a personal thing but it's absolutely atrocious for my ADHD I never get any games done anymore.
goboltz
NO, it's NOT the amount of Players in the game , It's the Ones in the Board-room and Mis-Management that are the Issue ! Making games to Make Money only & Not to make Great Games !!! Co-op and Multiplayer are Great !!
Axianamos
The newest mana game just came out to rave reviews and the studio was shut down the same day
CoffeeMakesMeTwitchy
Cult of the lamb was fun
kerms
Are you living under a rock?
ChelVanin
…..yes?
Jorgesomedaymark2
I can't wait for Forever Winter....
DazzlingCockroach
A few did very well recently, now we gotta wait a few years for business execs to notice.
awkungen42
Most of the single player games I like outside of Dark Souls and Hollow Knight esque games are RPGs like Octopath Traveler or other 16 bit games. I'll take any good games I can get, but there's something comforting about sitting down and just enjoying a game without having to endlessly grind or dodge mechanics every 3 seconds.
jimplaysgames10
Indie games exist. Like so many of them
reichstein
If I see "free to play" on a game, it's an automatic ignore. "Online Multiplayer" is almost as bad, since most of the time these days it's the entire game, rather than a occasionally fun secondary mode.
GoombaLord
How do they milk their customer base if they don't have a service to sell?
smashpro1
By selling a game.
xerolf
unearthed TechnoMage: Return of Eternity yesterday.... 2000 release, its a better game than most of the shit that gets released today.... when i playd that as a kid was like... imagine what games look like in 20 years.... they look like shit, the dreams have died and all that is left is a money makeing scheme.
williamvanauger
How is that going to allow them to milk those whales for all they are worth?
rebelft
And what about microtransactions, huh? Will somebody think about shareholders?
H4rlequeen
I really liked dungeons of hinterberg recently. Felt like the good old ocarina of time days.
ToonamiT0M
igooutsidesometimes
Same as it ever was. Every year these games exist. People just remember the good ones though, so the past is always ruby.
Carlillo
"But but... have you seen the new Omni Move we came up with??" Yes .. its /s
KimberlyPlease
...me playing BG3 right now.
Ajax1184
People are gonna need to stop spending money on micro transactions for single player to become the force that it once was. That being said I don't spend money on micro-transactions and I don't play a lot of single player games. Genshin impact made 1b last year so clearly someone is buying in.
OozingRabbit
Not until game studios stop hiring DEI consulting agencies. Seriously though, look into indie games, as there are so many good single player games out there.
HaberdasherInGold
I want you to try to explain that first sentence in a way that doesn't make you look like a dumbass or a bigot.
Zedrapazia
Not trying to defend the other guy here, but Sweet Baby Inc did fuck up a bunch of stuff (and threatened people). And I generally also don't see why you'd need a consultant firm like that if you'd just have writers with brains that are creative enough to think "Huh, maybe the world consists of more people than 10'000 variants of basically the same het white guy."
Most game studios don't have consultant firms and they're doing fine. Not sure what about that is bigoted.
rbudrick
Go for smaller installation size games and indies. Plenty on xbox, playstation, steam, okish selection on switch.
conniecpu
I really liked FFXVI myself, but we'll have to see if it made enough money for the shareholders to get another
ImNotStalkingYouBTWYoureOutOfMilk
XIV alone makes more than enough per year to pay for new games in the franchise. XVI was actually made by many of the XIV team
BearableBear
No, they all want to be Fortnite because billions. More space for indies studios.
Tumescentpie
Sorry. The gaming industry has been taken over by tech giants and media conglomerates. Triple A will only be swimming pools full of diarrhea that you can bob for those good chunks in.
Traquaire
What would be cool is a single player RPG that doesn't have all the weird ass romance-your-companions stuff.
StrictlyBull
It could, but the developers of those award winning surprise hit single player games will be culled next quarter to make up the money of not having an always online videogame with microtrancactions, AI, NFT and gambling mechanics involved to appease the shareholders/investors. game publishers arent happy with some of the money, they want ALL the money.
NBRI
Decent single player adventure games? I mean... TotK exists, but that's old news by now...
HiHowAreYou92
One if have really wanted to try ks eyudin chronicle 100 heroes.
ImNotStalkingYouBTWYoureOutOfMilk
Astrobot releases tomorrow.
kaitco1984
There’s no money in that. They need to have a CONSTANT revenue stream. The days of publishers thinking of creating good will by NOT having a live service are long over.
MrRandom314159
The multiplayer games with microtransactions baked in are BIG moneymakers. There's a reason studios keep making them.
Killozap
space marine 2, releases in 3 days
Lichelf
SM2 isn't really a single-player game like the first one was, sure you can play the campaign alone if you want to, but it'd heavily pushing the multiplayer and co-op mission mode and have already announced how they're gonna keep updating those post-launch.
IconicM
Zelda Echoes of Wisdom at the end of this month!
ckmnstr
FWIW Wukong is pretty nice. I'm still in the first chapter, and there's not a lot of "story" as it's mostly run and fight so far, but it's fun and beautiful.
EarthDragon2189
Can gamers stop pretending this is an actual argument when in reality there has never once been a shortage of quality 1P games?
vegivamp
Why is everyone pretending they didn't explicitly ask for _adventure_ games? Oh, right, because half of you are too young to remember the golden age of adventure games.
EarthDragon2189
What alternate reality are you living in where quality adventure games aren't readily available?
vegivamp
I've seen many suggestions here, and not a single pure adventure game.
EarthDragon2189
What constitutes a "pure adventure game"?
Zoroasterisk
Capitalists gonna capitalize. GTA Online Shark Cards are printing money for Rockstar. They're HIGHLY incentivized to keep milking their customers for everything they have, and I don't see any reason for that to change. The rest of the industry sees that, and wants that money, too. We need regulations on microtransactions, since "vote with your wallet" is apparently not universal. Also, unions. The turnover and crunch are different sides of the same coin
ka1iban
SW Outlaws is decent
Animorphs
No that’d be preposterous. Imagine if they tried that from a beloved older game series like Baldur’s Gate. It would never happen!
KeithTurbo
Black Myth: Wukong has entered the chat
vegivamp
You consider that an adventure game? It looks pretty great, but LeChuck's Revenge it is not.
incubisexual
I'm having so much fun whacking wolves with a stick
GratuaCuun
Not without a massive shedding of the current triple a corporate infrastructure and the downsizing of several CEO salaries - just a guess here, not likely...
lighterletter
I'm working on one and setting up a patreon, I don't want to build it from corporate, I want to build it from the heart
Misteree8
The whole structure, corporate or not, has been flawed since the beginning. It's barely sustainable for a company to live off of investments first then work 3-6yrs developing a game. Lets say its successful and brings millions to the company. After everyone is paid(including investors) now they need the remaining funds to live off the next 3-6yr development. Positions in a company range from q&a's at 30k to coders at 100+k imagine that for 6yrs before you get a payout and thats IF the game does
Misteree8
2/well.
LordSithis
That's why the old model needs to return. You make a few small games that do reasonably, then you make a major epic. Then small games again. Cyclical. Problem is every major company is trying to make every game the massive epic... and failing.
Misteree8
Thats the independent gaming community in a nutshell and thats barely sustainable as its minus people getting paid the typical salary in the industry nor any benefits.
WizardofAnus
Or just make small, good games. I'd happily pay $10 for a game of the same quality, but 1/7 the scope of the standard AAA game from a developer that I wanted to buy games from.
Hell, I'd end up spending more that way. I'm way less likely to consider if picking up a game is gonna be worth it to me if I didn't have to shell out a week's worth of groceries for it.
xeilua
Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Hi-Fi Rush, Shin Megami Tensei V, do I need to continue or is my point clear?
vegivamp
Your point is quite clear, you have no clue what an adventure game is.
tater1337
Fallout london
DdCno1
That mod is to Fallout what Enderal is to the Elder Scrolls Series.
MasterMookie
Baldurs gate 3 did and oh boy was it popular. I wonder why. Almost like the market had been starving for it.
Wolfshead009
Horizon Zero Dawn and the new one that recently? came out are pretty good. The ending sure left an opening for a sequel.
JaceTiger
Or ones like EDF, Gears of War (1-3), Army of Two, etc that have co-op campaigns. I like playing games with my roommate, but we don't like competitive games. We're both in our 30s and we don't like dealing with people online anymore
TheMostKink
Give Remnant (2 released last year) and Wayfinder a try.
JaceTiger
I've played both remnant and R2. I'll look at wayfinder later
ionicseraph
EDF! EDF! EDF!
keeks722
NIN TEN DO
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Nintendo seems to be the only major game developer that still does games I like. I'm waiting for the new Professor Layton!
DumpsterKoala
Space Marine 2 is dropping in a couple of days and the gameplay is AMAZING!
ACAB247
That hasn’t stopped
spookyu
Yeah, if anything there's an argument to be made for "can we make decent competitive/FPS multiplayer games again" as most of what is out there right now is just garbage hero shooters. I miss Battlefield 2/3/4... It's not even my main gaming style, I like survival/crafting a lot, or RPGs, or strategy, but sometimes I want to scratch that itch and there's nothing good for a while now.
Crowlands
Yes, but also things that Aren't tailored to my specific interests exist, and that angers me. /S
Tjitso
My taste in video games is so specific, I only like a few. I like those a lot though, but I find it difficult to enjoy something new. It's the same with music, movies, food, etc
Edgekrsher
Did you play returnal?
awildsforzemon
I loved that damn game. But the second I platinumed it I uninstalled it. It was going to take over my life.
PathologicalLier
Id love a game that can take over my life like wc3 did back in 2002
4Astaroth
That was a good time. I went with my friends into an internet café to play it together. Later we played it online. Too bad the remake wasn't really good. There are still plenty of games I enjoy but not in the RTS genre. I just hope the Gothic Remake will become awesome, so that the solo Action Adventure RPGs will rise again.
SofaH3ro
It's been a good year for single player for sure, a lot of long good games
Centroid
What would you say the top 3 single player games have been this year?
Asadsadsadclown
And with space Marine coming out this week we are about to get one hell of a single player game WITH extensive multiplayer content.
Trankia12
Am I the only one excited for Astro Bot? The ps5 demo was pretty great, and now we’re getting that but as a full game!
DdCno1
Is this the fifth or sixth exclusive PS5 game?
AVaguelyFamiliarUsername
Kingdom come Deliverance II is also coming in February next year.
SofaH3ro
Yeah that one's on my list too, good ol' 40k content
ForkytheSquirrel
From what I've seen, it's about 15 hours of single-player mindless grind (8-10 hour single-player campaign), and the rest is squad-based multi-player with the option of using bots?
Seems more like a squad-shooter along lines of darktide etc, with a small single-player campaign tacked on as an afterthought... rather than an actual single-player game...
Centroid
It’s gorgeous
Noahbalboa82
Nintendo has got you. Zelda games every 5 years. Bob's your uncle
Lichelf
I mean we're getting one in a couple of days, and we got TotK last year, a remaster in 2021, a remake in 2019, BotW in 2017, a remaster in 2016, both a new game and a remaster in 2015, and another new game and remaster in 2013, and yet another new game and remaster two years before that.
I don't think we were really lacking Zelda games.
Noahbalboa82
Oh I wasn't even thinking about remakes. But, you are right, Tears of the Kingdom was last year, and the new one starring Zelda herself is this year! Good times
nullbr
that is for indies developers now unfortunetly, like this (sorry for the shitty youtuber reaction video, the imgur 1min limit on videos made hard to find one that I could get without editing):
geruhn
I think that's just her playing the game and not just reacting to it in which case, it's really great that she's doing it how else would you've found footage of the game to tell someone else about it?
MajorSession
Oh ho? WHat game is this? It looks fun.
nullbr
the game is Billie Bust Up, its not released yet, but worth looking up for
geruhn
Billie Bust Up
MajorSession
Thank you. I hope you have a nice day.
MithridateEupator
MelfsAcidArrow
Wooo frostpunk!
DdCno1
I hope the sequel is more challenging. Don't get me wrong, I loved the atmosphere and presentation of the first game, but it was far too easy if you had ever played any other city builder before it. On my first playthrough, I got through the game without even a single person dying.
MelfsAcidArrow
Agreed!
kodiak931155
The big star in the industry is definetly "live service" but theres plenty of single player games made.
And thats before you look into the indie scene
LaemonDaemon
How many of those are truly, you know... Memorable?
BG3 is a (not so) small miracle, but apart from that, 90% of all the games coming out after the pandemic are soulless corpo junk. Gaming is not a niche anymore, it's the new hollywood and it fucking sucks.
DdCno1
Newsflash: Gaming has been corpo for as long as it has existed. Did you know that Activision started out as a plucky Indie publisher that had the outrageous idea of actually crediting the developers of games, unlike Atari? This was in 1979.
MithridateEupator
Yep, gaming has always been about the $$$, arcade cabinets turned into expensive home consoles. Indie devs are a mostly new thing, other than a small shareware community on pc back in the day, we're actually in the least corpo driven period so far if you know where to look.
SacrificialClam
Still waiting for Silksong
bloodystupidusername
Not being a smart ass, but how many are offline/don’t need internet access? So many games seem to have to have an online capability even if it’s single player
Lichelf
Afaik literally none of those on the list require internet to play single player, that's pretty rare. But idk maybe I missed something.
friendofafriendofyourfriend
STALKER 2 and Frostpunk 2 LFG!!!!!!
Distractus
Prince of Persia the lost crown was amazing if anybody hasn't played it
vegivamp
Haven't even heard of it, but if it's another Ubisoft I'm not touching it either.
SPQAAE
I'm gonna try Veilguard but I'm crossing my fingers at this point. As far as the rest of the list goes I see two more I'd actually try.
MithridateEupator
Also that's not the whole list and you can find it with a simple google
Direkt4
Oof, sorry.
SPQAAE
Hhahah yeah...it was...bad to say the least. I tried to refund but I played it until it was finished before I passed judgement...that was a mistake.
Direkt4
At least you gave it an honest try.
ionicseraph
I love the absolute shit out of most of that list and I'm not disparage any of them, but half of that list is either a remake or part of an existing franchise. I'd want a little bit more original content, regardless of how great the games are
TheFishFace
How many triple A multiplayer games are wholly original?
It doesn't matter. The original stuff is out there.
MithridateEupator
That picture is less than half the list that came up
ionicseraph
I googled the same list, which was about 52 game titles. Of those 52, 25 were remakes or existing franchises. So, my point still stands
MithridateEupator
That's fair. It's not an issue for me, I feel that usually games don't get really good until the second or third entry in a series, as devs are making a very similar game but with a ton of feedback. I could see it being a bigger problem for story driven games though.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Does anyone know if any of these are pure adventure games? Not action games or RPG or other fighting-style games? That's what I really miss. If anyone has recommendations I'd love to hear some.
MithridateEupator
I really enjoyed an indie game called Dread Delusion - reminded me a ton of Morrowind (including the graphics unfortunately, but oh well)
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
Thanks, I want just adventure though, no fighting. I also like puzzles like Portal or The Witness. Just so hard to find which is why I ask for good recommendations. :)
MithridateEupator
There is fighting but it's baby easy.
Eagleize
Try Outer Wilds if you haven't. Don't look anything up, it's adventure/mystery so the more you look up the more it spoils your experience.
psych0bunneh
Chants of Sennaar is a really interesting plot driven language model puzzle game. Definitely no fighting. I've never really played anything else like it.
I haven't played it but I think the Talos principle is a pretty highly rated exploration, talk to people, and piece together a plot kind of game.
Subliminal is kind of an interesting visual puzzle game. Viewfinder I think is another kind of interesting game in a similar visual puzzle vein.
notHereToCirclejerk
Do the same search again but filter out all of the awful walking sims and interactive movie things. "Watching cutscenes" is not gameplay.
MithridateEupator
Which games in that list do you have a problem with? I know at least 60% does not match what you're describing.
TheMostKink
Do you consider Silent Hill to be a walking sim? Honest question, if it came out fresh today and you'd never heard of the franchise before, would you?
notHereToCirclejerk
Would I what? Play a horror game with tank controls today? No of course not. Not while it has tank controls. I didn't play them 20 years ago, so I certainly wouldn't play them today.
MithridateEupator
They didn't ask if you would play it, they asked if you would consider it a walking sim.
Yakeshinu
Also, more importantly, have you seen my daughter Cheryl?
NonWellKnownImgurian
This is why i mod games from 10 years ago. Everything now is a live service, microtransaction filled mess of no substance and no compression. COD being 200 gigs is ridiculous
Youhavinagiraffe
I have hundreds of games on my steam account and not a single one is a live service. Interesting new games get released every week if not every day. If you're only paying attention to the cash-cow franchises like COD you'll get an extremely warped view
NonWellKnownImgurian
I'd say I have a healthy mix. I like Deep Rock Galactic and have been playing Skyrim and Space Marine
TheSkleebler
I don't even think I could play Space Engineers and BeamNG without the 200 mods I use for each of them. Blessed are the modders, for they breathe life into old games, tired games, and shitty games.
NonWellKnownImgurian
Sometimes a mod can make a shitty game great
Zoroasterisk
Same. Which ones? I recently started a Fallout 4 replay, but I had to restart it like 10 times because I kept breaking stuff with mods
NonWellKnownImgurian
Currently running through skyrim again but I've modded L4D2, The original Star wars battlefront 2, skyrim, doom, minecraft
ViolentVibrator
Download the Fallout London mod for Fallout 4. Multitude of mods are not needed to enjoy it as it essentially a new game entirely.
Zoroasterisk
Yeah, I know. I did, but ended up bouncing off of it. It was very impressive for a mod, but I didn't really like the level design, and it doesn't really give you enough ammo to use guns as a primary weapon, imo. No shade if you liked it; it just wasn't for me
Metallica93
This. Fewer generic shooters like whatever this game is, 'XDefiant', and that game Valve just released. I'm still looking for something on the same tier as the Mass Effect trilogy to suck me in.
Lichelf
Fewer generic shooters? We get like 1 or 2 a year at this point, and one of them is Call of Duty. What are you talking about?
Youhavinagiraffe
I mean... Baldur's Gate 3 came out just last year
Breginor
I really want to love BG3. Everything about the game is so well put together. I just hate turn based combat, and that is what kills my enjoyment of it every time I try to play it.
LurkingAtTheOffice
FFVII: Rebirth, Balders Gate 3, Dragons Dogma 2, Elden Ring DLC, GranBlue Relink, TTYD remake. Those are my top games of 2024. I'm an RPG guy admittedly and not as much a shooter guy. I did enjoy Remnant 2, though.
md22mdrx
Returnal was great … but that was awhile ago now.
Metallica93
I do believe I have that on my Steam wish list, at least!
alloutofmondays
Deadlock? That one has some promise. Honestly a pretty good game. But not released, still in beta.
TheFishFace
Deadlock isn't a generic shooter either; it's a moba shooter. Not many of those about, and fewer still had any success. There was Monday Night Combat I remember and at least one other whose name escapes me...
Vortexhelios320
I agree with the sentiment, but I think you might be setting the bar a little too high...
Metallica93
It's only the game that made me do a career pivot, heh. But I've been looking forward to more of Sony's games hitting P.C. (but I heard 'The Last Of Us' was... a not-great port).
Youhavinagiraffe
I feel like people get too weirdly specific with game recommendations. Like being "on par with Mass Effect" means being sci-fi and dialogue heavy and an action RPG with party members and quests and so on. I loved the Mass Effect trilogy but have played several dozen single player games since then that were more engrossing and memorable. Often in quite different ways though
Metallica93
I said "same tier", not "sci-fi-dialogue-heavy-action-RPG". An odd misquote. And games can have a similar impact without being the same genre, you know.
Youhavinagiraffe
I'm just guessing at a reason why you might consider nothing to be on that tier when there are dozens of games that have exceeded it since then. The gaming industry follows trends (often to its detriment) but it's never prevented good games from happening including... Mass Effect 3 which at the time was very much following the Gears of War cover based shooting trend
PimpinKen
I was hoping it would be Starfield, but it's not
Metallica93
I heard that crushed a lot of expectations, yeah. Maybe I'll get it under $10, but that seems like an easy skip until then.
PimpinKen
If it were an indy developer, I'd say pay 60 for it. But since it's Bethesda..... 20 bucks, tops
FlippedOut
Oh boy. I got it on gamepass, I tried really hard to like it, and I spent probably 10 hours playing, pushing through, hoping it would get better. Fucking hated it.
DdCno1
Played it on Gamepass. Got a solid 110 or so hours out of it in a very short time. I won't proclaim that it's perfect, but I had a great time with it. The writing is Bethesda's best since Oblivion, the aesthetic (especially of the guns) more than makes up for some technical shortcomings, exploration is fun, combat is punchy and fast, with excellent weapon feel and a surprising amount of interactivity. Most of all however, it's such a warm, welcoming, friendly game, which feels rare these days.
PimpinKen
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great things to like about it, but the whole main story is just... bland. The story arc is 2 sides of the same coin and just... ok. I'm continuing to play it, but so far the story for the horizon series is leaps and bounds better, imo
Rips4w
Why do people act like single-player games just stopped existing? It's disingenuous. Or straight up dishonest.
vegivamp
And almost none of the people whining here seem to have noticed they were striking6 for single player ADVENTURE games.
Sure, they're still around, but damn are they few and far between. Thimbleweed Park was pretty good tho.
Dagordae
People are very, VERY, stupid. Unless it's crammed in their face 24/7 it just doesn't exist to them.
Youhavinagiraffe
It feels like a talking point that's nearly 10 years out of date now. EA tried to declare "single players are dead" back in 2017 and everyone just frowned and carried on making and playing them
AnOceanOfStars
The matter is a lot more complex. It's not that "there are games for single player (SP) lovers and games for multiplayer (MP) lovers", and that's that. Successful MP games can net a shitload of money (usually by being very predatory, but let's pretend that isn't an issue, for now), but actually successful ones are a small number. Big companies, as Sony with Concord's case, want a share of the pie and invest into it. At this point, all the problems arise. When they start making a game this way,
AnOceanOfStars
it's not because someone had a good idea and envisioned what they wanted to create and share, but rather the opposite: someone was told to come up with a good idea, and ideas don't just come out like this. They build a game like a Frankenstein's creature, taking pieces that seem good from here and there, stitching them together, and they bring out a soulless crappy product that no one felt the need for to begin with and doesn't feel any appeal towards after they see it. It has happenede a lot >
AnOceanOfStars
of times. Skulls & Bones, Tower of Fantasy (which I think is still holding up, but it's far from where it would want to be), and a lot of much more anonymous titles. All those investments lost are less investments for games that would have started from some actual creativity, so yes, in a sense, crappy MP forcefully built to milk money end up just sucking away possibilities for good games. Then there's also the myriad problems of AAA games; one might want to put blinders on, but they're there >
AnOceanOfStars
and one of the major problems is the stagnant gameplay, which is stagnant for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that companies want to sell, so they try to sell what they already saw selling and don't push for evolution. The argument of indie games doing it is not an excuse. You can play both indies and AAA games, but you know, ideally you'd expect to have the best experience on an AAA that is supposed to be the top in everything... graphics, writing, and above all, gameplay; it's natural >
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
I assumed they were talking about stuff like Sierra games. Similar games do get made, but they're not as easy to find as they used to be. They're shoved aside now, so you really have to look.
vegivamp
Thimbleweed Park was pretty good.
Streptomyces
It’s a popular argument that holds no water. Even from AAA studios we have stuff like God of War, Horizon games, Elden Ring, FF7 remake, FF16, Baldur’s Gate. There are hundreds more indy games all the time that have very positive reviews and are breaking new ground in multiple genres. It’s a stupid argument said by people who are bored and have tried nothing and are already out of ideas.
HeNeverScreams
Horizon is my shit! Don't forget Witcher 3. Playing Hogwarts right now. Was on the fence but it turned out to be pretty brilliantly done and is a nice stress free little action puzzler.
Rips4w
Horizon: Forbidden West was so damn good. Such a compelling story.
Rips4w
Lol, dont be afraid to voice your opinion, weirdo. Downvotes are so cowardly.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
None of those are pure adventure games though, most are action games with fighting mechanics. I used to love the Sierra and LucasArts games, but it's hard to find good ones like that nowadays. They're out there, but you have to wade through a lot of crap to find them, since they're small games now. There aren't any AAA like them.
Haemaelaeinen
When ppl talk about adventure games nowadays they always mean action adventure. Like all those million PS 3rd person ones. Point&Click adventure games are few and far between. Think latest high profile one was that new Monkey Island? I like to enjoy them from time to time, personally love Deponia series. Germany might be the last bastion for this genre.
Lun4ticH1gh
That's because adventure games have always been a niche genre in gaming. Myst was the exception, not the rule. Even in LucasArts' heyday, they were crankin' out X-Wing/Tie-Fighter titles more than they were Monkey Island or Sam & Max adventures.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
They were pretty huge in the 80s though. Then the consoles killed them, I guess.
Colopty
People looking at nothing but triple-A games from washed up studios and completely missing the indie game renaissance, yet feeling knowledgable enough to make sweeping statements about the entire gaming industry.
Lichelf
Yes but, you see, it's a REALLY easy and guaranteed way of getting those delicious upvotes they crave.
SillySnowFox
Give me names.
WillyVanilli
WillyVanilli
if you're looking for indie games
justfillingthespace
Bastion, Underrail, Hades, Ultrakill, Dead Cells, Balatro, Darkest Dungeon, Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance, Katana Zero, Ghostrunner, Child of Light, Transistor, Synthetik, Hylics, Inscryption, Sorcery! Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, Pyre, Dread Delusion, Pit People, Guacamelee. Should I go on?
vegivamp
Not a single adventure game on your list.
SillySnowFox
*frantically adding names to Steam Wishlist* Yes please.
DiogenesMannequin
.