An Official Message From Naughty Dog About Factions 2 & Their Next Unannounced Games

Yurinka

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The thing that makes a GAAS have long legs has a lot to do with everything that's wrapped around the core gameply and how the dopamine fix is administered - how reward for work aka the payoff is managed - what is given, what is withheld, when to release new content, when not to, what to include and what not to include. Weapon rarity - exotics, rare etc... all of that. It's the model that's more important to carry the game long term. The gamplay loop is a starting course minimum.
Yes, these are maybe the most important things for this. There are more that are also key to don't make the game too boring or repetitive, but that wouldn't work without a great gameplay loop.

Like the ones related to discovery, with new updates adding new content periodically, in addition to things like new game modes, important gameplay rebalance stuff etc. The feeling that the game is alive and keeps fresh getting new stuff you can get or unlock (or buy).

And then the seasonal events stuff, things that require you to be there during a certain period of time, as could be a Halloween event with time limited some dedicated skins/stage decorations/etc, some missions that are only available during that event or things like that. Or some in-game event/cinematic/live conctert/whatever that only happens live a single day and if you aren't there that day you miss it.

Maybe they were just over-ambitious in terms of scope.
This is also pretty likely. Most games end having a too big scope and many stuff and ideas end being cut (and if possible moved to post launch updates or game sequels) to release the game in a reasonable date and with a reasonable budget. To cut stuff is also a strategy to reduce delays.
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These folks for sure know about player retention and engagement. They even had an all time peak of 300K Steam concurrent users a couple months ago, even if the game is pretty old.

And outside the peaks (I assume related to big updates/new seasons releases) they kept their base active userbase not only steady all these years, but in the recent years they even kept improving it a bit, I assume thanks to extra Sony marketing, as Jimbo said the other day:

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And this is only Steam, they have the game in more places. I assume in PS they may have a ton of players too.

It's a good idea to have these guys reviewing the other Sony GaaS titles.

Reads like a Bethesda/Microsoft Twitter statement 🙄
All game devs delay games due to many reasons, Sony too.

As an example, remember the 2021 games delayed to 2022, like GoWR, HFW, GT7 and so on.
 
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Nhomnhom

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It's civil war we need tags to identify each side:

The Doomers: anti-Jimbo, anti-Hermen, anti-PC ports, anti-GaaS, anti-Bungie, Shuhei Yoshida/Shawn Layden/Mark Cerny truthers, pro PS5 Pro.

The BloomerZ: already waiting for the next showcase, "just hold on a little longer", "look at the revenue", still believe Sony is hiding the good stuff, Project Q truthers, can't wait for more PC ports, big on GaaS, long time Halo enjoyers, looking forward to playing Marathon with their friend on Xbox.

The Nuanced: just like the BloomerZ but more nuanced.
 
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Dr Bass

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It's civil war we need tags to identify each side:

The Doomers: anti-Jimbo, anti-Hermen, anti-PC ports, anti-GaaS, anti-Bungie, Shuhei Yoshida/Shawn Layden/Mark Cerny truthers, pro PS5 Pro.

The Bloomers: already waiting for the next showcase, "just hold on a little longer", "look at the revenue", still believe Sony is hiding the good stuff, Project Q truthers, can't wait for more PC ports, big on GaaS, long time Halo enjoyers, looking forward to play Marathon with their friend on Xbox.
"The Bloomers" reads like a group of Xbox fans lol.
 

Yobo

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It's civil war we need tags to identify each side:

The Doomers: anti-Jimbo, anti-Hermen, anti-PC ports, anti-GaaS, anti-Bungie, Shuhei Yoshida/Shawn Layden/Mark Cerny truthers, pro PS5 Pro.

The Bloomers: already waiting for the next showcase, "just hold on a little longer", "look at the revenue", still believe Sony is hiding the good stuff, Project Q truthers, can't wait for more PC ports, big on GaaS, long time Halo enjoyers, looking forward to play Marathon with their friend on Xbox.
Or you can be nuanced. Sony had a bad show, showing CG for GAAS projects was a bad move. Delaying games is normal and Bungie doing what they were bought to do is a good thing. Sony have delivered quality products year after year and deserve a bit of leeway even if they had a shit show.
 
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KnittedKnight

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No I am suggesting that Destiny and constant content updates, it has yearly expansions, it has a huge amount of work put into it

If Bungie asks how you plan to keep players engaged, they are asking how you plan to treat it as a service not whether your shooting feels good
Then your comment on gameplay is out of place since we're talking about the same thing: that is, what wraps the gameplay loop. User score dissatisfaction for a multiplat like Destiny is btw, for the most part, not jaded by console war or infected with media plants props like media reviews. Exclusives and games that touch culture war overtones on the other hand... that's where user scores are nothing but shit. Moreover as an evolving game, it's pretty telling the initial impressions of the game (base and early expansions) vs. to what it's now after several revisions, and additions. Two completely different packages and games - a lot of evolution in between. No silver bullet.
 
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Yobo

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Then your comment on gameplay is out of place since we're talking about the same thing: that is, what wraps the gameplay loop. User score dissatisfaction for a multiplat like Destiny is btw, for the most part, not jaded by console war or infected with media plants props like media reviews. Exclusives and games that touch culture war overtones on the other hand... that's where user scores are nothing but shit. Moreover as an evolving game, it's pretty telling the initial impressions of the game (base and early expansions) vs. to what it's now after several revisions, and additions. Two completely different packages and games - a lot of evolution in between. No silver bullet.
Bro you replied to me, I said I don't think they (Bungie) are reviewing the gameplay. Go read the post
 

Wraith Phantom

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It's understandable, specially after the TLOUP1 PC port issues. They better take their time to make sure they release a great, complete and polished game that performs super well, instead of a half finished broken mess.

If the game needed more time to be improved, this is the correct decision.

Also, it's nice to see they confirrmed to be working on another single player game. I bet that the single player game is the Uncharted game teased in the Live from PS5 ads, and if not a new IP.


They didn't cancel it, they delayed it. Naughty Dog took some extra time to implement improvements suggested by Bungie. To delay games is super common, to cancel them not much in top studios like Naughty Dog specially with games publicly teased.


Unlike Naughty Dog, the teams at Bungie, Haven and Firewalk have many key people who worked in some of the most successful AAA GaaS ever. So probably yes.

I mean, not in polish of visuals, combat, amount stuff developed, fun and so on, that part pretty likely already is great. But instead in the GaaS part to keep engaged players in long term: their plans to keep expanding and evolving it over time, collecting/filtering/implementing player feedback, a long term player progression and unlocks, design of events and seasons roadmap, related balance of certain things, internal game KPI metrics and statistics monitoring, security, server structure, scalability, stability and balancing and so on.

This postlaunch side is key for GaaS, and has nothing to do with non GaaS titles, even most multiplayer ones. It's totally understandable that even if ND would have skilled people needed an expert hand to guide them and help them improve in this area. And this is one of the reasons of why they buy Bungie. To help them improve with these things.



Delaying a game isn't development hell. Delays are very common in game development, but most of them aren't publicly announced. Specially when they still haven't formally announced and shown the game.
How do you come to the conclusion. Bungie are doing good here?! These guys are rotten. They release incomplete games. Only to sell the rest of the game back to you in pieces. Add the rest of MTX pay to win trash. That's not great for consumer.

It's a easy guess. Naughty dog made the Multiplayer the normal way. Bungie came in and busted up the game to put in MTX , monetization garbage. Don't understand the love for these bungie guys.

Anyway it does'nt matter if it's delayed or cancelled. Its all just bad.We already know some fuck shit is happening with the game.
 
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Wraith Phantom

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All that for 350k sales, a couple of million of illegal downloads, some heavily discounted sales in the future, setting things up for a multiplayer that might not release, reducing the incentive for people to invest into the PS5 ecosystem.

I'm done with Jimbo and Hermen, they fucked it up completely.
350k from a what 2-300 mill install base. With steam taking 30%.

Publishers would shut down studios for that shit. Especially after blowing marketing budgets.

GaaS games makes a lot more sense as small projects that only get scaled up once they hit. The culture of developing everything in secret does not work for these games.

They want to make PC games but don't understand how PC works. I showed in the other thread for pretty much all popular PC games evolved from a mod or are clones from some mod.

You'll spend years of Naugthy Dog dev time on a game and some guy modding Doom or some obscure indie made by some nobody is going to the next big thing.
This dude spitting. You really can't force a gass game. And make it mechanically. They just unexpectedly blow up.
 
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