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/mechanab Oct 02 '24

High budget isn’t a replacement for creativity or knowing your audience.

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u/MostlyRightSometimes Oct 02 '24

Who gives a shit about the audience? Can the game serve as a vehicle for recurring income with minimal development cycles? Does the art style lend itself to Ai creation? Can everything be offshored? Are there any alternative revenue streams (e.g. In-game ads).

Most games arent meant to be fun. They're mean to be profitable.

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u/Helpyjoe88 Oct 02 '24

You're right - but what they keep missing is that a game being fun is key to it being profitable. 

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u/intbeam Oct 02 '24

Not if your market are gamblers, speculators and min-maxers

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u/wrincewind Oct 02 '24

they won't join in unless there's people to show off to. you can market to those groups, but they require a supporting crowd of casuals to be better than - who's going to drop $10k on some in-game cosmetic if no-one's ever gonna see it and go 'wow, that's so cool!'?

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u/RTukka Oct 03 '24 edited Oct 03 '24

Exactly. This is why before generative AI, the big tech buzzword was "the metaverse," shared virtual worlds with or without a game or gamified elements, and it's why it's the fixation of the OP's article.

The primary interest is in creating corporate-owned social spaces where people have to spend money to not look like basic bitches, and to express themselves, and perform status displays. See: Manfactured Discontent and Fortnite by Dan Olson / Folding Ideas.

Others like Facebook saw the market for cosmetics in MMOs and other multiplayer games and craved a way to bring that to the masses, and ideally, make it an interwoven part of society like the internet itself, so participation is essentially mandatory.

So far, the metaverse hasn't amounted to anything because it doesn't have a compelling use-case, and because VR (considered essential to fulfill the vision of the metaverse, or at least is something which would be very nice to have) is still expensive, cumbersome, and niche.

Meanwhile game developers continue to chase the dragon of the same old live service rent-seeking business model, but the market can only support so many games like that simultaneously. Fortnite is the foremost of these right now so of course the likes of Tim Sweeney are not going to be moved by the return generated by games that make their nut by selling you the game once for $60-70 or less, plus maybe a few expansions, spin-offs/sequels, and merchandising.

He can't just enjoy his moment in the sun with the outrageous profits Fortnite is already generating and try to produce a string of more modestly profitable games, because capitalism demands constant, unlimited growth, and he's not going to achieve that by publishing the next Baldur's Gate 3 or Elden Ring. His only road forward is to milk Fortnite even harder while trying to set it up to be the metaverse, and maybe to try to position his company to own and produce whatever Fortnite's successor to the "life-consuming monstrosity of game service" crown turns out to be.

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u/beldaran1224 Boardgames Oct 03 '24

You say that, but they absolutely do. Its psychological.

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u/garbageministry Oct 02 '24

I do wonder if on some platforms we're reaching a live service saturation point where there's just not enough whales to go around for everyone

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u/Itsmyloc-nar Oct 02 '24

The only whales I approve of harpooning

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u/Johnstodd Oct 02 '24

We need them now sadly, these love service games die without them.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/Johnstodd Oct 02 '24

Your not wrong but that's where we are and collectively we got us here sadly

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/Johnstodd Oct 02 '24

Wait planetside 2 is still running?

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u/marino1310 Oct 02 '24

See: mobile games

Monopoly go is hot garbage but they made billions due to morons.

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u/SpiceyMugwumpMomma Oct 02 '24

I feel called out.

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u/RollerDude347 Oct 02 '24

Right. So you'll need to at minimum be more fun than high stakes poker and a monthly loot box service.

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u/caiquelkk Oct 02 '24

What min-maxers have to do with this? lol

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u/intbeam Oct 03 '24

Gaming companies makes boring content with big rewards because there are a significant amount of the player base that isn't playing the game, but rather its meta which makes the statistics from the marketing department think that they should make more content like that for the simple fact that some people obsess over rewards and stats and are more or less indifferent to the actual content

Min-maxers

It's why some people insist that WoW or Diablo are fun because they think stats and reading gearing tutorials and drop statistics in the goal of maximizing player stats is more fun than the actual game

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u/Dry_Grade9885 Oct 03 '24

You forget min maxers well they will min max the spending aswell they generally frown on microtransactions so they are really only going after the gamblers and the gamblers already have the casino and online casino why would they buy a game to casino

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u/ChargeProper Oct 03 '24

Is min maxer the new term for whales?

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u/intbeam Oct 04 '24

Min-maxers don't care about gameplay, only stats and meta