BioShock developer Irrational Games abruptly shuts down | PCWorld
Any BioShock fans here? Sucks to see this company close its doors.
Irrational Games Abruptly Shuts Down
- Thread starter knownerror
- Start date
BioShock developer Irrational Games abruptly shuts down | PCWorld
Any BioShock fans here? Sucks to see this company close its doors.
Reality TV is cheap to make, but is still enough to keep people watching. Flappy Bird, Candy Crush, etc are doing the same thing.
I guess I don't like to compare it to reality TV because I think of reality TV as a really low quality product. But if a game is created at a lower cost in time and money, and if it has a minimal amount of differentiating mechanics, I wouldn't immediately compare it to the production value and quality of reality TV. Maybe I just really hate reality TV.
I think it's really cool that the gaming industry is seeing a flood of Indie game developers who are succeeding. I'd imagine this has more to do with technology than it does some expertly-crafted business plan for low-quality production at scale.
Yeah, because people who enjoy games like Call of Duty and GTA are the same ones who'd rather play Flash games.
The growth of one market doesn't mean the decline in another. Next gen console sales shows the demand for gaming is growing in general.
True. I suppose I'm being a bit sensationalist when I say that.
I'm all for indie games and I respect a developer that can make a relatively simple game a worldwide success. There is definitely a ton of skill involved with that.
On the other hand, many of the ways these games making money is almost the way of a glorified slot machine:
Pay to continue.
Bug your friends or pay to access new levels.
Random "slot pulls" for the chance to get hard to find characters.
There are also literal slot machine games where people pay money to buy more fake money.
There's a whole psychology behind the hardcore addictive aspects that are incorporated into these games (which I find extremely interesting, but is likely a whole different topic). Plus, if all young kids need is the password to a phone, they could easily be spending $xx-xxx on these games a day.
True to an extent. Game sales are actually seeing a decline for the first time in a long time (Outlook: Gaming Industry Faces Declining Software Sales)
Hardcore gamers make up a fraction of the market, and they likely aren't the most profitable gamers.
I know quite bit of people that play CoD and GTA that also play Candy Crush and Flappy Bird, despite how reluctant they are to admit it.
The reality is, people's phones are aggressively competing for more and more attention, which takes away from both TV and consoles. I expect that trend to continue.
You can even see the new psychological aspects from these games being implemented (in game purchases, expansion packs) which dilute the game, but help the bottom line.
Maybe I'm a bit cynical on the industry as a whole, but if companies find they can cut corners and still be just as profitable, that's the way most businesses tend to shift.
The game sucked, i couldn't wait to just be done with it as compared to the original that was dark, mysterious and interesting to play. This one simply had nothing like that, felt super repititve and the only thing that kept me from ditching it was the girl AI which was the only remotely good thing about bioshock infinite.
In app purchases and the freemium model is forcing developers to adopt it themselves or die. There is no shortage of developers who have posted sales figures of the same game released as a paid version and a free version, and it's 1000 to 1 difference in the number of installs. Hell, even the subscription model on PC mmo's has been a race to the bottom as well as many ditch subscriptions for F2P because it's more profitable. Not just mobile games affected.
People(most) are cheap and have bad taste, what else is new...
Also with in app purchase, as sleazy as it may be in most cases, you don't have the problem of piracy, you can distribute your game on torrent sites and consider it good marketing as people will have to pay to unlock the actual goods via IAP, and you can just worry about spreading it everywhere.
People(most) are cheap and have bad taste, what else is new...
Also with in app purchase, as sleazy as it may be in most cases, you don't have the problem of piracy, you can distribute your game on torrent sites and consider it good marketing as people will have to pay to unlock the actual goods via IAP, and you can just worry about spreading it everywhere.
I didn't get that out of it. Both sides were portrayed as being completely awful.
The story was really good. The visuals where really good. The actual gameplay was infuriating.
As much as I love the Elizabeth character, the roll she plays in combat is both useless and unneeded. Then the need to have her open locks is just fucking ridiculous. The whole opening tears in combat was poorly conceived too. Some battles are just too hectic to be worried about looking around for a tear to open.
The game is ultra short IMHO, 12 hours first play through. It really isn't enough time to figure out how to build you character, or learn all the vigors or how to use them situationally. Being basically an on the rails shooter there is 0 reason to replay it.
If you get it on a steam sale or something, might be worth picking up just for the story, throw it on ez mode and go.
It definitely had a ton more of potential. Sucks that it was never built up more though.