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Jeff Grubb: Perfect Dark is in a rough state

StueyDuck

Banned
Once again: too many cooks. In. The. Fucking. Kitchen.

Design by committee doesn’t fucking work the vast majority of the time. This is why you have a game director to keep the team(s) focused on scope and vision.

But now we have consultants
Absolutely...

It's literally the lesson all management profs teach in the first week of uni. The classic, here's a simple task. Now we add one person to speed up process, then eventually there's so many people that the process slows down. (Example stacking paper, stapling them, filing them)


Buuuuuut I also think alot of issues with modern development comes from "professionals" and not the passionate... a bunch of staff that will most likely say "eugh, back to work today".

Where you take a project like Id and doom, it was a room full of guys who wanted nothing else than to make the best most entertaining product possible. Maybe that meant sleeping at the office or working late hours, their goal was to just make something perfect... and they did.
 
Step 1, make the first ever AAAA studio. Step 2, announce what they're going to make before they make anything. Step 3, realize they suck at making games. Step 4, bring in a veteran studio to help. Step 5, realize that the AAAA studio is so bad at making games that even the veteran studio can't help.

Seriously how do you fuck up Perfect Dark? And they did that once already.
shoulda just remade it and called it a day. then release a sequel with that engine.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
"It sounds like they don't even know if that's what they want to do with that"

Steve Brule What GIF


Is it a fucking debate to use a franchise that was an FPS to do an FPS? AFTER ALL THIS TIME?

FFS

Satya Nadella, look, I'm just an electrical engineer, I have no gaming experiences, I still feel like I can better manage your xbox division than the fucking clowns you have. Hire me, PM box open.
 
Absolutely...

It's literally the lesson all management profs teach in the first week of uni. The classic, here's a simple task. Now we add one person to speed up process, then eventually there's so many people that the process slows down. (Example stacking paper, stapling them, filing them)


Buuuuuut I also think alot of issues with modern development comes from "professionals" and not the passionate... a bunch of staff that will most likely say "eugh, back to work today".

Where you take a project like Id and doom, it was a room full of guys who wanted nothing else than to make the best most entertaining product possible. Maybe that meant sleeping at the office or working late hours, their goal was to just make something perfect... and they did.
Indie games.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
All those years since the announcement...and they don't have a camera decided. Imagine the rest.

Good fucking lord what the fuck is MS doing with these projects? What are they telling their devs? Fucking years of development. They have nothing and don't even know if it'll be first person. This isn't development hell. This is...they did fuck all!

tumblr_mss8sqHnPf1r36jpso1_500.gif
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
At this point Sony doesn't have to release any more games, they can just sit back and have "interested" third parties point to Xbox rumors that may be damaging. (if they are true or not doesn't matter)
 

Ozzie666

Member
It's funny. As a late N64 generation title, Perfect Dark was a good game. However, imagine if the game launched in the same state in 2024. Poor frame rates, expansion required for several features and modes. The game really chugged, how did we put up with it then and not complain?
 

Varteras

Gold Member
The Initiative is likely one of the next casualties. Closed or consolidated into an existing team that has a successful franchise.
 
The Initiative and MS’ first party expansion has proven hollow and token.

For a software company, MS is awful when it comes to artistry. Most of their successes were through acquisitions and/or contracted partners.
 
Just cancel it, nobody wants shaved head on the side Joanna, nobody wants that shit.

To say it's played out is an understatement, you always knew exactly what this was going to be and it's not interesting.
 
If I'm going to being living in your head rent free, can you at least clean up the shit in the corner?
nope . i was looking for other quotes:

I think there are like 10 or 12 games that we know Xbox is working on. Only 2 (Fable and Project Dark) have this massive 'AAAA' level of production and expectations. The issue is: We know Project Dark has had a troubled development as well as some rumors for Fable too (engine issues, inexperienced studio at the RPG genre). Is Gears going to be a soft reboot like GoW 2018. That IP has become stale....Right here...this is Xbox's entire generation.

and I dunno why, but I have this feeling that a couple of those games (Contraband and Project dark come to mind) could get canceled.


Right now
Xbox´s future is crystal clear to me. After the next 4 years Xbox is going to consolidate internally and just follow the Minecraft model. yeah sure, they will make a new game here and there, but that's it.
I'm just gonna say something.....

Every single talking point from the Xbros "pundits"/Executives has been a complete joke...and they deserve to suffer ridicule. This amount of severe butthurtiness it´s just the cherry on top.

1. Game Pass/Ecosystem = Actually increases sales, Viral Marketing, Incredible Growth. Reality: Nadella drops GP's growth for compensation after missing projections and there is no irrefutable evidence of all those benefits are true.
2. Full RDNA 2/More Powererful/Better Raytracing Capabilities = What can i say?.....Tools are not ready.
3. Two SKUs Strategy = Masterful plan to capture the low-entry consumer and the enthusiast, leading to more sales and market leadership. Reality: Xbox series sales are worse than ever and Series S has become a pain in the ass for devs.
4. "You just wait until next E3/Year" = They have always made this absurd list of a bunch of games... and NEVER pan out.
5. Scores dosent matter, Awards are fake = BUT MS is 2021 Metacitic´s Publisher of the year. And oh boy, how they used that award as the truth handled by God himself to all humanity. Cut to: 2022... I dont need to say anything.
6. 'Arkane Never Misses'/ 'Starfield is the most important RPG of the last 10 years... and yes, it's exclusive.' We all know what happened in the first case. The funny thing about the second remark is that it can be applied to Baldur's Gate 3... even the exclusive bit... thanks to Series S of all things.
7. ABK acquisition: Now sony needs to compete, once the acquisition closes a bunch of Activision-Blizzard games are going to drop on Game Pass. Including CoD and Diablo IV. Reality: 🦗🦗🦗
8."We want gamers to play everywhere"= if you know, you know
8. 'Xbox Tax' = If it is an Xbox game, it is going to receive more negativity, criticisms, and lower scores.

These people are thisrty for validation, they want that juicy 90+MC AND the Dorito´s Pope GOTY award, but the fact of the matter is that MS has failed to produce games of such quality and significance....However, it's never Microsoft's fault though; it's always someone else's. And that lack of self awarness, even when Phil is coming out and saying "It´s on us to deliver games at quality"; these people keep shifting the blame.

Right now, Microsoft has three games that should accomplish the dream: Project Dark, Fable, and Hellblade 2. Ask yourselves, based in MS´s track record and Industry previuos examples of similar circustances of projects. What are the odds of MS achiving THE Dream?....Yep... What I am saying is that these people are going to keep complaining and taking L after L from their so-called "analyses and industry predictions".
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I'm very pro-developer, but it is pretty wild an entire studio can be paid for the past 4 years and they still have not decided whether it is a 1st or 3rd person game
It's probably a mix between the two. Grubb is probably putting a little english on what he's heard.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
It's funny. As a late N64 generation title, Perfect Dark was a good game. However, imagine if the game launched in the same state in 2024. Poor frame rates, expansion required for several features and modes. The game really chugged, how did we put up with it then and not complain?
Probably a mix of not knowing any better + the game being pretty good.

Also, the game was designed with the slowdowns in mind. Enemy reaction times were long enough to compensate, and their animations were also pretty long.

Go ahead and emulate it at 60fps. The game becomes much easier.
 

Dorfdad

Gold Member
Why do people feel they need to re-invent the wheel? Just make a faithful remaster and it will sell gangbusters. Any changes and tweaks to the game will probably result in bad experience.
 

DarthPutin

Member
I still kind of can't get over the idea that "The Initiative" is supposed to be some super AAAA studio which exist for brainstorming and innovative ideas, not some lame act of making games, which is outsourced to non-MS owned studio. And their exciting revelation of a pitch is... "produce a sequel to an old IP".

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but seems like MS could have saved a lot of money by browsing forums AND buying Crystal Dynamics.
 
Xbox kinda reminds me of Disney with Star Wars. I mean they keep announcing projects left and right to get fans excited, only for them to flounder behind the scenes and be quietly cancelled.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Why do people feel they need to re-invent the wheel? Just make a faithful remaster and it will sell gangbusters. Any changes and tweaks to the game will probably result in bad experience.
8c8aedf3-bfdf-4a1f-b57e-a0c66cefbcbb_text.gif


Progress is waaaaay more interesting. Leave the past in the past.
 

recursive

Member
Step 1, make the first ever AAAA studio. Step 2, announce what they're going to make before they make anything. Step 3, realize they suck at making games. Step 4, bring in a veteran studio to help. Step 5, realize that the AAAA studio is so bad at making games that even the veteran studio can't help.

Seriously how do you fuck up Perfect Dark? And they did that once already.
Easy answer is DEI. It infects all corporations thanks to ESG Blackrock investments. I have witnessed it firsthand multiple times. If you want to prevent this shit resist progressive politics that embrace and support this shit.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
I've got an idea rather than dissolving your teams, how about you fire the fucking idiots that are supposed to be managing them? What a shit show.

Start with Phil and work your way down.
Like it would change anything. The same thing was said with Mattrick.
 
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Bry0

Member
The Initiative and MS’ first party expansion has proven hollow and token.

For a software company, MS is awful when it comes to artistry. Most of their successes were through acquisitions and/or contracted partners.
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products,” - Steve Jobs 1995
 
So they close Tango Workshop who put out some very good games, but keep this studio, where they can’t make up their mind for years? Why can’t they at least replace the creative team there, so they at least have some kind of idea, what the final game should look like.
 

LordCBH

Member
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products,” - Steve Jobs 1995

This quote is 100% accurate.
 
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