Torchlight Dev: AAA Games Are Stifling the Industry

[Zen Toombs]

"I'll get in trouble for this, but I look forward to the end of boxes and disks," he said. "Kill them with fire for all I care. The retail market has historically starved developers and narrowed the market for available games."

Think this guy needs to take a look at the roots of PC gaming when people were self publishing using home-printed floppy discs and manuals sold in plastic bags. Not to mention the "boxes and disks" model is responsible for getting the industry as far as it is.

Yes, but thinking like this results in sacred cows. And as pretty as they are, sometimes sacred cows must be sacrificed.

Has the "boxes and disks" model helped get the games industry to this point? Yes. But now it's starting to strain on the industry, and is keeping it from seeing its full potential.

People used to self-publish with self-made floppy discs and manuals, and that was great. But do you propose that we go back to floppy discs? No, it seems that your point is that you want to bring people back to how things were, to when indie developers worked out of their garages and made some pretty good games. Thing is, they're doing that right now. And you know how these people are doing it? Online. Using digital distribution.

 

[Dr Jones]

But... well... what about... wait when was Torchlight released? 2009? The Call of Duty manages to release a game with terrifically high production values on a yearly basis!

And yeah Mr. Carter brings up a good point. I don't care if you helped create Diablo II you can't just create the same basic game with updated graphics and sell it as something NEW and (looks at DoTA II) oh wait.

But seriously this is just another textbook case of the pot calling the kettle black.

So come down off the cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and GET OVER YOURSELF.

And give us a concrete date for Torchlight II dammit. While not as bad as these "five year cycles" you're talking about (of which I've seen none that I can remember) a three year cycle is pretty bad these days.

3 year cycle is actually pretty standard.

The yearly cycles you mention are created by seperate teams so not really yearly. (sledgehammer, IW, treyarch).

Now before you go " but what about ubi and ass creed" while its true they don't name the sub teams, they most certainly exist.

And yes i want a tl2 release date too

They do mention every single sub-team in AC:R. The intro is pretty much just filled with
"Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Shanghai
Ubisoft Singapore
Ubisoft "

 

[Frostbyte666]

"I'll get in trouble for this, but I look forward to the end of boxes and disks," he said. "Kill them with fire for all I care. The retail market has historically starved developers and narrowed the market for available games."

Actually I much prefer having a physical disc than only a digital download. You only need your hard drive die on you once to learn that lesson be it pc or console. Plus I like having a physical games collection.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

In the real world, if a fruit bearing plant was latched onto by a vine that grew to be far bigger than the plant, consumed several other plants and gradually starved the original plant, only an idiot would point to the birds who eat the fruit and say 'This is all your fault.'

In the gaming industry, however, people seem to be blind to the fricking obvious.

 

[RagTagBand]

Lol Nope. AAA games are not stifling the industry, as evidenced by the sheer overwhelming number of samey games you can find that are "Indie" or low budget. Honestly though, what exactly is "Innovation"? I'd say that COD4 Innovated the Multiplayer FPS world and that was a AAA game, I'd also say WoW Innovated in the MMO space, but that wasn't an indie game. "Innovation", whatever the hell that is, can come from anywhere.

It's also some pretty rich shit this guy is flinging at the wall considering just how similar every single piece of work this guy has ever created is, Whats that? You're going to make another game about Demons and Magic? Probably a dungeon crawler? Probably in an Isometric view? Probably an ARPG? What innovation! We certainly don't have any games like that.

 

[Vault101]

oh here we go....

AAA games stifling the industry? going from the line-up last year Ive got no problem with AAA games

and seriously...I can't game without physical copies..not untill internet gets sorted out

all of his post makes me smile

and inb4 crybabies with bad connections moan about not being able to.

calling people names doesnt adress any issues

 

[Vault101]

snip.

mabye I just dont want one more bullshit hoop to jump through before I can play a game

mabye digital is inevitable....but here in my country the internet is pretty bad...the downloads caps are downright insulting, ok sure, if I need too one day perhaps Ill get a better plan (internet is expensive) but I still dont want to wait 5 fucking hours to download a godamn game

"whining" implys its a non-issue...for alot of people it isnt

 

[Silenttalker22]

if your current government is ignoring the need for spending in this area, elect one which will.

That's your reply to 'I can't play these kids of games right now because of a fundamentally broken social system that extends my whole nation'?

You just came back at a social dilemma of grand scale with "Get new ones".

 

[Kahunaburger]

I'd be saying that too, if I were releasing my diablo clone the same year Diablo III and Borderlands 2 came out.

 

[Strazdas]

I'd be saying that too, if I were releasing my diablo clone the same year Diablo III and Borderlands 2 came out.

Exept that Torchlight is created by the same guy that created Diablo, and Diablo 3 is the real clone by another team.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I'd be saying that too, if I were releasing my diablo clone the same year Diablo III and Borderlands 2 came out.

Exept that Torchlight is created by the same guy that created Diablo, and Diablo 3 is the real clone by another team.

No criticism of Torchlight intended. What I'm saying is that it's a game that is like Diablo, isn't Diablo, and is being released the same year Diablo III is coming out.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

I'd be saying that too, if I were releasing my diablo clone the same year Diablo III and Borderlands 2 came out.

Exept that Torchlight is created by the same guy that created Diablo, and Diablo 3 is the real clone by another team.

No criticism of Torchlight intended. What I'm saying is that it's a game that is like Diablo, isn't Diablo, and is being released the same year Diablo III is coming out.

No different than Rock Band/Guitar Hero 3. I guess we'll have to wait and see which one ends up being better.

 

[lapan]

He has a point about AA games. Developers and publishers end up trying to emulate their success by dishing out similar games (military fps, Diablo and DotA-clones) or altering their sequels to be more like them (Bioware).

"I'll get in trouble for this, but I look forward to the end of boxes and disks," he said. "Kill them with fire for all I care. The retail market has historically starved developers and narrowed the market for available games."

However i can't agree on this point. the day when no physical copies are released anymore is the day we lose ownership over our games once and for all and become dependant on external servers if we ever want to reinstall our games.

It also removes competition and will make pricedrops on games rare since only a selected few will probably get the licences to sell those DD-games.

It's just another way for the publisher to wrestle the ownership to our games out of our hands and turn it into a renting buissness.