Every once in a while they thaw steve jobs out and this time he was like “you can still play games? on the iphone?? its was supposed to put a dent in the universe!!!1 kill it immediately”
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20 posts were merged into an existing topic: semi-annual Final Fantasy binge/purge
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Does it feel like the whole industry is about to crash
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It feels like the relatively sane tech executives have been listening to the coked-up reactionaries predicting the end of civilization instead of, like, every business and economic indicator predicting a contributing boom.
idk. this all comes down to interest rates changing and returns on vc investments being slightly lower than keeping money in the bank. i keep making plans for whenever the axe falls for me. everything i read says this will continue into 2025.
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The line I’ve heard multiple times, which may indicate its being pedaled as propaganda, is that these layoffs are in a large way businesses resizing after scaling up during the past couple years. I don’t know why businesses would have scaled during that time, but this is just what I’ve heard. I’m new to any industry, but particularly the games industry.
I hope at least these companies become better places to work for the employees that are lucky to not get let go.
i wonder how their six live service games are coming
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the post-2008 0% interest quantitative easing dreamworld gave us uber and destroyed journalism but it is also probably the only conditions under which Naughty Dog could’ve spent six years and $250 million dollars making the videogame adaptation of Conflict is Not Abuse so who am i to question
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Idk, i feel like i am stuck in a weird bubble that’s totally atypical, but let’s be honest:
Currently, people still buying consoles seem to fall into one of three camps:
(1) Either you have a gamepass/equivalent subscription type deal and buy a game here or there, or
(2) you are fortunate enough to have two+ consoles and enough $$$ to spare to buy the oddball exclusive game here and there, or
(3) you are buying games for your kids.
OK OK, j/k option 4:
(4) pirating the shit out of it after it has been compromised.
Srsly tho, if you really care about gaming’em’all, you will be using a gamepass-type subscription or Steam refunds, because why wouldn’t you? Most of us don’t want to spend 80+ bucks to find out that you actually don’t like playing that new game, isn’t it?
… right?
Surely that must be felt somewhere on some spreadsheet, and the only solution well known and truly tried and tested in this industry is to take care that the soon-to-be-reduced workforce can crunch forever on even less frequent tentpole releases. What could possibly go wrong?
Aren’t there people who still go for a console because it’s a cheaper base buy-in than PC, and seems less complicated?
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[Proposed] That PlayStation Studios’ London Studio will close in its entirety;
Developing titles for the virtual reality headset became the company’s main focus. [2016]
The studio’s next game was Blood & Truth, which serves as the successor to the London Heist level. It became the first VR title to reach number 1 on the UK’s retail sales chart when it was released in May 2019.[8]
In 2022, the studio was working on a cooperative multiplayer game for the PlayStation 5. Set in a modern fantasy London, it was described by studio head Tara Saunders as the company’s “most ambitious project to-date”. Players wouldn’t need to use a virtual reality headset to play this game.[9]
also 40% of console owners just play cod
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the problem with all of this is that it’s the natural consequence of moving away from a zero interest rate economy – yes, these corporations could have avoided overhiring and needing to lay people off in the first place, but the world operates according to “smoke em if you got em” opportunity cost logic, money was lol free until it wasn’t, and so few people even want to be at the same job for more than half a decade anyway that it’s often healthier to take the severance and run than it is to pretend that you work for IBM in the 50s – and that economy has conveniently spanned most millennials’ entire careers. so it’s a pretty rude shock for those of us who were used to working jobs that a zero interest rate economy was happier to sustain, but for better or worse it probably doesn’t mean any major supply shocks are coming, it’s mostly felt on the career side.
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Personally I usually buy consoles because there’s an exclusive I want (Bloodborne, vanillaware games, xenosagas or one of the latest two Zelda).
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i am skeptical about real property e.g. the austin skyline, houses in general
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for better or worse one of the legacies of 2008 is that america is now less fucked up about mortgages and real estate than most other developed countries which is why they’ve been able to withstand higher interest rates (largely by just paying people more, which is an unalloyed good of the current economy – it diminishes unearned income by comparison! – even as it abuts a lot of things that make people uneasy)
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welp
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