Previously on STFUandPLAY
STFUandPLAY still in beast mode
PC vs Consoles war rears its ugly head again on the WZ
Reviews
•DC Nation & Ultimate Spider-Man
•Wake Up Club
Articles & Videos
•Geek Chic video
•According To Jon Shaw
•Tor’s Next Gen Editorial
•Nintendo Direct Video
•Young Justice & Green Lantern cancelled
•The challenges of bringing anime to American audiences
Other Stuff
•Four games in Feb challenge
•Sony’s 16 second teaser trailer
•Max Fleischer’s Superman
•The Last Of Us gets multiplayer
•Dumbasses petition White House to remove DmC from store shelves
•THQ is no more
•Dredd is redeemed on home video
•Image & Wildstorm comics characters
•The Rhino will be in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
•X-Men: Days Of Future Past news
•JJ Abrams to direct Star Wars Episode VII
•No more Star Wars movies in 3D
•Why George Lucas sold Lucasfilm
•Flash Gordon references in TED
Listener Questions
•What is the number one thing you want from next gen?
•What is the number one thing you DON’T want from next gen?
•What March games will be overshadowed and which should be delayed?
•What will happen to the Wii U once the next gen systems are released?
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.
The rejection is non-final (and even when such rejections are labeled as “final”, the process is far from over, given that there can be, at minimum, an appeal to the Federal Circuit).
Good, as they should! A game mechanic like that shouldn't be locked behind a patent, and Nintendo didn't invent it either.
Nintendo wants to keep wasting money on bullshit lawsuits, real smart in this economy. They should put that money aside for other game projects. On the other hand, I don't care if they waste it all either, and they are screwed in the future maybe that will teach them a lesson.
I'll give this a listen after TUF
Agree 100% with the anime thing.
Number one thing I want from next gen would probably have to be 1080p 60 FPS as the standard for every game, which is most likely going to be the standard.
I honestly think the Wii U will die once the nextbox/ps4 are released. Their is nothing that really stands out imo. The Wii U doesn't have the motion control x-factor like the wii had this time around to carry it. I can't see all three consoles flourishing like this gen again.
Great show guys.