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Warner Bros. Wants To Shift Away From "Volatile" AAA Console Games, Lean Into Free-To-Play And Mobile
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
- Business Game Dev
Pilgrimzero
Member
This already exists. Has been around for a few years.
KyoZz
Tag, you're it.
I'm baffled by almost all of your opinions on every topic. It's like you want every company to fuck us and then demand more.
Are you paid to defend those stupid takes? Please tell me your are paid. And yeah I know "uuuh I have a different opinion so your are mean to me" sorry not sorry you don't have a different take, you have a shitty take every. single. time.
Why Rocksteady's Batman games would head for a wall? You don't think a Batman Beyond game would have been more successful than SSKTJ? Again thats a shitty analogy.
If WB want to "stick the landing", maybe don't ask a studio specialized in single player games to make a GAAS?
Naked Lunch
Member
I mean, gaming - as you knew it - is pretty much done.
Its over.
The tea leaves gone - its all in plain sight now.
Its truly all downhill from here - with only a tiny handful of things worth following.
My suggestion is to get an upscaler and some ODEs and flashcarts, or a Mister - and live the good gaming life.
Its over.
The tea leaves gone - its all in plain sight now.
Its truly all downhill from here - with only a tiny handful of things worth following.
My suggestion is to get an upscaler and some ODEs and flashcarts, or a Mister - and live the good gaming life.
Hypereides
Gold Member
I swear, its gotta be a crime making people like this responsible for supervision over creative outlets and running their portfolio. Its salt to the wound that they're sitting on IPs like F.E.A.R., Condemned and Midway's entire catalogue without doing anything about them.
Interfectum
Member
Dominated by very, very few players.Meanwhile, F2P and mobile:
Winning the F2P and mobile market is like playing the lottery. Almost zero chance of success.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
True. A combined GAF team would do a much better job than these idiots, I swear.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
The difference between you and me is simple.
You prefer a certain game type so you let your preferences cloud your strategic judgement.
I don't. I follow the evidence.
digoutyoursoul
Member
Interesting how the phrases are pushed for the individual narrative
“Volatile “ for AAA games
And a couple of weeks ago it was
“Plastic box warriors” regarding fans of the Xbox console
Hmmm
“Volatile “ for AAA games
And a couple of weeks ago it was
“Plastic box warriors” regarding fans of the Xbox console
Hmmm
drganon
Member
No, you just have shit taste and want the rest of us to suffer as well.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Go tell that to the one 21 year old Roblox kid who created Lethal Company. Or to Arrowhead Studios. Or the 6 people who made The Last Epoch. Or the Palworld devs...
Big publishers, with skin in the game, and access to detailed analytics are seeing something very different than you are.
Salty Popsicle
Banned
Warner Bros. published the best-selling video game of 2023 with Hogwarts: Legacy (22 million copies sold as of 01/09/2024) which just so happened to be a single-player experience that respected the Harry Potter IP and was made as a love-letter to fans of the series.
Last month Warner Bros. published a Suicide Squad game which was built from the ground up as a grindy GAAS experience that completely disrespects many of the characters that fans of DC Comics have come to know and love. It has sold way below expectation, already has a dead online community, and by most credible accounts is simply not a fun game to play for any amount of time.
Any logical person leading WB would look at these two games and deduce rather quickly that consumers want and are willing to support more games like Hogwarts: Legacy with a single player focus and less games like Suicide Squad which are designed around the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) GAAS playbook of hoping players are engaged for months and years replaying repetitive missions with slight variations every season. WB leadership chose option #2. These are the same folk making millions of dollars every year because many are conditioned to believe that; "CEOs are much smarter than normal employees and they deserve to make 300x more than the average employee".
Last month Warner Bros. published a Suicide Squad game which was built from the ground up as a grindy GAAS experience that completely disrespects many of the characters that fans of DC Comics have come to know and love. It has sold way below expectation, already has a dead online community, and by most credible accounts is simply not a fun game to play for any amount of time.
Any logical person leading WB would look at these two games and deduce rather quickly that consumers want and are willing to support more games like Hogwarts: Legacy with a single player focus and less games like Suicide Squad which are designed around the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) GAAS playbook of hoping players are engaged for months and years replaying repetitive missions with slight variations every season. WB leadership chose option #2. These are the same folk making millions of dollars every year because many are conditioned to believe that; "CEOs are much smarter than normal employees and they deserve to make 300x more than the average employee".
pretty much. My wife and many of her friends who rarely play games all played Harry Potter. We both played through with separate accounts. Not a single one of us will be playing it if the sequel ends up as a GAAS, unless by GAAS they mean a 100 hour story, then every week there will be new free story added, and every 6 months a new paid expansion.Gaming higher ups are this meme personified just replace children with gamers.
FeralEcho
Member
Gotham Knights
Suicide Squad
Multiversus
Back 4 Blood
Shadow of War(this was supposed to be heavily gaas but they backpedaled immediately after launch)
Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat 1
Injustice 2
Sure its 8 not 10 but still 8 games with most being complete utter disasters financially isn't exactly sticking the landing,more like breaking an ankle and hopping to the hospital.
Interfectum
Member
creating lethal company is not what WB is talking about lol.
These billion dollar companies want the next Fortnite or Roblox… not fucking Last Epoch.
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Angry_Megalodon
Banned
This is so wrong. Precisely, the examples you provide are mostly disruptive games that have nothing to do with analytics and trends.
You can expect that type of move from an indie studio or devs who have creative freedom. There is no fucking way a company like WB makes a game like those. It takes a completely different mindset.
KyoZz
Tag, you're it.
Which evidence? About What? What king of games I prefer? Please tell me because right now I'm playing a GAAS (Helldivers II) and yet my favorite games are RDR II, Mass Effect etc... AND YET AGAIN I love to play some Tarkov, CS, Age of Empires etc etc...)
So please, tell me since you know me that well, what do you mean? Like, this is my list of installed games on Steam:
Do you see a pattern? Of course not because I just like to play good games rather they are single player, multi player, coop, GAAS or not I don't give a shit. If a game is good, it's good period. So again, please stop your nonsense and question yourself.
You can't pick the very few successful GAAS to prove your point, otherwise I will list all the failed GAAS and you will see that there are far more failures than successes. Stop your bullshit.
Also Lethal Company? In this conversation about big companies like WB? Really? Reaaaaaaaaaaaally? Do you see how dishonest you are?
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Now tell us the ROI of each. WB knows that information. I'm sure you do as well.
Salty Popsicle
Banned
Those are all relatively small studios that got lucky. Since they have less suits looking over their shoulder and most decisions are made by a creative rather than by a committee that is only focused on deadlines and the bottom-line above all else. Even when these smaller studios do create a hit game, the hype only lasts for a few months and they never create another game that has the same impact.
Caffeine
Gold Member
gotham knights was backpedaled too, the menus and gear is still there but they backpedaled hard into a sp/co-op experience.
TheUsual
Gold Member
God what I wouldn't do to get FEAR away from them. Would love an update for it. Still playable and all, but needs a cleaned up HUD for newer resolutions (there are some mods for this but would like something official)
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StereoVsn
Gold Member
There is Harry Potter mobile game out and I don’t think it’s been particularly successful. It’s monetized to all hells though.
PatientGamer
Member
The thickest publishers in the industry by a fucking mile.
They understand nothing about this industry lol.
They understand nothing about this industry lol.
Salty Popsicle
Banned
CEOs and members of the board are all extremely high-IQ individuals who steer these companies to success. No normal employee would ever be able to do such a job and these leaders deserve the millions of dollars they earn every year without question.
/s
FeralEcho
Member
I'm sure the 500 players still left playing Suicide Squad after a month of release show the staggering success of their gaas initiative...
Or the dying Mortal Kombat 1 community....or the Multiversus shutdown after 1 year of release...
I'm sure if somebody paid me I can do more research of the entire industry in 10 mins than Zaslov can in 1 year,hell I already did more research than him in the paragraphs above but alas I'm not paid to do so nor do I fucking care
WB can go up in flames for all I care, It's their own grave their digging,they are clearly too oblivious and can't get success if it bumps them in the head. Bring on the GAAS mass grave WB!!!
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
FTFY
Terrible article title from Gamespot. Not the best idea to just copy and paste that for the thread title here.
Read the article and it’s different. They aren’t pivoting away from console AAA. They’re focusing on tried and tested IP, live service games and mobile.
Y’all wanted them to stop making shit like Suicide Squad and do Batman. Seems like where they’re headed.
Read the article and it’s different. They aren’t pivoting away from console AAA. They’re focusing on tried and tested IP, live service games and mobile.
Y’all wanted them to stop making shit like Suicide Squad and do Batman. Seems like where they’re headed.
Pilgrimzero
Member
Sounds like thy want to make a Minecraft/Hogwarts which actually doesn't sound to bad. Just not at the cost of single player adventures.
killatopak
Gold Member
Idiots
VulcanRaven
Member
They could have released a new Batman game 5 years ago.
Pop
Member
Man must be tough being wrong all the time
Whats your definition of success? All those Batman games sold at least 6 mil copies each
Cyberpunkd
Member
I mean - at least the guy is honest. What he is saying: “Unless we have a huge IP like HP we have completely no idea what makes a AAA game successful. We are clueless so we are just going to limit the risk to maximum.”
Just like the world.
Magic Carpet
Gold Member
I just checked the app store and, yep, it even has a picture of the sorting hat.
these match 3 games are like gravel rocks in the road across the mobile desert.
ResilientBanana
Member
Instead of Terry it could have been Jason, from Arkham Knight to Batman Beyond.
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Jayjayhd34
Member
Been bit out loop did sucide squad bomb like predicted ? Still haven't touched after taking justice league seemed mudande taking down all those brainiacs
Mister Wolf
Gold Member
I wouldn't want that.
Shadowstar39
Member
No one wants your gaas games,lol... batman sold great. Better than suicide squad and gothan nights.
Belthazar
Member
That's just a shame... I was hoping for them to just refocus on good SP after Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad were a very clear message on what the audience wants out of their IP.
And a Hogwarts Legacy sequel had just so much potential if they could improve and iterate on the formula.
And a Hogwarts Legacy sequel had just so much potential if they could improve and iterate on the formula.
Kacho
Gold Member
He tried doing the same thing talking about Assassin's Creed Mirage. It sold very well on a smaller budget, but because it wasn't this mega successful cash cow it was a failure in his eyes. I pressed him on it and he never responded because he's always trolling when it comes to GAAS.
Mister Wolf
Gold Member
Probably one of the execs making these kinds of decisions. You never know who is posting on Gaf.
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