while I do agree I do think a lot of this is taking out of context. He said it was the game they wanted to make and explained the way he saw gaming. There are commercial and then there is generational which he described their game as. He also said that while he was skeptical they all wanted it to make money, but he wasn’t surprised when it didn’t. That said it was still silly to say some of that knowing how the media will run with it.
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Agreed.
Yeah, I’m being sort of flippant in that post, but listening to him speak it does seem clear that he’s not trying to sound smug about it and probably he himself is still processing what happened and trying to explain it to himself. But still, I think this was ill considered for a lot of reasons. He really could have just left it at “We all knew it was a gamble but we believed strongly that it would succeed.” It’s a really bad look for him to even insinuate that he knew in advance that Microsoft was making the wrong call.
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While it could have been something great, they didnt have the desire to see it through as an actual GaaS game and have 100% of their ongoing focus. Thats the only reason why it made the list of obvious after the fact bad decisions: it was doomed from the start.
Agreed. I also think Xbox at the time had a different vision for Gamepass. They wanted great fun games as they had already released a bunch of 6/10 games during the Xbox one era even though people complain about mismanagement I do think they were beginning to get into a good stride.
Yeah, from the outside, it’s easy to say, but still, other devs would have killed for this kind of budget and hands off approach. It shouldn’t have to take this long to get a game out, even if it’s a gem like South of Midnight.
I guess Psychonauts 2 wouldn’t have been finished without Xbox, but there’s a balance to have between making your dream game, finding an audience and making a profit. I’m especially disappointed by Double Fine, as they just made whatever games that no one played, like Kiln and Keeper. They are good games, I loved these games, but I would have traded them for Psychonauts 3 or Brutal Legend 2 in a heartbeat like most people.
They always thought they were super secure with phil. they got 7 years out of it.
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I think that’s kind of what we all thought… But he’s implying in the interview that he DID suspect the music was going to stop and South of Midnight would leave Compulsion in a bad position when it did. But they went ahead with it anyway. That’s what seems irresponsible.
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“I knew that building would crumble at some point, but I did my job, I put that brick exactly where it should be.”
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Yeah, true. But they should have all known that before announcing it and starting to work on it. Live service games are called that for a reason - they’re live all the time (until if/when they get shut down).
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I agreed with a lot of what he said tbh
I agree too. I think most people here agree to what he is saying, like he’s telling how it is and you can’t blame him from telling the truth. It’s more about how he says it, implying that he knew about it going into a wall full speed and doing nothing to stop it. Even Ben smirked at what he is saying so bluntly, like he was kind of shocked he said it like that.
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thats not what he said
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