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[FunkMiller]

This isnt WB's fault, they are the same publishers behind Hogwarts weren't they?

Devs need to be held accountable for what they do and how they do it. And when in 6 months we hear that WB is shutting down studio or firing workers people start throwing a pity party. If I am a publisher, and I pay devs for 5+ years to make a game for me, and they turn out with a shit product, I am firing everyone in that studio that had anything from a supervisory position and up.

What I don't understand about devs, is when they are making their game, when they play it, can't they tell it’s bad or not fun?

David Zaslav talked eagerly about WB games turn to GaaS games for the profit margins. Of course it’s WB’s fault. No way in hell this wasn’t a directive from the higher ups. Why do you think Sefton left?

Why wouldn’t it WB‘s fault? Have you seen how the company has been run for the past decade?

 

[Ar¢tos]

Is this free to play or low price at least?

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

David Zaslav talked eagerly about WB games turn to GaaS games for the profit margins. Of course it’s WB’s fault. No way in hell this wasn’t a directive from the higher ups. Why do you think Sefton left?

Why wouldn’t it WB‘s fault? Have you seen how the company has been run for the past decade?

This is why I say its not WB fault.

Assume you are a publisher (WB), I don't know how to make games, so I hire a team of developers (studio) to make games for me. And pay them well. Now you tell them, that you want to make a GAAS title. This is your prerogative to do so, it's your money, it's your investment.

At this point, I am talking to the studio heads and telling them what I want. They either tell me they can do it, or they tell me they can't. If they say they can't, you would find someone that can. This happens in every industry. If they say they can't, you would seek out someone from another studio that has experience in these kinda games. These are conversations that were had before the game even went into pre-production. But they don't say they can't. They say they can.

Halfway through the project, some of those studio heads realize they are out of their depth and have bitten off more than they can chew, and they start bitching about the direction of the company because they are incapable of delivering on the commitment they initially made, or claimed they could do. And quit. That should never have happened to begin with. If before pre-production they just said they lacked the expertise to make that kinda game, you could have got people that could.

The problem here is not the game, or that it's a GAAS, the problem is people or devs not having the guts to stand for themselves and state things as it is, and get themselves involved in projects they lack the expertise or know how to accomplish. You cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money and investing 10s or millions to do so.

Thats like blaming the purchaser of a car for trusting a company that makes cars and buying a new model from them. Only for the car to break down two weeks later. This happens to you and you take the car back, this happens in the game industry, devs get fired.

 

[SJRB]

David Zaslav talked eagerly about WB games turn to GaaS games for the profit margins. Of course it’s WB’s fault. No way in hell this wasn’t a directive from the higher ups. Why do you think Sefton left?

Why wouldn’t it WB‘s fault? Have you seen how the company has been run for the past decade?

I don't understand how they're often overlooked in this regard, but WB is one of the most predatory publishers out there.

 

[FeralEcho]

This is why I say its not WB fault.

Assume you are a publisher (WB), I don't know how to make games, so I hire a team of developers (studio) to make games for me. And pay them well. Now you tell them, that you want to make a GAAS title. This is your prerogative to do so, it's your money, it's your investment.

At this point, I am talking to the studio heads and telling them what I want. They either tell me they can do it, or they tell me they can't. If they say they can't, you would find someone that can. This happens in every industry. If they say they can't, you would seek out someone from another studio that has experience in these kinda games. These are conversations that were had before the game even went into pre-production. But they don't say they can't. They say they can.

Halfway through the project, some of those studio heads realize they are out of their depth and have bitten off more than they can chew, and they start bitching about the direction of the company because they are incapable of delivering on the commitment they initially made, or claimed they could do. And quit. That should never have happened to begin with. If before pre-production they just said they lacked the expertise to make that kinda game, you could have got people that could.

The problem here is not the game, or that it's a GAAS, the problem is people or devs not having the guts to stand for themselves and state things as it is, and get themselves involved in projects they lack the expertise or know how to accomplish. You cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money and investing 10s or millions to do so.

Thats like blaming the purchaser of a car for trusting a company that makes cars and buying a new model from them. Only for the car to break down two weeks later. This happens to you and you take the car back, this happens in the game industry, devs get fired.

That's a very narrow view of how things work in like any industry....Devs can't stand for themselves or they get fired, it's as simple as that when you're part of a large publisher,if it was contractual work between two parties your example would apply as the studio heads can just say no we can't and They'd find another venture but WB owns Rocksteady which means they have no say on what to do if WB execs command them to do.

Your example is flawed,it shouldn't be the "purchaser of the car" in this context but literally complaining to the assembly robots that specifically make cars how they did a poor job making drones....like no shit sherlock...They aren't designed for it!!!

Same with Rocksteady or Naughty Dog...they make singleplayer masterpieces not mp gaas garbage. Sony stopped as late as they could with ND but WB about to learn the hard way what it means to fuck up something good.

 

[FunkMiller]

This is why I say its not WB fault.

Assume you are a publisher (WB), I don't know how to make games, so I hire a team of developers (studio) to make games for me. And pay them well. Now you tell them, that you want to make a GAAS title. This is your prerogative to do so, it's your money, it's your investment.

At this point, I am talking to the studio heads and telling them what I want. They either tell me they can do it, or they tell me they can't. If they say they can't, you would find someone that can. This happens in every industry. If they say they can't, you would seek out someone from another studio that has experience in these kinda games. These are conversations that were had before the game even went into pre-production. But they don't say they can't. They say they can.

Halfway through the project, some of those studio heads realize they are out of their depth and have bitten off more than they can chew, and they start bitching about the direction of the company because they are incapable of delivering on the commitment they initially made, or claimed they could do. And quit. That should never have happened to begin with. If before pre-production they just said they lacked the expertise to make that kinda game, you could have got people that could.

The problem here is not the game, or that it's a GAAS, the problem is people or devs not having the guts to stand for themselves and state things as it is, and get themselves involved in projects they lack the expertise or know how to accomplish. You cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money and investing 10s or millions to do so.

Thats like blaming the purchaser of a car for trusting a company that makes cars and buying a new model from them. Only for the car to break down two weeks later. This happens to you and you take the car back, this happens in the game industry, devs get fired.

Sorry dude, but this is not how major corporations function. At all. You think for one second Rocksteady would have been able to say no to the people who own them?

The response would not have been "oh, okay, you do know more about video games than us, so we'll listen to what you have to say".

The response would have been: "do it, or we'll find somebody else who can".

You're more than a little naive to believe that Rocksteady would have had much say in the direction of their company. Only independent studios get to do that.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

I don't understand how they're often overlooked in this regard, but WB is one of the most predatory publishers out there.

This is just sensationalist. L:iek we have this habit of just pointing fingers at the biggest person in the room.

The gaming business, hell, even non-charity business on the planet is not (forgive the pun) a charity. They are ALL in it to make money. Every single one of them.

If you tell me that the publisher wasn't paying it workers, forcing them to have a ridiculous amount of crunch, forcing the devs to implement game-breaking features or things that ruins the balance of an otherwise great game? Then yes, I will be 100% on the side of lynching those fuckers.

You can, however, NOT blame a publisher for trying to make money. Putting together a team to make a product for them, and paying them to do so.

And the proof of where the blame should lie here is even obvious. You can look at games like Destiny 2, overwatch...etc and complain about how MTX or user exploitation is ruining those games, but at least, at the core of those games, you can see they are well made and are at least fun. In a situation like that, you can blame the publisher for pushing the game in a direction that is making it worse for greed.

We cannot say that about this game, looking ta this game, its looks whack as hell. Boring as fuck, cluttered beyond comprehension. There is not a single good thing that can be said about it or its design. How can that be the publisher's fault?

That's a very narrow view of how things work in like any industry....Devs can't stand for themselves or they get fired, it's as simple as that when you're part of a large publisher,if it was contractual work between two parties your example would apply as the studio heads can just say no we can't and They'd find another venture but WB owns Rocksteady which means they have no say on what to do if WB execs command them to do.

Your example is flawed,it shouldn't be the "purchaser of the car" in this context but literally complaining to the assembly robots that specifically make cars how they did a poor job making drones....like no shit sherlock...They aren't designed for it!!!

Same with Rocksteady or Naughty Dog...they make singleplayer masterpieces not mp gaas garbage. Sony stopped as late as they could with ND but WB about to learn the hard way what it means to fuck up something good.

Sorry dude, but this is not how major corporations function. At all. You think for one second Rocksteady would have been able to say no to the people who own them?

The response would not have been "oh, okay, you do know more about video games than us, so we'll listen to what you have to say, and we won't pursue the vast profits we see other companies making with their GaaS games".

The response would have been: "do it, or we'll find somebody else who can".

You're more than a little naive to believe that Rocksteady would have had much say in the direction of their company. Only independent studios get to do that.

I know exactly how the industry works. And I know that obviously, rocksteady wont say no to their employer because you guessed it, it gets them fired. But that is exactly my point.

Its the right of the publisher to state what they want. Its the right of the dev or studio heads to say they can or cant do it. But they don't say they cant because they don't want to get fired. Do a piss poor job, then get fired anyway.

All I am saying is this, you simply cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money. And paying people handsomely to help them do that.

This isn't about being naive, if anything, I think its naive to assume that a publisher would never try and chase a golden goose. I am just not making excuses for devs. I get it. They studio heads didnt say no because they wanted to keep their jobs. But now they are likely going to get fired anyway, and would now have this bad stain on their CV. And as I said, the game is not even looking good or seems fun.

 

[FunkMiller]

I'd be willing to bet quite a lot of money that in the near future we'll find out that Rocksteady was working on another single player game up until about 2018, when Fortnite really started to hit, and they were ordered by WB to change whatever they were doing into a GaaS game.

 

[FunkMiller]

I know exactly how the industry works. And I know that obviously, rocksteady wont say no to their employer because you guessed it, it gets them fired. But that is exactly my point.

Its the right of the publisher to state what they want. Its the right of the dev or studio heads to say they can or cant do it. But they don't say they cant because they don't want to get fired. Do a piss poor job, then get fired anyway.

All I am saying is this, you simply cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money. And paying people handsomely to help them do that.

So, a publisher wields all the power, gets to dictate whatever they want, and still it's not their fault when a game like this is made?

Do you literally work for WB?

And I don't think you know how the corporate world functions, no. I unfortunately do, having worked for one of the biggest of the lot for many years, before saving my soul and going freelance.

Rocksteady would have had to do what they were told. And I'd like to see how you'd react if you're livelihood was on the line if you didn't do what you were told.

Blaming the devs is not the right call here at all. Unless independent evidence that shows they always wanted to make this game comes to light.

 

[FeralEcho]

This is just sensationalist. L:iek we have this habit of just pointing fingers at the biggest person in the room.

The gaming business, hell, even non-charity business on the planet is not (forgive the pun) a charity. They are ALL in it to make money. Every single one of them.

If you tell me that the publisher wasn't paying it workers, forcing them to have a ridiculous amount of crunch, forcing the devs to implement game-breaking features or things that ruins the balance of an otherwise great game? Then yes, I will be 100% on the side of lynching those fuckers.

You can, however, NOT blame a publisher for trying to make money. Putting together a team to make a product for them, and paying them to do so.

And the proof of where the blame should lie here is even obvious. You can look at games like Destiny 2, overwatch...etc and complain about how MTX or user exploitation is ruining those games, but at least, at the core of those games, you can see they are well made and are at least fun. In a situation like that, you can blame the publisher for pushing the game in a direction that is making it worse for greed.

We cannot say that about this game, looking ta this game, its looks whack as hell. Boring as fuck, cluttered beyond comprehension. There is not a single good thing that can be said about it or its design. How can that be the publisher's fault?




I know exactly how the industry works. And I know that obviously, rocksteady wont say no to their employer because you guessed it, it gets them fired. But that is exactly my point.

Its the right of the publisher to state what they want. Its the right of the dev or studio heads to say they can or cant do it. But they don't say they cant because they don't want to get fired. Do a piss poor job, then get fired anyway.

All I am saying is this, you simply cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money. And paying people handsomely to help them do that.

This isn't about being naive, if anything, I think its naive to assume that a publisher would never try and chase a golden goose. I am just not making excuses for devs. I get it. They studio heads didnt say no because they wanted to keep their jobs. But now they are likely going to get fired anyway, and would now have this bad stain on their CV. And as I said, the game is not even looking good or seems fun.

So by what you're saying is...you can't blame a publisher for wanting to make money even though it's their poor decision making that leads to a shit venture and ends up not making money but you should blame the devs that worked on something the publisher that shouldn't be blamed forced them to make even though they clearly weren't qualified for it because those pesky studio heads couldn't say no to their corporate overlords and get fired....

Some grade A logic right here!!!

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

So, a publisher wields all the power, gets to dictate whatever they want, and still it's not their fault when a game like this is made?

Are you kidding me?

ABSOLUTELY YES.

they are the ones paying the money!!!!

If you are paying for something, then yes, you get to dictate what you want. That is exactly how its supposed to be. You don't have to like it, but that is the reality of the world.

And I don't think you know how the corporate world functions, no. I unfortunately do, having worked for one of the biggest of the lot for many years, before saving my soul and going freelance.

and thanks for just making my point for me. You took the initiative to leave. To say NO.

Rocksteady would have had to do what they were told. And I'd like to see how you'd react if you're livelihood was on the line if you didn't do what you were told.

Listen, I don't know how to say this anymore. Of course they would have had to do what they were told. What I am saying, is that if the studio head... actually, let me put it this way, a cardiac surgeon has no business performing a neurosurgery simply because he is a surgeon and the hospital says he should do it. He should point out that he cant.

Th studio heads at Rocksteady, should have pointed out that they can't, or advised WB on getting specific hires for a project like that. Studios bring in new people all the time. Dont know why this is so hard to understand.

 

[T-0800]

It's just a shame when a studio is good at doing something that they feel the need to pivot into something they were never built to do. It would be like Rockstar deciding to make a fucking fantasty mmorpg, or Naughty Dog making a game with good mechanics. KNOW YOUR LANE.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

So by what you're saying is...you can't blame a publisher for wanting to make money even though it's their poor decision making that leads to a shit venture and ends up not making money but you should blame the devs that worked on something the publisher that shouldn't be blamed forced them to make even though they clearly weren't qualified for it because those pesky studio heads couldn't say no to their corporate overlords and get fired....

Some grade A logic right here!!!

Ok genius...

so from what you are saying... its wrong for a publisher to want to have at least one GAAS title in their portfolio, and pay people to make it?

And WTF do you mean by "force" were the devs working for free?

 

[FeralEcho]

Ok genius...

so from what you are saying... its wrong for a publisher to want to have at least one GAAS title in their portfolio, and pay people to make it?

And WTF do you mean by "force" were the devs working for free?

It's wrong when you put the wrong team on the job which is the whole fucking point why this mess happened in the first place so yes it's WB at fault here as they made the decision... It's like putting some no name unproved mmo studio to work on the next God of War game or is that a good proposition to you?

And it's clear you don't understand how these things work...A dev can be forced to work on something he doesn't agree with even if he's paid to do so because just cuz you are getting paid for it doesn't mean you have to agree with it but you have to push through to provide for your familly even if your boss is a retarded moron with the braincells of shit flinging monkey.

 

[Luipadre]

I started to watch like 3 different previews, but turned them off after like a min, because it made me so mad lol. It just looks so fucking trash. The UI, the overlapping dialogue, shit ass missions and enemy design, dancing emotes jesus christ

 

[Dibils2k]

suicide squad is gonna be the groups of people who paid money for this

 

[SmokedMeat]

This is going to be the worse off than Avengers, isn’t it?

I don’t see Rocksteady turning this around if it stumbles out of the gate.

 

[Arsic]

I think even with mid or low reviews this will sell well enough to not put rocksteady under.

I do think any talent left will likely leave and make a new studio once it’s out and done.

I’ll be one of the mega tards buying this day one. The only thing I don’t like so far is the UI but I’ll live. The rest looks like mindless fun.

 

[winjer]

At this point, WB should just cancel the whole game and get a Tax write-off.
Similar to what Zaslav did with Coyote Vs. Acme and Batgirl.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

I do think any talent left will likely leave and make a new studio once it’s out and done.

Didn't the founders of the studio leave last year to make a new studio? Big chance they will recruit some of their old colleagues..

 

[Arsic]

Didn't the founders of the studio leave last year to make a new studio? Big chance they will recruit some of their old colleagues..

Yep. They are waiting in the wings and probably will have to deal with non competes expiring lol.

 

[Regginator]

This will be Rocksteady's final nail in the coffin, and it's impossible that WB doesn't know that. Good luck to everyone about to lose their jobs, but this looks like it's shaping up to be a horrendously uninspired GaaS-like piece of shit.

RIP Rocksteady. I'll never forget you.

 

[Punished Miku]

I think even with mid or low reviews this will sell well enough to not put rocksteady under.

I do think any talent left will likely leave and make a new studio once it’s out and done.

I’ll be one of the mega tards buying this day one. The only thing I don’t like so far is the UI but I’ll live. The rest looks like mindless fun.

I didn't see anything in the previews that warranted completely writing the game off before even trying it, or seeing reviews. Looks like a competent Crackdown / Sunset Overdrive co-op shooter. The preview I watched was showing Harley and there's some decent bits of interesting art style and stylized explosions and blasts of color. A lot of the UI can probably be customized or is literally showing tutorial prompts that I can't imagine will stay on there forever. The preview noted multiple times that he barely felt like he had a handle on the traversal because it requires more player input than something like Spider Man to get flowing right, and you need time to actually get good at it. Character models all look pretty good. They mentioned that there's depth in player customization of abilities and weapons.

My biggest criticisms from watching the clips are 1) ugly UI, 2) the city looks one dimensional so far with a lot of it looking the same and kind of indistinguishable. This hopefully changes when they show more. 3) characters all seem to play way too similarly. There should be a much bigger differentiation of roles like in Exoprimal with tanks, healers and damage dealers.

Looks like a 7.5 so far or a 7.0. If you played this with friends I could see it being decent fun, but nothing remarkable.

 

[Ozzie666]

Unfortunately it will sell well based on the IP at least at first. We will get WB boasting about a successful launch and sales. Casuals and some hardcore DC fans are going to get suckered into this garbage. There may be a few that even like it.

 

[Saber]

You telling me these fucking idiots have a jetpack or grappling hook and therefor now stand a chance against Flash, Batman and Superman? Evil Batman would fucking body them and break every bone in their bodies.

I'm astonish someone inside there showed that Flash boss part in a presentation and said "yeah, that looks totally cool".
Wouln'd be surprised if Superman/Batman fight is closer to something like this:

"Superman is charging up his eye laser, hit him while he stays there for about 20 seconds"
"Superman is about to throw you a boulder, get the chance to outmanevur him by shoot the boulder on his hand and stun him"
"Watch out, Superman is about to dash you. Use this 10 seconds to be ready to dodge him".
"Batman is choosing a gadget, use this opportunity to break his instance"
"Warning, Batman entered his detective mode. Shoot him to cancel it"
"Batman hide in the shadows even though is daylight to surprise you, find him and break his move"

 

[Braag]

WB could have gone to Las Vegas and gambled with their money and maybe won. Instead they made this to make sure that they will lose money. I respect that.

 

[CSJ]

I have nothing good to say about this, everything I'm seeing is fucking atrcoious and they should be ashamed.
Hopefully it fails for the sake of future games, the industry is going to get hurt by shit like this - the more that do, the less publishers will push.

 

[Arsic]

I didn't see anything in the previews that warranted completely writing the game off before even trying it, or seeing reviews. Looks like a competent Crackdown / Sunset Overdrive co-op shooter. The preview I watched was showing Harley and there's some decent bits of interesting art style and stylized explosions and blasts of color. A lot of the UI can probably be customized or is literally showing tutorial prompts that I can't imagine will stay on there forever. The preview noted multiple times that he barely felt like he had a handle on the traversal because it requires more player input than something like Spider Man to get flowing right, and you need time to actually get good at it. Character models all look pretty good. They mentioned that there's depth in player customization of abilities and weapons.

My biggest criticisms from watching the clips are 1) ugly UI, 2) the city looks one dimensional so far with a lot of it looking the same and kind of indistinguishable. This hopefully changes when they show more. 3) characters all seem to play way too similarly. There should be a much bigger differentiation of roles like in Exoprimal with tanks, healers and damage dealers.

Looks like a 7.5 so far or a 7.0. If you played this with friends I could see it being decent fun, but nothing remarkable.

Bingo. It’s the typical gaming hive mind deeming the game is a 1/10 unplayable when it’s likely just a good game and not a great/amazing one.

I got Gotham Knights day one and had a blast too even with the fps issues. GAF is under the impression the game is a sin to mankind and a -5/10.

I know I like co op fun games with the buds and this is likely going to be that. Shit I have 300+ hours in Diablo 4, and I’m constantly told it’s a bad game lol.

 

[DenchDeckard]

OK, this looks really bad.

Rockateady is gonna get gutted after this....so sad.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

They should just shadow drop it and call it a day.

 

[FunkMiller]

Unfortunately it will sell well based on the IP at least at first. We will get WB boasting about a successful launch and sales. Casuals and some hardcore DC fans are going to get suckered into this garbage. There may be a few that even like it.

Er... Avengers didn't sell well.

 

[VulcanRaven]

The Rocksteady board room is the real suicide squad. Hope this doesn't close them down permanently.

They won't get closed. They can always return to Batman games.

 

[violence]

I guess the dev lost key people when they weren’t gonna work on Batman anymore. Who cares about suicide squad.

 

[FunkMiller]

Listen, I don't know how to say this anymore. Of course they would have had to do what they were told. What I am saying, is that if the studio head... actually, let me put it this way, a cardiac surgeon has no business performing a neurosurgery simply because he is a surgeon and the hospital says he should do it. He should point out that he cant.

That's an incredibly inaccurate comparison. Like, horrendously so. Totally different set of circumstances. Totally unrelated.

The accurate comparison is a car marque owned by a large car corporation. Or a movie production company owned by a large media corporation.

IE: If corporation dictates product, production team must create that product.

It's bizarre you're finding this so hard to accept.

 

[AJUMP23]

If it lis lpurple lit lmust ldie lthe lgame.


I added extra "L"s at the front of words in honor of the title.

 

[solidus12]

Now I see why the leads of the Arkham trilogy left Rocksteady.

 

[SkylineRKR]

IF this game fails its another nail in the coffin of GaaS. WB will certainly pivot out of it, Sony already seems to do so. All of this which ultimately should benefit us. Pivot back to a single player Arkham or Superman game. Their co-op game tanked, and this game will tank harder.

 

[Fbh]

Looks pretty bad.
I guess the silver lining is that it might still be fun in Co-op when it hits the $15 bargain bin 6 months after release

AAA retail gaming, 2024. Full steam ahead. One wrong bet and you're toast. And it's not like they bet anything crazy. They bet the safest, most trend-following thing they could imagine lol, cross-promoted with 2 movies as well and a known IP. This is the future of creativity in AAA, and they still will die.

Spending almost a decade to release a game your fans didn't want, in a genre you have no real experience in isn't a "safe" bet.
The boring safe bet would have been to just make another Batman game, which would probably have been released 4-6 years after Arkham Knight and , assuming it was around as good as the previous ones, would probably have sold much more than this game will.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

That's an incredibly inaccurate comparison. Like, horrendously so. Totally different set of circumstances. Totally unrelated.

The accurate comparison is a car marque owned by a large car corporation. Or a movie production company owned by a large media corporation.

IE: If corporation dictates product, production team must create that product.

It's bizarre you're finding this so hard to accept.

I am not finding it hard to accept at all.

Ok, let me stop trying to use analogies.

Say I am a publisher, I have this team of developers and I want to make a GAAS title. I will call a meeting of every department head/director in the studio, and tell them what I want to do. And that I want them to do it. A conversation will be had. During this conversation, I will ask them what is needed to do it. What the issues may be and how viable this project would be. This is not about them having a choice, they don't, but its about me wanting to know what they need to make it happen. I mean its not like when I got the studio there was a small print saying "we will only work X this type of game".

This is a basic SWOT analysis. And it would happen. Its not like there is some corporate overlord as you guys put it that just says jump with no care in the world for if you even have legs.

Now its up to the studio heads and directors during such a meeting, to point out exactly what they feel their issues could be. They know their studio more than the publisher, and so they would know what they need, have an estimate on how long it would take...etc. They would (or should) be able to tell the publisher, we haven't made a game like this before, so we would need to bring in a new director, a new level designer, content manager, engineer...etc, and preferably from such and such place and add them to our team.

If they fail to do this and take on the project that they are ill-prepared for anyways and fail while getting the full backing of the publisher, then its not the publisher's fault. The publisher did what publishers do. If however, they made all these concerns and requests known and the publisher ignored them and told them to make it work with what they had, then yes, its the publisher's fault.

Hope that makes my reasoning clear.

 

[gothmog]

I'm still scratching my head that they didn't just make a Justice League title.

 

[Punished Miku]

Spending almost a decade to release a game your fans didn't want, in a genre you have no real experience in isn't a "safe" bet.
The boring safe bet would have been to just make another Batman game, which would probably have been released 4-6 years after Arkham Knight and , assuming it was around as good as the previous ones, would probably have sold much more than this game will.

Sure, I'll agree that a formulaic sequel is also safe.

But my point is that this is another safe bet as well. I doubt they intended to develop it for a decade. It was likely going to sync up with either the Harley movie or the 2nd Suicide Squad movie. It's a co-op TPS with extra monetization to pad the budget. It's using a known IP. It's cross-promoting with comics and movies. My main point is that it is absolutely shocking that this could ever be a risk. In almost every way the game is designed to be as safe as humanly possible and to appeal to what is currently popular. And here we ponder the studio's closure, which to me is a pretty damning statement about AAA gaming today.

 

[Salz01]

I think the only saving grace for this thing, is if it allows mods on PC.

 

[FunkMiller]

I'm still scratching my head that they didn't just make a Justice League title.

Too much hard work, and the Suicide Squad were very popular seven/eight years ago. WB probably saw Suicide Squad crossed with Fortnite and saw dollar signs.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Jesus Christ, I didn't think that the UI was going to be THAT bad. How would anyone think that looks good in any possible way?! This doesn't bode well at all, especially with everything else that looks off. It's like the cherry on top of what we've already seen.

 

[gothmog]

Too much hard work, and the Suicide Squad were very popular seven/eight years ago. WB probably saw Suicide Squad crossed with Fortnite and saw dollar signs.

You're right. I keep forgetting WBs weird hard on for Suicide Squad.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

This isnt WB's fault, they are the same publishers behind Hogwarts weren't they?

Devs need to be held accountable for what they do and how they do it. And when in 6 months we hear that WB is shutting down studio or firing workers people start throwing a pity party. If I am a publisher, and I pay devs for 5+ years to make a game for me, and they turn out with a shit product, I am firing everyone in that studio that had anything from a supervisory position and up.

What I don't understand about devs, is when they are making their game, when they play it, can't they tell its bad or not fun?

I get that, but taking MK1's case for a second.....if you've been an MK fan for many years, the demeanor of Ed Boon on Twitter in particular the last year or so has changed drastically. Prior game releases when WB wasn't overlording them, he would be on there all the time fucking around with fans, answering questions, and even dropping hints on what they were doing.

All he does now is retweet the paid shrills posts, so it's obvious that WB has cracked down on them and what they're allowed to do. You can see how that could over time destroy morale at a company who is forced to go down a path that they may not want to do. This GAAS style nonsense for MK1 has been a disaster and the game right now is in terrible shape. All theyre doing is pushing new shit and not fixing the issues that are broken. Not to mention the fact the game STILL does not have crossplay. Unacceptable IMO.

 

[Roni]

This will either crash and burn, driving Warner Bros' and Rocksteady's leadership mad, or this will actually find an audience in Gen Z, driving this board mad.

Either way, it's a win-win for me on January 30th! It will be beautiful!

 

[Majukun]

game doesn't look terrible, but in an oversatured genre you need to be exceptional to succeed.

personally I have little interest for gaas looter shooters, but if in the long run the game holds up, I can see it getting an audience

 

[miklonus]

This is why I say its not WB fault.

Assume you are a publisher (WB), I don't know how to make games, so I hire a team of developers (studio) to make games for me. And pay them well. Now you tell them, that you want to make a GAAS title. This is your prerogative to do so, it's your money, it's your investment.

At this point, I am talking to the studio heads and telling them what I want. They either tell me they can do it, or they tell me they can't. If they say they can't, you would find someone that can. This happens in every industry. If they say they can't, you would seek out someone from another studio that has experience in these kinda games. These are conversations that were had before the game even went into pre-production. But they don't say they can't. They say they can.

Halfway through the project, some of those studio heads realize they are out of their depth and have bitten off more than they can chew, and they start bitching about the direction of the company because they are incapable of delivering on the commitment they initially made, or claimed they could do. And quit. That should never have happened to begin with. If before pre-production they just said they lacked the expertise to make that kinda game, you could have got people that could.

The problem here is not the game, or that it's a GAAS, the problem is people or devs not having the guts to stand for themselves and state things as it is, and get themselves involved in projects they lack the expertise or know how to accomplish. You cannot blame a publisher for wanting to make money and investing 10s or millions to do so.

Thats like blaming the purchaser of a car for trusting a company that makes cars and buying a new model from them. Only for the car to break down two weeks later. This happens to you and you take the car back, this happens in the game industry, devs get fired.

This is the dumbest shit I've ever read. It ain't their fault? Who the fuck's fault is it? This is absolutely Warner Brothers. It's all on them. How is it not?

 

[miklonus]

Harley Quinn is not that bitch, and Warner Bros. are finally gonna find out. Who the flying fuck wants to play as a God darn shark, over Hal Jordan, Diana, Superman, etc?
Fuckin' retards...