Starfield: Shattered Space Is a SYMPTOM Of Something VERY BROKEN - Gaming's Crisis

At this point it is clear that many players are not happy with Shattered Space. Yet this seems to be an ongoing trend. Bad release after bad release. There is something fundamentally wrong going on here, and it's unlikely to change any time soon.

Music by Epidemic Sound

[SIrLbster]

The "You don't understand game development" argument is pointless. You don't have to be a chef to know that you're eating bland, textureless slop.

[KaanMirza]

Honestly you’re better off nowadays giving indie games a chance than tripple or “quadruple” A releases…

[the_omg]

You have to wonder if game devs would accept the same sort of excuse when their car breaks down. "If you knew how complex modern vehicles are, you never expect them to run."

[Theprofessorator]

I don't know how player expectations can be "too high" when we literally want them to stop stripping immersive games down for parts. They already had a winning formula, it's their incessant need to "streamline" games that kills them. They simply do not understand WHY they're simplifying everything other than they think it appeals to larger audiences, when in reality it just leads to these watered down experiences.

[in-craig-ible]

Ant, your opinion videos have been on fire lately, please keep up the good work.

[vincentvoillot]

Gamers don't understand game development ? Maybe, but they don't need to.
"It doesn't take a great actor to recognize a bad one" Jason Nesmith

[boglurker]

The AAA industry just lacks passion that old games had. Games were created because a handful of people had a cool idea.

Now it’s just corporate suits chasing trends and playing it safe as possible, trying to reach nonexistent markets and audiences. No creativity, no soul, no passion.

Let it crash. 🔥💵🔥

[RocktCityTim]

As a gamer, and as a pro software developer, when I buy into a game environment, I really don't care what the studios go through to get the product out - including the "complexities". I care that my enjoyment experience with the game is worth my financial investment as well as my time investment. I bought Starfield based on my previous experience with Bethesda games. I haven't played it further since the first update back at the beginning. If the developer can't get the product done, then they need to reexamine their reason for doing what they do. Look to No Man's Sky for a master class - the launch was (by some accounts) a fail. But, Sean and team took the criticisms in and have now provided one of the most entertaining experiences out - and they KEEP delivering 8 years later.

[Kris.G]

My wallet stays closed until the product improves.

[cardcounter]

_People don't understand game development!_

And when a developer goes to a restaurant and feels justified in complaining about slow service or poor food quality does the restaurant respond with _people don't understand restaurant service!_ If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!

[xKamix]

Basically "stop demanding us to put so much effort into our games like other devs did in the early 2000's - late 2010's. Its too hard :( "

No. Gamers will not reward you with pushing out low-effort slop.

[sunixjester]

For games that cost $70, my expectations for game studios can and will be high.

Game studios want to charge high prices and provide little to no effort. I say get bent and enjoy losing customers.

[ziploc]

In a capitalist society, producing a game that people don't enjoy, and then blaming the customer for not understanding how hard it is to produce a game they would have enjoyed is not a great way to improve your relationship with the customer base.

[micheljolicoeur]

Emil gave a talk on story telling at Infinite. He ended his presentation by saying"We release a game, wait for reviews, read the reviews and ignore the reviews". Pretty much tells you all you need to know about Bethesda these passed 6 years. As long as Emil is the story guy behind Bethesda they will always put out crap.

[evanleclair]

Bethesda has kind of lost its creative spark, it feels like they’ve been coasting off of Micheal Kirkbride’s influence but now that its a game in a new non Elder Scrolls universe without his input as the basis its pretty generic.

[sheppertonstudios]

I'm a game dev (started in 1999) and have worked at several large studios over the years. It's absolutely shocking to me to read how my fellow developers are reacting to criticism. Gamers literally pay my wages, and if pushed I'd always side with them rather than the corporate side of things. Thankfully the company I work for avoids any of this conflict and controversy, but we really need to do better as an industry.

[OmegaDesh]

They replaced passion for a games' theme, lore and worldbuilding with consultants, pie charts and aggressive monetization strategies and thought we wouldn't notice.

[kessilrun]

I think you hit the nail on the head! The studios are just focused on engagement numbers and not content or quality or originality. Look at Destiny 2. It brought back a very unpopular power level grind concept that is now going through some major pushback and accusations at the studio, for trying to cheaply drive up engagement numbers in substitute of actual content, by bringing back a grind mechanic that the majority were happy to be rid of.

[B-]

It's the whole concept of "games as a service" rather than being considered as an actual "product."

[zacharypump]

This is mostly a symptom of tired / old game studios who've become bloated over the years and don't have a small passionate group of staff that you commonly see in smaller start-ups where everyone is basically a co-founder and passionate about what they do. A 15 person team making the game of their dreams is always going to have something special compared to a 500 to 1000 person team where people are just there as a career step, they have families, they have mortgages, they have work/life balance... To them making a game is just a job and nothing more. I'm not saying it's impossible for a big company to make something quality, but it's very rare, and requires a very carefully managed internal culture... And it's pretty obvious most companies (Bethesda especially) doesn't have that culture, and doesn't really have skilled leaders.

Another factor might be publicly traded companies vs privately owned. When shareholders are involved, it really really compromises things.