Should PS5 Devs Lower Budget, More Original Games? 1

As we wrote in our review this month, Slitterhead is an inventive and original game. It’s one we thoroughly enjoyed, but it currently commands a Metacritic rating of 62. It’s one of the rare occasions where our 7/10 is actually higher than the critical mean.

And it’s started an interesting discussion on social media: do fans genuinely want lower budget, more original games?

Earlier today, Capcom confirmed that its PS5 and PS4 strategy game Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess had underperformed. It’ll follow the cheaper, more creative title with the hotly anticipated Monster Hunter Wilds – an enormously budgeted sequel expected to sell millions of copies.

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Other lower budget titles this year that have failed include Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, a largely critically acclaimed experiment that led to layoffs at dev Don’t Nod.

While we don’t have worldwide sales for Slitterhead just yet, we know it sold fewer than 10k physical copies on the PS5 in Japan at launch. This is such a small snapshot of the game’s overall performance that it’s difficult to infer anything of meaning from it, but it’s probably safe to say it won’t be a huge hit.

And Bokeh Game Studios, the creator of the game, took umbridge with an IGN article published over the weekend, arguing the way forward for the industry is smaller, more inventive experiences.

“Lovely article,” it wrote on X (or Twitter). “How about starting off by giving us a better rating?” The website awarded Slitterhead a 5/10, complaining about repetition and primitive presentation.

To be fair to IGN, its editorial about lower budget productions was written by a different author to its Slitterhead review. It also never argued that a smaller scale game should get good reviews by default; it simply pointed out that by reducing overall costs it might give teams more of a safety net should a particular title fail to live up to expectations.

We actually think Bokeh Game Studios is being a little outspoken by publicly sharing this statement, but we can understand where its frustration comes from. Fans are eager to say they’re willing to support smaller scale productions – there’s even a meme about it – but rarely show up to pay for such projects.

It raises the question then: do we genuinely want smaller scale projects with lower budgets? Or do we simply think it’s a good idea until our money’s on the line? What say you?

Do you want more lower budget, original games? (1,031 votes)

  1. Yes, I'll always support creative endeavours I find appealing%
  2. Hmm, it depends very much on the type of game on offer%
  3. No, I want devs to focus on big budget games in general%
  4. I really don't know%

[source x.com]