Monday, all speculation ends and E3 2012 begins. The grill has been piping hot with news this past week, so sink your teeth into what’s coming Hot Off The Grill!
Every weekend, join GamerNode Senior Editor Jason Fanelli (with videographer Matt Boyle behind the camera) as he runs down the top gaming news stories from the previous week. Game announcements, developer quotes, major events: we’ll have it all. This is a one-stop shop of news sure to feed your hunger for what’s happening in gaming.
This week, Konami reveals their E3 line-up, Geoff Keighley gets his hands on some exclusive reveals, and I reveal how GamerNode plans to bring you the most comprehensive coverage of the Super Bowl of Gaming to date. It’s E3 week people, and we are BLAZIN’ with news today on Hot Off The Grill!
The story in part 3 of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us series may explore a "congregation of immune people."
Former Naughty Dog artist Gabriel Betancourt explains why the "sweet spot" for game teams is under 200 people and how AAA "factories" kill creativity.
There’s definitely some truth to this. When teams get too large, coordination starts to outweigh creativity—layers of approval, risk aversion, and tight deadlines can turn bold ideas into “safe” ones. Keeping a team under ~200 people sounds ideal for maintaining clear communication and a shared vision. That said, massive AAA projects also come with huge technical demands and expectations, so scaling up isn’t always avoidable. The real challenge is figuring out how to keep that small-team creativity alive inside big studio structures.
More than that, it's logistically untenable. Inevitably, when teams get too large, how do you keep tabs on accountability? I suspect this massive team size is a consequence of the perfectionism streak Naughty Dog has.
I wish we could have so many people working on something and it turns out great because I'm all for collaboration in spirit - the problem is too many people as part of the larger team and smaller units. Suppose for example that you have too many people in the art department; you will very often come up against fiercely competing visions for how things should look. That competitive vision will cause friction between team members, team doesn't work as a unit, the back and forth can further delay parts that the other departments are waiting for, etc etc.
A 200-person team says, to me, that we need to scale back game development. Even if it means we go back to PS2 era costs and scale, why not? Those games are still great fun, the budgets were in check, and you could literally break the 200-man team into like 10 20-man teams working on different projects.
Today, Konami announced its financial results for the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, between April 2025 and December 2025.
What happens when you make good games, keep it up konami, you've been doing great. Please do a AAA Castlevania too, or heck just start off remaking/remastering old games to play it safe.
Bought both Castlevania Advance Collection and the Dominus Collection. I would absolutely love to have all the GBA games as well, and of course Symphony of the Night.
What I would really love though, is a true next gen sequel to SotN.
Not any games: SINGLE PLAYER GAMES!!!
I bought Silent Hill and MGS3!
Keep them coming, i will keep supporting!
Ironic. Also I guess the whole "fk Konami" phase is over now that they're selling remakes of already great games. People are easy to please, just rattle pretty graphics them.
i mean, silent hill f is a brand new game and it sold better then silent hill 2 remake.
Woah, making good games that people want to play pays off?
Someone tell Ubisoft and Square-enix!
I don’t mean final fantasy. I meant their OTHER games. Like their Babylon’s Fall, Avengers, etc. Don’t be coy.
Well,, I think all publishers have made some good and bad games. Its a risky business.
There are going to be som many great games at E3 this year. Very exciting.
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