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In a bad-vibes moment, they’re denying a huge outlet like IGN a review code. No matter what I think of IGN in particular (nothing good tbh), that’s not something I can find a real explanation for other than “We made DC’s Gollum and want to avoid bad press as long as we can”.
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Lol. They have absolutely 0 confidence in the game otherwise they’d be sending these codes out no problem.
I have seen it happen before when review outlets don’t get copies, but the game still turns out awesome. I think it happened for Doom Eternal.
It feels pointless to play devil’s advocate here though, since one way or another, I’m basically sure it’s going to be terrible. I just don’t like consigning internet opinion based on anything other than gameplay and actual reviews.
You are referring to Doom 2016 actually. While that turn out decent, one of their key arguments was due to it being online focused. We all know Doom 2016 had rather generic multiplayer.
With that said, it feels silly not to have issues when publishers refuse to send out review keys. Its a huge red flag for a game, this doesn’t mean it will be bad but its a trend we shouldn’t be happy about. Its only done to help preserve preorder numbers.
I’ve read somewhere else a couple of days ago that the official explanation is that without the public servers being live, reviewers would not get the full experience.
Not defending WB (I’m not interested in that game at all), just giving context.
That’s just an excuse. WB choose when to activate the servers. They could have easily put them online for reviewers.
Unless they’re having trouble getting them working, which isn’t encouraging for launch.
They at least have some working, they flew a bunch of streamers to LA for an event and had them stream the game a few weeks back.
Looked like a crackdown-ish game with DC character running around. Think like the Spider-Man games of the last few years but without the beloved characters
Oh no! The reviewers won’t be able to buy MTX! What a shame!
Well, now they’ll be reviewing a fully Denuvo’ed copy, so the version actual buyers get to play.
Really sad that the last time we hear Kevin Conroy as Batman is gonna be in this train wreck.
Damnit this makes me sad…
Well, there’s some good news today!
Imagine you just finished playing Arkham Knight, and you get an interview with Rocksteady as a game developer. They love you, your passion, your creative skills, and they onboard you. This “game” is what Warner Bros hands down to you to work on. The well-known head of the studio leaves within a few years of you joining. You hold out hope that everything will come together so people can enjoy the art that you’ve worked so hard on. Warner Bros adds a battle pass. Warner Bros makes it a “game”-as-a-service. Warner Bros announces nonsensical lore additions for the sake of post-launch content. Warner Bros denies review copies. The “studio” you thought you were signing up for has become nothing but a slot machine for the higher-ups.
What a shitty thing to do to a whole group of wonderfully creative and skilled people.
See, this is the thing people don’t realize when they think generative AI is going to reduce headcounts overall.
Corporations suck. The entire reason they exist is because of the high transactional costs surrounding labor (there’s a Nobel winning economics essay on this from the turn of the 20th century called “the nature of the firm”).
They will reduce value and increase price as much as possible because they only exist to be a middleman between the consumer and the producer.
But right now there’s no alternative. It’s crazy expensive to make AA and up games so you need to target mass market appeal to get the money for it and usually need to crawl up finance bros’ asses who don’t even play games and look down on those who do.
That’s all about to change dramatically.
Co-op studio structures where employees are owners, smaller teams with large aspirations, franchises with small but dedicated fan bases - these largely died out in the 90s besides remnant very indie groups as transactional costs to produce a game went through the roof and those costs are about to turn around.
Yes, gen AI means less people are needed to make a game. But it doesn’t mean less people will be making games. It means there will be more games, and games coming from people with vision rather than coming from people with a quarterly statement they are trying to maximize.
Hello Games was a team of around a dozen people, and while it was a bumpy road, using procgen allowed them to build an entire universe. Well procgen and a whole host of other tools are about to suck a lot less and be much more accessible to even small studios to make ambitious games.
My hope is that we see things happen rapidly enough that many of the thousands of devs who have lost their jobs at mega-corps will be able to reorganize to take on the Goliaths and win rather than be forced to move on to other industries.
A shakeup is about to happen that’s going to destroy the season pass, micro transaction, soulless meat grinder that’s most large studio/publishers today - it’s just maybe ~3 years out from the inflection point of no return.
But one thing is for certain - most of the largest games companies are woefully unprepared for what’s coming and are about to be stepped all over like Blockbuster or Circuit City.
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right now there’s no alternative. It’s crazy expensive to make AA and up games
You’re kidding? UE5 with Nanite is a whole-ass studio and you can use it for free and pay a percentage once you’re making money. It’s never been cheaper and the games have never been more plentiful. AAA has this problem exactly because games like Palworld are hits eating huge amounts of gamers’ time.
Why IGN of all reviewers? Easiest 9/10 they could ever wish for.
You let companies review your game when you want fans outside your bubble to hear how good your game is. You don’t let companies review your game when you don’t want fans inside your bubble to fund out how bad your game is.
Guess they are trying to get every sale possible as this likely won’t do well. A shame really. Really enjoyed the Arkham series.
I’m guessing it’ll be in the 40s range on Metacritic once all said and done.
It’s Rocksteady, so it’ll be higher than 40s. Heck, it’s almost impossible to get a score lower than 40 on metacritic…
Mid 60s I’m guessing, perhaps as high as 69 if reviewers are feeling generous. The kind of score which would be absolutely fine if it were a cheap and cheerful B-game made by a scrappy team of underfunded devs, but which is an absolute embarrassment when applied to a multi million dollar tentpole. The kind of score that implies ‘meh’.
Could be right… though it went from me wanting to get this around launch day to… let’s hope it’s on GamePass. My backlog of games also helps me to wait on this one.
Look at the silver lining, at least someone won’t be in the worst reviewed Suicide Squad related media anymore.
A small win is still a win.
“But, we chased all the trends, even if they were incongruous with the property! Why don’t people want our game Uncle Phil? Oh well, time to go bury it, maybe we can get a tax write off for this like the Batgirl movie.”
Alternatively: “We’ve changed nothing after all the negative feedback, and we’re all out of ideas.”
The good ol’ Flanders parent’s approach
Reviewers getting ready.
Yeah this is never a good sign.
That being said, perhaps because I got into a couple.of their podcasts, but I like a bunch of people at IGN. How come you’re not a fan?
I really can’t wait to see the Matt McMuscles “Wha’ Happun’??” Episode about this game.
I just don’t want to think this mess anymore. Please Matt, save me from the thinky pain!
Live service was the first thing…
As not a fan of any superhero things, I couldn’t agree more. I am psyched for the discourse.
That game might have had a chance to find its audience but with the surprise success of Palworld it’s now definitely DOA.
Wait, why are the two related? People will be playing one and not have time for the other once it comes out?
I agree, the two games are not related and are in two completely different genres
Yup. That’s exactly it. There a lot of people in the “no particular fandom” category that can determine a sales winner and loser.
I doubt that’s got much to do with anything. Palworld is a pretty standard survival early access thing whose only distinguishing feature is that they’ve somehow evaded Nintendo’s lawyers until after the release window.
Maybe they sent the cease and desist to the wrong address, like there’s an 87 year old Japanese woman wondering what this strange letter is she received and what she’s done wrong.
This fuck up is entirely of Rocksteady’s own making. It might review amazing, but gamers have utterly soured on live service bullshit. The Arkham games were gamer’s games. They can’t just fob this off on us like they can with CoD or FIFA.
Nintendo is one of the most litigious game companies there is, and Palworld Dev is also based in Japan so there’s no international complications.
If Nintendo had an infringement case at all they’d already have buried Palworld.
Palworld is a flash in the pan and I predict its count will drop in a couple of weeks. If Suicide Squad fails, its because its a bad game.
Seriously Palworld reminds me of so many games that are over hyped and then forgotten a month or two later.
It doesn’t help that the company behind it, Pocketpair, has a treck record of not finishing their games
I don’t see how the two are related, different games with different concerns.
You know a game is bad. Even IGN don’t get a review code.
I don’t have faith in this game, at all.
I saw shroud playing it on twitch at an event they brought him to the other day. It gave crackdown vibes but with DC character jumping around. Just fly here beat up random dudes, repeat endlessly
