breakneck

@MadCaptain2207 But you're on PC Gamepass and if they retain you as a customer that's a win.

I don't really think it'll move the needle much for them but it could help with PC GP and maybe get a couple of those Steam kids into the ecosystem.

With Playstation, I can see those thinking about which next gen console maybe having this influence their decision.

A bold choice but, a very short term benefit choice.

I am not surprised, the Playstation 5 is still too expensive for so many.

60000 Yen in Japan and that's 20% of a starting salary. Europe is also suffering under heavy inflation so I can see those users sticking with the PS4 until GTA6

@itsfoz Depends on if they plan to develop their own engine otherwise I would expect them to use Unreal like every other dev.

Not a creative change but that kinda fits with Square's absolute lack of creativity this last decade

Poland has some of the cheapest labor and weak labor laws. Makes sense

I know everyone will be mean but after all the struggles the development has gone through, I am happy for the many many developers who suffered to get this game out.

@mariomaster96 I think it is more Nintendo doesn't feel like they need to share space with the others. Also, I doubt they have much to show except more DS/3DS/WiiU Remasters/Remakes at this point.

No Square Enix... Fascinating. Also this means we will see Bokeh's new horror game (former Team Siren/Gravity Rush people)

@Maubari Ratchet

@get2sammyb I think another problem is Fortnite has broken how updates for live services are done. They are so fast with new content and keeping players engaged.

@trev666 Yup games are fighting with Youtube, Netflix, other games and online live service ecosystems.
Retention is harder than ever.

@lacerz Oh I meant that more for devs who've been critical of the extra work and the limitations. Larian and Remedy come to mind. Also, on the business side I remember the Series S was selling at a huge loss (maybe that has changed now). Far more than the Series X.

How is Spencer still in the job? His gambles have all put Xbox in an even more precarious position. Gamepass did affect revenue, Bethesda definitely didn't show up with the juggernaut they needed, Halo launched in a very mixed state (Nintendo and Sony would never let that happen with Mario or God of War), The series S was a really short-term bet that also didn't work, their marketing and identity as a brand is non-existent.

What a mess.

Makes sense for their live service games and we also know that playstation cares about completion rates for their single player offerings.

Still dislike the idea of all games wanting all the attention of players. Nothing wrong with being a 30 hour one and done game which you may replay 2-3 down the line.

You know as a kid, I just used to go to the store see a game cover that looked cool buy it with my allowance and play it.

Now as an adult that is unchanged except that I now read reviews and am more careful of purchases.

This should be the limit of how much the average audience cares about games. The health of all industries always remains volatile especially tech, entertainment and consumer electronics of which gaming fits all 3.

10 bucks says it is a mobile game.

Reduce the scope of your games. FF7 Rebirth didn't need a mini-game for literally everything. You don't need 5-6 towers for every region. These are expensive and unnecessary additions for minimal quality gains.

FF16 didn't need to have the drab sidequests and could've just focused on companion quests that continued throughout the journey. Most of the sidequests were waste of time fetch quests.

Foamstars should never have existed.

118 MAU means they still have a lot of PS4s active. Hopefully more people shift so we can start moving away from the cross gen releases.

@Th3solution As per their report a lot of that lower profit was because of the aggressive sales in multiple regions. This FY they plan to again sell the PS5 at full price which means they make more money.

@REALAIS overall probably 60-40 Towards PC which has really gotten into it. Either way I don't see them changing the delivery of single player games to be day and date yet.

Man it honestly makes Ragnaroks more impressive as a premium priced single player release.

So there is generally a big drop-off between direct sequels. and Lightning Returns the third game in the XIII trilogy was last reported at 1.5 million units sold. So half the sales is pretty much on par for Rebirth

@UltimateOtaku91 can you find a breakdown of how sequels in the same franchise have done? I read somewhere that X-2 sold half of the units FFX did and a similar story for the XIII Series.

@ChrisDeku Yakuza probably has less than a third of the budget of a FF game with a far better release schedule.

Persona and Yakuza are liberal in their re-use of assets to reduce costs. FF is not. It is the same with Resident Evils success.

They are cheap to make since the bulk of the hard work was done with RE7 and RE2 Remake and the newer games don't feature too many graphical improvements or animation changes.

Also of note is Bandai's game division also saw a pretty bad decline in profit for the year. I think on a macro level games are going to have to deal with the fact that a lot of the covid boom provided inflated growth.

@get2sammyb It isn't once upon a time FF7 in HK would've been HUGE but now it is a whimper while people get excited for Persona and Yakuza instead which have built a base with a younger audience.

@tameshiyaku Not really. Games like Helldivers and Spider-Man 2 do prove that there is success to be found. But Square has a history of poor budgeting, high sales expectations and poor release schedules.

Both the FF games have also been decent but not great in terms of quality with poor console performance, bloated stories, empty worlds and an inconsistent tone.

@Kraaatos The Insomniac leaks recently had digital data on revenue and downloads for all playstation published games. So many of these games people cry about did horrible business.

I am happy that they still promote from within rather than just hire an outsider.

@Strikke Did it? Because in Asia it only went on sale in April. So if it did it was probably only in EU/America regions.

@Anthony_Daniels They need to cut budgets. FFXV Needed 10 million units sold to breakeven. That is an insane amount of money.
More than that you cannot see that money on screen.

Square has an identity crisis. They do not know what they want their franchises to be. The major reason for Yakuza and Persona exploding is because they've grown more comfortable in what they are and build on it. Ever since FFX, the franchise has not had a identity and Square hasn't had one either.

Also SE puts their games on sale so often that only a fool buys them full price (I am a fool)

@koffing They said they plan to focus their studios to collaborate more on big games. So say good bye to seeing smaller titles. All major devs are going to drop smaller titles soon by the looks of it.

@j2c Yeah he's been saying it for at least a year now.

He may be quite a weird guy with his opinions but his news/leaks are usually pretty good.

Anyone who watches/listens to Last Stand Media already knew this.

@Blaze215 I ended up hating the game because it was so long and was going for completion (my brother was the one who told me to stop and just move on seeing my visible disappointment). I recommend you try to push through the story and ignore the open world crap. Because you still have Nibel and the end game quests and you'll hate it even more. I loved Remake but Rebirth learned all the wrong lessons imo.

Loving Stellar Blade. Maybe the most fun I've had with a new release for moment to moment gameplay since Spider-Man 2 and Mario Wonder.

Baldurs gate 3 act 3 has me frustrated. May quit the game. Every fight takes sooooooo long. I hate how buggy it is. I hate how talking can never solve anything. I love the companions but Act 3 just feels like a slog. I do not know how the game gets a 10/10 with this act. Act 1 and 2 are absolutely 10/10s but act 3 is a 6/10.

@Foxhound We are still missing Persona 5 VR! Come on Atlus milk people one more time!!

LMAO absolutely saw this coming and I cannot wait to see the quality drop. I already have Yakuza burnout and Persona burnout. The direction every company will go in is this: constantly release sequels/spin-offs to popular franchises and no more new IP.

It looks pretty cool! I love seeing China and Korea are really stepping it up in the premium gaming space and I cannot wait to see what India has to offer!

Huh not sure how to feel about the complete lack of new releases on that list. Only sequels, Live services and IPs. HD2 is the only 2024 game on that list.

@Shepherd_Tallon That price Everywhere on all platforms.

I'm more curious about the long term growth of the game. 2.6 million is great launch but the game disappeared from Steam and console stores quite fast and in Asia had a pretty tepid reception overall. Even now its Steam rating remains mixed too even among recent scores.

Been getting a lot of ads in HK and China as well. Looks kinda meh though.

WOW! Who woulda thunk that the moment you spent 70 billion and got the eyes of the entire world on your obscure gaming division the higher ups would actually start taking a more direct role and see that growth is non-existent and they've over-invested. How Xbox even got Microsoft to buy ABK is a enigma to me unless they thought they would get away with COD Xbox and PC exclusivity.

Xbox are so god damn dumb.

@CWill97 Platforming is quite fiddly in general but there isn't too much of it so far so it is okay but otherwise that's my only gripe so far.

@Korgon People love pirates in the west and the only competition is the dead Skull and Bones. In HK and Japan it is at 40-50 on the best selling chart.

As per Genki JPN the game is out of stock with many retailers. Might be that they didn't assume such high numbers. 67k for a new IP from KOREA (a place Japanese people have a lot of messy history with) is really good imo

43k for playstation is pretty good after the last few weeks have been really low. Cost is still too high for many to buy (60000 yen is a lot in an economy where salaries and spending are low)

I like Media Molecule and it is quite clear that Sony likes them too, how many studios get 10 years to make their dream project with unlimited funds. Unfortunately it didn't work out because both sides didn't really understand the product fully.

I do hope they bounce back strong, they have great charm

@get2sammyb Media kept supporting them and Arrowhead keeps egging them on... well now they run the community and not the other way around. Arrowhead can enjoy the toxicity they created and fostered.

Also, Sony if you read this... The PC community is only going to get worse and more toxic as devs and pubs keep acquiescing to their demands.