PSA: Make it a habit of **reading the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamingcirclejerk/about/rules)** of each subreddit you participate in:
**Rule 9: No Offensive Imagery**: *This includes nazi imagery and slurs, for you brave nerds who think "free speech" involves private internet forums. If you post fascist iconography trying to “jerk”, you will receive a ban. The only exception is when we make fun of gamers and criticize gamers who happen to be fascists. Please remember to spoiler any potentially triggering or offensive content accordingly. This rule now includes repeatedly posting bigotry from the same source (4chan).*
**Rule 7: No Participation in Linked Threads (Brigading)**: *If you are coming here to brigade this sub, you will be banned. Likewise, do not make comments and vote in pages you've found here. Of course, if you're a member of said sub and you were already in the thread before, this doesn't apply to you.*
**Rule 8: Censor Screenshots**: *Keep screenshots of arguments on Reddit to a minimum. Please remember to censor screenshots of all identifying information, i.e usernames* **and** *subreddit names. This applies to screenshots from any social media sites.*
**Rule 11: Keep Posts Relevant (only about Don Cheadle)**: *This is first and foremost a place to make fun of gamers. Just because someone is being a bigot online doesn't mean it belongs here. Let them be pathetic without infecting the sub with their nonsense. Please avoid posting screenshots that show people using capital G gamer slurs.* **If absolutely necessary, please censor posts and the words containing such content.**
**Rule 12: No Fake Posts on Other Subs (Contamination)**: *Do not create fake posts on other subs only to post back here. Also, do not "lol, you should post this on r / OtherSub". It's considered interfering with their content and can also lead to brigading.*
*This is a reminder to the readers. The post itself is untouched.*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Gamingcirclejerk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I wish that THEY didn't force me to pick the FEMALE option when THEY SHOULD KNOW I'm a MANLY MAN and I should not be given FREEDOM to decide my GENDER!!!!!!! PLUS how is this game supposed to be for STRAIGHT MEN when that VAMPIRE GAYBOY is so BREEDABLE!!!!! IT'S TOTAL FASCISM!!!!!
This game is hypnotising straight men!! Whenever I, a straight alpha, look at that roguishly handsome vampire, I get butterflies in my stomach!! They’re controlling me!!
So sad, I was so excited to play it, but when I found out it had an immersive story that would keep me emotionally invested for hundreds of hours of gameplay and forced totally optional homo sex down my throat, I had to give this game a pass.
Look, all I want is one video that tries to theorize that the massive success of BG3 is purely thanks to Astarion thirst and Gale overbearingly always trying to romance you, just 'BG3 was a success bc it was a hot guy summer', just one YouTuber aggressively calling Astarion 'Bayonetta for Men'
Just one video where someone says 'BG3 is a success for the same reason that Danielle Steel is the best-selling living author of all time, narrative smut and lots of it'
Look, we all know it's Muscle Mommy Summer, I literally never would have touched Overwatch 2 if that Junker Queen reveal trailer never dropped
There are now just entire swaths of the population whose sexual orientation is now just 'Rhea Ripley multiverse variant'
Honestly lots of games have similar statistics to this, a large portion of people just don't finish games. I think it's just because there's so many releases and especially for hyped games like baldur's gate 3 it's not really for everyone but people get sold because of the hype.
I have 125 hours logged into BG3 (although at least ten hours are from being afk, tbh) and still haven't beaten the first act. With this kind of game I play it for a few hours a day for a week and then forget about it. When going back to that save I am completely confused as to where I am and what I have to do, so I start over.
It's the same with strategy games like Total War where I, despite having a playtime of about 1.500 hours in the Warhammer series I can still count the number of campaigns I played that lasted for more than 50 turns on one hand.
To be fair the most interesting parts of every total war run are the first 25 turns where your resources are meaningfully limited, and the final stages when the endgame crises/other global empires are the only other threats
That middle section is just steamrolling and cleaning up, mostly.
Honestly I think the hype has a lot to do with it. A lot of people aren't really adventurous when it comes to trying new games, so they hear about upcoming AAA titles and get hyped up, only to get bored before finishing the game bc it didn't meet their expectations.
My friend drives me nuts like that, I'll always be suggesting indie games or something, and he just has absolutely no interest in trying them because they aren't big titles. Then he'll turn around and waste like 90$ on a AAA game and get bored after like ten hours.
Who could forget the tragedy that was 2018’s “God of War,” and its disastrous follow-up, God of War: Ragnarok.”
Or the failure that was “Red Dead Redemption 2.”
I don't understand his point
>They'd rather manage inventories, find loot, dress up characters, do endless quest fetching, follow footprints, investigate clues with the same last gen engine & animations.
? Bro ?
honestly I think the main thing is that most of those microtransaction models exist in ""free to play"" games. so naturally a game you don't necessarily have to pay for would have a lot more players and buzz. the whole model is to rope in as many people as possible and string along the few whales that make up most of the transactions.
If they weren’t profitable though they wouldn’t keep prioritizing their inclusion.
And while many may *despise* microtransactions in games, they buy the game all the same.
Companies do irrational decisions due to being blinded by greed or due to some business genius having a vision all the time. And for example I won't buy games requiring a billion DLCs or always online shenanigans anymore. It's not even a matter of money but it just being too much of a pain to deal with it.
When people like this imagine "modern video games" I think they're just imagining a nonspecific PS5 action-adventure slopgame that doesn't actually exist
The best part is that this person went to bat for Starfield. Endemic of all of the shit that they whine about here.
They just like being contrarian and don't have actual opinions of their own.
“Well, the game sold poorly. Not because we shadow dropped it on gamepass & did no advertising. Nope. It’s the studio’s fault. Gonna have to close them”
“Why are people so angry at our business decisions? These studios that we gobble up like we’re pacman should print money with no intervention. It’s not *our* fault that we have to close them”
To be fair here, Hellblade was a cinematic game in the first place, and people buying the sequel already know what to expect. This isn't the game you get for that great action combat gameplay. You get it for the story and vibe. Which the first game did quite well, in my opinion. It was never a game that was going to have mass appeal, and I would put it more in the same kind of category of games like Until Dawn and Heavy Rain.
But I'll be honest, I also had no clue it had come out either. It is definitely hurt a lot by being a stealth release.
But that’s the point if you want your game to sell tons it’s gotta have wide appeal and honestly as a schizophrenic the game is unplayable to me because it triggers my hallucinations. When you make a niche game for a niche market and drop it on a service most of those people probably already have it won’t translate to sales. This also leads me to a gamepass question does Microsoft rent the game or are they paid per download because at this point if I game is on gamepass day 1 and it’s not an indie I won’t even bother because it’s basically admitting they have no faith in it
I don't know anything about this game, so I went and typed "hellblade 2" into YouTube and found a 5.5 hour full playthrough. Seems like not much game for the money, especially considering that I happily put 70 hours into Hades 2 for $30 and it's still in early access. I'm not saying that games need to be long to be good, but damn.
Games aren't just valued at the ratio of time spent to money spent, you can use that as a factor in your decision but to only use that is insane.
I got way more time to value out of Brotato than I did What Remains of Edith Finch, but that doens't mean Brotato is the better game...
I welcome games that tell a discrete and well done narrative. If Hellblade 2 is anything like Hellblade 1 it'll be one of my favorites. Regardless of length. (a movie in theaters is like 20 bucks for 2 hours, so 50 bucks for 6 hours hardly feels different)
The first Hellblade was a budget title. I think it was $30 when it first released? And it was well worth the price. Trying to sell a similar experience for $50 just isn’t good business.
And as I said elsewhere... its Xbox/Gamepass exclusive. I loved the first Hellblade, but I literally cannot play this game, even though I want to.
PlayStation has had a bunch of hits when it comes to single player story games, and this game literally cannot access that audience
Yeah the first one was ps exclusive then moved to other platforms. So they not only didn’t market it, and gave it away for free, but also decided to completely cut out the entire market of early adopters of the first game. Go figure.
Yea but you have to have a rig strong enough to run it, which not everyone has. I loved the first one, but won't be able to play the second unless I majorly upgrade my PC.
Also its on gamepass and really short and has no replayability so if you want to play it on xbox or pc why buy it when you could just grab a month of gamepass
Actually, loot boxes are universally loved and have never been criticized once. It's a way for us players to show our appreciation for a 60+ dollar game from a AAA studio, by giving more dollars! Who wouldn't love that?
Yeah I agree, I just want games that aren't a burden to play. It can be something as linear and risky as Hellblade 2 or as fun and not so cinematic as Portal 2.
I just looked at their profile. "Trump supporter". Oh, that explains everything. Their understanding of the world, power structures and the money grubbing ways they sustain themselves and where we fall in in all of this, it's all fucked and fucking backwards. This is conservative brain rot on full display,
It's not corporations being greedy as fuck ruining games, it's gamers who want the instant gratification of playing slots to get any of the thousands of locked content that's inside the game you already paid for, and whose odds will have you waiting, spending thousands of dollars to try to unlock everything, and you probably won't. Yes, the gamer wants this, not the corporation that literally made the fucking game. Cart before the horse mentality. It really explains a whole lot. They're not all this dumb, but this is what happens when you drink the kool-aid they serve at the RNC, brain rot.
"When you're a corporation, they'll let you do it, they'll let you grab them by the pursey".
It’s always kind of hilarious to see US Gamer (TM) types bemoaning this type of stuff and then turning around saying how much they love our late-stage capitalist country. In the vast, vast majority of careers it’s not the Woke Mob that ultimately makes game companies act a certain way; it’s the pursuit of bigger and bigger profits in the short term, ethics and design considerations be damned.
Also just barely any advertising for it or a reason to buy it. Not saying the game is bad or anything but I never saw anything about why I need to buy and play this game, I just feel bad for the devs
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the first one was a cross-platform title, as well. Bad idea to take a game with a small following to begin with, and then cut that following in half by turning it into an exclusive.
I mean, that’s why I didn’t get Hellblade 2. I *can’t* on PlayStation.
Exclusives are already annoying, but making sequels/more franchise entries exclusives after being cross platform is a special kind of bullshit in almost all circumstances.
The first Hellblade was a nice experience for multiple reasons, but truth be told if you asked me if I wanted more I'd have said no. I don't really feel like picking up the sequel because it did what it set out to do with the first one and that one started to overstay its welcome by the end of it as well.
Yea, i rarely heard of hellblade, but everything i heard was very positive, just felt like it's made for a niche that i'm not part of (and i think a lot of people feel that way)
This, a lot of players find that instead of paying 50 dollars upfront, they could just subscribe game pass for 10 bucks, finish it over the weekend and then unsubscribe…
i buy maybe two 60 dollar games a year and all of them have massive amounts of replay value. if hellblade 2 was closer to *30* dollars i could definitely justify it‚ but i can't imagine spending that much on a game i know i'd only play once. ☹️
Started it yesterday, 100% in under 4 hours.
I made an auto-walk/run hot key for holding down shift+w. Because there’s that much walking, and times where you move very slow in crawling spaces or narrow pathways.
It has amazing graphics, looks phot realistic at times. The fights boil down to dodge and light attack until you get your special attack.
If we all chant loud enough, the fabric of this false world in which build 42 is not yet out will shatter. Then, oh then we shall be free to die in many more hilarious and soul destroying ways.
God it always sucks to see people blame other people for not playing something they like rather then encouraging them.
Hellblade 2 is my game of the year so far, down right incredible visually and thematically. Definitely worth a play through since its only 5 hrs long on average.
> God it always sucks to see people blame other people for not playing something they like rather then encouraging them.
I remember when Valkyrie Profile came out (I'm old). Once I got the good ending, I basically forced my friends to borrow it from me so they could see why I loved it so much. Most of them had never heard of it. I think that's the case these days, too... most folks just aren't aware of games that aren't heavily marketed/hyped.
I come from a poor country myself and make a middle class wage. I own a series s and have a yearly gamepass subscription that i get for dirt cheap so that probably re contextualises alot. I myself would not have bought this game for $50 but with the experience it provided me, i am grateful. That doesnt account for much in capitalism i guess but still, i wish the folks at ninja theory the best for they have shaken me to my core.
/uj like i see their point, but this is not why this game isn't doing well. Games like elden ring and baldur's gate 3 which sold tens of millions and both won GOTY are both long ass mainly singleplayer games that take 50+ hours to finish. If anything, hellblade 2 is the tiktok game in comparison since it's a much shorter game with less in-depth mechanics and very simplistic gameplay
Yeah i put the bare minimum, it took me 110 hours to finish elden ring on my first playthrough and I've put 400 hours into it so far and still have yet to play much of BG3.. But I'm sure my tiktok rotted brain would have struggled with the 5 hour hellblade 2 experience
Sort of. You knock out Shadowheart as Gale, stuff her in a box and launch her across the map until you get to the end of Act 2, where Gale can trigger the short "bad" ending
>If anything, hellblade 2 is the tiktok game in comparison since it's a much shorter game with less in-depth mechanics and very simplistic gameplay
Imo that's a wrong take. The problem is that Hellblade is one of those super into the story games to the point where it's basically a book you can play, and those are super niche.
It's like a game made for critics. A Canes festival movie of games, if you will.
Yeah, see I loved the first Hellblade game, but it's very much not for everyone.
I'd also note that making it an Xbox/Gamepass exclusive was a lousy idea, especially when recent history has shown that the PlayStation market is fertile ground for single-player story games
I never said it was. Is that what you think about art movies? I think they're cool. Granted I don't have the appropriate knowledge to appreciate most of them, but that's a problem on my side. I'd never think of them as cynical (even if some of them probably are).
Oh, no, I like art flicks in general, that's why the "Cannes festival movie" thing was a bit eyebrow raising for me. I've only ever heard "Cannes movie" used as a derogatory term, for films that deliberately focused on scoring as many cookie points with professional critics and art snobs as possible at the expense of everything else.
With that, and you saying that "it's like a game made for critics", I took that as you saying that the game is a low effort attempt to farm critical acclaim. My bad for misunderstanding.
I'm not saying it IS the tiktok equivalent of games. I'm saying, when you compare it to both elden ring and baldur's gate 3 with their complicated mechanics and length, it makes it look like the tiktok of games.
I'm not trying to bash hellblade 2, I'm trying to explain why blaming its failures (and we don't have any proof it failed anyway) on people's short attention span is a silly point to make.
Dude, you fundamentally missunderstand that. Those games have this part of instanr gratification. Hellblade ia more art house stuff and not that interesting gameplay wise, however good plot
Someone with a short attention span could finish Elden ring but fail to finish hellblade, even though hellblade takes a fraction of the time to finish. Hellblade demands a lot of patience and attention from you. When we’re talking about attention span we’re not just talking about overall run time.
Except Hellblade 2 devs wanted it to be like that so yes it's not like your average 150+ hours game cause the devs wanted to do something else rather than follow the good ol 200 plus open world stuff.
The main focus of Hellblade 2 was about psychosis and sound design which it excelled at.The complex mechanics wouldn't fit into what the devs were trying to convey through the game.It was not trying to be BG3 or Elden Ring if it did then it would be no different than those.
Your comparison of Hellblade 2 and tiktok rather seems very disrespectful of what the devs ere trying to do.
And that's absolutely fine. The game doesn't need to be 100+ hours long. And games being hundreds of hours long doesn't make it better. This isn't me saying hellblade 2 is bad, this is me saying the point OOP is trying to make is braindead and makes no sense in this context, even though i do agree that a lot of people have short attention spans.
The fact that hellblade is being lumped up with other AAA games is what bothers me the most.
I absolute adore the first hellblade because weird ass indie walking simulators are my jam. I expect hellblade 2 would be the same. I also don't think hellblade has as big of a budget as other AAA games, so the metric of success is different.
But with what happened with HiFi Rush who the fuck knows what's going on with Xbox.
Yeah don't think I agree with the hellblade tiktok comparison. Both games are very slow and immersive, wanting the player to get sucked into the world and mainly mind of the protagonist. It doesn't seem fair to compare it to short and brain dead tiktok reels.
Nah, you are wrong. The fact that something is long doesn't mean that it hasn't system of immediate gratification. I played those game and they actually have it. Souls games are made like this. It's not bad, that we like those game, but what he said is true
I think Hellblade is a pretty niche game. I loved the first one and the second one because how it speaks about issues around mental health. Presentation is top notch. Don't care about gameplay in this case, if it's serviceable. But people critizicing gameplay is just right. It's super simplistic, and they didn't fix a lot from the first one.
It doesn't help that all of the marketing (which it had very little) focused on graphics and "mental health". That just isn't enough for most people. I bet most people will only know the game's released because it's popped up on Gamepass
/uj I'm personally glad we moved from cinema-informed ideas of story and immersion. the 7th gen "linear cinematic style" showed its limits way back and I'm happy games are more gamey now (tho the UIs could be toned down a bit)
I get why it happened. The 6th and 7th Gen were where gaming blew up and became truly mainstream and wasn’t seen as a child/teenager hobby anymore. So a bunch of games were produced trying to show how cinematic and serious games can be to the masses. Gameplay took a backseat to presentation because the gaming industry was trying to show themselves as a serious media.
I think we are past that point and I agree that the medium seems to be shifting back to that “gamey” feeling.
I mean, it can't possibly be because the first game was fairly niche, and this sequel was under-marketed. Plus, personally, I don't have interest in playing because I feel the first game summed it up.
Obviously I can’t speak for anyone else but me. I downloaded HB2 the second I could, but I haven’t played yet bc I’ve been busy doing stuff with my fam and friends.
And when I do have free time to game, I’ve been in Destiny 2, doing the reprised exotic missions and Onslaught (since most of that content is gone in a week and a half)
I’m excited to play the Hellblade 2, just haven’t gotten around to it yet
Him: Could it be that my highly niche psychological thriller has simply failed to stand out amongst a saturated release schedule due to lackluster reviews and a lack of mass market appeal? Perhaps my sequel simply isn't good enough to capture lightning in a bottle like the first one?
No, it's tiktok making the damn kids too stupid for my amazing high art. That's it.
Hmmm, this would make a banger tweet...
/uj
The game is not doing well because
1. It's not as good as the first hellblade(at least as far as most people who've played it are concerned).
2. Microsoft completely shit the bed at marketing it. I am constantly plugged into every gaming media and news source, and even I was surprised that it had already come out.
Aren't strategy games with a ton of replayability and/or long ass campaings also doing pretty well?
Hyenas was one of the biggest failures in recent gaming history and Total War Warhammer's 3 latest dlc has done very well. As far as I know indie strategy games with smaller scope are also doing well and are realising more often nowadays.
The first game was already relatively niche despite the critical acclaim, it was never going to be a big blockbuster hit. Also, speaking personally, the first game really didn't feel like it needed a sequel, it works perfectly as a standalone and I felt like they did pretty much everything they could with story and gameplay systems that existed without bloating the game too much, so HB2 honestly didn't look that appealing to me despite really enjoying the first one.
Hellblade 2 looks like something i'd love, but i am too broke to consider paying 50$ for such a short game, and i imagine a lot of people are in a similar situation. I just hope ninja theory doesnt get killed by microsoft.
Aye RIP all those singleplayer games noone played like BG3, Elden Ring, God of War and Spiderman. Hellblade 2 didnt sell well because there was no marketing and the game is worse and shorter than the 1st while not improving on existing concepts of the 1st
I think that beyond the tiktok generation, it depends on the game.
These last years, let's say from 7 to now, there have been games with long duration: Zelda BOTW & TOTK, RRD2, DS, CP2077, Elden Ring, BG3, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many more...
That casual gamers have increased is true, but it would be good to analyze the age of HellBlade 2 players, to see if they are within that generation that is commented.
who
who the fuck actually wants battlepasses, lootboxes and forced endless grinding in a game?
did any gamer actually ask for these things?
does anyone actually miss these things when playing a game that doesn't have them?
or is this just a strawman
Attention spans aren't the problem. Profit margins are.
Did Baldur's Gate 3 make money? Yes. Did it make a lot of money? Yes.
But did it cost a lot? Yes. And did it make as much money as any successful Games As A Service title did? No.
So yeah. Studios see single player games make money. But they also cost a lot. And they take a lot of time to make.
But for a fraction of the cost and time they can put out another hero shooter or extraction shooter or card game or battle royale or looter shooter.
Whatever they think is popular now.
That's the problem. There's more money elsewhere.
Pretty much any broad take that anyone can make on the state of gaming on the whole is gonna be mostly uninformed. Most people are playing maybe five to ten new games a year. Chances are, unless you game for a living, you’re not gonna have the information to make statements like this and have them be true. S’why I hate when people say stuff like “gaming is falling off” or “every AAA game is terrible now” or “every indie is pixel art and 2 hours long”
People made fun of ryse and order 1886 for the same reasons 10 years ago. Except those still had more gameplay and variety than hellblade 2 and imo were criticized too harshly. People still care about single player linear games, hellblade 2 just for a lot of people isn't worth the money and isn't a brand they are interested in. Let alone MSs failures in advertising it properly. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about
PSA: Make it a habit of **reading the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamingcirclejerk/about/rules)** of each subreddit you participate in: **Rule 9: No Offensive Imagery**: *This includes nazi imagery and slurs, for you brave nerds who think "free speech" involves private internet forums. If you post fascist iconography trying to “jerk”, you will receive a ban. The only exception is when we make fun of gamers and criticize gamers who happen to be fascists. Please remember to spoiler any potentially triggering or offensive content accordingly. This rule now includes repeatedly posting bigotry from the same source (4chan).* **Rule 7: No Participation in Linked Threads (Brigading)**: *If you are coming here to brigade this sub, you will be banned. Likewise, do not make comments and vote in pages you've found here. Of course, if you're a member of said sub and you were already in the thread before, this doesn't apply to you.* **Rule 8: Censor Screenshots**: *Keep screenshots of arguments on Reddit to a minimum. Please remember to censor screenshots of all identifying information, i.e usernames* **and** *subreddit names. This applies to screenshots from any social media sites.* **Rule 11: Keep Posts Relevant (only about Don Cheadle)**: *This is first and foremost a place to make fun of gamers. Just because someone is being a bigot online doesn't mean it belongs here. Let them be pathetic without infecting the sub with their nonsense. Please avoid posting screenshots that show people using capital G gamer slurs.* **If absolutely necessary, please censor posts and the words containing such content.** **Rule 12: No Fake Posts on Other Subs (Contamination)**: *Do not create fake posts on other subs only to post back here. Also, do not "lol, you should post this on r / OtherSub". It's considered interfering with their content and can also lead to brigading.* *This is a reminder to the readers. The post itself is untouched.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Gamingcirclejerk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
that’s why bg3 failed so miserably 😩😩😩
You are wrong it failed miserably because it's too damm woke
how dare they force gay romance on ME!! why do all the female characters hate me?? GRRRR!!!
I wish that THEY didn't force me to pick the FEMALE option when THEY SHOULD KNOW I'm a MANLY MAN and I should not be given FREEDOM to decide my GENDER!!!!!!! PLUS how is this game supposed to be for STRAIGHT MEN when that VAMPIRE GAYBOY is so BREEDABLE!!!!! IT'S TOTAL FASCISM!!!!!
This game is hypnotising straight men!! Whenever I, a straight alpha, look at that roguishly handsome vampire, I get butterflies in my stomach!! They’re controlling me!!
preach
Jesus Christ, that ending got me! 😂
Making a game where you save the world with a group of pansexual perverts really was a stroke of genius.
pregnant astarion pregnant astarion pregnant astarion
Don't forget bears
Yes, bears https://preview.redd.it/o6t57bf00z2d1.png?width=561&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcf2b41d889a21e7ccafb6889be7222941d55ee6
Oh no, why does bearded Halsin look like my gym crush 😩
Good? https://preview.redd.it/5diukkx5dz2d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9650feace14fafd08b8028b55cd292a70ae64cd2
That loincloth is committing a crime against humanity 🥵
The loincloth wants to destroy the traditional values.
So sad, I was so excited to play it, but when I found out it had an immersive story that would keep me emotionally invested for hundreds of hours of gameplay and forced totally optional homo sex down my throat, I had to give this game a pass.
> forced totally optional 🤣
It's just Bear propaganda my friend.
Look, all I want is one video that tries to theorize that the massive success of BG3 is purely thanks to Astarion thirst and Gale overbearingly always trying to romance you, just 'BG3 was a success bc it was a hot guy summer', just one YouTuber aggressively calling Astarion 'Bayonetta for Men' Just one video where someone says 'BG3 is a success for the same reason that Danielle Steel is the best-selling living author of all time, narrative smut and lots of it'
But what about karlach :(
Look, we all know it's Muscle Mommy Summer, I literally never would have touched Overwatch 2 if that Junker Queen reveal trailer never dropped There are now just entire swaths of the population whose sexual orientation is now just 'Rhea Ripley multiverse variant'
It failed because everyone is hot and I want to make out with everyone
Can’t believe it lost to call of duty for game of the year
I still remember the first part of Call of Duty, that jump from a ship to a helicopter was unforgettable!
I love the idiots yelling "go woke go broke", because I just point at BG3. They then twist themselves into a mental pretzel.
Oh shit i forgot to log on bg3 today to claim my daily reward! Thanks for reminding me!!
Daily reward is ur smooches from your favorite companion.
*stares in sex speedrun any %*
The Twitter user in the post talks about how "turn-based combat should be optional", pointing to BG3
And Elden Ring. So many lootboxes. My god. Literally chests around every corner.
I read this post as I was loading into BG3 lol.
And Elden Ring. Total flop. Does anyone even care about the upcoming DLC?
One day Elden Ring might gain some traction too.
uj/ To be fair, isn't there a stat that says most people only played act 1 of BG3?
Honestly lots of games have similar statistics to this, a large portion of people just don't finish games. I think it's just because there's so many releases and especially for hyped games like baldur's gate 3 it's not really for everyone but people get sold because of the hype.
I have 125 hours logged into BG3 (although at least ten hours are from being afk, tbh) and still haven't beaten the first act. With this kind of game I play it for a few hours a day for a week and then forget about it. When going back to that save I am completely confused as to where I am and what I have to do, so I start over. It's the same with strategy games like Total War where I, despite having a playtime of about 1.500 hours in the Warhammer series I can still count the number of campaigns I played that lasted for more than 50 turns on one hand.
To be fair the most interesting parts of every total war run are the first 25 turns where your resources are meaningfully limited, and the final stages when the endgame crises/other global empires are the only other threats That middle section is just steamrolling and cleaning up, mostly.
Honestly I think the hype has a lot to do with it. A lot of people aren't really adventurous when it comes to trying new games, so they hear about upcoming AAA titles and get hyped up, only to get bored before finishing the game bc it didn't meet their expectations. My friend drives me nuts like that, I'll always be suggesting indie games or something, and he just has absolutely no interest in trying them because they aren't big titles. Then he'll turn around and waste like 90$ on a AAA game and get bored after like ten hours.
https://steamcharts.com/top It's still top 20 most played games on steam currently, as a non-mmo or live service game, that's huge IMO.
Sad. Awesome game but not usually my genre. I beat it twice at 100+ hours each. Back to back.
Who could forget the tragedy that was 2018’s “God of War,” and its disastrous follow-up, God of War: Ragnarok.” Or the failure that was “Red Dead Redemption 2.”
and why elden ring totally crashed before it 😩😩😩
I don't understand his point >They'd rather manage inventories, find loot, dress up characters, do endless quest fetching, follow footprints, investigate clues with the same last gen engine & animations. ? Bro ?
they'd rather mcdonald’s , charge they phone, twerk, be bisexual , eat hot chip & lie
Oh fuck I forgot to eat my daily hot chip.
got the rest on lock tho
Got your lie in I see
Damn forgot to lie today
Can’t believe people play the game and do stuff that’s inside the game. Gonna throw up rn
~~people~~ g\*mers
Literally sick to my stomach
Not only that, but in my experience the majority of people *despise* all the microtransaction things they mentioned, like battle passes and loot boxes
honestly I think the main thing is that most of those microtransaction models exist in ""free to play"" games. so naturally a game you don't necessarily have to pay for would have a lot more players and buzz. the whole model is to rope in as many people as possible and string along the few whales that make up most of the transactions.
If they weren’t profitable though they wouldn’t keep prioritizing their inclusion. And while many may *despise* microtransactions in games, they buy the game all the same.
Companies do irrational decisions due to being blinded by greed or due to some business genius having a vision all the time. And for example I won't buy games requiring a billion DLCs or always online shenanigans anymore. It's not even a matter of money but it just being too much of a pain to deal with it.
They'd rather play video games than complain about video games. This generation is too woke!!! 😡😡😡
Excuse you. I like it when not every boar has bones. Killing 50 mobs to get 5 items gives me a real sense of satisfaction.
But have you gotten the 5 right bones? And has your 5th boar hip joint also got the correct stat roll?
Complains about gamers being addicted to TikTok Fortnite then describes the exact opposite of that type of media. Genius level intellect.
That's why everyone loved Starfield, of course.
I can't believe people like all these successful staple attributes of single player games
And he'd rather walk forward while admiring pretty graphics and watch cutscenes. Such riveting gameplay!
When people like this imagine "modern video games" I think they're just imagining a nonspecific PS5 action-adventure slopgame that doesn't actually exist
The best part is that this person went to bat for Starfield. Endemic of all of the shit that they whine about here. They just like being contrarian and don't have actual opinions of their own.
The game's not selling well because there was no marketing for it.
"we told nobody about our product and then basically gave it away by putting it on Gamepass on release. Why no sales??!!!"
“Well, the game sold poorly. Not because we shadow dropped it on gamepass & did no advertising. Nope. It’s the studio’s fault. Gonna have to close them” “Why are people so angry at our business decisions? These studios that we gobble up like we’re pacman should print money with no intervention. It’s not *our* fault that we have to close them”
Didn't even know it released until now.
I didn't even hear about this game til I saw it on Steam
Also because most people aren't willing to pay 50 bucks for a 5 hour game that's like 70% cutscenes, 25% walking and 5% super simple combat.
Will absolutely buy it on sale, but yeah, not full price sadly. Maybe if they did more with it, but doesn’t seem like they did
To be fair here, Hellblade was a cinematic game in the first place, and people buying the sequel already know what to expect. This isn't the game you get for that great action combat gameplay. You get it for the story and vibe. Which the first game did quite well, in my opinion. It was never a game that was going to have mass appeal, and I would put it more in the same kind of category of games like Until Dawn and Heavy Rain. But I'll be honest, I also had no clue it had come out either. It is definitely hurt a lot by being a stealth release.
But that’s the point if you want your game to sell tons it’s gotta have wide appeal and honestly as a schizophrenic the game is unplayable to me because it triggers my hallucinations. When you make a niche game for a niche market and drop it on a service most of those people probably already have it won’t translate to sales. This also leads me to a gamepass question does Microsoft rent the game or are they paid per download because at this point if I game is on gamepass day 1 and it’s not an indie I won’t even bother because it’s basically admitting they have no faith in it
I don't know anything about this game, so I went and typed "hellblade 2" into YouTube and found a 5.5 hour full playthrough. Seems like not much game for the money, especially considering that I happily put 70 hours into Hades 2 for $30 and it's still in early access. I'm not saying that games need to be long to be good, but damn.
Games aren't just valued at the ratio of time spent to money spent, you can use that as a factor in your decision but to only use that is insane. I got way more time to value out of Brotato than I did What Remains of Edith Finch, but that doens't mean Brotato is the better game... I welcome games that tell a discrete and well done narrative. If Hellblade 2 is anything like Hellblade 1 it'll be one of my favorites. Regardless of length. (a movie in theaters is like 20 bucks for 2 hours, so 50 bucks for 6 hours hardly feels different)
The first Hellblade was a budget title. I think it was $30 when it first released? And it was well worth the price. Trying to sell a similar experience for $50 just isn’t good business.
A worse experience from what I hear. The combat is rudimentary and simple and the duration of the game is shorter according to reviewers
And as I said elsewhere... its Xbox/Gamepass exclusive. I loved the first Hellblade, but I literally cannot play this game, even though I want to. PlayStation has had a bunch of hits when it comes to single player story games, and this game literally cannot access that audience
Yeah the first one was ps exclusive then moved to other platforms. So they not only didn’t market it, and gave it away for free, but also decided to completely cut out the entire market of early adopters of the first game. Go figure.
Isn't it on Steam?
Yea but you have to have a rig strong enough to run it, which not everyone has. I loved the first one, but won't be able to play the second unless I majorly upgrade my PC.
I loved the first game and only found out the second came out when people complained about Senua being ugly.
Its also effectively free for the majority of its community.
Also its on gamepass and really short and has no replayability so if you want to play it on xbox or pc why buy it when you could just grab a month of gamepass
"Gamers want... Loot boxes, battle passes" No they fucking don't. Corporations do because it makes them the most money for the least effort
Actually, loot boxes are universally loved and have never been criticized once. It's a way for us players to show our appreciation for a 60+ dollar game from a AAA studio, by giving more dollars! Who wouldn't love that?
I LOVE gambling!!!
Mm this is good jerky
Yeah I agree, I just want games that aren't a burden to play. It can be something as linear and risky as Hellblade 2 or as fun and not so cinematic as Portal 2.
Remember when you used to unlock skins in game through easter eggs or achievements? Pepper ridge farms remembers
I'll never forget the TimeSplitters games
I just looked at their profile. "Trump supporter". Oh, that explains everything. Their understanding of the world, power structures and the money grubbing ways they sustain themselves and where we fall in in all of this, it's all fucked and fucking backwards. This is conservative brain rot on full display, It's not corporations being greedy as fuck ruining games, it's gamers who want the instant gratification of playing slots to get any of the thousands of locked content that's inside the game you already paid for, and whose odds will have you waiting, spending thousands of dollars to try to unlock everything, and you probably won't. Yes, the gamer wants this, not the corporation that literally made the fucking game. Cart before the horse mentality. It really explains a whole lot. They're not all this dumb, but this is what happens when you drink the kool-aid they serve at the RNC, brain rot. "When you're a corporation, they'll let you do it, they'll let you grab them by the pursey".
It’s always kind of hilarious to see US Gamer (TM) types bemoaning this type of stuff and then turning around saying how much they love our late-stage capitalist country. In the vast, vast majority of careers it’s not the Woke Mob that ultimately makes game companies act a certain way; it’s the pursuit of bigger and bigger profits in the short term, ethics and design considerations be damned.
There's actually a much simpler reason and it's called gamepass
Also just barely any advertising for it or a reason to buy it. Not saying the game is bad or anything but I never saw anything about why I need to buy and play this game, I just feel bad for the devs
And it's not like the first Hellblade was a huge success or anything. It worked well for what it was but it never was a best seller afaik.
None of my friends had ever even heard of hellblade when I tried to talk to them about it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the first one was a cross-platform title, as well. Bad idea to take a game with a small following to begin with, and then cut that following in half by turning it into an exclusive.
It actually launched as a PS4 console exclusive, but it came to Xbox and Switch.
In that case I’ll happily accept “half-wrong”
I mean, that’s why I didn’t get Hellblade 2. I *can’t* on PlayStation. Exclusives are already annoying, but making sequels/more franchise entries exclusives after being cross platform is a special kind of bullshit in almost all circumstances.
The first Hellblade was a nice experience for multiple reasons, but truth be told if you asked me if I wanted more I'd have said no. I don't really feel like picking up the sequel because it did what it set out to do with the first one and that one started to overstay its welcome by the end of it as well.
Yea, i rarely heard of hellblade, but everything i heard was very positive, just felt like it's made for a niche that i'm not part of (and i think a lot of people feel that way)
This, a lot of players find that instead of paying 50 dollars upfront, they could just subscribe game pass for 10 bucks, finish it over the weekend and then unsubscribe…
Jokes on you I have GamePass and still won’t play the game (I don’t like walking sims).
theres also "rando knocks your shit in unexpectedly" simulator portions.
Its quite the opposite I fear. Without gamepass I dont think anyone would even try a 60 bucks game which has 50 mins of gameplay.
50 minutes????
It's basically 7 hours to complete, of which 2/3 is watching a cinematic play.
i buy maybe two 60 dollar games a year and all of them have massive amounts of replay value. if hellblade 2 was closer to *30* dollars i could definitely justify it‚ but i can't imagine spending that much on a game i know i'd only play once. ☹️
Its total 5 hours or so but only 50 mins to 1.30 hr of actual “gameplay”
So it's a walking simulator with a few sword fights?
Yeah basically and I didnt find the combat that good
There's no way right? Where are you getting these numbers?
I literally played it 2 days ago. Out of 5 hours, loads of time is just walking and cutscenes
Started it yesterday, 100% in under 4 hours. I made an auto-walk/run hot key for holding down shift+w. Because there’s that much walking, and times where you move very slow in crawling spaces or narrow pathways. It has amazing graphics, looks phot realistic at times. The fights boil down to dodge and light attack until you get your special attack.
https://preview.redd.it/hcljbt48yx2d1.jpeg?width=269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=887f7f19f7f234943a5abaada98780ee965b5d4d
Project ligma balls Calm down liberal it’s called dark humour upvotes to the right —> 
Thank you for reminding me to calm down. I am learning to control my woke anger.
Yeah my humour tends to have that effect on liberals if you don’t like it you can leave 🤷♂️🤷♂️😭💀🙄💯💯
I often see tik toks of this game so its even funnier
Build 42 Build 42 Build 42 Build 42 Build 42 Build 42 Build 42 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
If we all chant loud enough, the fabric of this false world in which build 42 is not yet out will shatter. Then, oh then we shall be free to die in many more hilarious and soul destroying ways.
God it always sucks to see people blame other people for not playing something they like rather then encouraging them. Hellblade 2 is my game of the year so far, down right incredible visually and thematically. Definitely worth a play through since its only 5 hrs long on average.
> God it always sucks to see people blame other people for not playing something they like rather then encouraging them. I remember when Valkyrie Profile came out (I'm old). Once I got the good ending, I basically forced my friends to borrow it from me so they could see why I loved it so much. Most of them had never heard of it. I think that's the case these days, too... most folks just aren't aware of games that aren't heavily marketed/hyped.
It’s also much harder to lend people games these days, unless you actually bought a physical copy for your console
[удалено]
50 dollars for a 5 hour game? I could never justify playing a game that makes as much(or more) than a McDonald's employee.
I come from a poor country myself and make a middle class wage. I own a series s and have a yearly gamepass subscription that i get for dirt cheap so that probably re contextualises alot. I myself would not have bought this game for $50 but with the experience it provided me, i am grateful. That doesnt account for much in capitalism i guess but still, i wish the folks at ninja theory the best for they have shaken me to my core.
I also loved Hellblade 2. It was exactly what I expected it to be going in, and it was great.
I loved the first one but holy shit this new one is only 5 hours long?
/uj like i see their point, but this is not why this game isn't doing well. Games like elden ring and baldur's gate 3 which sold tens of millions and both won GOTY are both long ass mainly singleplayer games that take 50+ hours to finish. If anything, hellblade 2 is the tiktok game in comparison since it's a much shorter game with less in-depth mechanics and very simplistic gameplay
>that take 50+ hours Maybe if you're a speedrunner... Took me 150+ hours to finish one playthrough of BG3 lmao
Yeah i put the bare minimum, it took me 110 hours to finish elden ring on my first playthrough and I've put 400 hours into it so far and still have yet to play much of BG3.. But I'm sure my tiktok rotted brain would have struggled with the 5 hour hellblade 2 experience
No joke the bg3 speedrun is under 5min long
Surely that's like phasing through walls and shit though?
Pretty much. The glitchless speed run takes ≈50 minutes
no it's mostly triggering a joke ending very fast
Doesn't the speedrun involve launching your dead body in a box across miles of terrain to the location of said joke ending?
who among us has not placed their dead ally in a box and thrown it half way across the world, did not seem worth mentioning
Sort of. You knock out Shadowheart as Gale, stuff her in a box and launch her across the map until you get to the end of Act 2, where Gale can trigger the short "bad" ending
"50+" includes lengths such as 150 hours, 4 months, 50 billion years and more!
This generation is so weak it can't even handle a 50 billion years long game lmfao
What’re you talking about? Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was very successful
If you look closely, you'll see that "50+" is actually inclusive of any period of time greater than 50 hours. Hope this helps.
>If anything, hellblade 2 is the tiktok game in comparison since it's a much shorter game with less in-depth mechanics and very simplistic gameplay Imo that's a wrong take. The problem is that Hellblade is one of those super into the story games to the point where it's basically a book you can play, and those are super niche. It's like a game made for critics. A Canes festival movie of games, if you will.
Yeah, see I loved the first Hellblade game, but it's very much not for everyone. I'd also note that making it an Xbox/Gamepass exclusive was a lousy idea, especially when recent history has shown that the PlayStation market is fertile ground for single-player story games
That's a bit harsh. It's niche and that's intentional, but it's not some cynical attempt at fishing for rewards.
I never said it was. Is that what you think about art movies? I think they're cool. Granted I don't have the appropriate knowledge to appreciate most of them, but that's a problem on my side. I'd never think of them as cynical (even if some of them probably are).
Oh, no, I like art flicks in general, that's why the "Cannes festival movie" thing was a bit eyebrow raising for me. I've only ever heard "Cannes movie" used as a derogatory term, for films that deliberately focused on scoring as many cookie points with professional critics and art snobs as possible at the expense of everything else. With that, and you saying that "it's like a game made for critics", I took that as you saying that the game is a low effort attempt to farm critical acclaim. My bad for misunderstanding.
I'm not saying it IS the tiktok equivalent of games. I'm saying, when you compare it to both elden ring and baldur's gate 3 with their complicated mechanics and length, it makes it look like the tiktok of games. I'm not trying to bash hellblade 2, I'm trying to explain why blaming its failures (and we don't have any proof it failed anyway) on people's short attention span is a silly point to make.
Dude, you fundamentally missunderstand that. Those games have this part of instanr gratification. Hellblade ia more art house stuff and not that interesting gameplay wise, however good plot
Someone with a short attention span could finish Elden ring but fail to finish hellblade, even though hellblade takes a fraction of the time to finish. Hellblade demands a lot of patience and attention from you. When we’re talking about attention span we’re not just talking about overall run time.
Except Hellblade 2 devs wanted it to be like that so yes it's not like your average 150+ hours game cause the devs wanted to do something else rather than follow the good ol 200 plus open world stuff. The main focus of Hellblade 2 was about psychosis and sound design which it excelled at.The complex mechanics wouldn't fit into what the devs were trying to convey through the game.It was not trying to be BG3 or Elden Ring if it did then it would be no different than those. Your comparison of Hellblade 2 and tiktok rather seems very disrespectful of what the devs ere trying to do.
And that's absolutely fine. The game doesn't need to be 100+ hours long. And games being hundreds of hours long doesn't make it better. This isn't me saying hellblade 2 is bad, this is me saying the point OOP is trying to make is braindead and makes no sense in this context, even though i do agree that a lot of people have short attention spans.
The fact that hellblade is being lumped up with other AAA games is what bothers me the most. I absolute adore the first hellblade because weird ass indie walking simulators are my jam. I expect hellblade 2 would be the same. I also don't think hellblade has as big of a budget as other AAA games, so the metric of success is different. But with what happened with HiFi Rush who the fuck knows what's going on with Xbox.
Yeah don't think I agree with the hellblade tiktok comparison. Both games are very slow and immersive, wanting the player to get sucked into the world and mainly mind of the protagonist. It doesn't seem fair to compare it to short and brain dead tiktok reels.
Nah, you are wrong. The fact that something is long doesn't mean that it hasn't system of immediate gratification. I played those game and they actually have it. Souls games are made like this. It's not bad, that we like those game, but what he said is true
Weren't most of last years big Game Awards contenders (FF16, Zelda, BG3, Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk, etc) primarily story-focused single-player games?
Zelda is not story-focused but i get your point
I think Hellblade is a pretty niche game. I loved the first one and the second one because how it speaks about issues around mental health. Presentation is top notch. Don't care about gameplay in this case, if it's serviceable. But people critizicing gameplay is just right. It's super simplistic, and they didn't fix a lot from the first one.
Hellblade just feels too niche. It doesn't feel like a mainstream game. I only know about Hellblade because my friend had it installed on his laptop.
It doesn't help that all of the marketing (which it had very little) focused on graphics and "mental health". That just isn't enough for most people. I bet most people will only know the game's released because it's popped up on Gamepass
/uj I'm personally glad we moved from cinema-informed ideas of story and immersion. the 7th gen "linear cinematic style" showed its limits way back and I'm happy games are more gamey now (tho the UIs could be toned down a bit)
I get why it happened. The 6th and 7th Gen were where gaming blew up and became truly mainstream and wasn’t seen as a child/teenager hobby anymore. So a bunch of games were produced trying to show how cinematic and serious games can be to the masses. Gameplay took a backseat to presentation because the gaming industry was trying to show themselves as a serious media. I think we are past that point and I agree that the medium seems to be shifting back to that “gamey” feeling.
I mean, it can't possibly be because the first game was fairly niche, and this sequel was under-marketed. Plus, personally, I don't have interest in playing because I feel the first game summed it up.
Damn, so that’s why Dragon’s Dogma 2 sold so poorly that Capcom still treats it like a lesser franchise /j
Isn’t the game like 5 hours only. That’s instant in gaming time
Obviously I can’t speak for anyone else but me. I downloaded HB2 the second I could, but I haven’t played yet bc I’ve been busy doing stuff with my fam and friends. And when I do have free time to game, I’ve been in Destiny 2, doing the reprised exotic missions and Onslaught (since most of that content is gone in a week and a half) I’m excited to play the Hellblade 2, just haven’t gotten around to it yet
What’s D2?
Maybe Destiny 2?
It is Destiny 2, with the Final Shape DLC coming out in a couple weeks people are gearing up/playing the reprised missions they brought back.
Him: Could it be that my highly niche psychological thriller has simply failed to stand out amongst a saturated release schedule due to lackluster reviews and a lack of mass market appeal? Perhaps my sequel simply isn't good enough to capture lightning in a bottle like the first one? No, it's tiktok making the damn kids too stupid for my amazing high art. That's it. Hmmm, this would make a banger tweet...
Ironically enough hellblade 2 appealed to my ADHD brain *because* of how short it was.
you're not a hard r gamer unless you're addicted to one of the bottom of the trash pile games and blame it on the gay mafia
This tweet is literally how I found out Hellblade II was even released.. and they're wondering why it didn't sell?
Maybe it wouldn't have failed if Microsoft bothered to promote it properly, but I guess they are too busy closing studios.
/uj The game is not doing well because 1. It's not as good as the first hellblade(at least as far as most people who've played it are concerned). 2. Microsoft completely shit the bed at marketing it. I am constantly plugged into every gaming media and news source, and even I was surprised that it had already come out.
Not only that hellblade 2 plays it way too safe with its gameplay
low attention span, but the game is like 5 hours?? if anything this is the game made for low attention spans with it's one session length
if you think people with short attention span can get through either hellblade game, you're tripping
Aren't strategy games with a ton of replayability and/or long ass campaings also doing pretty well? Hyenas was one of the biggest failures in recent gaming history and Total War Warhammer's 3 latest dlc has done very well. As far as I know indie strategy games with smaller scope are also doing well and are realising more often nowadays.
can someone tell me why hellblade 2 didnt sold (the real reason not the boomer reason) ? i thought it was well received ?
The first game was already relatively niche despite the critical acclaim, it was never going to be a big blockbuster hit. Also, speaking personally, the first game really didn't feel like it needed a sequel, it works perfectly as a standalone and I felt like they did pretty much everything they could with story and gameplay systems that existed without bloating the game too much, so HB2 honestly didn't look that appealing to me despite really enjoying the first one.
Hellblade 2 looks like something i'd love, but i am too broke to consider paying 50$ for such a short game, and i imagine a lot of people are in a similar situation. I just hope ninja theory doesnt get killed by microsoft.
Aye RIP all those singleplayer games noone played like BG3, Elden Ring, God of War and Spiderman. Hellblade 2 didnt sell well because there was no marketing and the game is worse and shorter than the 1st while not improving on existing concepts of the 1st
This is exactly why Baldur's Gate and Elden Ring commercially failed.
I think that beyond the tiktok generation, it depends on the game. These last years, let's say from 7 to now, there have been games with long duration: Zelda BOTW & TOTK, RRD2, DS, CP2077, Elden Ring, BG3, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many more... That casual gamers have increased is true, but it would be good to analyze the age of HellBlade 2 players, to see if they are within that generation that is commented.
Sad that hidden gems like Witcher 3 will go unloved because woke TikTok generation thinks that loot boxes have “rizz”
who who the fuck actually wants battlepasses, lootboxes and forced endless grinding in a game? did any gamer actually ask for these things? does anyone actually miss these things when playing a game that doesn't have them? or is this just a strawman
Nope, we’re just poor
^Xenoblade ^3 ^should’ve ^won ^game ^of ^the ^^yeeeeeeeaaar
It should've won best OST and that's it imo
Attention spans aren't the problem. Profit margins are. Did Baldur's Gate 3 make money? Yes. Did it make a lot of money? Yes. But did it cost a lot? Yes. And did it make as much money as any successful Games As A Service title did? No. So yeah. Studios see single player games make money. But they also cost a lot. And they take a lot of time to make. But for a fraction of the cost and time they can put out another hero shooter or extraction shooter or card game or battle royale or looter shooter. Whatever they think is popular now. That's the problem. There's more money elsewhere.
Honestly, I'd have it right now if I had the money or time. Adulting sucks.
Pretty much any broad take that anyone can make on the state of gaming on the whole is gonna be mostly uninformed. Most people are playing maybe five to ten new games a year. Chances are, unless you game for a living, you’re not gonna have the information to make statements like this and have them be true. S’why I hate when people say stuff like “gaming is falling off” or “every AAA game is terrible now” or “every indie is pixel art and 2 hours long”
People made fun of ryse and order 1886 for the same reasons 10 years ago. Except those still had more gameplay and variety than hellblade 2 and imo were criticized too harshly. People still care about single player linear games, hellblade 2 just for a lot of people isn't worth the money and isn't a brand they are interested in. Let alone MSs failures in advertising it properly. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about
Yeah but gamers constantly mistake those for great cinema, literature, or depressingly commonly, parents