this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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This is from earlier this month. But it didn't really hit until seeing more Suicide Squad details.

"Our focus," he continued, "is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions, with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms."

https://www.eurogamer.net/warner-bros-says-it-plans-to-transform-its-biggest-franchises-into-live-service-games

Gotham Knights is a example. Get ready to see Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Batman, and Mortal Kombat all get that "live services" treatment.

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[–] Blapoo@lemmy.ml 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)

There must be more profit than last year.

We're witnessing gaming devour itself from the inside in pursuit of this impossible goal.

Buy indie

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

What indie fighters even exist? Party game platform fighters and pony-cruft?

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 21 points 11 months ago

Corpos gonna corp. Here's to the death of their kind

[–] nonearther@lemmy.ml 21 points 11 months ago

I see.

After ruining their streaming and movies, they are focusing on their gaming division.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Another publisher to mark as ignored on steam

[–] SatouKazuma@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

I didn't know you could do this to entire publishers. TIL.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They'll change their tune when Suicide Squad is a colossal flop. These execs don't understand that it's really hard to do a good live service game.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

Yeah, WB is just late to the party. Sony was going to make a dozen different live service games, but they're reading the room now and cutting that forecast to less than half. With any luck, this is the tail end of the live service era.

[–] uzay@infosec.pub 7 points 11 months ago

They have yet to learn their lesson.

[–] Kuro@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

Guess I'll continue not playing any of their games

[–] canis_majoris@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 months ago

I could see it working for a fighting game but it feels like they've whiffed them recently. Wasn't Multiversus supposed to be a pretty big game? I remember it lasting a few weeks of hype and then going into hibernation, something about an early access release and then a season 2? I don't remember honestly.

Mortal Kombat easily fits into live service bullshit, sadly, with all the skins and cosmetics that could be applied to battlepasses instead of cosmetic stores.

All the great WB games in the past have never had this kind of monetization. All the Arkham games, Harry Potter; it's kind of sad seeing them take this approach in the future but it's just a cash cow even with a few whales.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Game of Thrones

Wait there are game of thrones games which aren't shitty mobiles or reskins of unrelated games?

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Telltale did a series years ago. Plus there was an RPG on the 360/PS3 gen too.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml -2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, i meant more like the new ones since OP context seems to suggest future ones.

AGoT have really bad luck for games, that old RPG was decent RPG (but bad as specifically AGoT game) and the best AGoT games are mods for Crusader Kings 2/3.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What is "always on" in a gaming context? I can't imagine wanting a game that you can't close.

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

It means you must always be connected to the internet as a form of DRM.

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Constant connection to servers required to play, even if the entire game is being run locally.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

Oh, that's terrible.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Harry Potter was great as is... No need to change it.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

They're already beating MK with the live-service stick; they really fucking around about to make me a primarily Tekken player for the first time in like 20 years.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Going to by the things the new Tekken has in common with the new Street Fighter, I don't think you'll escape that stuff in Tekken.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

god fucking dammit

What fighting games even exist anymore that are both satisfying and non-polluted by publisher greed? I don't do shonen that isn't DBZ anymore; so I can't just backpedal to anime fighters for that-- and FighterZ's dead in the water without rollback, so even that's out

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tons. Just not the latest crop with the biggest marketing budgets. For what it's worth though, the live service nonsense in these fighting games doesn't really get in the way if you're not tempted by cosmetics. The real problem with MK is that you can't decline wi-fi opponents, and the problem with Tekken is that the netcode appears to be unimproved from Tekken 7. These days, I mostly play Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, and Skullgirls. Killer Instinct is getting one more balance patch soon, and rumor has it there's a sequel on the way. GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising is coming out very soon with Under Night In-Birth's sequel hot on its heels. There's lots to play.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Granblue VS and Under Night In-Birth are both WAY too white for my tastes; and that's the issue I have with most anime-fighters. Strive is lacking in proper melanin too; and from what I remember of Skullgirls' playerbase, it's like 90% 4channers-- that's a pass from me big dawg.

If they still made Soul Calibur iterations I wouldn't be in this trick bag; because I hate having to put my faith in unverified hype-- I def don't believe the IG announcement Wednesday is going toward a sequel, much as I'd like for that to be the case.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I know a sizable amount of the Skullgirls community, and I wouldn't call any of them 4channers. I don't have melanin on my list of fighting game criteria, nor do I know what's acceptable for your standards, but that's probably restricting your selection far more than live service shenanigans. If Tekken does it for you, then I hope you can tolerate its netcode.

EDIT:

I def don’t believe the IG announcement Wednesday is going toward a sequel

The rumor was there was a sequel cooking long before IG became available again.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I don’t have melanin on my list of fighting game criteria

Considering it's like pulling teeth to get any kind of favorable representation in games these days, especially out of eastern devs, it's a larger consideration than you'd think-- and frankly, with a response like that, I don't expect you to have thought about any of the fuckery in this space that might shift a non-settler's priorities. When the likes of Granblue or Under Night has Leroy Smiths, Eddie Gordos, Zasalamels, Jax and Jacqui Briggses, and Darriuses running around every iteration, then we can talk. Til then, I don't fuck with anime fighters, and barely fuck with JRPGs.

Live servicing things that never needed it is a much more recent irritant.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not faulting you for the perspective. I just don't know what to recommend you if Leroy and Jax satisfy you but not Nagoriyuki, especially since the percentages of representation appear to me to be similar or better than DBFZ and Soul Calibur.

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Soul Calibur and Dragonball were a part of my life long before I started seeing just how fucked the whole field was as far as representation was concerned is the only reason those never got cut off-- and Zasalamel was the first Black character I'd seen in a fighter since Jackson Briggs. (I didn't get into KI until 2013, so I can't say TJ Combo.) Nagoriyuki looks really new though; I've literally never heard of this dude regarding Guilty Gear. It's a start at least.

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

He's been top tier since launch too, for what it's worth.

[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Isn't MK already pretty live-servicey?

[–] ampersandrew@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

At least it can still be played offline, though character unlocks do require an internet connection. They also replaced the krypt mode, which was itself pretty grindy, with a far grindier mode that's far less fun this time around, so a significant chunk of the value is gone.

[–] AsterixTheGoth@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Ok.

Who cares? This shit was tired decades ago.

Committee design is what it's always known to be. It has a name. Everybody here who has the basics of understanding knows what it is.