The End For Neogaf?

[bob]

What?

You heard the guy, ring the alarm bells!

[Nolan]

[Helmsly]

Yeah It does seem as if Neogaf is done. For the Sony Paris show today, probably one of the bigger events since everything that went down with the forum, there were threads on both Neogaf and Reset era. The Resetera thread has over 6500 posts meanwhile the Gaf one has 429.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Helmsly

[Hero-of-Time]

The site may stick around but it's lost most of it's members to Era. It can still function in its current state. Just look at this place. There's only a handful of people here now but we are still here....barely.

[Nicktendo]

We've always more or less retained the same core of members though, sure people come and go but the community still has its key members

I'm sure GAF will stick around, will be interesting to see what becomes of it. But ResetEra is where its at now. Saw a couple of posts by the GameXplain crew, hopefully more of tge industry types have migrated with them and the better aspects of GAF will be retained over there in the long run. 

[Hero-of-Time]

12 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

We've always more or less retained the same core of members though, sure people come and go but the community still has its key members

I often wonder how long this place can keep going. Myself and Blade briefly talked just how little banter there was in the Mario thread over the weekend. It's one of the biggest releases of the year and it was pretty quiet. Same goes for Assasssin's Creed and Wolfenstein threads. Our numbers are so low that once a single member stops posting it really has an impact on the conversations that can be had. It will get to the point where there's only 1 or two people talking about a game and at that point if feels kinda pointless. Not that I post much in it but even the General board is pretty dead these days.

[Jimbob]

Over time, i understand that people move on and do other things in life, that they drift away as such.  The General board used to be heaving, i could hardly keep up with the updates and what's been said where.  Now it's easy enough to do in a few minutes.  However, the gaming boards (specifically Nintendo) have picked up a lot.

[Happenstance]

I think its the changing of whats popular as well. Forums just arent used as much these days. One of the other main forums I used to use decided to shut down and just make the switch to a Discord chat channel instead.

[liger05]

Gaf is done. The amount of posts has decreased hugely and its only going to get worse. 

Crazy how quickly it's all gone wrong. 

[Hero-of-Time]

I see Era is just as bad as Gaf in terms of shutting down conversations. Colin Moriarty has started a new gaming podcast/channel and because Era mods/admins don't agree with his politics they won't allow anything about him to be posted.

[Happenstance]

Not gonna complain about that...

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Not gonna complain about that...

Well, yeah, if you don't like the guy you won't. Personally I have no problems with him ( dude is entitled to his opinion just like everyone else ) and found his gaming banter insightful at times.

[Nolan]

I mentioned it in the Doom thread but I’ve had my lifetime fill of their forums 9 posts in when someone received a warning for using the phrase “Lazy Devs”.

Totalitarian is not my bag of tea. It’s why I don’t post on Something Awful either. 

[Nicktendo]

59 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I see Era is just as bad as Gaf in terms of shutting down conversations. Colin Moriarty has started a new gaming podcast/channel and because Era mods/admins don't agree with his politics they won't allow anything about him to be posted.

Wow... What a bunch a pathetic arseholes. 

I'll be tuning in for sure. Colin was easily one of the best gaming journalists out there. Glad he's decided to come back.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

Wow... What a bunch a pathetic arseholes. 

I'll be tuning in for sure. Colin was easily one of the best gaming journalists out there. Glad he's decided to come back.

He announced his comeback last week and that thread also got locked. Colin said he wasn't happy with the state of a lot of the current gaming journalists, with many not doing their jobs by not calling out the disgusting practices developers/publishers are putting in their games. This is what has inspired him to return.

Dude has a point. There are only a handful who are not afraid to kick the hornets nest ( it's why I love Jim Sterling ) and more people in power and with influence need to speak up about such things.

[Nicktendo]

13 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

He announced his comeback last week and that thread also got locked. Colin said he wasn't happy with the state of a lot of the current gaming journalists, with many not doing their jobs by not calling out the disgusting practices developers/publishers are putting in their games. This is what has inspired him to return.

Dude has a point. There are only a handful who are not afraid to kick the hornets nest ( it's why I love Jim Sterling ) and more people in power and with influence need to speak up about such things.

I don't play PS4 / Xbox One but it makes me sad to see the current state of gaming on those platforms. Lootboxes, microtransactions, day one DLC etc. Seems like the players are more roundly getting fleeced because budgets are out of control, and mobile F2P methods of monetisation are being implemented in full price games to compensate. It's disgusting TBH, and I'm glad people like Jim and previously Colin are willing to call them out. I hope he continues to shine a focus on this. Colin Was Right was always an entertaining watch and a well researched passion project. 

Furthermore, he is absolutely right about gaming journalism, it has completely nosed-dived in terms of quality in the past few years, and more so since the glory days of N64 magazine. I actually don't access written pieces anymore, save a few Eurogamer and Kotaku articles which people share on GAF or ERA. Much prefer to consume content on YouTube, such as Easy Allies, Kinda Funny, GiantBomb, SpawnWave (awesome for quick news) and Digital Foundry for those technical breakdowns. It doesn't surprise me that some of the best gaming journalists are now almost exclusively producing video driven content, especially after the whole Jeff Gertsmann / Gamespot debacle. Most things on IGN, Gamespot and especially Polygon have become annoyingly infused with politics and it just doesn't interest me what so ever. I don't want to mix politics and games, hence why I'm almost exclusively and Nintendo gamer, I play games to chill out or have some fun, not to think about wider society or bigger questions as a whole.

I was firmly on the side of the people who criticised some reviewers and how bad they were at games. If you work for a gaming website, which could essentially be boiled down to consumer advice when it comes to reviews, you should be good at video games, experienced in video games and know what the hell you're talking about, in both technical terms and in terms of having experienced a solid back-catalogue of games you can draw on for comparison purposes. In most video games, though granted not all, mechanics are important, skill level is important, difficulty is a factor in overall enjoyment (especially in something like DOOM). To me it seems the most popular sites have become agenda driven and have started employing writers, who are undoubtedly skilled at writing, but probably don't share the same love and passion for gaming as say 99% of the users of this forum likely have. Almost as if they are writers first, gamers second.

Colin is bang on the money in this respect, and having someone back in the business, regardless of politics, can only be a good thing. People who refuse to acknowledge him because of his (incredibly mild) "right wing" views are beyond help. Sure Colin is a bit of an arsehole, definitely cocky and arrogant at times ('Colin was right?' Come on!), but given his position and his history in the industry, I don't begrudge him that. After watching his interviews with Dave Rubin and Joe Rogan, I feel like I understand him more as a person, even if he isn't particularly likeable. He most certainly isn't alt-right, racist, sexist, homophobic, or whatever other labels people are throwing at him. And yet, even if I don't like him, I believe his voice is pretty valuable to the gaming industry as a whole and can't wait to see his new content. 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Nicktendo

[Hero-of-Time]

2 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

I don't play PS4 / Xbox One but it makes me sad to see the current state of gaming on those platforms. Lootboxes, microtransactions, day one DLC etc. Seems like the players are more roundly getting fleeced because budgets are out of control, and mobile F2P methods of monetisation are being implemented in full price games to compensate. It's disgusting TBH, and I'm glad people like Jim and previously Colin are willing to call them out. I hope he continues to shine a focus on this. Colin Was Right was always an entertaining watch and a well researched passion project. 

I'm getting pretty sick of it to the point where I think whats the point of even playing anymore? While Nintendo don't seem to be as bad as other companies, stuff like the Xenoblade and Fire Emblem season pass being shoved down our throats before the games are even out shows that they are heading down a similar path. What's annoying is that I feel like i'm very much in the minority. The hobby that I loved has become nothing more than a cash cow for most of the people who are in power. A lot of the time it's not about creating something unique or artistic but more about how much money you can get out of a single person. It honestly feels very much like the way football has gone in recent years, where it's not about the joy of the game but more about seeing how much money can be made as a player or an owner of a club.

Due to all of the scummy practices seeping into gaming, i've been thinking about maybe just taking a step back from the current generation next year and revisiting some of the games that previous generations had to offer. Revisiting a time when gaming was far more simpler ( just stick the disc or cartridge in and start a fully finished game ) may offer the joy that seems to be missing from gaming these days.

2 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

I don't want to mix politics and games, hence why I'm almost exclusively and Nintendo gamer, I play games to chill out or have some fun, not to think about wider society or bigger questions as a whole.

I agree and this is my stance. To be fair, I don't mix politics with anything. I simply don't care what goes on in the world purely because those in power are pretty much all corrupt and liars. I tend to keep out of it. Ignorance is bliss.  All these different political opinions and messages that many are trying to force into their games or websites are irrelevant to me and i'd rather they stay separate.

2 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

I was firmly on the side of the people who criticised some reviewers and how bad they were at games. If you work for a gaming website, which could essentially be boiled down to consumer advice when it comes to reviews, you should be good at video games, experienced in video games and know what the hell you're talking about, in both technical terms and in terms of having experienced a solid back-catalogue of games you can draw on for comparison purposes. In most video games, though granted not all, mechanics are important, skill level is important, difficulty is a factor in overall enjoyment (especially in something like DOOM). To me it seems the most popular sites have become agenda driven and have started employing writers, who are undoubtedly skilled at writing, but probably don't share the same love and passion for gaming as say 99% of the users of this forum likely have. Almost as if they are writers first, gamers second.

Yeah, this really shows. You can tell when a gaming journalist is a very good writer but doesn't have the passion. I'm pretty much the other way around, I love gaming but i'm not that good at conveying my thoughts about a game i've just played. You look back at a lot of the old gaming magazines and the writing may not be great but the passion carries the articles. 

A big gripe of mine is that lot of sites now review games before even finishing them. I'm a big believer that a person should finish a game before reviewing it, even if they miss the embargo deadline. Easy Allies seem to do this and I respect them for it. It seems a lot of sites either rush the reviews or don't finish the game, just to get them out the door. This came up in a recent episode of Radio Free Nintendo where the guest they had on explained how he had to crank the game on easy and rush to the end. That is surely going to effect how you feel about the game. Rather than taking their time, getting through the game and then collecting their thoughts, the business side of things takes priority.

 

[Goron_3]

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm getting pretty sick of it to the point where I think whats the point of even playing anymore? While Nintendo don't seem to be as bad as other companies, stuff like the Xenoblade and Fire Emblem season pass being shoved down our throats before the games are even out shows that they are heading down a similar path. What's annoying is that I feel like i'm very much in the minority. The hobby that I loved has become nothing more than a cash cow for most of the people who are in power. A lot of the time it's not about creating something unique or artistic but more about how much money you can get out of a single person. It honestly feels very much like the way football has gone in recent years, where it's not about the joy of the game but more about seeing how much money can be made as a player or an owner of a club.

Due to all of the scummy practices seeping into gaming, i've been thinking about maybe just taking a step back from the current generation next year and revisiting some of the games that previous generations had to offer. Revisiting a time when gaming was far more simpler ( just stick the disc or cartridge in and start a fully finished game ) may offer the joy that seems to be missing from gaming these days.

I agree and this is my stance. To be fair, I don't mix politics with anything. I simply don't care what goes on in the world purely because those in power are pretty much all corrupt and liars. I tend to keep out of it. Ignorance is bliss.  All these different political opinions and messages that many are trying to force into their games or websites are irrelevant to me and i'd rather they stay separate.

Yeah, this really shows. You can tell when a gaming journalist is a very good writer but doesn't have the passion. I'm pretty much the other way around, I love gaming but i'm not that good at conveying my thoughts about a game i've just played. You look back at a lot of the old gaming magazines and the writing may not be great but the passion carries the articles. 

A big gripe of mine is that lot of sites now review games before even finishing them. I'm a big believer that a person should finish a game before reviewing it, even if they miss the embargo deadline. Easy Allies seem to do this and I respect them for it. It seems a lot of sites either rush the reviews or don't finish the game, just to get them out the door. This came up in a recent episode of Radio Free Nintendo where the guest they had on explained how he had to crank the game on easy and rush to the end. That is surely going to effect how you feel about the game. Rather than taking their time, getting through the game and then collecting their thoughts, the business side of things takes priority.

 

It's been a long time since I've posted here but this post had me nodding along all the way.

Loot boxes and season passes. Absolute joke. There's nothing worse than developers skipping on content and then forcing players to pay for it, thus making even more money. I tend to avoid it all and game pretty much exclusively on Switch and occasionally PS4 (mainly single player games) but unfortunately it's clear that the people playing these games are happy enough with these new systems. Loot boxes won and are here to stay but thankfully I'm just ignoring them. When it comes to Nintendo, I just wish they would stop announcing DLC and season plans before the game is even out. 

Regarding journalists, I think a large part of the issue is that the industry is very reactive and not proactive. Major sites get a review copy and review the game in a small timeframe, which naturally elevates game scores because there is no time to properly form a subjective opinion about a game. Some of the best reviews and analysis of games come from people like Mark Brown and Matthewmatosis over at YouTube because they are actually taking their time to understand a games mechanics and its design, and not just rushing to get a five minute review out for launch day.

I also think this affects the players too. I've noticed a severe lack in understanding of game mechanics and design from gamers, but thankfully people like Mark Brown are doing a great job of educating people.

Oh. And Jim Stirling is the GOAT.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Goron_3

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Goron_3 said:

Some of the best reviews and analysis of games come from people like Mark Brown and Matthewmatosis over at YouTube because they are actually taking their time to understand a games mechanics and its design, and not just rushing to get a five minute review out for launch day.

Oh. And Jim Stirling is the GOAT.

Yup. I love these guys. Its people like this who deserve praise. They do amazing work and I wish more of the bigger sites would follow in their footsteps.

Jim is amazing. Sure, he's loud and vulgar but the points he makes are spot on. It's crazy how accurate he is with a lot of his warnings. 

4 minutes ago, Goron_3 said:

Loot boxes and season passes. Absolutely joke. There's nothing worse than developers skipping on content and then forcing players to pay for it, thus making even more money. I tend to avoid it all and game pretty much exclusively on Switch and occasionally PS4 (mainly single player games) but unfortunately it's clear that the people playing these games are happy enough with these new systems. Loot boxes won and are here to stay but thankfully I'm just ignoring them. When it comes to Nintendo, I just wish they would stop announcing DLC and season plans before the game is even out. 

Yup and it's very upsetting. It's crazy to think that people are happy to support these practices. What's even crazier is people watching other people opening loot boxes is a thing. It's baffling.

A mate of mine at work plays loads of FIFA and, even though he doesn't pay real money for the coins, he still enjoys Ultimate Team. He was saying that he was on the Ultimate Team FIFA forums the other day and some guy was saying how he spent £720 on day one of FIFA 18  to get himself the best team he could. Sadly, these are the types of people who are shaping the industry, not those of us who standing our ground and voting with our wallets.  

[drahkon]

44 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm getting pretty sick of it to the point where I think whats the point of even playing anymore? While Nintendo don't seem to be as bad as other companies, stuff like the Xenoblade and Fire Emblem season pass being shoved down our throats before the games are even out shows that they are heading down a similar path.

I know I might get some heated responses but to be honest...Nintendo is almost as bad. To me amiibo is only slightly less shitty than microtransactions in other games. The only thing amiibo have going for them is that they can be used with several games.

And seeing season passes in Nintendo games makes me sad.

46 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Due to all of the scummy practices seeping into gaming, i've been thinking about maybe just taking a step back from the current generation next year and revisiting some of the games that previous generations had to offer. Revisiting a time when gaming was far more simpler ( just stick the disc or cartridge in and start a fully finished game ) may offer the joy that seems to be missing from gaming these days.

I had the same thought. In recent months I've only paid full price for one game (Destiny 2). The others have been bought second hand or during a sale. And I don't regret it. I had a lot of fun (even with games that include microtransactions) but as you said:

48 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It honestly feels very much like the way football has gone in recent years, where it's not about the joy of the game but more about seeing how much money can be made as a player or an owner of a club.

A lot of games just don't feel like they are made with the thought in mind to bring joy to gamers. With many games I've played this year it felt like it was me who had to change how I play a game to make it fun, instead of the game just being fun on its own...if that makes any sense...it's difficult for me to describe these thoughts in English.

The absolute most fun I've had in recent years was with Titanfall 2. The campaign was brilliant and with every mechanic I could feel how the developers intended it to be fun. Fun to play, fun to experience, fun to get wrecked on higher difficulties, fun to wreck on the easiest difficulty. Everything was enjoyable from start to finish. It's sad that this has become a rarity.

Then there's Destiny 2. What I've played I've enjoyed. The shooting is great, the campaign was cool, but everything else...it was simply a matter of: Can I make it work? Can I get enough people together to take on the Raid? Can I manage to get this one weapon even though I don't need it? I set out goals for myself which isn't necessarily a bad thing but when you had to keep doing this for years now...it's getting stale.

However, if a game is particularly great I do like setting out goals/create challenges. Most of the time this only happens with classics, though...

I'm anticipating the relase of the next 8Bitdo controller so I can finally put my Raspberry Pi to good use. I've also set up my SNES again and played through DKC and Super Mario World...the good old times.

[Sheikah]

36 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yup. I love these guys. Its people like this who deserve praise. They do amazing work and I wish more of the bigger sites would follow in their footsteps.

Jim is amazing. Sure, he's loud and vulgar but the points he makes are spot on. It's crazy how accurate he is with a lot of his warnings. 

Yup and it's very upsetting. It's crazy to think that people are happy to support these practices. What's even crazier is people watching other people opening loot boxes is a thing. It's baffling.

A mate of mine at work plays loads of FIFA and, even though he doesn't pay real money for the coins, he still enjoys Ultimate Team. He was saying that he was on the Ultimate Team FIFA forums the other day and some guy was saying how he spent £720 on day one of FIFA 18  to get himself the best team he could. Sadly, these are the types of people who are shaping the industry, not those of us who standing our ground and voting with our wallets.  

I have also heard people praise lootboxes in games like Overwatch because they benefit from them on a personal level (e.g. "I don't buy the lootboxes, other people do and because of them spending money it means I get to enjoy future content for free"). It's fine for people who never buy a box, but on a more human level it isn't really, since a model dependent on what is essentially gambling and 'whales' isn't really ethical and leaves a bad taste.

[Ganepark32]

(I've written this up quickly in work so it may not capture exactly what I was trying to convey on the subject but it generally covers my thoughts on things in the industry right now, sorry for the long read tho):

I have to agree that the industry, from publishers/developers to game journalists to gamers themselves, is in a bit of a state and it’s disheartening to see something that I’ve not only invested a lot of time in over my paltry life but also been part of on the journalist front years back. On the publishers/developers side of things, there seems to be an air of arrogance pervading development and as has been said, the push to bring in as much money per head is something that is detrimental to the industry. It’s a disgusting practice, especially when you consider that some of the things being put behind the pay walls are things that only a decade ago you would get for simply playing the game. Sure, in instances like Star Wars, Fifa, Overwatch, et al., you can get the things behind the pay wall but the amount of play time that has to be invested is grossly disproportionate to what would have been there years ago. No developer can justify the need to spend 40-odd hours grinding out Credits to unlock something that would have been unlocked through normal play years ago.

The sooner the mentality is scrubbed, and only will this happen if gamers start voting with their wallets, the better for the industry. Developers and publishers will begin to look at what they’re doing and revise development to reduce costs. Issues of publishers letting dev teams go at ideas which just won’t work or that they can bring out of conceptualisation need to get sorted. If they were, the issues of Bioware having to bring together Mass Effect Andromeda in 18months might not have happened and we might have had a better game out of it with the prospect of more entries to come (I will say I did enjoy the game for what it was though and not getting to experience more of it in single player expansions sucks).

Some of the things indie devs are doing on shoe-string budgets is amazing, with some unique art styles and ideas coming out and it’s this that should be getting fostered by publishers not the current mentality.

Recently I have started thinking about getting back into doing game reviews (even going so far as to mock write out things for a blog which I quickly abandoned) but the rise of Youtubers and the want for something short and untechnical  that ends in a simple score has kind of put me off. When I did reviews, I never got sent anything to review from the big developers or if I did, it was after the release and so that rush to get a review out there was never in mind. Giving a solid account of what was on the disc/cart was what was important to me and even when sent stuff early, the same process was in mind. Getting something out to be the first review for something or whatever never crossed my mind and it really shouldn’t for any reviewer. I sat through some truly awful games when reviewing in the Wii/DS days yet I always tried to get the most out of the game and always finished them before putting my final thoughts together. I find it particularly troubling that reviewers, industry wide, rarely do this now, with a handful of exceptions.

Seeing some sites say they refrained from sending people out to Activision’s review outing for the new Call of Duty was refreshing but unless it’s accepted on a wider scale, it does little to change the mentality of gamers who, more often than not, have made their mind up about a game and simply want to have that opinion justified by a score. Reading reviews nowadays give little insight into how the game feels and I was struck by this more because I was rewatching Easy Allies GOTY Awards 2016 video while thinking about the games that’ve stood out for me this year. Hearing them talk about the games and how it felt to play them was amazing and finding that I’d had a similar experience, such as in the case of The Last Guardian that despite problems was an incredible game, was awesome. Reviews are missing that.

Gamers themselves are also causing some of the issue though. Whether it’s a younger gamer thing or because people are becoming jaded, the attitude giving to many smaller titles these days is sometime disgusting. I’ve even seen people calling out the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn for being, and I quote, a “boring, repetitive dodging simulator”. The on-going discussions around the web about how game characters are ugly, when it’s a game character, is also something alarming, as though how the main character looks should influence whether we play something or not.

And as we’ve seen recently with HouseMarque dropping the arcade game genre because people are waiting for their games to appear on PS+, a large proportion of gamers seem to feel they are owed something simply by having the console and paying out for online access. The amount of moaning I’ve seen, whether on GameFaqs, the Playstation Blog or elsewhere, about when the next lot of PS+/Games with Gold titles are going to be announced or when they’re made available, is shocking and I honestly don’t see how that mentality can be changed. It really is disheartening to see this pervasive mentality across message boards and in comments on articles on websites.

I really don’t know how it’ll change but something has to give. For me, I’m still enjoying playing games though I’ve found myself not gelling with games I should have and this has been happening more and more recently. The current trends are nixing my enjoyment of games a bit but unique and interesting ideas and great stories (Horizon, Night in the Woods, Life is Strange, etc.) are keeping me going so for me, it’s about voting with my wallet, finding those games that try something different and even if I don’t ultimately enjoy the experience, not ripping into it as seems to be the want of many a gamer these days.

[Ronnie]

The main problems is, in Playstation 4 and Xbox One's manic push to high fidelity 4K gaming, games have just become insanely expensive to make. All the while, the RRP of games is the cheapest they've ever been. It makes no sense and it's the reason we're seeing big publishers hamper games in such an egregious way.

The way I see it there are three options:

1) Make games more expensive
2) Embrace lootboxes, season passes, DLC, the games as service formula
3) Lower the visual fidelity and scope of games

Option 2 is a less in your face way of doing option 1. Option 3 will never happen.

Jason Schreirer over at Kotaku wrote a great piece about how the AAA industry is unsustainable in its current form, and it's hard to disagree.

11 minutes ago, drahkon said:

I know I might get some heated responses but to be honest...Nintendo is almost as bad. To me amiibo is only slightly less shitty than microtransactions in other games. The only thing amiibo have going for them is that they can be used with several games.

amiibo are physical objects that you can own forever, and even if they didn't have any in-game unlocks would be worth the £12 or whatever they're selling for. The fact that one amiibo can be used in 20-30 different games is also a huge factor to consider. So no, Nintendo are most certainly not almost as bad.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Ronnie

[Sheikah]

13 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The main problems is, in Playstation 4 and Xbox One's manic push to high fidelity 4K gaming, games have just become insanely expensive to make. All the while, the RRP of games is the cheapest they've ever been. It makes no sense and it's the reason we're seeing big publishers hamper games in such an egregious way.

That simply can't be the real reason since Nintendo do microtransactions as well with locking content on D1 behind amiibo paywalls, as well as up-front season passes. And the question is not whether you value amiibo (as certainly not everybody does), it's that on D1 you are not getting all the content without paying extra. What you pay for the game is the base experience, as ol' Jim would say.

Developing games may get more expensive but far more people game as a hobby these days than they did in the past, so there is surely a bigger audience. And if games simply could no longer be produced without these sorts of tactics then how did Witcher 3 come to exist?

The real reason is that they do it because the can, and because it's insanely profitable and pleases the shareholders.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Sheikah

[Ronnie]

10 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

That simply can't be the real reason since Nintendo do microtransactions as well with locking content on D1 behind amiibo paywalls, as well as up-front season passes.

Locking content with day 1 paywalls like racing costumes in MK8 and chests with fish in them in Zelda?

Quote

Developing games may get more expensive but far more people game as a hobby these days than they did in the past, so there is surely a bigger audience. And if games simply could no longer be produced without these sorts of tactics then how did Witcher 3 come to exist?

More people game as a hobby, are you sure? The PS2 sold 150 million. Mario 64 sold 12 million units. The market isn't that much bigger, especially with the advent of mobile gaming.

Witcher 3 sold an insane number of copies, making up it's huge development cost. You hear all the time about how a game needs to sell X million copies or else it's considered a failure.

Quote

The real reason is that they do it because the can, and because it's insanely profitable and pleases the shareholders.

That's incredibly naive. I'm not sure how you can't accept that high fidelity games like AC: Origins or Battlefront II with hundreds of people working on them and eye watering budgets don't mesh with spending the same amount of money we did for NES games. £40 which by the way, will be knocked down to £20 after a few months. Publishers needs to get more money from people to fund these massive games, and ways to do that include microtransactions.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Ronnie