DICE Exec: Military Shooter Market Isn't Oversaturated

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

There's a lot more you can do with Sci-fi than modern.

agreed but I would argue that a lot of developers aren't willing to change their gun design. I point to Titanfall; the weapons used by the titans themselves are unique with a magnetic redirect shield and arc cannons but the foot soldier weapons themselves seem like reskins or slight modifications of current mms weapons. The assault rifle is basically a SCAR with a different scope and the only significant weapon redesign I saw was the rocket launcher which was clip-based, carried like a assault rifle and with smaller rockets than normal 21th century launchers. This is a game world that has enough technology for warp engines, space travel, and mecha. Why hasen't the technology for infantry weapons changed from our current ones?

 

[Bindal]

If you look right now, then maybe he's right. There's two big MMS' and on the other side practically every shooter at E3 this year was some variation on sci-fi.

The one doesn't mean it can't be the other.
Black Ops 2, for example, is both!

 

[Innegativeion]

PEOPLE ARE

moving away from that genre

BECAUSE IT'S OVER-SATURATED!

There, I pointed out the indelible, glaring lapse in brain functionality colloquially known as 'recognition of cause and effect'.

Perhaps a few years from now people 'will have moved' from the genre, and not be in the present process of 'moving'. THEN it won't be over saturated. Anymore!

ALSO SCI-FI AS WELL AS MILITARY ARE NARRATIVE GENRES, SHOOTERS ARE A GENRE OF GAMEPLAY, NONE OF THE THREE ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

I LIKE YELLING.

[sub][sub][sub][sub]sometimes[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Trishbot]

DICE, you're great and all...

... But there's a reason I like Mirror's Edge more than anything else you've done, and more than any other military shooter on the market.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

Yes, Indeed! How about publishing Six Days In Fallujah, dear DICE ???????

 

[Johnson McGee]

In other words, the genre's not oversaturated, it's just saturated. World of difference.

 

[Dark Knifer]

The difference is stuff happens in sci fi from time to time, modern shooters haven't done much of anything particularly interesting in their existence.

 

[ritchards]

Yep sci-fi is the biz you say... so what happened to Prey 2?

 

[Anathrax]

Well... um.. *Snicker* I... *Bursts out laughing* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopyRHHlt3M]

Oh yes. It's barely saturated. Nothing wrong here. No sir. Nu-uh.

 

[Weaver]

Bust most of these "sci-fi" games are just MMS games with a very, very thin coat of "pretty soon in the future". If 90% of the weapons in a game are still guns that shoot regular bullets, your game isn't very sci-fi.

Also... maybe I'm not paying attention, but how many sci-fi games are we REALLY getting here? Why can't I think of any? Besides the shitty star trek game, what sci-fi game have we got this year so far?

 

[Bindal]

Bust most of these "sci-fi" games are just MMS games with a very, very thin coat of "pretty soon in the future". If 90% of the weapons in a game are still guns that shoot regular bullets, your game isn't very sci-fi.

Thanks to a very basic physical law, shooting bullets will actually NEVER go out of fashion.
Heck, even in HALO (you know, 2552 onwards), they still use bullets.

Also... maybe I'm not paying attention, but how many sci-fi games are we REALLY getting here? Why can't I think of any? Besides the shitty star trek game, what sci-fi game have we got this year so far?

If we say "one year" as "past 12 months" while only using first- and third-person shooter, it is:
Defiance, Halo, Star Trek, Black Ops 2, Sanctum 2 (partially, as it is primarely a first-person tower defense), Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, ShootMania Storm,...

Just to name a few.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Bust most of these "sci-fi" games are just MMS games with a very, very thin coat of "pretty soon in the future". If 90% of the weapons in a game are still guns that shoot regular bullets, your game isn't very sci-fi.

Thanks to a very basic physical law, shooting bullets will actually NEVER go out of fashion.
Heck, even in HALO (you know, 2552 onwards), they still use bullets.

Yeah, but in Halo you also have plasma and laser-based weapons that are in roughly equal quantity.

OT: Okay, let's just say for a moment that the market isn't oversaturated. Why are people moving away from it then?
Did people really like Black Ops 2 that much?

 

[Bindal]

Bust most of these "sci-fi" games are just MMS games with a very, very thin coat of "pretty soon in the future". If 90% of the weapons in a game are still guns that shoot regular bullets, your game isn't very sci-fi.

Thanks to a very basic physical law, shooting bullets will actually NEVER go out of fashion.
Heck, even in HALO (you know, 2552 onwards), they still use bullets.

Yeah, but in Halo you also have plasma and laser-based weapons that are in roughly equal quantity.

Actually, there is about three to four times as many ballistic weapons than there are laser weapons. Halo 4 racked that up somewhat, but until Reach, you could count the amount of Laser and Plasma weapons at one hand.

 

[seditary]

Yeah what else is someone from DICE going to say. 'There are too many of the games that we make!' will never be uttered.

Genre fatigue was pretty much the leading cause of death for the most recent Medal of Honor reboot [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122088-EA-Admits-It-Blew-Medal-of-Honor-Warfighter].

Forever the funniest and most stupid thing ever said.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Did... did he just call Halo boring?

So it isn't a cover based shooter, has anyone thought to think that's a good idea?

 

[Squilookle]

Back to WW2! Back to WW2 I say!

Not just because it's the last war that mattered...

Not just because it involved so many countries and shaped the entire world as we know it...

But because if you want more innovative gameplay, more variety in who you play as, what vehicles you wage war with, where you go, and what kind of terrain you experience, then no conflict in history has you covered like WW2 has. Sci-Fi can arguably match it, but it's only ever as good as the writing of it's creators, whereas WW2 is written by actual real events; real decisions made by real people, acting on believable impulses, because they really happened.

World War Two, man. That's where it's at. There has never been -nor will there ever be- a war more perfectly suited to gaming.

 

[CyberMachinist]

There's a lot more you can do with Sci-fi than modern.

agreed but I would argue that a lot of developers aren't willing to change their gun design. I point to Titanfall; the weapons used by the titans themselves are unique with a magnetic redirect shield and arc cannons but the foot soldier weapons themselves seem like reskins or slight modifications of current mms weapons. The assault rifle is basically a SCAR with a different scope and the only significant weapon redesign I saw was the rocket launcher which was clip-based, carried like a assault rifle and with smaller rockets than normal 21th century launchers. This is a game world that has enough technology for warp engines, space travel, and mecha. Why hasen't the technology for infantry weapons changed from our current ones?

Kind of makes you wish more guns like the ones from Unreal Tournament and Doom would see the limelight, personally i don't mind realistic weapons (probably work like antiques in the setting or something)in the genre but i would prefer they only make about 10 or 5% of the actual weaponry available,

C'mon why haven't they tried to at least make some new weapon types, like say some warp device that materializes objects or raw materials to deal with enemies?

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Seriously, this is the easiest comment to retort ever! Watch:

"Sorry Exec; yes, yes the market is very oversaturated with modern military shooters."

 

[Revolutionary]

If game development doesn't work out for Dice (Which I hope it does, I want the new mirrors edge), they should start a gaming-comedy channel on youtube.