[Video Games] What are you playing? (Omikron Edition)

I love to bash publishers as much as anyone (and I will later in this post), but just to play devil's advocate, I actually think it makes sense what publishers have done in this space. I've backed like ~100 different projects (plus early access stuff), but I think the vast majority of these projects end up with a product that didn't sell very well (if it even was completed). Even the "successful" ones aren't *that* successful. For example, from what Google tells me, Pillars 1 (which I backed) sold around 700K (maybe bump up to 1M or so if it had legs, not sure if it did). That's probably great for the budget it had, but then the sequel only sold around 110K (on a $4.4M budget). Obsidian seems to be going with a more mainstream style of game for the next game in this universe. :/

Admittedly, Larian's recent games typically sold pretty well (millions of copies), but if just about any other developer proposed a CRPG style game with a budget of $100M, I could see why some publishers might have been hesitant to sign a deal for it. And even if the budget was a fraction of that, they'd probably prefer to save that money for whatever project they think will make $500M in revenue (as a 5M game that gets twice its budget in profits is still a rounding error to them).

Having said all of that, publishers are at least part of the reason (maybe all of it?) for why these budgets are so out of control. We have some developers putting out award winning, chart topping games on a near annual bases, and yet that's not enough to keep these publishers happy. Instead of empowering creatives, publishers will try to keep up with fads by dumping tons of money in live service games or even blockchain nonsense (well that *didn't* really take off, though I'm pretty sure Square-Enix and Ubisoft invested heavily in it). None of this stuff is sustainable.

I do agree that Steam and other things have helped make it possible for these games with more reasonable budgets to find success. I think discoverability is still far from ideal for non-AAA games (especially outside the PC space), though you can still get the occasional huge indie hit. Perhaps if gamers weren't so used to (and easily bored) by games with insane budgets, some of these smaller games might be more attractive to the mainstream. Sure, I am very interested in a Chained Echoes, Octopath Traveler, Eiyuden Chronicle, Star Ocean The Second Story R, etc., but the average gamer would likely easily overlook those and just buy a FF16, FF7 Remake, Starfield, etc.

That's a whole lot of rambling to basically say...yikes this industry is a mess, but yes hopefully we can still get more of these games we like.



Anyway, as for what I'm playing, I still haven't picked up a new game from my last post. I bought a ton of games from the Steam sale (all indie/AA games ), and I'm trying to figure out what to get to next.

 

Think I mentioned this game before, but I revisited Outer Wilds. Despite the praise, I initially gave up after a couple of hours due to some gameplay issues I had (sorta roguelike, didn't like the flying controls, etc). I tried it again, and this time I enjoyed it much more, though it still requires some attention that I can't really give it at this time. So I just watched other people play/explain it. I ultimately do agree that it is a top tier game (legitimate all-time great), and this is yet another example of an indie dev doing things that none of the AAA devs do. If you haven't played it and like space/sciencey stuff, I strongly recommend giving it a shot, especially if you can overlook the issues I had.



Along with that, I've played a bit of another indie (I think?) game called Haven:

Not an all-time great, but it is pretty charming and offers another unique experience not commonly found in mainstream games.

Also playing Final Fantasy 4 (Pixel Remaster) with my daughter in an attempt to brainwash her into liking the "right" games.