Original link: https://markonreview.com/2023/08/14/markon-review-express-weekly-3/
Weekly directory
general information
- Devolver Digital Announces 5 Game Delays, GameSpot Interviews Its Considerations
- Game Informer Previews Musical Theme Game “Wandering God”
- 80 Level introduces a website where you can browse well-known game levels online
- Acid Wizard Studios, behind Darkwood and Soccer Kids, is shutting down, and PC Gamers take their hats off
- Game Developer: Designing for Evil in Where Birds Go to Sleep
- Polygon: NDS camera has become the latest and most in Lo-Fi photography trend
- 80 Level: Dino Patti, the core creator of “Inside”, revealed how Phil Spencer won the short-term exclusivity of the work
Market Dynamics
- Bloomberg Spotlights Behind-the-Scenes Development of Baldur’s Gate 3
- Square Enix Announces Operating Data for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year
- Newzoo Releases 2023 Global Games Market Report
- Take-Two Releases Operating Data for First Quarter of Fiscal Year
- Sony Announces Operating Data for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year
- GamesIndustry released this week’s business news, focusing on some companies’ online service game strategies
- Kotaku: Nintendo Is Trying To File Some Very Broad Patents For Kingdom Of Tears
point of view discussion
- GamesBeat interviews two developer executives to discuss how games can change the world
- PC Gamer: Larian founder responds to debate over ‘Baldur’s Gate 3 sets new benchmark for RPGs’
- Kotaku: “Baldur’s Gate 3” often uses dice to deny players from trying interesting paths
- Kotaku shares a transcript of a group chat discussing Baldur’s Gate 3’s discomfort with dealing with romantic relationships
general information
Devolver Digital Announces 5 Game Delays, GameSpot Interviews Its Considerations
Devolver Digital recently spoofed the format of Nintendo’s face-to-face meeting again, announcing that the company will postpone the release of 5 games until next year, namely:
The Plucky Squire; “Stick It To The Stickman” (Stick It To The Stickman); “Skate Story”; Anger Foot; Pepper Grinder.
In an interview with GameSpot on this, Nigel Lowrie, head of marketing at Devolver, and Andrew Parsons, head of production, shared the team’s decision-making process and views on the game’s delay.
Lowrie pointed out that developers usually want to quietly disclose the news of the postponement, hoping that the market and the community will not be too angry, but Devolver believes that the delay is obviously worth making a big joke because it happens often and is not always a bad thing. Parsons also believes that, Even if the delayed release of the game is considered a “mistake”, there is no need to always maintain an attitude of regret and try to cover it up, and should communicate more frankly with the outside world.
The two sides also talked about the specific reasons for the delay of some games. The two believed that in addition to systemic factors such as the epidemic, many delays are also welcome by Devolver. They sometimes give the game a chance to polish better and explore more ideas and possibilities. , actively recommending that developers postpone the release as needed. The two talked about that “delayed release” is usually interpreted by the market as a production problem, and Devolver wants to destigmatize the delayed release under the concept of “quality first” (regardless of creativity or execution), hoping to optimize Release time can be exchanged for better works, and players are more invested in these works.
Source: GameSpot , by Jason Fanelli
Game Informer Previews Musical Theme Game “Wandering God”
Game Informer has an exclusive interview with the development team of “Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical” (Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical), chatting about some interesting behind-the-scenes stories of the birth of the game:
The composer of this work, Austin Wintory, proposed the idea of a music-themed game five years ago. This idea was first rejected by one of his friends, but this friend introduced Liam Esler to Wintory, and then Wintory and Esler jointly established Summerfall. Studios, began work on the framing of Wintory as The Wandering God.
The development team highlighted the rich variety of music in the game. Players can dynamically select lyrics in the music to change the story and music. For example, in an early demo of the game officially released, the protagonist Grace needs to dance with friends Freddie and Pan. In the process, choose to go with friends or go alone. This piece of music is divided into three sections. To match the large selection of permutations and combinations (as shown in the accompanying picture), the development team wrote and recorded 38 different pieces of music.
Source: Game Informer by Charles Harte
80 Level introduces a website where you can browse well-known game levels online
80 Level introduces a “game level digital museum” ── noclip.website , a website made by developer Jasper, contains a large number of level scene designs in well-known game works. Players only need to enter the website, click on the level they are interested in, and wait After loading, you can explore the corresponding scene from a free perspective. The website displays hundreds of levels in dozens of games, covering multiple platforms such as PC, Wii, N64, 3DS, DS, GameCube, and PlayStation.
Source: 80lv by Theodore McKenzie
Acid Wizard Studios, behind Darkwood and Soccer Kids, is shutting down, and PC Gamers take their hats off
Polish developer Acid Wizard Studios recently issued a statement on social media, saying that due to the inability to create a working environment that does not cause damage to the personal lives of members, the studio decided to “temporarily suspend work” and “may regroup in 5 to 10 years.” After the 1.4 update of the team’s first work “Darkwood” and the release of the Alpha version of the second work “Soccer Kids”, the studio will be officially closed.
In its article, PC Gamer praises the studio’s only two titles — the unusual horror game Darkwood, the turn-based soccer game Soccer Kids — and revisits one of Acid Wizard’s highlights: Darkwood “was not only listed on the game mall, but also released for free to The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest collection and distribution center for pirated resources. The studio’s point of view is that the sales of “Darkwood” far exceeded expectations, which is enough to satisfy them, but more importantly, in the growing up time in Poland, piracy was almost the only way to get the game in the early days, without piracy, there would be no There will be Darkwood, and while the game is more affordable and accessible in Poland today, Acid Wizard is still aware that there are other parts of the world where this is not the case.
The writers at PC Gamer write: This is how Acid Wizard Studios said goodbye – leaving behind a great game and the start of a new one, which has done more than many studios can, and they still might Return in the future.
Source: PC Gamer , by Rich Stanton
Game Developer: Designing for Evil in Where Birds Go to Sleep
This article focuses on the debut of indie team Quiet Little Feet, Where Birds Go to Sleep, a text adventure RPG with elements of mystery and survival.
The two developers of this work talked to Game Developer about the origin and unique design concept of the game: the player cannot control the core character of the game, Cormo, but can only guide him through thoughts and opinions, and when Cormo is not satisfied with the player’s answer, Will speak his opinion, and even act freely arbitrarily.
The developers also proposed that they want players to “see the world through the eyes of the villain” in Where Birds Go to Sleep. Martin Šuchter, one of the developers, believes that “the game rarely makes the protagonist a person who is not so good in reality. People—whether in morality or ability”, so the slogan of Quiet Little Feet is “Be what you hate”; in the game, players may find it difficult to make “good” choices, but it is very difficult to lean towards “evil”. Easy, and this is also the most important theme of this work-“The Essence of Evil”.
The article also described a lot of investment in text writing, mechanism design, art style, etc., and the development team also talked about the inspiration they got from works such as “Disco Elysium” and “Outer Wilds” .
Source: Game Developer , by Calen Nakash
Polygon: NDS camera has become the latest and most in Lo-Fi photography trend
Modern phones are getting more and more advanced, but there are still people who want something that looks stylized and imperfect, some use old school film cameras, and a short video shot with a Nintendo DS handheld went viral on Youtube, Tiktok Since then, this family of handhelds has become the new fashion choice for Lo-Fi photography. The author directly calls out “Polaroid camera is not worth mentioning in front of my 3DS”, and shares the experience of using DS to take pictures and related cultural phenomena in this article.
Source: Polygon by Ana Diaz
80 Level: Dino Patti, the core creator of “Inside”, revealed how Phil Spencer won the short-term exclusivity of the work
Dino Patti, one of the core creators of the action puzzle game “Inside”, revealed in a podcast recently that during the development of the game, he had almost reached a mutually satisfactory exclusive agreement with PlayStation for a very short period of time. However, Microsoft Games Business chief Phil Spencer then came on stage, offering developer Playdead Studios an unspecified, better deal.
Patti said he didn’t know how Spencer knew about it, but one night at 8:00 PM, Patti’s cell phone rang and showed a US number, and it was Phil Spencer on the other end (Patti said “this is crazy”), and He promises to “do anything for the game”.
Source: 80lv by Arti Burton
Market Dynamics
Bloomberg Spotlights Behind-the-Scenes Development of Baldur’s Gate 3
Bloomberg recently reported on the efforts of Larian Studios behind its latest masterpiece “Baldur’s Gate 3” (Baldur’s Gate 3), focusing on describing the studio’s various difficulties and special considerations in the process of developing the work. The following are some key points in the article information.
After the success of the two works in the Divinity: Original Sin series, Larian received an invitation to cooperate with Wizards of the Coast, the IP holder of Dungeon & Dragon── Developing a sequel to the legendary Baldur’s Gate series that had been dormant for nearly 20 years; Larian accepted the offer, releasing no other new titles in a development cycle that began in 2017, while also working on Baldur’s Gate 3. Doubling the size of the studio, Larian head Swen Vincke was annoyed that the team had no choice but to expand rapidly because it “caused a whole host of inefficiencies and communication problems”.
To balance the risks of the Baldur’s Gate 3 project, Larian adopted an unusual business model: the early beta version of the game was launched as early as October 2020, and more than 2.5 million people bought the version, which allowed Larian to Promote smoothly, extend the development cycle, and in individual cases, allow players to get acquainted with the characters and systems early, and accumulate expectations, while not understanding the entire story and losing freshness.
“Baldur’s Gate 3” is said to have about 17,000 kinds of ending changes, which makes it almost impossible for players to experience all the content of the work. Some corporate executives may question that massive resources are invested in only a small number of players. The value of the experience that can be enjoyed, but in Vincke’s view, in addition to being addicted to such creation as a player, from a commercial point of view, he also believes that this strategy is entirely possible to inspire fans to share and achieve viral marketing effects.
Source: Bloomberg , by Jason Schreier
Square Enix Announces Operating Data for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year
Square Enix recently announced its financial performance for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2024 (as of June 30). The business situation that did not meet expectations has triggered negative sentiment in the market. The following are some key information compiled by the author:
The company’s operating income in this fiscal quarter was 85.6 billion yen (about 602 million U.S. dollars), an increase of 14% year-on-year, and its operating profit was 3.097 billion yen (about 22 million U.S. dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 78.5%. Among them, the company’s digital entertainment business (corresponding to Games) sales revenue was 62.3 billion yen (about 438 million U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 16%.
The digital entertainment business is divided into three sub-segments: high-definition games, MMO, and mobile/PC browsers, including the sales revenue of the high-definition game segment of “Final Fantasy XVI” (Final Fantasy XVI) reached 29 billion yen (approximately 204 million US dollars) , an increase of 142% year-on-year, the MMO segment revenue was 11 billion yen (approximately US$77.3 million), a year-on-year decrease of 22%, and the mobile/PC browser segment revenue was 22.3 billion yen (approximately US$157 million), a year-on-year decrease of 18%.
Poor performance shattered people’s hopes that “Final Fantasy XVI” could boost the company’s sales. SE President Takashi Kiryu also said on the conference call that the sales of the work did not meet the company’s expected high level; Citigroup analyst Junko Yamamura In the memo sent to investors, it is mentioned that “the profitability of the “FF” series is weakening, and it will take time to improve.”
Shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange plunged as much as 15 percent on Monday after the earnings report, erasing gains made in more than a year, while the Nikkei and MSCI Asia Pacific indexes rose about 0.3 percent on the same day.
The company is currently forecasting a sales revenue of 360 billion yen (about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the full year of this fiscal year (ending March 31 next year), or a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.
Sources: Bloomberg by Vlad Savov, Takashi Mochizuki; GamesIndustry by Jeffrey Rousseau; Square Enix
Newzoo Releases 2023 Global Games Market Report
The game industry consulting organization Newzoo recently released the “Global Games Market Report 2023” (Global Games Market Report 2023). The following are some of the latest industry trends revealed in the report:
In 2023, the global game market is expected to generate US$187.7 billion in revenue, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%.
From the perspective of platform distribution, mobile and host platforms are the top two in market share: the mobile market is expected to achieve revenue of US$92.6 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%. The slowdown in revenue growth is related to Apple and Google’s privacy and monetization-related policies Related; console market revenue is expected to be $56.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%. of the Kingdom), Final Fantasy XVI (Final Fantasy XVI) and other masterpieces, the console is expected to become the most important industry revenue growth engine this year.
From the perspective of geographical distribution, the largest Asia-Pacific region’s revenue will reach US$85.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%, the North American market is expected to reach US$51.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, and the European market is expected to reach US$34.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.
Newzoo also made a ranking prediction for top companies: Tencent is expected to rank first, followed by Sony and Apple, Microsoft ranks fourth, and Activision Blizzard ranks seventh. After the merger of the two companies, they will surpass Sony and rise to No. 1 two.
Newzoo predicts that by 2026, the global game market may reach US$212.4 billion. The continued sales of this generation of consoles and the successor of Nintendo Switch will be the main driving factors.
Sources: GamesIndustry , by Sophie McEvoy; Newzoo
Take-Two Releases Operating Data for First Quarter of Fiscal Year
Take-Two Interactive recently released its operating conditions for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2024 (as of June 30). The following is the key information that the author sorted out:
The company achieved revenue of US$1.28 billion in this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 17%, net bookings of US$1.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20%, and a net loss of -US$206 million, double the -US$104 million in the same period last year. Zynga has pretty much maintained that form of financial performance since then; Take-Two had previously guided for a $5 billion loss for the current fiscal year.
Player recurring spending (token top-ups, DLC, in-game advertising) performed well, with net bookings up 38% year-over-year. GamesIndustry asked Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick whether the performance was due to a larger player base or an increase in average player spending , Zelnick didn’t give a definitive answer, saying only that the company’s goal is to “reach the widest audience possible” and that Take-Two “never wants consumers to feel like they’re spending too much.”
In this season, the total shipments of “GTA V” increased by 5 million copies, reaching a total of 185 million copies. The number of players in “GTA Online” in June exceeded any June before the epidemic; Red Dead Redemption 2 (Red Dead Redemption 2) shipments increased by 2 million copies, reaching a total of 55 million copies; “NBA 2K23” has shipped 13 million copies, an increase of 11% over the same period of the previous work, becoming the second largest “NBA 2K20”, the second best-selling “NBA 2K” series game of all time.
When asked if he has seen some improvement in market weakness in recent quarters, Zelnick said there is some feeling, but it is still too early. There are signs of recovery on the console side, challenges in the mobile market, and I believe the entertainment industry is at its fastest pace. Growth phase, the next 20 years will maintain the current situation.
VGC reported that some third-party publishers do not want the successor of NS to be backward compatible. GamesIndustry asked Zelnick for his opinion. Achievable functions (unless the technical gap is too large to be compatible), may not increase revenue in the long run, but this of course depends on the final decision of the hardware manufacturer. In response to IGN’s question, Zelnick believes that a half-generation upgrade similar to the so-called “PS5 Pro” will not have a great impact.
Sources:GamesIndustry , by Brendan Sinclair; IGN , by Rebekah Valentine; Take-Two
Sony Announces Operating Data for the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year
Sony recently announced its financial data for the first fiscal quarter of the 2023 fiscal year (as of June 30). The following are some of the key information that the author has sorted out:
The company’s total revenue for the quarter was 2.96 trillion yen (about 20.6 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 33%, and its net profit was 217 billion yen (about 1.51 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 17%. “(Game and network service, referred to as G&NS) department revenue reached 771 billion yen (about 5.38 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 27%.
Sony’s software sales revenue reached 406 billion yen (about 2.83 billion US dollars), an increase of 27% year-on-year, and a total of 56.5 million PS games were sold, including 6.6 million first-party games; hardware sales increased by 42% to 186 billion Yen (about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars), PS5 sold 3.3 million units in this quarter, and sold a total of 40 million units. Sony planned to sell 25 million PS5 units before the end of this fiscal year earlier this year. The current sales situation is not as good as expected, but executives said “I believe there is enough possibility to catch up,” the company said it has overcome the supply chain problems and has the ability to meet the “backlog demand” for PS5, and will be affected by “Marvel Spider-Man 2” (Marvel Spider-Man 2) for the rest of this fiscal year. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) and other blockbuster third-party titles.
Sony expects total revenue for this fiscal year to reach 12.2 trillion yen (about 85 billion U.S. dollars), a 6% increase from April’s forecast and an 11% increase from the previous fiscal year, but net profit is expected to decline by 14% year-on-year to 860 billion yen (about 6 billion U.S. dollars). At the same time, Sony raised its revenue guidance for the game division, expecting revenue to reach 4.17 trillion yen (about 29.1 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 14%.
Sources: GamesIndustry , by Marie Dealesandri; Game Developer , by Chris Kerr; Game Informer , by Steven T. Wright; Sony
GamesIndustry released this week’s business news, focusing on some companies’ online service game strategies
In this week’s review of business trends, the authors of GamesIndustry mainly focused on the attitudes of online service-oriented content revealed by companies such as Roblox and Take-Two in their latest quarterly reports. The author’s core point is that both Roblox and Take-Two have mentioned that their business development strategies are more inclined to expand the player base rather than dig more revenue from existing players, but the author believes that for such a large-scale company The more likely reality is that it is only a matter of time before the online service revenue model shifts from the above-mentioned “conscience” to greed.
This article also sorts out a number of major industry events in the past week. It is recommended to click the jump below to read the full text.
Source: GamesIndustry , by Brendan Sinclair
Kotaku: Nintendo Is Trying To File Some Very Broad Patents For Kingdom Of Tears
Kotaku recently reported that Nintendo is registering several new patents related to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which cover a wide range of areas. According to Japanese game site Automaton, Nintendo has filed 32 patent applications, some of which are specifically related to Link’s new abilities, while others are broadly applicable to a large number of games, such as the realistic physics of characters riding in vehicles (Link is not is “sticked” to the surface of the object, but can move at the same speed as the vehicle, although the result of both operation may be the same), and the loading screen appears when moving quickly.
Kotaku’s authors argued that while not every game uses these mechanics, patenting such ubiquitous mechanics could be “difficult for other developers to accept”; When game design concepts are limited in such a “fundamental” way, it only leads to a loss of creativity for other developers, and some inspiring designs could have appeared in more games.
Source: Kotaku , by Kenneth Shepard
point of view discussion
GamesBeat interviews two developer executives to discuss how games can change the world
GamesBeat recently interviewed two authors of a new book “Gaming for Good”. One of them is Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of game developer Sybo. His team developed the mobile platform game “Subway Surfers” with more than 4 billion downloads. “(Subway Surfers), the other is Jude Ower, the founder and CEO of PlayMob, an organization based on game promotion of public welfare. This interview discusses their experience of positively changing the real world through games, and their thoughts on the power of the huge game player group .
Source: VentureBeat , by Dean Takahashi
PC Gamer: Larian founder responds to debate over ‘Baldur’s Gate 3 sets new benchmark for RPGs’
The recent release of Baldur’s Gate 3 (Baldur’s Gate 3) has gained a lot of popularity and praise, and this has also sparked a debate: some people think that Baldur’s Gate 3 is not the same as Diablo IV. “(Diablo IV) “continued online exploitation” was seen as a “victory over the nasty modern gaming trends”; others felt that the work should be classified as an accident, which is not a risky approach. Simply followed, learned, and difficult to replicate by even the largest studios.
Swen Vincke, co-founder of developer Larian Studios, offered his personal take on the online debate in an interview with PC Gamer earlier this week. Vincke thinks the question is a bit confusing, and it’s true that not just any studio can make Baldur’s Gate 3, but he questions the importance of “benchmarks” for games, as new ideas emerge and old ones emerge. It is not uncommon in the game field to renovate ideas. The so-called “benchmarks” are actually “disappearing every day.” Of course, there is still a lot of room for free exploration in the future.
Vincke also pointed out that, at least for RPGs alone, this genre change didn’t just rely on works like “Baldur’s Gate 3”, “Disco Elysium” (Disco Elysium) brought about it with only a small team. “A lot of games are changing the standard so much that there is no such thing as a standard”, and it doesn’t take massive technological advances to do something crazy, cool, and different, to innovate beyond what’s come before.
Source: PC Gamer , by Tyler Wilde
Kotaku: “Baldur’s Gate 3” often uses dice to deny players from trying interesting paths
This article believes that under the cover of the success of “Baldur’s Gate 3”, one thing has always frustrated the author, that is, the result of the dice; D&D for short) understands the meaning very well, and is never opposed to the use of dice, but thinks that some of the use of dice in “Baldur’s Gate 3” is wrong.
The author believes that the introduction of dice in the “D&D” game can allow people to avoid repeating themselves, but to obtain a more flexible and high-quality gaming experience under the “disturbance” of random factors. “Baldur’s Gate 3” explicitly presents dice The result looks great too, but in terms of “using dice results to determine the success of story choices”, the author believes that “Baldur’s Gate 3” “screw everything”.
The most important flaw the author points out here is that in real-world D&D games, dice create opportunity, while the dice mechanics in Baldur’s Gate 3 kill opportunity. Since there is no real (or AI) DM (city lord), the enumerations that Larian Studios can do are also limited, so players can only do “choice questions” instead of “fill in the blanks” in the choice. When playing “Baldur’s Gate 3”, players may be tempted by seemingly attractive options, but they cannot know their chances of winning. The author is angry about this; the author also specifically cited a weird example. Pick up some wolf dung and throw it at the person in front of you, but this action requires as much as 10 points for [Movement], unfortunately, the author who was unlucky failed to succeed.
The author points out that a good DM would not let this happen, a good DM would want the player to experience the most interesting possibilities, and would usually design a very simple check to do so, even if a failure could lead to a more interesting situation, and “Baldur’s Gate 3” failed to achieve this effect; the author even suggested that even using the dice results to determine whether the player can see more interesting choices may work much better.
The core problem is that “Baldur’s Gate 3” puts the most interesting choice in front of the player, and then turns the player away based on luck. This is not the best experience of “D&D”, and it should not be the right It could have done better with the grandiose encouragement of players for SL.
Source: Kotaku , by John Walker
Kotaku shares a transcript of a group chat discussing Baldur’s Gate 3’s discomfort with dealing with romantic relationships
Kotaku posted a chat log of editors in a Slack group, where editors shared their feelings about the handling of intimacy between characters in Baldur’s Gate 3, discussing its shortcomings.
Zack Zwiezen, who started the group chat, said he encountered a situation in the game where almost everyone wanted to have sex with his character, citing a tweet from Inkle Studios (“80 Days”) game designer Nat Clayton. Text, explaining his feelings: “I never quite got used to the way relationships develop in BioWare games, there are a lot of funny moments between couples, but the intimacy always seems sudden and random.”
Editors, you chatted about many details in “Baldur’s Gate 3” and similar works at a glance, and think that many bridges involving intimacy are designed to be “too game-like”, stripping people from the sense of immersion Come out: The player may not have had a few words with certain characters who are able to form an intimate relationship, some characters may not have expressed affection for the player, the intimate behavior looks like “making the character submit” or some kind of transaction, a group of people At the same time, “love” the player’s character (because the progress of the strategy is similar). Regarding this status quo, everyone shared some possible improvement directions that deserve in-depth reflection.
Source: Kotaku , by Carolyn Petit
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