June 27, 2025 • 18 mins
In this episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew, host Brett Deister covers a range of topics including the release of Civilization 7 update 1.2.0.2, which adds steam workshop support and new advanced game options, Microsoft's planned layoffs in the Xbox division, the issues with the Steam Summer Sale, and a new PVE mode in Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. Brett also discusses the significant layoffs and restructuring occurring in the gaming industry, highlights notable deals in the Steam Summer Sale, and touches on updates in Dune: Awakening. The episode concludes with a reflection on the state of AAA gaming and the rise of indie games.
3 Fun Facts:
- Civilization 7 just got Steam Workshop support, letting players easily find and install mods directly from Steam.
- Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 introduced a new PvE "Siege Mode," where teams fight endless waves to defend an Imperial Fortress.
- The Steam Summer Sale is live with big discounts, but heavy traffic at launch made the store tough to access for many gamers.
Key Themes:
- Civilization 7 update and community response
- Industry-wide layoffs, especially at Microsoft
- Turmoil and downsizing in gaming studios
- Steam Summer Sale and major discounts
- Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 new modes
- Dune Awakening PvE/PvP gameplay changes
- The rise and impact of indie games
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew. And
I'm your host, Brett Deister. If you can please subscribe to this podcast and all
your favorite podcasting apps, leave. A five star review really does help with the rankings
and let me know how I am doing. But this week
we're Talking about Civilization 7, the game nobody's playing
really. Microsoft's apparently going to be laying off more people
(00:22):
and the Steam summer sale is live and no, it's not
you. There is a problem trying to access it and then
Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 in New.
I guess new mode is the best way of saying it and just really
talking about all these layoffs. I mean it just
doesn't seem to be stopping whatsoever. So let's get on with the
(00:45):
show.
That's good. All right. I hope you're having a
fabulous Friday and a good weekend coming up. But
(01:07):
two K4X's have released update
1.2.2 for Sid Meier's Civilization
7 on June 24th. They did
it. And the update adds Steam Workshop support, larger maps and new
advanced game options. The update enables official support for mods with
within the game. Players can now find and install mods directly from Steam.
(01:29):
Due to the Steam Workshop integration, modders can promote their mods and
use the official civilization 7
modding SDK for easier creation and
uploading. The update includes improvement applicable to
all platforms on which Civilization 7 is available.
New in game New advanced game options allow players to
(01:50):
customize their games with features such as huge and large
map types, toggling legacy paths, score
victories and crises, and setting new
civilization after age
transition. So I mean that was the biggest change is the age
transitions, usually previous ones. You were one civilization
(02:11):
through the whole game. And kind of just changing from the ages
is a new thing because it did celebrate you changing from different
ages. But this is a lot different. More like what humankind
kind of did. And it hasn't really been going well.
I mean they, they have a lot of issues. A
lot of people did not like it when it released and it just, it just
(02:34):
isn't going very well for Sid Meer. I think the main
reason is it's just, just the sharp change of everything. You
don't have builders anymore. You kind of just gradually build
out. I guess the best way of saying was
it was interesting and there was some risk taking, but I don't think it really
paid off for them. All right. Microsoft is
(02:56):
reportedly planning another major layoff for its Xbox division.
The reports come from Bloomberg's Jason Serger.
Who described the layoffs as involving substantial cuts. The specific number of
employees affected by the layoffs is currently unclear. The
layoffs are expected to be revealed next week. Report
from the Verge states that these layoffs are a part of restructuring of
(03:18):
Xbox business in Central Europe, leading to some Xbox
operations ceasing in certain regions. Microsoft has a history of
announcing layoffs around the end of its fiscal year. So
yeah, more layoffs are happening. They've been happening for the
past two to three years. It has not been good for the
gaming industry in general. I haven't really seen
(03:41):
this much layoffs in a very long time for the gaming industry ever really.
There have been layoffs, but it seems like there is like
significant layoffs. And I think it's because of COVID and the COVID
money that that were interjected into
the gaming industry because it was the only thing that people could really do to
have fun. So they played games and so a lot of investors
(04:03):
went and pumped a bunch of money into it. And then after everybody
kind of got out, the games didn't do as well.
It doesn't help that they kind of pushed a ideology that a lot of
people didn't like. And so
guess what's happened. You have people
that, well, really don't want to play your game, don't really don't
(04:25):
want to have things shoved down their throat that they don't actually
agree with. And a lot of beloved franchises were
either forced to release sooner rather
than later and it did not pay well for a lot of them.
I'm talking about Bioware specifically. It did not really do well for them
because Dragon Age is no more. But EA
(04:47):
never really understood how to make it. But we
had a lot of other layoffs from Microsoft. A lot of different developers were let
go and developers development studios were shuttered. WB Games have
shuttered studios and Embracer Group hasn't shuttered studios
and canceled games. Ubisoft to shutter studios and cancel
games. Activision Blizzard was bought out by Microsoft.
(05:10):
I mean, the list goes on and on about how much change has been going
on in the market. Sony basically mothballed
Concord and shuttered the studio. Marathon's
not doing well, which is Bungie's own fault for doing it. Like,
there is a lot of turmoil in the gaming industry right
now and it's not looking like it's getting any better
(05:31):
anytime soon. So I would prepare for more
pain, at least for this year. Maybe next year I will probably level
out. All right. The Steam summer sale
is live and it's going on until July 10,
2025. The summer sale is one of the two major annual
sales on the platform other than the winter sale.
(05:54):
The sales feature discounts on both the new and old PC games, and
notable ones is the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth at
14.99 offering. Well, it offers a bunch of stuff
and if you haven't played the original one, this is pretty good. Even though it
is not turn based anymore, which is unfortunate. Elder Scrolls
Oblivion remastered has a $10 discount. Indiana Jones and the Great
(06:16):
Circle along with its DLC is on sale. Any games like
repo schedule 1 and blueprints are on sale. And Crash
Bandicoot Saint Trilogy, Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy,
which is a good game, and Star Wars Battlefront 2 are
discounted by 90%, totaling $14 for
all three of them. So if you got some money,
(06:37):
yes. And then Expedition 33 is also on sale, but it's
only a $5 discount, so there it is.
This also coincides with Prime Day, which is going to hit on July
8th, and that's going to go to the 11th, so it's going to end the
day before Prime Day does, but there's going to be a lot of good games.
Unfortunately, as of right now, this recording,
(07:00):
there's a lot of heavy traffic. So if you're wanting to get the game, you
still got time. You don't have to do it right now, but you still have
time. And well, it's not really. It's.
It's really hard to move anywhere within it. So
if you're just having difficulties on the servers, it's just a lot of people are
on the servers right now looking at the Steam Summer sales and seeing what they
(07:20):
can get. And so if you're patient, just wait a few days or
even just wait until tomorrow or Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and you'll be able to get it. But there are issues. I've
already seen the issues of this time of recording, trying to do anything, and
it did not go very well. Like I was like, all right, I'm just going
to wait until all this is over. All right.
(07:41):
Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2 has introduced a new
PvE game mode called Siege Mode. In Siege Mode 3,
players fight against endless waves of Tyranid and Thousand
Sons. The objective is to hold an Imperial Fortress for
as long as possible. Players earn points by defeating enemies, which can be
used to purchase stems,
(08:04):
ammunition, equipment, and reinforcement from the
KDN regiments in the Dreadnought. After defending
an area for five rounds, players are moved to a different area, part of The
Fortress and this cycle repeats. Players can opt to
retreat via extraction while earning requisition points,
armory data and xp. So this is
(08:26):
just another great example of how Saber Interactive is
updating the game and making it more enjoyable for people. People may not
just like the PvP part of it, so there you have it. You
have a new way of doing it. So I
wouldn't be surprised if this will be another popular part of it. Space Marines
2 is a very good game. It's a very fun game. It is
(08:49):
still what it's supposed to be from the original one, even though the
original one, Remastered, isn't doing very well on Steam and has a
negative viewpoint on it from a lot of gamers. But that's us
gamers. If you don't make it like we remember it, good luck
trying to convince us to buy it and then also moving on,
which I forgot to mention, but Dune Awakening has a new update where
(09:12):
50% of the deep desert dark. I don't know. The
PvP mode is going to be PvE and PvP
mode, so you're going to get the best of both worlds. You don't feel like
fighting people because you aren't up to that level.
Then yes, some of the desert in the endgame content
will be available to you and you don't have to fight anybody for it. Which
(09:33):
is good because once again, a lot of those players know
how to play it. Probably have ganked a lot of players, probably have made a
lot of the new players not want to go in the PvP zone
anymore. Because why would I want to have
a miserable experience in a MMO
survival game where it can be brutal? Especially if you get
(09:55):
eaten by the Sandworm because all your stuff is gone. Gone.
I mean like completely gone. You are back
in your body naked. Well, with underwear only,
but basically naked for that game. So
if you have been wondering if you want to try out Dune
Awakening, it is a fun game. It's probably better if you play it with people,
(10:17):
but you can still play it by yourself and have an enjoyable experience.
I think it's a harder to do it by yourself only because
there's so much things you have to gather and there's so much things you have
to do it alone. Takes a lot
longer than doing it with other people because sometimes you're not
always playing the game 247 and those people can play for you. So
(10:40):
like I said, for those in small guilds, it's great for you. For those by
yourselves, you can still do it like it's not a problem
at all. But it just takes a lot longer for you to do it than
if you were to have a group of people do it for you. But
it is a fun game, it's an interesting game. And there's no
monthly fee on this mmo, so it's not like World of Warcraft where there's a
(11:01):
monthly fee on it. So I think if you're looking for another
next survival game, this is probably it. In the Dune universe, it's great. Combat
is of kind, but the story and the map and everything
you do is pretty good. But
don't really hate on the combat too
much. It is the combat. This is what it is. Gunplay is
(11:23):
not bad. Sword fighting is kind of meh. But
there you have it. Now I really want to talk specifically
about all these layoffs and the sweeping industry
changes that are going on within the gaming industry. We've had more Microsoft
buying Activision Blizzard and basically turning it to Activision and Blizzard. We
have Call of Duty just not doing well anymore. Like, I have not
(11:46):
been very excited for Call of Duty in
a while. I have no reason to do it. I play the betas, I go,
there's a reason why I'm not buying this game. And then I see like all
the skins and the weird crap that they're doing and I'm like, yep, this is
why I'm not playing this game anymore. It seems like it is basically
just Call of Duty has become sloppy. It's a game, it's gaming slop. It's
(12:07):
FPS slop, like it's not good. And a lot of people know it's
not good. So I think the industry is going
for the least common denominator, not really
being risky on their games and trying to
appease a certain ideology that really a lot of gamers just
don't like. And so the problem is that these developers don't understand
(12:30):
the normal gamer think the normal gamers like them or the
journalists that hate the normal gamer.
And this is where you get a lot of
downsizing, a lot of layoffs because you aren't making your
revenue goals. The publisher's like, look it, we can't
keep on doing this. You keep on losing time and time again and we're going
(12:51):
to have to let people go. And then a lot of the marketers just
don't understand how to market to to gamers.
And I keep on saying this. They don't know how to market to gamers. The
gamers don't buy their game because they're not marketing to them, they're marketing to the
quote, unquote, modern audience, which I don't even know what that means. And I think
it's just a term for the people that
(13:13):
agree with us and it's not majority of the gamers. And so
what we're getting is a lot of free to play games, a lot of indie
games that are basically being risky and pushing the boundaries and making very
interesting and risky moves that pay off. And then you're having
triple A games not being very risky,
not doing anything new, just retreads of their
(13:36):
bygone era. That was innovative for the time
I'm looking at Assassin's Creed and then just keep on
repurposing it and repurposing it and repurposing it until it
nobody really wants to play anymore. You have Battlefield
6 going back to the basics, but we'll see if it's actually any good
or not because I'm not even sure if it's going to be good or not.
(13:59):
So where are we at here?
Well, we're going to be at more constriction
of devs, of publishers, of cutting,
of trimming, because they don't really know how
to make the games for the gamer anymore. They used to. They used
to know, but now they don't because they aren't gamers themselves.
(14:21):
They don't talk to really gamers. They kind of just say what
gamers are. And gamers like, we're not this. We're not this at all.
We're this. And this is what we want to be.
And so instead of listening to your audience,
you go ahead with these terrible games and they fail.
(14:41):
Marathon's gonna, well, would have failed, but it hasn't.
Concord failed epically. Anthem failed. Mass
Effect, Andromeda failed. Dragon Age, the Veil Guard
or Pride Guard or whatever you wanted to call it, failed
miserably. South of.
I don't know, the game with the black chick. I don't even remember the name.
(15:05):
But that failed because no one played it.
Like you said, you have very few games that are going to be making it
and the publisher is going to be making a lot less games
and they will be focusing more on remasters and remakes because those,
they know people like. They know you like Oblivion. I love
(15:25):
Oblivion. They know you like Space Marines even though it didn't do very well.
You know, you like System shock, System Shock 2, Dark Forces remaster
and any other bloodthirsty remasters that you can think of. I mean, if
they do Thief, they can do Thief. I mean, this is
where they know that they can actually make their money. Because there's nowhere,
nowhere else they can actually make their money. I guess. I know. See, Project Red
(15:49):
is making Witcher 4 and I don't know where I stand with
it. I'm not really that excited about it. I think the tech is cool, but
even I'm kind of like, well, let's wait until the real game comes out and
see if that tech is still going to be the same tech or the same
graphic fidelity that we have. Even though they claim it was running On a
base PS5, we're not really sure if
(16:09):
it's going to be what it is on that, but we will see.
But I do think the only thing you're going
to get lately is going to be more laughs, more slop
games until they kind of, until they really figure it out. And maybe look
at what the indie development is doing. Schedule 1 is a great
(16:29):
example. It blew out expectations. It blew out most of the
AAA games on sales. Still a great
game. The one guy is still building. It takes him
a while, but fair enough because he is one guy. It's not a team.
You have Expedition 33, even if it was a bigger team, but
the core team was small, but you could still have a big team of freelancers.
(16:52):
The core team was still small and that's why they actually made a successful game.
The bigger the team is, I mean, the core team,
the worse it gets because then it becomes a committee instead of any
creativity coming out of it. You don't want a committee of creativity because then
it's not creative anymore. You need a small core team
talking with each other, mostly agreeing with each other. You don't always have to agree
(17:15):
with everything making the best game possible. And then you have
freelance, like a little army of freelancers helping you out, doing
specific tasks that you may not be able to do or you might not
have enough time to do. That is a really good
thing to do. Even though they're like, well, they weren't really a small team. Did
you see all that? Well, yeah, okay. They hired freelancers. Everybody hires freelancers. All
(17:38):
business hire freelancers. That's how you get things done.
What I'm saying is, is that I
think until 2026, we're going to
see a lot more layoffs because we haven't really hit that
bottom where money isn't being lost
hand over fist because of bad decisions,
(18:01):
bad design, bad
gameplay, etc. So
be prepared for more of this. And let's hope
2026 is a lot better than this year. I mean, I'm still excited
for Metal Gear Snake Eater, even though it's a remake,
not a remaster. It's a remake, but we'll see.
(18:24):
And thank you for listening to this podcast. I will be on
vacation, so that's why this is a short episode. And I will not be doing
it next week as well. So I hope you guys have a good
weekend this weekend. And next weekend. I will be back
the week after from my vacation. So thank you for listening. As
always. Please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcasting apps. Leave a five star
(18:46):
review. It really does help with the rankings. Let me know how I'm doing it
and join me next. Not next week, the week after,
when I talk about what's going on the gaming industry. All right guys, have fun.
Enjoy your.
And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew. And
I'm your host, Brett Deister. If you can please subscribe to this podcast and all
your favorite podcasting apps, leave. A five star review really does help with the rankings
and let me know how I am doing. But this week
we're Talking about Civilization 7, the game nobody's playing
really. Microsoft's apparently going to be laying off more people
(00:22):
and the Steam summer sale is live and no, it's not
you. There is a problem trying to access it and then
Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 in New.
I guess new mode is the best way of saying it and just really
talking about all these layoffs. I mean it just
doesn't seem to be stopping whatsoever. So let's get on with the
(00:45):
show.
That's good. All right. I hope you're having a
fabulous Friday and a good weekend coming up. But
(01:07):
two K4X's have released update
1.2.2 for Sid Meier's Civilization
7 on June 24th. They did
it. And the update adds Steam Workshop support, larger maps and new
advanced game options. The update enables official support for mods with
within the game. Players can now find and install mods directly from Steam.
(01:29):
Due to the Steam Workshop integration, modders can promote their mods and
use the official civilization 7
modding SDK for easier creation and
uploading. The update includes improvement applicable to
all platforms on which Civilization 7 is available.
New in game New advanced game options allow players to
(01:50):
customize their games with features such as huge and large
map types, toggling legacy paths, score
victories and crises, and setting new
civilization after age
transition. So I mean that was the biggest change is the age
transitions, usually previous ones. You were one civilization
(02:11):
through the whole game. And kind of just changing from the ages
is a new thing because it did celebrate you changing from different
ages. But this is a lot different. More like what humankind
kind of did. And it hasn't really been going well.
I mean they, they have a lot of issues. A
lot of people did not like it when it released and it just, it just
(02:34):
isn't going very well for Sid Meer. I think the main
reason is it's just, just the sharp change of everything. You
don't have builders anymore. You kind of just gradually build
out. I guess the best way of saying was
it was interesting and there was some risk taking, but I don't think it really
paid off for them. All right. Microsoft is
(02:56):
reportedly planning another major layoff for its Xbox division.
The reports come from Bloomberg's Jason Serger.
Who described the layoffs as involving substantial cuts. The specific number of
employees affected by the layoffs is currently unclear. The
layoffs are expected to be revealed next week. Report
from the Verge states that these layoffs are a part of restructuring of
(03:18):
Xbox business in Central Europe, leading to some Xbox
operations ceasing in certain regions. Microsoft has a history of
announcing layoffs around the end of its fiscal year. So
yeah, more layoffs are happening. They've been happening for the
past two to three years. It has not been good for the
gaming industry in general. I haven't really seen
(03:41):
this much layoffs in a very long time for the gaming industry ever really.
There have been layoffs, but it seems like there is like
significant layoffs. And I think it's because of COVID and the COVID
money that that were interjected into
the gaming industry because it was the only thing that people could really do to
have fun. So they played games and so a lot of investors
(04:03):
went and pumped a bunch of money into it. And then after everybody
kind of got out, the games didn't do as well.
It doesn't help that they kind of pushed a ideology that a lot of
people didn't like. And so
guess what's happened. You have people
that, well, really don't want to play your game, don't really don't
(04:25):
want to have things shoved down their throat that they don't actually
agree with. And a lot of beloved franchises were
either forced to release sooner rather
than later and it did not pay well for a lot of them.
I'm talking about Bioware specifically. It did not really do well for them
because Dragon Age is no more. But EA
(04:47):
never really understood how to make it. But we
had a lot of other layoffs from Microsoft. A lot of different developers were let
go and developers development studios were shuttered. WB Games have
shuttered studios and Embracer Group hasn't shuttered studios
and canceled games. Ubisoft to shutter studios and cancel
games. Activision Blizzard was bought out by Microsoft.
(05:10):
I mean, the list goes on and on about how much change has been going
on in the market. Sony basically mothballed
Concord and shuttered the studio. Marathon's
not doing well, which is Bungie's own fault for doing it. Like,
there is a lot of turmoil in the gaming industry right
now and it's not looking like it's getting any better
(05:31):
anytime soon. So I would prepare for more
pain, at least for this year. Maybe next year I will probably level
out. All right. The Steam summer sale
is live and it's going on until July 10,
2025. The summer sale is one of the two major annual
sales on the platform other than the winter sale.
(05:54):
The sales feature discounts on both the new and old PC games, and
notable ones is the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth at
14.99 offering. Well, it offers a bunch of stuff
and if you haven't played the original one, this is pretty good. Even though it
is not turn based anymore, which is unfortunate. Elder Scrolls
Oblivion remastered has a $10 discount. Indiana Jones and the Great
(06:16):
Circle along with its DLC is on sale. Any games like
repo schedule 1 and blueprints are on sale. And Crash
Bandicoot Saint Trilogy, Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy,
which is a good game, and Star Wars Battlefront 2 are
discounted by 90%, totaling $14 for
all three of them. So if you got some money,
(06:37):
yes. And then Expedition 33 is also on sale, but it's
only a $5 discount, so there it is.
This also coincides with Prime Day, which is going to hit on July
8th, and that's going to go to the 11th, so it's going to end the
day before Prime Day does, but there's going to be a lot of good games.
Unfortunately, as of right now, this recording,
(07:00):
there's a lot of heavy traffic. So if you're wanting to get the game, you
still got time. You don't have to do it right now, but you still have
time. And well, it's not really. It's.
It's really hard to move anywhere within it. So
if you're just having difficulties on the servers, it's just a lot of people are
on the servers right now looking at the Steam Summer sales and seeing what they
(07:20):
can get. And so if you're patient, just wait a few days or
even just wait until tomorrow or Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and you'll be able to get it. But there are issues. I've
already seen the issues of this time of recording, trying to do anything, and
it did not go very well. Like I was like, all right, I'm just going
to wait until all this is over. All right.
(07:41):
Warhammer 40K Space Marines 2 has introduced a new
PvE game mode called Siege Mode. In Siege Mode 3,
players fight against endless waves of Tyranid and Thousand
Sons. The objective is to hold an Imperial Fortress for
as long as possible. Players earn points by defeating enemies, which can be
used to purchase stems,
(08:04):
ammunition, equipment, and reinforcement from the
KDN regiments in the Dreadnought. After defending
an area for five rounds, players are moved to a different area, part of The
Fortress and this cycle repeats. Players can opt to
retreat via extraction while earning requisition points,
armory data and xp. So this is
(08:26):
just another great example of how Saber Interactive is
updating the game and making it more enjoyable for people. People may not
just like the PvP part of it, so there you have it. You
have a new way of doing it. So I
wouldn't be surprised if this will be another popular part of it. Space Marines
2 is a very good game. It's a very fun game. It is
(08:49):
still what it's supposed to be from the original one, even though the
original one, Remastered, isn't doing very well on Steam and has a
negative viewpoint on it from a lot of gamers. But that's us
gamers. If you don't make it like we remember it, good luck
trying to convince us to buy it and then also moving on,
which I forgot to mention, but Dune Awakening has a new update where
(09:12):
50% of the deep desert dark. I don't know. The
PvP mode is going to be PvE and PvP
mode, so you're going to get the best of both worlds. You don't feel like
fighting people because you aren't up to that level.
Then yes, some of the desert in the endgame content
will be available to you and you don't have to fight anybody for it. Which
(09:33):
is good because once again, a lot of those players know
how to play it. Probably have ganked a lot of players, probably have made a
lot of the new players not want to go in the PvP zone
anymore. Because why would I want to have
a miserable experience in a MMO
survival game where it can be brutal? Especially if you get
(09:55):
eaten by the Sandworm because all your stuff is gone. Gone.
I mean like completely gone. You are back
in your body naked. Well, with underwear only,
but basically naked for that game. So
if you have been wondering if you want to try out Dune
Awakening, it is a fun game. It's probably better if you play it with people,
(10:17):
but you can still play it by yourself and have an enjoyable experience.
I think it's a harder to do it by yourself only because
there's so much things you have to gather and there's so much things you have
to do it alone. Takes a lot
longer than doing it with other people because sometimes you're not
always playing the game 247 and those people can play for you. So
(10:40):
like I said, for those in small guilds, it's great for you. For those by
yourselves, you can still do it like it's not a problem
at all. But it just takes a lot longer for you to do it than
if you were to have a group of people do it for you. But
it is a fun game, it's an interesting game. And there's no
monthly fee on this mmo, so it's not like World of Warcraft where there's a
(11:01):
monthly fee on it. So I think if you're looking for another
next survival game, this is probably it. In the Dune universe, it's great. Combat
is of kind, but the story and the map and everything
you do is pretty good. But
don't really hate on the combat too
much. It is the combat. This is what it is. Gunplay is
(11:23):
not bad. Sword fighting is kind of meh. But
there you have it. Now I really want to talk specifically
about all these layoffs and the sweeping industry
changes that are going on within the gaming industry. We've had more Microsoft
buying Activision Blizzard and basically turning it to Activision and Blizzard. We
have Call of Duty just not doing well anymore. Like, I have not
(11:46):
been very excited for Call of Duty in
a while. I have no reason to do it. I play the betas, I go,
there's a reason why I'm not buying this game. And then I see like all
the skins and the weird crap that they're doing and I'm like, yep, this is
why I'm not playing this game anymore. It seems like it is basically
just Call of Duty has become sloppy. It's a game, it's gaming slop. It's
(12:07):
FPS slop, like it's not good. And a lot of people know it's
not good. So I think the industry is going
for the least common denominator, not really
being risky on their games and trying to
appease a certain ideology that really a lot of gamers just
don't like. And so the problem is that these developers don't understand
(12:30):
the normal gamer think the normal gamers like them or the
journalists that hate the normal gamer.
And this is where you get a lot of
downsizing, a lot of layoffs because you aren't making your
revenue goals. The publisher's like, look it, we can't
keep on doing this. You keep on losing time and time again and we're going
(12:51):
to have to let people go. And then a lot of the marketers just
don't understand how to market to to gamers.
And I keep on saying this. They don't know how to market to gamers. The
gamers don't buy their game because they're not marketing to them, they're marketing to the
quote, unquote, modern audience, which I don't even know what that means. And I think
it's just a term for the people that
(13:13):
agree with us and it's not majority of the gamers. And so
what we're getting is a lot of free to play games, a lot of indie
games that are basically being risky and pushing the boundaries and making very
interesting and risky moves that pay off. And then you're having
triple A games not being very risky,
not doing anything new, just retreads of their
(13:36):
bygone era. That was innovative for the time
I'm looking at Assassin's Creed and then just keep on
repurposing it and repurposing it and repurposing it until it
nobody really wants to play anymore. You have Battlefield
6 going back to the basics, but we'll see if it's actually any good
or not because I'm not even sure if it's going to be good or not.
(13:59):
So where are we at here?
Well, we're going to be at more constriction
of devs, of publishers, of cutting,
of trimming, because they don't really know how
to make the games for the gamer anymore. They used to. They used
to know, but now they don't because they aren't gamers themselves.
(14:21):
They don't talk to really gamers. They kind of just say what
gamers are. And gamers like, we're not this. We're not this at all.
We're this. And this is what we want to be.
And so instead of listening to your audience,
you go ahead with these terrible games and they fail.
(14:41):
Marathon's gonna, well, would have failed, but it hasn't.
Concord failed epically. Anthem failed. Mass
Effect, Andromeda failed. Dragon Age, the Veil Guard
or Pride Guard or whatever you wanted to call it, failed
miserably. South of.
I don't know, the game with the black chick. I don't even remember the name.
(15:05):
But that failed because no one played it.
Like you said, you have very few games that are going to be making it
and the publisher is going to be making a lot less games
and they will be focusing more on remasters and remakes because those,
they know people like. They know you like Oblivion. I love
(15:25):
Oblivion. They know you like Space Marines even though it didn't do very well.
You know, you like System shock, System Shock 2, Dark Forces remaster
and any other bloodthirsty remasters that you can think of. I mean, if
they do Thief, they can do Thief. I mean, this is
where they know that they can actually make their money. Because there's nowhere,
nowhere else they can actually make their money. I guess. I know. See, Project Red
(15:49):
is making Witcher 4 and I don't know where I stand with
it. I'm not really that excited about it. I think the tech is cool, but
even I'm kind of like, well, let's wait until the real game comes out and
see if that tech is still going to be the same tech or the same
graphic fidelity that we have. Even though they claim it was running On a
base PS5, we're not really sure if
(16:09):
it's going to be what it is on that, but we will see.
But I do think the only thing you're going
to get lately is going to be more laughs, more slop
games until they kind of, until they really figure it out. And maybe look
at what the indie development is doing. Schedule 1 is a great
(16:29):
example. It blew out expectations. It blew out most of the
AAA games on sales. Still a great
game. The one guy is still building. It takes him
a while, but fair enough because he is one guy. It's not a team.
You have Expedition 33, even if it was a bigger team, but
the core team was small, but you could still have a big team of freelancers.
(16:52):
The core team was still small and that's why they actually made a successful game.
The bigger the team is, I mean, the core team,
the worse it gets because then it becomes a committee instead of any
creativity coming out of it. You don't want a committee of creativity because then
it's not creative anymore. You need a small core team
talking with each other, mostly agreeing with each other. You don't always have to agree
(17:15):
with everything making the best game possible. And then you have
freelance, like a little army of freelancers helping you out, doing
specific tasks that you may not be able to do or you might not
have enough time to do. That is a really good
thing to do. Even though they're like, well, they weren't really a small team. Did
you see all that? Well, yeah, okay. They hired freelancers. Everybody hires freelancers. All
(17:38):
business hire freelancers. That's how you get things done.
What I'm saying is, is that I
think until 2026, we're going to
see a lot more layoffs because we haven't really hit that
bottom where money isn't being lost
hand over fist because of bad decisions,
(18:01):
bad design, bad
gameplay, etc. So
be prepared for more of this. And let's hope
2026 is a lot better than this year. I mean, I'm still excited
for Metal Gear Snake Eater, even though it's a remake,
not a remaster. It's a remake, but we'll see.
(18:24):
And thank you for listening to this podcast. I will be on
vacation, so that's why this is a short episode. And I will not be doing
it next week as well. So I hope you guys have a good
weekend this weekend. And next weekend. I will be back
the week after from my vacation. So thank you for listening. As
always. Please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcasting apps. Leave a five star
(18:46):
review. It really does help with the rankings. Let me know how I'm doing it
and join me next. Not next week, the week after,
when I talk about what's going on the gaming industry. All right guys, have fun.
Enjoy your.
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