Article defending linear games and why player choice and freedom isn't necessarily the pinnacle of video game narrative.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Spiders: "We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.
What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.
We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.
If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply."
I'm in agreement that linear is not a dirty word. Like free-roaming games, there's a place for linear games as well. Each style has its own strengths and weaknesses. When I played Call of Duty I don't class its linearity as a negative, because it's trying to be linear, that's the style it's going for because, as the article says, it's a Micheal Bay type of game, a rollercoaster ride.
it's really simple
not every game should be open world
and not every game should be linear
that's why we need both ...not just one
Every game is linear if you think about it.. You cant make the game your own... It has a story already laid out... Making choices is just a smoke screen or a gimmick the company promises you to buy it.... I had to learn that the hard way with the Mass Effect trilogy.
Linearity is an interesting complaint. There is nothing inherently wrong with it, but there is an art to making a linear game feel big.
Half Life 2 is obviously the blueprint for phenomenal linear game design that feels large. You seemingly always know exactly where to go, despite the fact that there are no objective markers to tell you where that might be.
3 of the most important linear story factors? PACING, PACING, PACING. You get the pace and momentum of the game right (Uncharted 2 hombre), you can't stop playing. Good story beats, intertwining suspense, explosive action, catch breath, do it all again.
I will say that certain games feel RESTRICTIVE *cough* FFXIII. Games that needed to branch out. Linear titles that weren't ambitious enough.
I recently made a post stating 'When people play videogames they don't necessarily want the same linear structure that they get in a book.
Even in a light gun game people like to see branches that they can choose from'.
and I got 3 disgarees and no agrees.
Figure that out! So what the disagreers are saying is that when people play videogames they do NECESSARILY (i.e. everyone, every single time) want the same linear structure that they get in a book. So they're saying that EVERY single person can't stand games with even a small amount of choice. In that case they must hate practically every videogame made for the over 3s.
They're also saying that people prefer their linear light gun games to be as linear as it is humanly possible to make a game. No branching paths. Probably auto aim for them too- what could be more linear? Heck, make the game play itself and make it entirely linear to please these 3.