They’re still in an Xbox 360 mindset, in a world where Baldur’s Gate 3 and KCD2 exist.
Action gamers are spoiled for choice. RPG gamers are spoiled for choice. I just don’t see where Bethesda’s “here’s a wonky game engine and a big map” approach fits in that.
But Bethesda aren’t really being punished for it because tons of people are still buying it and might have no idea games like KCDII or even a fixed-up CP2077 exist.
Are they buying it though? Or are they just playing on Game Pass and cancelling again?
I think MS bought them for what they publish (id, Arkane, MachineGames, etc) rather than what they make. With MS taking over publishing duty, Bethesda Studios could be a lot closer to the chopping block than they think. It’s been a long time since Skyrim (close to 15 years at this point), and even big studios only get so many tries to get lighting in a bottle again.
I mean, TES VI could be a rickroll mp4 and still sell millions of copies. There’s a megaton of nostalgia, and gamers are demonstrably… not the smartest shoppers, in aggregate.
Starfield and FO76 are not commercial failures, even if they aren’t hits either.
Point being, BGS is not short on time. I posit they have at least one “freebie” no matter what, or maybe a few more mediocre releases that will still sell big.
The thing is you can do massive maps without having to use something custom. So they really have no excuse for continuing to stick with their massively out of date wonkfest of an engine
Even the “big map” thing is done better by other companies at this point.
There’s basically one loading screen in KCD2 (besides pure fast travel) and it’s between the two giant maps in the game. Otherwise, you can walk Henry’s silly ass from one end of the map to the other and go into any number of buildings and never see a loading screen.
And most games do this type of asset streaming now, so when Bethesda rolls up with a “open world” RPG with loading screens all over the place it’s like “what is this?”
They’re still in an Xbox 360 mindset, in a world where Baldur’s Gate 3 and KCD2 exist.
Action gamers are spoiled for choice. RPG gamers are spoiled for choice. I just don’t see where Bethesda’s “here’s a wonky game engine and a big map” approach fits in that.
But Bethesda aren’t really being punished for it because tons of people are still buying it and might have no idea games like KCDII or even a fixed-up CP2077 exist.
Are they buying it though? Or are they just playing on Game Pass and cancelling again?
I think MS bought them for what they publish (id, Arkane, MachineGames, etc) rather than what they make. With MS taking over publishing duty, Bethesda Studios could be a lot closer to the chopping block than they think. It’s been a long time since Skyrim (close to 15 years at this point), and even big studios only get so many tries to get lighting in a bottle again.
I mean, TES VI could be a rickroll mp4 and still sell millions of copies. There’s a megaton of nostalgia, and gamers are demonstrably… not the smartest shoppers, in aggregate.
Starfield and FO76 are not commercial failures, even if they aren’t hits either.
Point being, BGS is not short on time. I posit they have at least one “freebie” no matter what, or maybe a few more mediocre releases that will still sell big.
The thing is you can do massive maps without having to use something custom. So they really have no excuse for continuing to stick with their massively out of date wonkfest of an engine
Even the “big map” thing is done better by other companies at this point.
There’s basically one loading screen in KCD2 (besides pure fast travel) and it’s between the two giant maps in the game. Otherwise, you can walk Henry’s silly ass from one end of the map to the other and go into any number of buildings and never see a loading screen.
And most games do this type of asset streaming now, so when Bethesda rolls up with a “open world” RPG with loading screens all over the place it’s like “what is this?”
But can I loot endless amounts of garbage and then force shopkeepers to buy all of it? Because that’s kinda why I play them
Yep.
Have you tried KCDII? Stuff to hoard/sell is everywhere, albeit a bit more realistically.
I mean, sure, you can put 1,000 sandwiches in one room and put a bucket over the shop keeper to fool them.
But after you do that once is it really that fun?
Yes
Yes