Just Cause Dev: Losing AAA Might Not Be All That Bad

[Vausch]

Y'know what Avalanche, all you have to do is make Just Cause 3 with some new additions to the hookshots, perhaps something like a swinging mechanic al-la Spiderman 2, new weapons, vehicles, and if possible make it so everything in the game is destructible. That happens, you will have absolutely no problems selling the game and making a name for yourself.

...implying they haven't already made a name for themselves. With GTA IV's fall from grace, it was neck and neck between Just Cause 2 and Saint's Row for 'king of the sandbox' title. Now that Saint's is slipping it looks like Avalanche is far and away the top of the sandbox heap.

Though I'll bet Far Cry 4 will have something to say about that if and when it arrives...

Unintentional there XD I love Avalanche, I mean MORE of a name.

Considering Far Cry 3 has been a pretty big success story odds are 4 is in the bag if they don't decide to go with new IP.

 

[FloodOne]

With the amazing quality of indie games in the last 3 years, I can safely say that I wouldn't miss AAA games if something were to happen to them.

Well good for you.

Without AAA gaming, I wouldn't have half of the games from this generation that I love. No Fallout 3, No Oblivion or Skyrim, no Uncharted, or inFamous, The Last of Us (hypothetically, it's not out yet but looks damn good), Dead Space 1, Hitman, Assassin's Creed 2, GTA IV, Dishonored, etc. etc.

Indie titles are great, I own a buttload of them on both my PC and ps3. But indie titles can't scratch every itch, and a gaming industry with only indie titles doesn't sound like something I want any part of.

Seriously, graphics don't make the game, but seeing everything (not literally, but you have to admit there are an awful lot of them) pasted with "retro 16-bit graphics" is a joke.

There needs to be a better tiered system for these publishers. Ranging from AAA to A to B titles, and the indies can fill in the space between.

 

[Saulkar]

Just Cause 2 is incredibly creative. How many other games let you tether people to compressed gas tanks, then shoot the tanks so that they fly up into the air, dragging the hapless victim with them? How many games let you do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcQ9PWoZdA

Or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJfvgUnAJdU

Or ALL THE OTHER CRAZY STUFF YOU CAN DO

Or This: Or This: Or This:
Seriously! I can play the game until I am completely burnt out! Then come back 4 months later as if it were fresh, burn myself out, download 50+ mods, enjoy all over again!

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's kinda stupid. If we take consoles as the main market for games, than it means the more games there are, the more consoles get sold, which means the more games will get made.

Nobody will buy a console if they only get to chose between 3 games a year (if they're a shooter fan, which is pretty much everyone).

I don't think he means less games, just less triple-A games. So instead of dozens of monstrously budgeted games all fighting to earn their money back, of which only 20% probably will, we'll have 2 or 3 dozen mediumly budgeted games that have more room to maneuver without the looming risk of losing millions of dollars.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

The studio has three games in the pipeline; One is another open-world game (which many assume to be Just Cause 3) co-developed with Square Enix. The other two are unnamed titles based on unidentified comic book and movie licenses.

"What I like now is that there are more opportunities to be creative,"

Oh, so he's making three games (almost certainly) based on existing intellectual properties, but he is just desperate to get some more creativtity in his industry? Makes a lot of sense.

Somehow I don't think his current batch is going be very creative, but as long as it makes him money I doubt he's going to be very sorry about that. :\

 

[Strazdas]

How else will we justify our video cards with slightly higher numbers?

BItcoin farming monsters?

in the times where there is AAA or indie only, we need soem AAA to tone down to BBB. or well, there are some BBB, made by awful peopel for awful people.

 

[nexus]

More games where I don't have to slaughter 100 men before I even get started with the Prologue, please.

I really dig the "Murder Optional" feature in some games, where you even get rewarded with dialogue scenes, secrets, and other goodies if you have the patience or skill. Original Thief-style...

To me, AAA isn't "First Person Shooter".. AAA is the part of the industry where every one of their games is a slaughter-fest, just mindless insanity. Stupidly simple mechanics where you just hover an icon over simulated meat-bodies and blow them up for 8 hours.

I'm cool with it now and then of course, but calm down guys.. seriously. Seriously.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

But we need teh best graphics to stay competitive!

How else will we justify our video cards with slightly higher numbers?

The extreme amounts of computer hardware research paid for by our graphics card purchases allowed for innovations and large increases in overall computing power. Computing power which has revolutionized the way research is done in medicine, astronomy, engineering, basically name any science field.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

He's right. We don't need 40 FPS titles. For constant FPS gaming we have more than enough. I don't even know why are modern military shooters still selling. There is absolutely no reason to buy a new CoD every year. CoD 4 is still the best one.

What we don't have is more games like The Witcher or Mass Effect. Character and story driven RPG's. And the fact that EA wants to make Mass Effect into some kind of Gears of War clone is pissing me off. They have this huge hole in the market that no one is trying to fill, and instead of grabbing that opportunity to take that market all for themselves, they're trying to compete with games that exist in an already over-saturated market. This is why Ubisoft is so successful with Assassin's Creed. No one does what they do so that part of the market is theirs. They are the only ones who can scratch that itch. They're not even trying to compete for the MMO and FPS market. And that's smart.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I'd like to know just where he gets his 40 FPS titles. There aren't all that many FPS releases in a year, really. Especially not AAA ones. Yeah we've got the annual CoD update, and something from EA that may or may not be terrible. But beyond those two you don't see anywhere near 40 FPS games getting released within a year, probably not even half that amount. But it seems to be a popular misconception that every other AAA release is an FPS.

It also would be flagrant lie to insinuate that there is no creativity left in the AAA industry and that all the games coming out are generic. Sure a lot of them are, but you also get your fair shake of genuinely enjoyable AAAs in your average year.

 

[Something Amyss]

But we need teh best graphics to stay competitive!

How else will we justify our video cards with slightly higher numbers?

The extreme amounts of computer hardware research paid for by our graphics card purchases allowed for innovations and large increases in overall computing power. Computing power which has revolutionized the way research is done in medicine, astronomy, engineering, basically name any science field.

That seems like a great thing that could be done without the ridiculous graphics card portion. I'd gladly write a check to these people for the price of a graphics card to get the same results.

 

[Ishal]

He's right. We don't need 40 FPS titles. For constant FPS gaming we have more than enough. I don't even know why are modern military shooters still selling. There is absolutely no reason to buy a new CoD every year. CoD 4 is still the best one.

What we don't have is more games like The Witcher or Mass Effect. Character and story driven RPG's. And the fact that EA wants to make Mass Effect into some kind of Gears of War clone is pissing me off. They have this huge hole in the market that no one is trying to fill, and instead of grabbing that opportunity to take that market all for themselves, they're trying to compete with games that exist in an already over-saturated market. This is why Ubisoft is so successful with Assassin's Creed. No one does what they do so that part of the market is theirs. They are the only ones who can scratch that itch. They're not even trying to compete for the MMO and FPS market. And that's smart.

Why are they selling? Social bro gamers. The gamers that buy only 2 or 3 games a year. 2 of those being the new Madden and CoD.

Ubisoft is successful with AC for now, but it won't be for long. Its got several studios running to pump out a new AC game every year. AC3 was the same tired concept with the only silver lining being the ship combat, so now there's an AC pirate game coming out. So Ubisoft rides that until the wheels fall off, then what?

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

That seems like a great thing that could be done without the ridiculous graphics card portion. I'd gladly write a check to these people for the price of a graphics card to get the same results.

Sure; but you and how many other people? Private industry drives science in a way that donations wont, and that government is remiss to do because it might mean a few less cruise missiles. Of course it could be done without a gaming industry constantly pushing newer and better graphics; but it won't be. Nvidia alone makes over 4 billion dollars yearly. That's not the kind of revenue that you can pull in from donations.

And even if we could donate that kind of money, it's still going to jack up costs of research because of basic supply and demand economics. The high demand of the computing industry has led to a large number of factories producing this stuff. You drive demand down, and they can't make as much, they can't sell it as cheaply, they can't make them as efficiently.

Also personally I like the advances in rendering and computing technology. Not because I need everything to look super beautiful, but because I really want Mount and Blade to start having battles with 10,000 fully rendered units present and accounted for. Also an even more advanced SS13 would be nice. Just because most of that power is being wasted on most games doesn't mean it can't tangibly improve the gaming industry in the right hands.

 

[Something Amyss]

Sure; but you and how many other people? Private industry drives science in a way that donations wont, and that government is remiss to do because it might mean a few less cruise missiles. Of course it could be done without a gaming industry constantly pushing newer and better graphics; but it won't be. Nvidia alone makes over 4 billion dollars yearly. That's not the kind of revenue that you can pull in from donations.

And even if we could donate that kind of money, it's still going to jack up costs of research because of basic supply and demand economics. The high demand of the computing industry has led to a large number of factories producing this stuff. You drive demand down, and they can't make as much, they can't sell it as cheaply, they can't make them as efficiently.

Also personally I like the advances in rendering and computing technology. Not because I need everything to look super beautiful, but because I really want Mount and Blade to start having battles with 10,000 fully rendered units present and accounted for. Also an even more advanced SS13 would be nice. Just because most of that power is being wasted on most games doesn't mean it can't tangibly improve the gaming industry in the right hands.

That was a long way to go to make excuses for what is still relatively unnecessary.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

That was a long way to go to make excuses for what is still relatively unnecessary.

Video games are unnecessary. Most everything but sex, food, and oxygen are unnecessary. It's not the necessary that concerns most people in the first world these days, and I would say this is as good a thing as any of the others if not better all things considered.

I don't make excuses, I merely take all the facts into account. I would love a world of sunshine where people shared and cared for each other, and worked towards the general good. But that's not the world we live in, not yet anyways. And the fact of the matter is that the great graphics race has done more good for the world than most everything else you could name.