Triple A Studios have gotten into this very
bad habit of releasing unfinished games. Almost every single major title released nowadays
are at least in some way, bug-ridden and sometimes even unplayable. The games often contain a fraction of the
content from the games in the same franchise from a decade ago. Halo Infinite. While budgets and development team sizes have
increased, game stability, content, and features have been tanking. Features like Splitscreen, Voice Chat, Save
Slots, and Scoreboards are all of a sudden, now too hard to implement, despite being staple
features for most games, again, a decade ago. If not required. Some studios still shine above the rest as
an excellent example of prioritizing the player experience, and have been reaping the benefits
of doing so financially. So many Indie Games are reaping the benefits
right now. And for bigger studios like Larian and FromSoftware,
they’re just there to please the fans and its paying off big time. Hell, FromSoft just had one of the smoothest
game launches ever a few days ago with the release of Armored Core VI. A feature complete love letter to Mech game
fans with completely free customization options for players to create their own in game skins
and designs. No microtransactions necessary to make your
mech look how you want. And while the game itself is not some revolutionary
title by any means, AC6 is just a solid video game that knows what it is and does it well. I won’t miss. Secondary Shield Down. Now, I’m sure most developers would love
to deliver games like the ones that fans have been celebrating the most this year, but unfortunately
they work for some of the large soulless western game studios. Although, like in previous videos we’ve
pointed out, several developers from those Studios like Ubisoft, Activision or Guerrilla
games really do like to try and convince everyone that this is all impossible, games like Elden
Ring or Baldur’s Gate 3. And all the while are working for corporations
with far more resources and money than Larian or FromSoft. And game developers like that can just fluck
right off and go work for Marvel Studios where they spend hundred of millions to produce
CGI that looks like it was from the 1990s. Because God forbid a movie from 2009 is better
than this shlit. Are you okay? I no longer go by the name Astrid, I’m now
known as Axel. What the fluck is this? So why can’t these studios just stop releasing
unfinished games? What is the main source of Triple A studios
downfall over the last few years? I believe it’s the games as a service concept
that not only applies to multiplayer games now, but single player ones now too. This corporate mindset has encouraged studios
to ship now, fix later, and exploit the wallets of players for years down the road. And oftentimes we do see some of the lead
developers from these studios even brag about how to pull off this scheme at GDC conferences. Overdelivery is actually dangerous. With every release you that put out there,
you’re setting a pattern for your community and your players. Because it’s hard to tell a team, a team
that has extra cycles and they have energy and they wanna do something amazing and they
know how to do it and it totally would be amazing and awesome for the game. Sometimes we have to tell them, like we shouldn’t
ship this because it’s an overdelivery. Beware of overdelivery. Overdelivery is actually dangerous. Another new start up company is gaining a
lot of attention on the internet. They’re a company that does absolutely nothing. And they’re called, Bungie Studios. Have you noticed how everything has become
a subscription lately? Streaming services for your TV shows, Microsoft
Word and Excel, Photoshop, your video editing software, VPN’s, even trimmers for your
fluckin nutsack, everything is a subscription. And so of course, video games want in on that
recurring revenue. Whether it be with a traditional monthly subscription
like World of Warcraft, or more commonly we find lately with seasons or yearly expansions
to keep up with. But like we’ve seen a lot lately, it isn’t
just Multiplayer games that have become a SaaS or Software as a Service, Single Player
games have been treated the same way. Updates and Overhauls to game systems, Bug
Fixes, Balance patches, these things are a reality for EVERY single Triple A product
and to be frank with you guys, despite these things sounding good. They fluckin SUCK. A game at release for better or worse, can
often never be experienced again, even if it’s what one type of player preferred. Several games have seen overhauls and changes
usually for the betterment of the game, but sometimes, especially in the case of balance
changes, make the game less enjoyable for many others. Most Triple A games today can never be experienced
in the state that they were a few years ago. Some will of course say but the game gets
better with each update. Really? I can think of several examples where updates
have made the game less enjoyable with unnecessary tweaks and changes or content removals, all
for the sake of balance that has killed the fun frenetic gameplay those games may have
once had. Blizzard I feel has been the most guilty of
this with the removal of the original Warcraft 3 from it’s storefront, as well as the original
Overwatch 1 because even if those versions of the game are what you prefer, they’re
gone. They’re gone forever. And that is really shlitty. But the worst thing about games becoming a
Software as a Service is again, that it encourages studios to deliver an MVP or Minimum Viable
Product. Put out something that works just enough so
they won’t get sued. A simple game and concept, that’s it, then
finish or flesh it out later. And make sure to charge the player along the
way with each patch. This is most apparent in a game like Sea of
Thieves, a game I actually quite like. You know when comparing it’s launch state
to what it is currently, it’s almost unrecognizable. At launch it was extremely basic and barebones,
but over time has become much more fleshed out and content rich, I’d say for the better,
for the most part, but there are some states of the game I much prefer over some of the
newer ones. And I hear similar stories with many different
multiplayer titles from Apex to Siege and of course Destiny which have all had various
states much better than their current iteration. Most Ubisoft titles released nowadays are
guilty of this too, making changes to enemy difficulty and enemy scaling sometime after
launch even if that’s not what you would prefer. Cyberpunk 2077 is a game I’ve wanted to
go back and replay because I actually did like it quite a bit despite it’s problems,
but that game gets a new patch and update so often that fixes or changes or overhauls
something that I probably won’t go back and play it until it receives it’s Final
Update, whenever the hell that is. Probably years from now. Destiny 1 stopped receiving updates years
ago, and while there are things I do prefer in some of the previous states of the game,
it’s nice to hop into a Co-Op looter shooter that’s more or less complete. The state it’s in right now, is the state
it will be in for the foreseeable future, whereas Destiny 2 constantly sees the game
quality go up and down over and over again with nerfs and buffs, and system changes that
make it pretty hard to get invested. And the things that do need changing or addressing
always remain the same and never get attention. Bungie really do treat that game in a very
backwards-ass way. And as a big Fallout Fan I’ve wanted to
at least attempt Fallout 76, even though I know it will likely turn me off because it’s
a live service, but again I still wanna give it a try. However, like Destiny or Cyberpunk, I don’t
want to hop in until it’s seen a “final update” which at this point is probably
never gonna to happen. And maybe this is just a me issue, but these
days I like to play a game knowing that everything I’m doing and playing will stay that way
forever, none of my builds being changed, content being removed, or updates that may
break something that once worked. It’s why I mostly stick to playing games
from the early 2010s that abided by that rule before everything became this ever-evolving
live service that just never stops getting updates. Plus how annoying is it that every time you
try to launch a game there’s a new update for it. If you don’t have top of the line internet
speeds you’re gonna be updating more than you’re actually playing games. God it’s so annoying. So let’s go ahead and take a look at some
examples of some unfinished Triple A games. And I’ll keep things sorta brief here. And we’re gonna start with Halo Infinite. Now Halo Infinite shipped with less content
than several previous Halo games. From Maps to Game modes, to weapons. Stripped down garbage monetization focused
progression systems. It was one of the most barebones and naked
multiplayer experiences I’ve ever played. The very definition of incomplete and frankly
not enough at all. But the thing is I actually really liked the
gameplay of Halo Infinite, it wasn’t perfect but I thought it felt pretty damn good to
play. It just didn’t have anything to keep me
around. Even the singleplayer was below average. Now even though Infinite supposedly has more
content than previous Halo games at least according to this video posted 4 weeks ago. It doesn’t matter. It’s been 2 years. Nobody cares. Especially since progression is still awful. You lost a majority of the playerbase due
to the state Infinite was at launch and I don’t think it will ever fully recover no
matter the content updates. And what’s super frustrating, is that if
this game released with proper amounts of content, and essentially in the state it’s
in now, this could’ve went on to be one of the best Halo games and made Microsoft
a boatload of money. And I really think this is a clear example
of Ship Now Fix Later actually hurting the bottom line more than these companies even
realize. They are missing out on so much money by shipping
broken games. So many gamers like myself would be dumping
hundreds of dollars into these games if they actually flucking worked and had all the content
at launch. But because they don’t, I feel no reason
to stick around. You’ve probably heard that saying before. Step on a dollar to pick up a dime. That’s what these companies keep doing. Next we’re gonna take a look at Redfall. You know I’ve been replaying Dishonored
lately, and it’s an amazing game by Arkane. Just about everything clicks damn near perfectly. It’s beautiful, it’s fun, and all of this
just works. And again it it just works. Redfall was a pretty big disappointment for
me but not entirely unexpected after the release of Deathloop. I think Deathloop really started to make me
question Arkane’s abilities as I found the game to be very lacking in every single way
especially when you compare it to Dishonored. But I at least appreciated them trying something
new. Then comes Redfall. Now unfortunately, it’s a game that should’ve
never been made. Even it’s concept is pretty bad to be honest. It has probably the most lifeless open world
I’ve ever seen. Completely bland and boring mission design,
somehow worse than Ubisoft open world mission design. Yes it is that bad. Certainly one of the worst narratives from
Arkane, and extremely generic gameplay. More generic than Far Cry gameplay. Every single area of the game lacking this
much really did make it feel like a Pre-Alpha build and nowhere near finished and fleshed
out. This game really felt like the very definition
of a Minimum Viable Product, and then to even avoid getting sued even further, all physical
copies of the game received a very special sticker. See the game’s case says 60fps on the back,
so this sticker was there to specify that 60 FPS Performance Mode was not available
at launch. Again, to avoid getting sued. I mean what more proof do you need that Redfall
was an unfinished video game? Battlefield 2042. I mean what else can we really say about this
game at this point. This game’s launch was pathetic. No campaign, no classes, lack of maps and
modes, lack of weapons, and basic features like a Scoreboard, Server Browser, Persistent
lobbies, stats page. All of this, is gone. And it was one of the most broken Battlefield
launches with hit detection problems, reviving teammates was basically a dice roll if it
would work. Just a depressing game at launch. And again, despite it getting content added
later with seasons, who cares? The game is still pretty much dead at this
point. Cyberpunk, Fallout 76, Jedi Survivor, Dead
Island 2, Forspoken All of these games at launch were broken messes
and lacking content. Hell, even expansions for games like Destiny
2 Lightfall. EXPANSIONS that lack content. It’s just frustrating there’s so many
unfinished, unpolished, and not enough content filled games. And you know what, it’s not even about quantity
of content sometimes. The quality of so many games released lately
are so below average despite getting crazy high reviews for some reason. And also, again, in the case of so many of
these games it does not matter if content is added later because by the time the game
has the content it should’ve had at launch it’s usually been 2 years so you’ve already
lost my interest and most peoples interest. And I feel like Destiny really normalized
this shlit, and many of us did stick it out there and found the game to only get better
over time at least as far as Destiny 1 is concerned. But I and many others are just not gonna stick
around and wait for every single new game to reach baseline level content in a few years. We’re at the point where it’s either,
you get my attention now, or you lose me as a customer forever. And I think most everyone should probably
have this attitude or else companies will never feel the need to deliver a finished
product. Which is a big problem right now because so
many people make excuses for these corporations. And it negatively impacts the entire industry. And the same thing goes for Bug fixes. If your game launches buggy as fluck and has
broken systems and game breaking exploits, first of all, strike 1, 2, and 3. I’m usually gone already, they’ve lost
my sale, but if you can get that shlit fixed within a month, plus offer some sort of compensation
for the fans, then I might give you a second chance. Like what happened with Assassin’s Creed
Unity back in 2014. That game was very buggy at launch and released
in an inexcusable state. That can’t be understated. BUT Ubisoft got a majority of those bugs fixed
in less than a month, not all of them as some will always remind you, but I never experienced
a single bug in my playthrough after that first month. And on top of fixing those bugs, Ubisoft gave
everyone the Dead Kings DLC that was set to release in a few months. And for those that already bought the Season
Pass, Ubisoft allowed them to redeem one of these games for free. And then went on to discontinue the sale of
Unity’s Season pass. And this is UBISOFT we’re talking about. The company we all despise 10 years later
for numerous anti-consumer practices. And I gotta give it them. The way they handled the broken Unity launch
post release was excellent and yes, the least they could do. Now some will still never forgive Ubisoft
for Unity’s launch which is very understandable, but flash forward to 10 years later and if
a games release is just as broken and garbage as Unity was at launch, we’ve got thousands,
no millions of gamers lining up to defend the corporations, we’ve got game developers
crying on twitter about how gamers don’t understand how hard game development is, and
that we should just be grateful we even get to boot up the title screen for $70 dollars,
and have a cash shop that works flawlessly. Look gamers lost their balls years ago, I
get it, but this is essentially why I’m not too hopeful for the Triple A space moving
forward. There’s too much greed at the top level,
too much incompetence in the development process, and a consumer base hellbent on giving these
corporations whatever money they ask of them. It’s one big pathetic corporate circle-jerk
and it’s hard to watch honestly. I used to be somewhat proud to be a gamer,
as corny as that sounds. You know this space offered some of the best
socialization, some of the best stories, immersive and unforgettable moments, hilarious game
nights with the bros, but gawd dammit dude in current year, being a gamer has gotten
to be so pathetic as a majority of the mainstream part of this hobby has essentially become
delusional corporate simps with no standards for the product. Anyway, rant aside, you know 2023 has been
somewhat of a decent year at least by modern gaming standards, especially thanks to Indies
and double A studios but those that are calling 2023 2007 part 2. It’s false. No way. Not this time. No. Pure Fiction. Not a chance. You’re wrong. 2023 is nowhere near as good as 2007 or even
2010 or 2004. Even 2015 was pretty solid in comparison. I think it’s just been so long since we’ve
had REALLY competent game year releases. And 2023, it’s definitely not that good
but there are some half-decent, 7 out of 10, above average games released this year. And I don’t think there’s anything much
higher than that to be honest. Anyways, that’s all I got for this video,
hope you enjoyed it, here’s some more indie recommendations for you guys. Subscribe for more videos just like this one,
and I’ll see you all in the next one.
