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man who normally buys "narrative-driven, story-rich games" forced to put his money back into his wallet
Anything good you can recommend? Haven't seen much good since Witcher 3... And before that, maybe Gothic 2 or Oblivion.
Baldurs gate 3? One of the best games I ever played.
I haven't played it, but based on everything I've read about it, that alone puts the headline to shame.
Since The Witcher 3 came out, my favorite video game stories have been Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Alan Wake 2, Citizen Sleeper, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. I also really liked Death Stranding, but Kojima's not for everyone.
Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2, if you haven't played already. Think of them as the stepping stones for BG3.
Spec Ops: The Line is a 3rd person shooter with an incredible story, I think it takes 4-6 hours to go through the campaign. Short when compared to RPGs, but worth the time. People also talk about Titanfall 2's campaign being great, I haven't played it yet.
Mass Effect trilogy is also very good, mainly the 2nd game. The first game is the jankiest of the bunch and the 3rd is much better after all the DLC, though I still don't like how the optional Paragon/Renegade prompts from 2 became obligatory QTE in 3.
If you liked the story driven elements of TW3 you might like Cyberpunk 2077. Its very similar story and engine wise since they're both made by CDPR, but obviously very different thematically. God of War is another story driven narrative driven game I enjoyed.
Control? Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
....Yakuza
Bros being bros forever.
Currently sucked into Kingdom Come Deliverance, which is similar to TW3 in that it's a first person story driven game, but set in IRL 1403 Bohemia instead of the fantasy setting. Very good historical storytelling, I think.
thats a shitty excuse if i ever heard one
More like it’s a shitty headline. The article shows there’s a little more to it, specifically that it was going to go over budget and they hadn’t figured out what they were gonna do.
They sell fine. Look at BG3.
What they don't do is make money hand over fist without the need to design more product, as happens with subscription-based, game-as-a-service multiplayer titles. Some companies don't want to make good games. They just want to make good money.
And ignoring all the attempts at a game-as-a-service that fail
"That guy just made millions of dollars playing the lottery. We should quit our jobs and play the lottery too!"
Narrative-driven games made Valve into Valve. But ok, you do you.
A better way to put it is story driven games sell. Mobile and MTX games sell better.
Mobile and MTX games ~~sell better~~ make more money
Honestly I can't think of a recent game I enjoyed that wasn't a narrative-driven story rich game.
They’re the only games I enjoy. And I could’ve sworn I’ve seen people all over the internet lamenting the loss of story-driven single player games in this era of GTA online. These douchebags are either salivating looking at GTA online profitability and talking bullshit or they’re so goddamn deluded with their head so far up their own ass that they can’t tell their colon from their pancreas.
On the topic, anyway: my favorite games are RDR2, Cyberpunk, and Alan Wake 2. I wasn’t always a gamer, but the graphics have gotten so good and the stories so involved (in these here specifically) that I became one later in life. But now I’ve played all three of those games to death. Do you have any recs for similar games I might enjoy? I was just looking around the PS store and felt like I was swimming through nonsense. I really wanted to play Stalker 2, but it’s not out for PS5 yet. The next game I’m eyeing is a silent Hill 2 remake. Not a big fantasy person, either. I like stories with their feet in the real world. Don’t mean to single you out to give me advice, but figured I’d ask in case you had something you really liked.
If Frostpunk is their idea of a "narrative-driven, story-rich game", I can see why they have concerns.
Did these developers completely miss Baldurs Gate 3
We could spend all day and night listing successful SP games, I bet they canceled it because the game was just bad.
Sony has been screaming the exact opposite of this and it continues to garner them a fuck ton of cash. You don’t even need Sony money to do it, as per Baldurs gate that many are also referencing here in the comments.
There’s no way they actually believe that, the C-suite simply can’t stop salivating over the potential money a live service game can potentially provide
This is exactly it. They don't like their profit margin.
The title is a bit missleading considering that the actual article mentions a lot other problems that plagued the development.
Project 8 faced both progress and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic made team stability difficult, but some quality improvements were achieved. However, critical issues persisted, causing delays and budget increases. The latest review revealed unresolved problems needing more time and money, along with revised sales forecasts, raising doubts about the project's profitability.
-- TLDR by Microsoft copilot
While there's still demand for "narrative-driven story-rich games" one should keep realistic expectations. For this genre I feel smaller scope and indie developers work much better.
I'm going to guess they mean narrative-driven "games" like Hellblade or Indika, which were all narrative and almost no game.
Typical infantile C-suite logic “I didn't do X well, therefore X is impossible and no one can do X! It's not my fault, I swear!”
Bad ones, sure. Wait, no, even bad ones sell. They’re just wrong.
Why does capitalist reasoning always sound like a prayer to an angry god?
We consulted the oracle and it seems that the dragon is tired of corn. So we've hedged our portfolio with wheat and virgins.
The Last of Us is still selling.
Which one? The original? The Remaster or the Remake? Or the 2nd or the Remaster of the 2nd?
Obviously this is just me, but here is a list of the last 5 games I purchased that were not smaller indie titles:
Stalker 2, Elden ring, remnant 2, bg3, dragon's dogma 2
You could argue that remnant is intended for multiplayer and you could argue that maybe only bg3 and stalker and really narrative driven but the truth is, anymore I tend to buy single player and stream to my friends than I do actually play mp games. The only mp game i was tempted by was Helldivers and I was just too busy at the time.
Anything else are steam deck friendly indie games. I buy a lot of those, and bought a lot even before I had a deck.
In my anecdotal experience, when I see x game is multiplayer, or live service, or just not an experience I can enjoy on my own time I tune it out. For example, I always bought Diablo games but I don't own 4.
I also immediately think of some other big ones that I opted out of, like Wukong. People fucking love single player games when they are good games. I think the real issue is developing a good game is hard. Developing a game with dark practices and otherwise addicting (but not necessarily fun) gameplay is a much easier way to make uninspired games made by committee.
It's just easier to point the blame at the market than actually admit that upon self reflection you realized it is best to avoid the hard part of game development.
Yeah, if you ignore like ALL of the nominations and winners at The Game Awards for the last 10 years and take a look at checks notes Fortnite
Thats the studio head talking bullahit.
Not the actual creators
Narrative driven, story rich games don't sell?
How many video game franchises are making the leap to tv/movies these days? Hint, it's the ones with narrative driven, story rich games.
Go ahead and make pay to win mobile games, I don't play them and they rake in millions so it makes perfect business sense.
But the idea that gamers don't pay for good narrative driven, story rich games is laughable.
I think the biggest problem with a lot of game franchises have is they only sell the game. So much money is being left on the table with the best efforts being a screengrab lazily printed on a cheap shirt that sells maybe one or two.
If I could get some official, quality, Umbrella/Shinra/Arasaka/Faro corporation mugs, phone covers, meme tier shirts etc I'd be all over it.
They don't sell enough. These companies want endless growth and endless sales so they can milk the whales for endless revenue. Narrative rich, story driven games don't sell as much as pay to win or gacha trash.
Ah, so managerial problems again who would have thought but that's OK we that make the things can suffer a little more
The Journalist writes "I'm predictably both intrigued and worried that 11 bit think there's less interest now in games with a pronounced narrative component." But then does not detail any attempt at getting a comment from the studio on that... What gives?
I liked Frostpunk and would have loved a story driven game in that universe.
