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[MasterCornholio]

Just buy an Xbox, or play it on the bad-ass gaming rig every Pony claims to own.

Just to correct some misinformation that your spreading.

You don't need a monster gaming PC to play this title. If you have a decent gaming PC you should be able to play this. I'm sure that on my laptop it should be playable. Definitely not 4K 60FPs but I should be able to play the game at an acceptable level.

Of course I'm going to wait for a few benchmarks to get a better idea but I'm sure I'll be able to play this one.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

I didn’t say it did have development troubles, I was speaking generally about the AAA picture these days.

Fans can expect away to their hearts content, it doesn’t change the fact that a long development cycle means anything towards the quality of the final game, I’m afraid.

In fact it’s very unfair for gamers to adopt an unfounded attitude that says that for every year of development the game must be X% more ‘special’. M

That’s not it how it has ever worked and it places unreasonable expectations and pressures on studios.

I see this kind of thinking pop up a lot around the prospect of Half Life Episode 3.

I’ve repeatedly seen people say that it needs to be some sort of totally revolutionary, ultra amazing game because of how long it will have taken by release. Sometimes they also say this inevitably means that it will be a disappointment and then even that maybe you shouldn’t wish for it because of that.

Whereas I’m just like, well, I would just like to play a good game. If they made a good game and finished the story, I’d be fine with that.

Would it be nice if it was a really, really great game or even something legendary? Of course it would. Does it have to be to justify its development, simply because it has a long time since it was announced? No.

It's not only that the game was in development for over 8 years. It's also because it has over 500 Bethesda developers and a massive budget to boot. And, for years, Bethesda has hyped up Starfield just as much as its fans have. I understand your perspective though. Just hope for good games and be happy if they are great. But you act like its unfair for gamers to have higher expectations for certain games. Starfield isn't just any game, just as GTA 6 isn't just any other game

 

[Dcr1d3r]

Really hope it's all worth it...this game needs to hit a home run straight out the gates!

 

[The artful mincer]

No problem the Game Pass revenue will cover that.

 

[yurinka]

What's the actual studio size though?

I don't know. As reference, the typical AAA game with over 2000-3000 people working on it, normally has a team of around 150-250 people in the lead studio.

 

[Negotiator101]

I don't know. As reference, the typical AAA game with over 2000-3000 people working on it, normally has a team of around 150-250 people in the lead studio.

Crazy how much outsourcing is dons.

 

[yurinka]

Crazy how much outsourcing is dons.

Yes, often like over half of the people are from outsourcing studios, often located in Asian countries such as China.

But there's a good chunk from that people who also is from the corporate and publishing side, stuff like distribution, legal, finances, marketing, PR, CM, localization, executives, QA etc. in addition to companies who maybe allso made some engines, libraries or tools used by the team, or external people who made music, dubs, mocap, etc.

There's a shit ton involved on making AAA games.

 

[kyussman]

I expect high quality side quests for that money,lol.

 

[yurinka]

Fallout 4 only had 100 developers from Bethesda. "Much of the talk was a victory lap for Fallout 4, which had a team of 100 people and was in the works for four years, following the debut of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim role-playing game in 2011".

500 Bethesda employees working on Starfield is quite high. Very few studios have that many developers working on 1 game. 100-250 is pretty typical for most AAA releases. Starfield is similar in developer count to Cyberpunk2077

https://venturebeat.com/games/after-fallout-4-bethesda-is-working-on-3-new-games/#:~:text=Holmes asked Howard again.,role-playing game in 2011.

The game credits of Fallout 4 show that 1407 people worked in the game, not 100:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/75861/fallout-4/credits/windows/

 

[A.Romero]

It doesn't really surprise me. Even if the game is just Skyrim in space.

I also think people subestimate Gamepass' business model. I had a big gym chain as a customer a few years back and I got to know their business fairly well. They charge a low sub counting on most people not actually using it (except for the beginning of the year when everyone wants to start off with a good exercercising habit). They sell 4X or 5X their actual capacity with an automatic charge on the credit card. When people stop coming and get their credit card statement, they think about cancelling it but then feel guilty about it and decide the next month they will actually come... After all, the sub is priced so people will actually struggle to decide. They still don't come but spend a few months thinking on it.

It's the same with gamepass. In my case, for example, I haven't had enough time for gaming in the last few months. Whenever I get an hour or two I've been trying to finish Final Fantasy. I should probably just go and cancel while I can't use it but I simply forget and want to have that available if I decide to jump onto Guilty Gear for a few fights (another game that I like but it's too expensive for a DLC galore so I wouldn't buy it otherwise). That's passive revenue they are getting and they wouldn't have gotten from me otherwise. I'm sure many people are in the same situation.

I will try out Starfield when I get a chance (maybe next week) but I know for a fact that I wouldn't have bought it at least during the first year so they aren't missing revenue from me but actually getting it.

I have also forgotten to pause humble bundle quite a few months this year when games weren't interesting and I definitely haven't played any of those games at all (even though some of them actually sound interesting).

Funnily enough I decided to cancel my PS sub a few months ago because I was not playing online at all but I have a preorder in place for Spider man 2 and MGS (I'm thinking about cancelling this one, I'm a big fan but I think PC mods will make the difference).

In any case, thinking long term I don't think 500m is that crazy considering how much they have milked other games like Skyrim and they'll probably milk this one as well.

 

[yurinka]

90% of the names in AAA credits are from Chinese and Korean asset farms, who earn a penny for every dollar the studio proper pays their coastal US employees. In other words, 90% of the cost is in the "500 employees", not the 3000 names in the credits. The averaged cost per head in a coastal US city after employer taxes, benefits, and other compensation is at least $150,000.

Not true, the monthly cost of a worker in these studios is more or less the same than in the west, in a country of let's say Western Europe (depending on the country and company is lower, around 75-100K/year).

The difference is that if you have a studio in Europe and need let's say 300 or 500 people to work for your game during let's say only 9 months or a year, when you have a peak of production, is way easier to hire one of these Chinese companies because they have the manpower to allow that.

To hire 300-500 people for your studio would require a lot of additional time for the hirings and probably get a bigger office. And then to fire them around a year later would be an issue/too expensive at least in certain countries with decent worker rights standards.

The cost of living in countries like China or India is way lower, so these salaries are great for them.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

The game credits of Fallout 4 show that 1407 people worked in the game, not 100:
https://www.mobygames.com/game/75861/fallout-4/credits/windows/

But the actual # of developers is 100. The credits includes testers, marketers, voice actors ect.

 

[yurinka]

But the actual # of developers is 100. The credits includes testers, marketers, voice actors ect.

I provided you the URL iwth the game credits, read it. It wasn't developed by 100 people. The game credits include the 1407 people who worked on it.

And voice actors, testers etc. are also part of the game development team. I don't see why you shouldn't count them.