Back when the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft pushed the big budget game as a differentiator. Following all the recent layoffs, it’s clear this strategy has run its course.
I have warned about unsustainable risks and budgets since 2015. Recent layoffs of the industry are the result of the failure of this strategy.
In fact, in the 80s and 90s, the games no longer take a few weeks or months.
So me warning about big budgets in 2015 was in the hope that the next cycle of games would be scaled back into something more rational and sustainable. Obviously, that didn’t happen and now we are left with a sparsely populated game development wasteland.
All of this was originally pushed on the industry by Microsoft because they incorrectly thought they needed some killer app to distinguish themselves from Sony or Nintendo.
It was a long way to succeed at this point and, according to The Verge, Game Studios Xbox leader Matt Booty said: “We want small games that give us prestige and rewards. “
Following Microsoft’s own game development layoffs, it shows that the company is finally understanding the mistake they made all those years ago.
This is a big change of approach and the correct one to take. Admittedly, this should have happened a decade ago and before half the games industry was gutted, but I suppose it’s better late than never.
I am not saying there will be no more big budget games in the future, but they will be a welcome rarity. Much like they used to be before Microsoft lost the plot with their Xbox 360 strategy.
This is because gaming ties into our low-level cognition. While there is some common functional ground here, most people are very different when it comes to their cognitive makeup.
The effectiveness of PlayStation 2 was when the industry got into the groove of the way it works. In this, there was no game for everyone, only for everyone. This was beautifully shown through the fact that the maximum of the PlayStation 2’s game libraries was incredibly different from each other. In short, everyone’s disparate cognitive desires were fulfilled.
The whole budget setup killed that and also recalculated the progression ability of the disparate game at big studios. So not only is this elance the maximum of other people in the game, as their variable tastes were not supported, but they put many of the maximum productive developers in a precarious position through the component of a large device that can be removed at any time.
The latter is a scary point right now, as much of the institutional knowledge in game development is being lost en masse due to all these layoffs. Whether they will get funding to set up their own studios is unclear at this point, but if Microsoft’s new approach is anything to go by, I hope that these developers find a new home before they leave the industry entirely.
In any case, smaller, more sustainable and functionally varied games are again back on the menu, and this is a very good thing for the long-term survival of gaming.
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