The AAA gaming industry continues to fall apart all around us, but despite this, there is beauty to be had also.
Incredibly pretentious tryhard beauty, but beauty none the less.
Despite infinitely shitty developer personalities, indies seem to be on the rise.
A lot of them do really well and considering they have such a small payment barrier for entry, it's probably a really good investment too.
Can we all agree that our surprising heroes of the industry may come from a place we did not expect them to?
>>319510704
>The AAA gaming industry continues to fall apart all around us
>source: my gaping anus
>>319510829
Do we seriously have to spend this thread arguing as to why AAA games are dying?
They're too expensive to make, they don't pull in big enough numbers, so the developers/publishers whore it out through DLC, "expansions" and the newest meme: episodic gaming.
>>319510829
I don't mind arguing for the sake of arguing, but are you seriously saying that the AAA industry is sustainable the way it is?
>>319510992
>>319511248
http://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/video-games-revenue-worldwide-from-2012-to-2015-by-source/
Oh man, look at that downward trajectory. I'm surprised it hasn't already crashed and all video game publishers and developers ever have closed their doors.
>>319511480
So you think this growth is sustainable forever? What happens when the bubble pops, Anon? Or is this the first unpoppable economic bubble?
It'll blow up sooner or later, and when it does, titles like those in my OP will be the ones to save this industry.
>>319511728
>So you think this growth is sustainable forever?
No, but saying that the industry is currently dying, much less that it "continues to fall apart," is absolutely, demonstrably wrong. It's asinine and inarguable.
>>319510829
fucking kek
>>319510704
Indies are doing surprisingly well and prefer indies anyways. It's so fun just playing some weird fucking game from a weird fucking dev. idk, call me a hipster but god damn there's some good indie games.
>>319511838
Maybe I went about this wrong. I don't believe that the industry is doing well because what it's doing isn't something that can sustain it over time.
It does well now, but I feel that it's falling apart in the sense that it keeps putting all it's chips on the same number and expecting to win every time. Which I don't think it will, and we're seeing the warning signs of that as early as now.
>western games
>>319512326
Agreed. Not all of it is pure gold, but at least most of them feel like they where created with some actual soul. As if someone created it because they wanted to create it, the way they wanted to create it.
They don't feel like focus-groups have made most of the decisions, just the individual who wanted to make the game.
I have a lot more fun exploring someone else's concept of a "good game", than what some corporation has concluded for me what I should consider a "good game".
>>319512545
>western imageboard
>>319512658
>implying
>>319512573
>I have a lot more fun exploring someone else's concept of a "good game", than what some corporation has concluded for me what I should consider a "good game".
This familio.
>>319512545
What would you have put up there then? I mean, give me some critical-acclaimed eastern indie games.
>>319513131
>indie games
>>319513173
Yes, indies. How about you actually give me some examples instead of meme'ing?
>>319512573
>>319512835
Fucking this. We got some smart mother fuckers on tonight.
>>319510704
the difference is most indie developers set out to make games that people will enjoy, while the industry's end all be all goal is to make cash.
I never thought I'd say this about an indie game, but Ori might be my GOTY. Maybe even my game of the decade.
>This was made in a free engine
What's your excuse?
>>319513461And you are a smart mother fucker for realizing we're smart mother fuckers. Clearly we are some pretty smart mother fuckers.
>>319513760
Its not the engine its the assets and the skilled hand that made them.
You can give any kid Unity or XNA and he wouldnt churn out anything like that because he dosent have the wherewithal yet. Especially if he's a one man army.
Wats even more important is the game's design itself, cute assets only get you so far (very far but they dont make great games)
>>319513760
I literally have none.
I'm trying to make a 2D metroidvania too, but I honestly don't think I'll get anywhere near this level of detail. Moon Studios must have poored some good hours into that.
>>319513827c-can i be a smart motherfucker too?
>>319510704
>Rise of the indies
The Rise i'm seeing is not in the games you show.
The Rise in indies i've noticed are indie are the ones that kinda idealized published Indie Games of the 90s ( Like 3DR\Apogee)
Companies like CDPR, Flying Wild Hog, small fucking companies, and yet their games have AAA-tier consummate professionalism, Border pushing games or at least really fun ones
With the Indie games kinda like you pictured, It's not so much a rise, but a steady inclination. I think ever since like Super Meat Boy era, Indies have started to re-gain traction in mainstream....
I see a lot of great games
I see a lot of great experimentation
But theres a lot of indies that suck too. Suckage isn't exclusive to AAA. Lots of low effort indies
>>319512573
This... It's kinda cool especially with small indies... idk, you feel some sort of... connection... if you will with some of the devs
>>319512349
IDK, some how Call of duty keeps winning. after it being effectively the same game after Modern Warfare 2.
I see AAAs trying to mimic Indie games, where a company will effectively analyze what turned this happy accident in to a multi-milliondollar franchisable thing
Like how every retarded streamer looses their shit cause of minecraft in 2015, or how four frights for freaky fridays keeps getting sequel after sequel and streamers make bank outta it...
I see more devs trying to cash in on the streamer shit
>>319511480
this. stop being retarded.
the only thing in decline is quality because you fags will buy anything. if you want mainstream games to be good again, it starts with your wallet. have some self control you fucking corporate sluts.
indie will continue to be the only source making anything worth playing where there's low/no risk until you FORCE the suited monkeys at publishers to risk again.
>>319513858
Agreed. The reason Ori is so memorable to me is not really because of the great art or the fucking GOAT-tier soundtrack.
What made it stand out to me was the fact that it was a surprisingly competent platformer. Some of the jumps in that game where both tricky and rewarding.
Finding the perfect jump between triple-jumps, that bash-mechanic off enemies and projectiles to get to cool areas was so fucking satisfying.
I remember having a hard time with the part where the water tried to consume you from bellow and you had to make your way upwards, but when I did it it felt so good.
>>319513907
4 years according to the lead guy.
>>319513760
That game was actually quite challenging towards the end. I bought that game for $15 and enjoyed the shit out of it on PC.
Makes me want to go back and achievement hunt. The game was very fun and I consider it a very worthwhile purchase.
>>319513935
Of course, my nigga.
>tfw videogames
>>319510704
>Incredibly pretentious tryhard beauty, but beauty none the less.
if it intended to be beautiful and it is agreed to be beautiful, it is not pretentious. try using a dictionary sometime
>>319510704
There is absolutely nothing pretentious about Undertale or LISA.
Both games have straightforward, relatively simple plots that don't try to fluff themselves up with undeserved importance or mysticism.
If you don't like a game, try to more clearly articulate why instead of choosing a meme word out of /v/'s vocabulary-of-the-month
>>319513969
Do you know how the first crash happened? People loved games, games got more and more popular, and the Developers became lazy assholes, JUST like they are now. They made shittier and shittier games, until even the common man was saying
"No, fuck that, im going to use this money to buy a book or a nice meal instead"
and it all came crumbling down, and we are literally repeating the steps, but this time the amounts of money involved are so astronomically huge that it could cause "too big to fail" companies to go under and the entertainment industry to be rocked in a way that it has never been. How can you not see this?
>>319513960
>But theres a lot of indies that suck too. Suckage isn't exclusive to AAA. Lots of low effort indies
Oh absolutely. And that kinda' raises an interesting question too, doesn't it? How much slack should a dev get just because he's an indie dev?
I remember playing Dust: An Elysian Tale, and found it to be very good for the most part. I did however, not enjoy the artstyle, but I wrote it off as some indie dev who was a really solid programmer, composer (I mean, fucking listen to this shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXLX9D8ibU&list=PLlvXGetzr0FBSC6xKTJY8H9UX8-YIgNVh&index=8) and designer trying to be a decent drawer too.
This is probably not a rationalization I would have made as easily from a AAA game.
Which kinda' makes me wonder if I cut these people too much slack.
Neither Undertale nor LISA can be considered "pretentious" or "tryhard". I've yet to play Ori, so I don't have an opinion on that game. I'e only heard that it's quite beautiful.
>>319513960
>I see more devs trying to cash in on the streamer shit
This is the real plague, fæm. Goat Simulator, Showering with your Dad and other meme-games are the bane of the indie industry.
>>319514545
I think its like, you got this kid that lives down the block and he gets a story published in a writers journal, its pretty good but has its flaws but you excuse them, because, hey, he's just some kid with a creative mind and the will to write it down. And then you look at these huge writers putting out books of arguably better quality but worse quality in comparison to their earlier work, and it pisses you off. It makes sense, you expect different things, so you go into it with different expectations.
That being said, point out the flaws to the kid down the block, he will learn from it and improve.
>>319514543
I am so fucking ready. And it's true what you say, too.
Developers asked for too much money for too little quality, and it's exactly what they're doing now.
At some point, collective realization will hit all the normalfags, and it'll all come tumbling down.
Picture very related.
I just wish more middle budget games were being made. Only recent ones I can think of are fucking Killer Instinct and I guess the EDF games sorta.
>>319514097
>it was a surprisingly competent platformer
This. From a gameplay perspective, the only thing Ori did "right" was the platforming.
The RPG aspects where terribly mediocre, the combat was no fun because there was no aiming involved, and the exploration felt dull after a while (see one green forest area you've seen 'em all).
It was a really fucking fun platforming game though.
>>319514317
>yfw buy a game for 10 bucks on Steam, expecting it to be shit and find out it may be my GOTY
>>319514543
>"No, fuck that, im going to use this money to buy a book or a nice meal instead"
Except no one is saying that now and are instead begging for another CoD sequel while literally choking on jew dick while their wallets are emptied.
>>319514458
Why would OP make this thread, with 3 good indies in the title, if he didn't like any of them?
Video games industry crash of 1983:
As the video game market became flooded with poor-quality cartridge games created by numerous companies attempting to enter the market, and overproduction of high-profile releases.
Who doesn't know the history is doomed to repeat it.
>>319514953
I feel like increasingly the 'middle budget' games are moving into the area of indies as the cost of production falls and their ability to generate capital grows. For example I felt like the recent crowdfunded crpgs have been moving increasingly into the scope and budget you would expect from a lower mid range title.
>>319514635
Undertale got a little pretentious. Not enough to not enjoy it, but not completely clear either.
This is now a lisa thread
>Best fight
>Best Scene
>Best song
Go
>>319514847That was a surprisingly good explanation.
>>319515181
Have you talked to real people outside, not just on the internet? There is this guy at my work that is the most shill dick gobbler you will ever meet, or he was. He would buy 2-3 new $60 games every month, and if they had a season pass, he would buy that too, and when the new consoles came out, he bought both immediately. And I heard him complaining about battlefront today, fucking battlefront. Its happening slowly, the water is boiling and the spill over will be huge when it gets bad enough.
The game industry NEEDS people like my coworker to survive the current direction they are going with the market, with games being less of a product and more of a platform for them to sell you even more things on, and even he is starting to get tired of the shit
>shitty pixelated 'retro' graphics that look worse than any popular retro game
>metroidvania
>rougelike elements
>procedurally generated
>walking simulators
>twin stick shooter
>puzzle platformer
Etc, etc. Indie games are just as bad as AAA games.
>>319514953
I don't know. Double-A games like pic related have their place still.
The problem is that they don't sell nearly well enough to be AAA, and they don't come cheap enough to be indies. But like >>319515301 said, the double-A developers need to not be afraid to cater to niches.
CRPGs have always been for a very specific crowd, but this hasn't stopped double-A developers from making money of them.
>>319515637
AA games are probably going to survive the crash, high production quality but left alone by investors with erections for focus groups. Kickstarter A and AA games are starting to really hit their stride, look at the shadowrun games for example.
>>319515020
>see one green forest area you've seen 'em all
Did you even play the game?
>>319515453
Have you looked at any of the sales figures? Including several already posted by others in the fucking thread?
Have you tried NOT being retarded and delusional?
>>319515951
I think the point >>319515453 is trying to make is that though the general public hasn't snapped into realization yet, it's happening.
It hasn't happened yet, thus why the statistics aren't reflecting it, but it IS happening.
>>319515020
I really actually liked the combat in Ori, no need for aiming made it so the combat was more about dodging, spacing, and platforming about traps which is most likely why 99% of all the enemies shoot out traps that stick to the ground.
>>319515261
I don't know why people seriously think the video game market can "crash" in 2015. It crashed in '83 because video games were seen as time-wasting toys, and the games coming out were obscenely expensive relative to the entertainment value provided. Check this shit out
The CHEAPEST games in this catalog cost $20. $20 in 1980bux is $60 in 2015bux. And these are the low-key releases; you'll notice that big sellers like Space Invaders and Chess sold for even more. Very few of the video games from this era offered more than a couple of hours of gameplay, so the market soon realized that they were being conned.
Star Wars Battlefront having slightly less content than is normally expected of a $60 won't cause a crash. That's NOWHERE NEAR as egregious as paying the equivalent of $70 for a shitty Pac-Man clone.
>>319515261
But that isn't what's happening now.
What's happening now, is that a handful of companies that are already IN the industry are now pumping out the exact SAME game on repeat forever, with only minor changes.
Remakes, remasters and re-imaginings are becoming popular because people buy them.
>>319515306
How did Undertale get pretentious?
>>319515483
But then why do some indie devs get it "all right"?
I mean, hate it as much as you want but all 3 pictures in the op have reached critical acclaim. And that doesn't happen by fucking everything up.
>>319516047
>It hasn't happened yet so we can ignore the facts and still be red pilled
This isn't /pol/. Fuck off
>>319515781I genuinely think Kikestarter is a good idea. Don't put money into stupid shit and try to learn if you get burned, and crowdfunding isn't an inherently flawed idea.
>>319516320
But why should your fact be valid and not his? You take your own statistics as fact, while he chooses to believe his colleague's behavior is fact. And I've experienced exactly what he experienced, so I chose to believe him.
>>319516048
Yeah but especially for PC (I totally get why an auto-lock system is nice for consoles) a manual aim would have been nice.
>>319516178
This.
The market now and the market then are totally different.
A crash resembling what happened in 1983 happening again is an incredibly distant possibility, barring a massive external event like the broader economy collapsing.
What is entirely possible is the market entering a period of retraction, probably cause by a combination of too little content, too little bug testing/optimization and to much cross franchise homogeneity. Even this seems unlikely to happen in the near future.
My bet is that one particular company (ubisoft) will encounter all the problems listed above and go belly up. In response the other market leaders will either play it even safer, increasing the likelihood of a market retraction, or they will diversify their products in an attempt to avoid a similar fate.
>>319516178
>It crashed in '83 because video games were seen as time-wasting toys
Which they still are, and are seen as by most normalfags.
>obscenely expensive relative to the entertainment value provided
Which is exactly what's happening now with 4 hour games.
>Very few of the video games from this era offered more than a couple of hours of gameplay
>Chess
What?
>Star Wars Battlefront having slightly less content than is normally expected of a $60 won't cause a crash.
I agree. But we're not talking about a crash that'll come tomorrow, but a crash that's on the horizon. Normalfags will swallow BF's crap because they didn't play the old BF. When the next BF comes out, it'll look worse in comparison (assuming that they keep making it shabbier).
Normalfags won't stomach this forever.
>>319514160
>Achievement for completing the game without dying
>Achievement for not using any ability points
>Beat the game in 3 hours
That last one might be fun, but I will get all the achievements in that game.
>>319516548
Because mine's a fact and "his" isn't.
>>319516205
at first remasters we're great because it allowed me play ps2 games from my childhood on my ps3 a system most of which don't play ps2 games. so, in that regard its a good idea, but nowadays they are going nuts over "remastering" games from last gen in this case fuck that i already own Uncharted 1,2, and 3 I dont need another slightly better looking copy of those games.
>>319517484
Someone didn't cheer at the GoW remaster.
I completely agree though. At some point normies will have to realize that they're essentially buying the exact same crap on repeat.
>>319517484
on top of that how many games have "definitive" editions of them for the latest gen? Devil May Cry, the last of us, dishonored, dark souls 2, darksiders, borderlands, etc etc the list goes on and on all of these are solely for making more money from a games that already exist. It costs them significantly less to pay another dev to update the graphics on a last gen game and then resell it for $60. Thats when it became bullshittery.
