Thursday, November 7, 2013

Console launches

So I feel like most gamers have noticed the overall lackluster nature of console launches of late.  The WiiU, Vita, 3ds, and even the Xbox One and PS4 seem to have fairly anemic launch lineups.  I was considering why this has to be this way, and ultimately I think it comes down to install base.  Launching your world-beating genre defining AAAAAAAA title that costs a hundred million dollars when the hardware it runs on is supply constrained just doesn't make financial sense.  From Sony and Nintendo's perspective, they really can't afford a loss like that, and for Microsoft, it's a matter of keeping the division profitable, Microsoft isn't trying to break into the console market anymore so they're less inclined to put a huge expensive game out at launch when they could just wait for more console to be sold. 

In previous generations it wasn't as risky because games were less expensive to produce.  Something like Halo probably broke even or made money at 500 thousand units sold.  Something like Grand Theft Auto V probably had to sell 4 million to break even.  maybe more.  If the console sells like gangbusters, there might be 5 million out at launch. If yields are good.  Also remember companies are disinclined to produce game consoles in large numbers at launch to try to maximize profit as processes are evolved to build the consoles more cheaply.  This is how Sony makes money of ps2 and ps3 despite losing money at launch.  So if you need to sell 4 million to break even and only 5 million consoles are out there, you're screwed, because I can't think of a single non pack-in game that had an 80% attach rate. 

Obviously you could have a situation like the original Halo: Combat Evolved, where the game continues to sell well for 3 years, but that phenomenon is incredibly rare, and large companies aren't willing to bet on that.  The industry has gotten considerably more risk-averse as the budgets for these games have gone up to their current astronomical heights.   Of course launch can be a great time for a more niche title to come out that is unlikely to sell crazy high numbers anyway because the lack of overall content provides more attention to the few titles that do come out.  This has worked in favor of games like Power Stone and SSX. 

Anyway this may all seem obvious, but for my friends who aren't quite as connected to the video game industry as I am, it might not be.  Hopefully this explains the more lackluster launches of the past few years. 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Rocksmith 2014

So I've been super excited for Rocksmith 2014 since it was first announced, and more so once they started holding DLC in favor of the new game.  The promises made at E3 were many: improved UI, removing loading times, a solid track list. So how did it fare?

Overall it's a fantastic product, and a huge improvement from Rocksmith, it's more polished, better looking, the UI is considerably better (but not perfect), the track list is solid, possibly the original Rocksmith track list was slightly stronger, but since you can import it for $10, it's not a big deal.  There are new features, such as tone changes mid-song, and many, many more tunings which is a blessing and a curse.

The note highway now has much better marking for which note to play when, and much improved finger positioning notation.  Overall it's a big improvement.  I have a slight bit of trouble distinguishing yellow from orange on it, but overall it's great.  Very nice to get tips on when to position your fingers as a chord instead of an individual note (for songs like House of the Rising Sun), This existed in Rocksmith, but it seems enhanced now.  Outside of the slight problem I have distinguishing color, I think one could say the interface is completely improved. 

The only possible flaw with Rocksmith 2014 that I've found is that it's not really much of a game anymore.  Songs no longer are about score and score multipliers, and while there is a score attack mode, it isn't the core mode of the game.

There also isn't a larger career, which is something I found satisfying as a player.  Overall I feel like they removed one of the big features of the game, which was an excellent progression system.  I no longer feel like I'm progressing in a fictional "rock star" career, this was a major hook which kept bringing me back to the original Rocksmith, and hopefully the frictionless UI in 2014 can accomplish the same result.  I do find it to be a bit of a loss though.

Otherwise the game is fantastic, and I still highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning guitar or bass, so far the DLC has been fantastic, also.