r/gaming • u/CiabattaKatsuie Console • Oct 01 '24

The games industry is undergoing a 'generational change,' says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney: 'A lot of games are released with high budgets, and they're not selling'

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-games-industry-is-undergoing-a-generational-change-says-epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-a-lot-of-games-are-released-with-high-budgets-and-theyre-not-selling/

Tim Sweeney apparently thinks big budget games fail because... They aren't social enough? I personally feel that this is BS, but what do you guys think? Is there a trend to support his comments?

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u/BbyJ39 Oct 02 '24

We remember how many “WoW killers” came out and flopped hard or just sputtered on supported by a small handful of whales.

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u/LongJohnSelenium Oct 02 '24

WoW was the Everquest killer though. Overnight just destroyed it. Though granted SOE shot itself in the foot at the same time and taught the MMO industry to never release a sequel to your cash cow.

Everyone thought if it could happen once, it could happen again, and kept trying for like ten years.

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u/Solitare_HS Oct 02 '24

WoW broke through because it made MMOs user friendly enough for the masses, It also got in at the right time when broadband and connectivity was common enough to make a mass market game viable.

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u/SirWilliamWaller Oct 02 '24

Absolutely, it was a concatenation of circumstances that allowed it to set the new standard for an MMO aside from the addictive gameplay loop. I lasted 3 years in it, but I have a couple of friends who still play it with relish. The ingredients were right, the timing was right, it was affordable with a then large and interesting world to explore. I was already a Warcraft devotee thanks to WC: Orcs & Humans and WC2, but even if I had not encountered the IP before, I'd still have been hooked on it.

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u/Atlanos043 Oct 02 '24

To be fair especially with mobile releases the "small handful of whales" is what many developers are aiming for. Most people barely buy microtransactions, it's essentially the "5%" of very rich people (or people that don't know any better/are prone to addiction) they are targeting.