gameragodzilla
Member
I find it funny that Redfall's entire dismal state can be traced back to Bethesda cancelling Prey 2.
If Prey 2 wasn't cancelled, Prey 2017 wouldn't have been called that and get a lot of ill will due to the name. Even Arkane's founder said calling the game that name was a horrible mistake and wanted to apologize to the original devs of Prey 2006 over it.
If Prey 2017 wasn't called Prey, then there'd be less marketing confusion and anger, so the game probably would've sold better (I still find the writing atrocious, but hey, people seem to like it).
If the game sold better, then Arkane wouldn't be forced to make a multiplayer focused looter shooter they're neither interested nor capable of making.
And since they're forced into making a multiplayer focused looter shooter, they lost a ton of staff and don't have any passion to making it good.
End result: Redfall
I'll always miss you, Prey 2.
If Prey 2 wasn't cancelled, Prey 2017 wouldn't have been called that and get a lot of ill will due to the name. Even Arkane's founder said calling the game that name was a horrible mistake and wanted to apologize to the original devs of Prey 2006 over it.
If Prey 2017 wasn't called Prey, then there'd be less marketing confusion and anger, so the game probably would've sold better (I still find the writing atrocious, but hey, people seem to like it).
If the game sold better, then Arkane wouldn't be forced to make a multiplayer focused looter shooter they're neither interested nor capable of making.
And since they're forced into making a multiplayer focused looter shooter, they lost a ton of staff and don't have any passion to making it good.
End result: Redfall
I'll always miss you, Prey 2.
Part of the issue is retention. If all your people are constantly leaving, then the name is just a name. 343 Industries had a lot of problems with their Halo games (despite the fact that I actually liked them outside of Halo 5) because they relied too heavily on contractors who leave once their contract is up, and a lot of their key staff kept leaving as well. Bioware had it even worse, as does Arkane here clearly. Meanwhile, Nintendo tended to keep their staff for a long time, so all that experience and understanding is retained rather than having to train new people every time there's turnover.It's getting increasingly clear that past successes are no longer any guarantee of a studio's next game being good.
Especially in the AAA space, staff turn over and sheer numbers making individual contributions irrelevant mean every game is basically completely divorced from what came before.
If we're lucky, the management is competent and has a clear vision that translates into a good game. But most likely the hundreds of devs in multiple different countries just bodge together something that might meet a committee meetings vague set of marketting approved goals.