This week's Variety Friday talks about the currently state of RPGs in the industry and what may happen in the future.
Alexander Morton, the Scottish actor probably best known for starring in British comedy drama Monarch of the Glen - but known to me for being the hilariously foul-mouthed dwarf Zoltan Chivay in The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3 - has died aged 81.
A new Skyrim Switch 2 update delivers major visual upgrades, surpassing some console settings, but locks the game to 30fps and introduces noticeable input lag.
That's ridiculous, lol. I'm waiting for the guy that says its too cpu-intensive for the Switch 2. This game is old af and has been released like 17 times.
Bioware writes: "Like you, we’ve heard the rumors lately. You’ve made it clear you care deeply about what’s next. So let’s start by setting the record straight: the next Mass Effect game is in development, and EA and BioWare remain committed to telling more stories in this universe."
I expected nothing and I'm still disappointed
Like with Fallout, it's starting to feel studios are using TV / Film adaptations when they have no game info to talk about.
I feel the same way.
I mean, how difficult would it be for them to release SOMETHING of substance? Another short trailer? A couple of proper hints? A short story set during the original trilogy, but focused on fringe characters?
Hopefully they're working so hard on the game that they don't have time. But still, with every passing year and so little to show, the franchise will be slipping further and further from people's minds.
Yeah agree it's almost a cop out since Dev times are 5 to 10 years just throw out a few seasons instead you get them done in a year
So the TV show will take place after the OG trilogy. I wonder which ending they’ll use?
Should’ve just posted a picture of an Elcor saying “regretfully, we have nothing to share.”
Decent points throughout, but something else to consider:
The size and scope of RPGs is generally expected to be somewhat larger and less linear than your average Call of Duty clone. Free-roaming (or the illusion of it) playstyle and a variety of landscapes and environments might make the game pretty and deep, but it also very likely gets expensive to produce the sheer amount of content.
Simply having more locations, more NPCs, more side-quests, more items, more music, sound effects, lighting, shading, dungeons, and a thousand other things makes development (and *shudder* debugging) inherently longer and more difficult. It's one of the reasons (excuses) Square-Enix provided when people complained that FF13 was CGI on rails, and also why they keep insisting a remake of FF7 is nigh impossible.
Or maybe a portion of the RPG market is being filled/stolen by MMO's. Why take the time to create a massive world with a jillion quests when you only get the initial 60 bucks (plus DLC)? Why not add other players and charge a monthly? Heck, most MMO people expect repetition and grinding, so the dev is certain to be able to reuse various elements.