Maybe Bungie can learn from this? (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Saturday, August 05, 2023, 18:20 (475 days ago) @ INSANEdrive
edited by Cody Miller, Saturday, August 05, 2023, 18:24

2: Baldur’s Gate 3 is likely to be an anomaly, not a standard.

These 'anomalous conditions' can be controlled. A large studio can recreate those conditions should they wish. But they don't. It's easier to make bullshit monetization platforms than to create a truly exceptional game.

The thread states the following make it unrealistic:

Dev cycle stretching back to ~2017

Lots of huge games have had 6+ year developments. Not anomalous.

Two massive games--and their Definitive editions--worth of tech and institutional knowledge to draw from

Studios can treat their workers right instead of churning through them in order to hold onto institutional knowledge. Nothing about this is unobtainable.

Super successful Early Access period lasting 3 years, providing crucial community feedback, bug hunting, and cash flow

Nothing stopping a studio from doing this. Not unobtainable.

Over 400 developers in 7 different offices around the world [not including outsourcing partners]

Super Obtainable. Many AAA studios are even bigger than this.

The license, brand, and world of one of the largest entertainment IPs in the world (D&D), at the apex of its popularity with the rise of the actual play movement, and a movie

IP is something major publisher and developers have tons of. Not unobtainable.

Of course, not every RPG should be like this. Not every great game has to be absolutely giant in scope. Nobody is going to hold smaller teams to the same standard. But most AAA developers have no real ground to stand on when they say they could not do it. They are right in a sense; they can't do it because they haven't cultivated the conditions to do so. And that is BY CHOICE.

If this becomes something players expect from AAA games in the future, other AAA studios will simply have to make these conditions the norm and adapt. If big studios don't want to do this, they should simply say 'We don't want to make this type of game". To say they can't even in theory is just making excuses.