Arkane's Deathloop

[Sulphur]

Are you really using an anecdote about local physical sales to make a point about global sales figures?

In any event, pure immersive sims generally don't sell too well, so I wouldn't doubt that Bethesda might have issues with the financial success and overhead of Arkane's games along with their general approach to populist entertainment.

[heywood]

Dishonored 2 reportedly sold 2.5M copies. Not sure about Prey. That may be too small of a market to support a full-blown AAA title with latest/next gen graphics and an army of playtesters to make sure it's polished and bug-free. But it shows there's still significant demand for this type of game. The question is how to make them financially viable. Things that have been tried so far include tiered pricing (special editions etc.), DLC, spin-offs, loot boxes/upgrades, microtransactions. Those are all about how to squeeze more money out of players for the same game.

But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish? Another idea that's been discussed several times but never really tried is episodes. Eidos Montreal was going to try that with Deus Ex, but unfortunately made The Fall a mobile game, hoping it might reach a bigger audience, but the opposite happened. Personally, I'd be willing to pay $20-30 for 10-12 hours of new content every year in episode form, but I might be in the minority.

And now we have Deathloop, which I'm hoping is like a short imm sim, except designed to be replayed a lot. We'll see how it goes.

[t850terminator]

I know this is a pipe dream, but if Arkane slaps a map maker with this, I'd be in constant immersive sim ecstasy

[Sulphur]

But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?

I've mooted that as an option in some of the many, many conversations we've had in GenGaming about the state of the ImSim. I don't think hyper-detailed current generation art is a must-have, and the most obvious solution is to pare back the art budget and allow for more creative systems instead if you need to make development costs more realistic.

The episodic model is interesting, but I don't think it'll quite overcome consumer antipathy, because one of the problems is the amount of time you wait between each episode. The Hitman games tried it, and I think they've managed to be successful with it, but only because there's a steady dripfeed of stuff at a regular clip, which I'm sure is hard to do as a developer. It also intersects unpleasantly with the GaaS way of doing things; not that there isn't a good way to do that, but the spectre of microtransaction-enabled nonsense is hard to shake off.

[Jason Moyer]

But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?

I don't particularly want Arkane to go this route, but I wouldn't mind seeing a mid-sized studio attempt games like Neon Struct but with the mechanics/levels/audio fleshed out more.

[Anarchic Fox]

Incidentally, if things go very poorly for the studio in the coming decade, "Arkane's Death Loop" would be a great name for a Youtube documentary about its decline and demise.

...That joke may have been too dark.

[Jason Moyer]

[ZylonBane]

Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.

[chk772]

Dishonored 2 reportedly sold 2.5M copies.

Hmmm... that seems enough for me to keep doing what they do. But, what do I know.

But what about making them cheaper? Would fans still buy them if they had circa 2010 graphical detail and some lack of polish?

I'd absolutely do that. No-brainer. I'd even pay full price, if the content is right, just like it has been in Dishonored and Prey. Graphics are absolutely sceondary for me. What counts is atmosphere, gameplay, and games which don't bore me to death in terms of lore.

Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.

It looks surprsingly like Dishonored actually... for a shooter.

It also looks like something I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole though...

Tough times if you like the kind of games Arkane did in the past.

[Sulphur]

Everything I see about this makes me feel like it's a cross between Dishonored and Underworld Ascendant.

So what you're saying is that, even beyond its closure, they're still on track for replicating every step of LGS's output

[EvaUnit02]

Delayed to Q2 2021. Probably for the best since Arkane haven't been able to launch a stable (Dishonored 2 PC) and/or feature complete game (Prey PS4) for a good while.

[Sulphur]

I, for one, think taking a page out of Hitman's murder puzzleboxes is a great idea.

[SubJeff]

I don't get it. Who is a player, who isn't?

[Sulphur]

Clearly, everyone at that party is.

[EvaUnit02]

From that trailer it sounds genuinely dope, but building a game for speedrunning reeks of game design accounting for GaaS shenanigans. In what ways will big papa Zenimax force them to monetise?

EDIT:
Ahhhh, Invasion PvP. Skins for days then.

How does the multiplayer work?

Think Dark Souls. Other players can drop into your game, taking on the role of rival assassin Julianna Blake. That's definitely sure to throw a wrench in your plans for the current loop.
You can keep online play turned off, Bethesda says, in which case Julianna is controlled by AI. Her goal is to hunt Colt down to keep him from breaking the loop, so you'll want to keep an eye out for her even if you're playing offline.

https://archive.vn/exvoF

Did they ever get around to patching in the advertised Invasion PvP into Doom Eternal?

[Jason Moyer]

[Anarchic Fox]

Why the fuck would you want the game explained before you've even played it? That's not spoiling the fun, that's poisoning the fun.

[Jason Moyer]

He doesn't really explain anything, which I think was intentional. It's basically "here's the premise we pitched 2 years ago, also it's an Arkane game in case you forgot".

[Anarchic Fox]

A lie in the title is the worst kind of lie.

[EvaUnit02]

Once Sony's console exclusivity deal is up, this will probably go straight to Xbox Game Pass. (I wouldn't be surprised if it's day 1 in PC Game Pass, actually. Just not the Xbox one.)

[Jashin]

Isn't this the thing they made to perfect one of the playstyles of Dishonored? The move really fast + trick kills style.

Doesn't look like a full-price product. Doesn't appear to be an I-Sim neither.

[faetal]

I wouldn't dismiss it as a DH spin-off - they've been working pretty bastard hard on it for a number of years.

[Anarchic Fox]

I wouldn't dismiss it as a DH spin-off - they've been working pretty bastard hard on it for a number of years.

Including multiple missed release dates. I think they're at two?

[faetal]

Hardly unprecedented in the games industry. Release dates are a guess at best. What would you prefer, punctual games or finished games?

[Anarchic Fox]

My comment was written in an admiring tone of voice, Mister "My Location just happens to coincide with the location of half of Arkane."

As far as I'm concerned, the more delays the better. Deathloop belongs to Arkane belongs to Zenimax belongs to Microsoft, so there's no shortage of money.